Skyfire for iPad – Watch Flash Videos and More

Thanks to the Skyfire app, there is finally a decent way to watch Flash videos on the iPad.

Skyfire is a web browser for the iPad and iPhone, that will allow users to unlock content trapped behind those error messages with question marks and blue Legos by transcoding the Flash content into HTML5 on Skyfire’s servers.

Skyfire has several features in-addition to playing Flash videos;

• Facebook and Twitter ‘Quickview’ allows you to see your wall and feeds with one click.
• Universal ‘Like’: Like ANY page on the internet, with one click.
• Fireplace: See only the links shared by Friends. Why? Filter what friends did from what friends shared (which is a great starting point for browsing)
• Popular: See what Friends and the Facebook community have to say about the site you are currently exploring
• Be informed: Quick access to GReader feeds
• Be social: Share via Facebook and Twitter
• Share to more services including GReader, Instapaper, Pinboard and Read It Later
• Standard browser elements: Tabs, search, sharing, bookmarks, history, etc.
• Full screen option for maximum use of screen real-estate – with scroll to top
• ‘Desktop’ option loads pages as on a desktop browser, giving more flexibility in accessing web sites
• Private Browsing option: Browse with no history and cookies left behind

SkyFire will allow you to play millions of videos on your iDevice that could not be played without Flash but it does not support all videos and web sites. It also will not support Flash games or apps.

Even with those limitations, it’s nice to see there is finally an option for watching Flash videos on iOS devices and it’s approved by Apple.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Apple vs Adobe saga, I will summarize it quickly.

Apple (Steve Jobs) believes Flash is outdated technology and HTML 5 will eventually replace Flash. Apple is unwilling to put Flash on iDevices due to performance, reliability issues, battery life, etc. I doubt we will ever see Flash on a iDevice, unless it’s on a jailbroken device.

There is a way to install Flash designed for Android on the iPhone and iPad. It’s called Frash but only works on Flash ads and it’s not worth installing at this point.

Originally posted 2010-12-27 00:16:02.