Adobe+Flash

= Adobe Flash = Adobe Flash is a multimedia application that allows for animation, video, and other kinds of interactivity on Web sites. By using the Adobe Flash Player, a browser plug-in, Flash content can be displayed on computers, smart phones, games, and other devices by the use of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Adobe makes the case for businesses to use RIAs for their own advantages, which may entice customers to stay on their sites, explore options, conduct transactions, and subsequently increase sales, hence the popularity of Flash use by advertisers. At the same time, the use of Flash has generated criticism for its obtrusiveness in a user's Web browsing experience. Adding to the criticism of Flash, Apple disallowed the use of Flash Player on its popular iPhone and iPad devices, claiming it to be a "battery hog," and harboring security issues. Adobe itself has now discontinued the use of Flash Player to work in new mobile device configurations, putting the use and production of Flash Player in question. Adobe's vice president, Danny Winokur, has even said, "HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively," and that "this makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms." toc

History
Like so many innovative computer programs, Flash rose from a game created by Jonathan Gay while only in high school. His desire to see better graphics, particulary in developing games, led to his creation of Airborne! which was funded by Charlie Jackson, and his newly released Macintosh software company, Silicon Beach Software. Gay went from games to drawing platforms such as SuperPaint. He soon began his own company, FutureWave Software in 1993, and developed a new product, SmartSketch. Both SuperPaint and SmartSketch utilized the "pen computer" technology allowing users to draw directly onto the computer screen. This failed to take off, however, and Gay decided to turn his attention to animation. From this point, and with the increasing availability of the Internet, Gay followed his inclinations and came up with FutureSplash Animator, which soon became widely used by both Microsoft and Disney Online, enhanced by FutureSplash's cell animation capabilities. In 1996, Macromedia bought FutureWave and FutureSplash became Macromedia Flash 1.0. Macromedia was bought out by Adobe in 2005. media type="youtube" key="Qn3mDxDqQ1o" height="315" width="560"

Controversy and Backlash
Even as far back as 2000, Web guru Jakob Nielsen had plenty of criticism for Flash. On his Alertbox blog that same year, Nielsen had three major criticisms of Flash: Of course, the biggest controversy came with Steve Jobs' attack on Flash, particularly when he announced that Apple would no longer support Flash player in mobile devices. Jobs had been a long-time critic of Flash, claiming it to be a "battery hog": "Flash is a spaghetti-ball piece of technology that has lousy performance and really bad security problems." Perhaps his last major effort at Apple meant supporting HTML5 on mobile devices and no longer adding Flash to Apple's products.
 * 1) It encourages design abuse, or "gratuitous animation"
 * 2) It breaks Web fundamentals, particularly Web interaction. Back buttons, unworkable link colors, and no accessibility for disabled users
 * 3) It distracts from a Web site's core values. Flash animation is frequently outsourced to outside agents who don't understand the Web page creators' intentions

**References**
Adobe (2011). Flash platform benefits. Retrieved from @http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform/benefits/ Nielsen, J. (2009). Flash: 99% Bad. Retrieved from [] Shefchik, C. (2011). Steve Jobs Adobe Flash criticism resonates with company. Retrieved from @http://www.thirdage.com/news/steve-jobs-adobe-flash-criticism-resonates-with-company_11-12-2011 Waldron, Rick. (2000). The Flash history. Retrieved from @http://www.flashmagazine.com/news/detail/the_flash_history/