appFlash

Yesterday Google released a new tool called Swiffy which allows Flash developers to upload a SWF file to convert it to HTML5. This allows people to access web apps, ads, and videos in browsers that don’t normally support Adobe Flash… such as the iPhone or iPad web browsers. Today a company called appMobi has gone a step further with a tool called appFlash that allows developers to convert Flash apps directly to native iOS apps.

The idea behind appFlash is that you can first upload a SWF file to Swiffy to convert it to HTML5 code. Then you can input the HTML5 version to appFlash and get an app that can run on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

The project didn’t take long to build because appMobi already offers a platform for creating HTML5 web apps which can be converted to native iOS apps.

Swiffy is still a work in progress and not all apps can be converted at the moment. While Swiffy and appFlash together could make it relatively simple for anyone who has already coded a Flash app to create apps that can be submitted to the App Store without learning a thing about programming for iOS, I don’t really expect to see many high quality, bug-free apps anytime soon.

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since...