Hot on the heels of Apple’s policy changes that relaxed restrictions on the tools developers can use to write iPhone and iPod touch apps, Adobe announced that it plans to start working on updates for its Flash Packager tools for iOS apps.
Adobe’s Packager for iPhone tools let developers create apps in Flash Professional CS5 and then compile them as native iOS apps.
“This feature was created to enable Flash developers to quickly and easily deliver applications for iOS devices,” the company said in a statement. “The feature is available for developers to use today in Flash Professional CS5, and we will now resume development work on this feature for future releases.”
Since the iOS compiler feature is already available in Flash Professional CS5, some developers have apps that started life as Flash code already in the App Store review process.
Apple changed its iOS developer agreement on September 9 so coders could use most any tools they want to create their iOS-based apps. “In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need,” the company said.
The change came as particularly good news to Adobe since the company had already spent time and money developing its Flash to iOS compiler.
The change of heart at Apple doesn’t, however, open the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to run Flash-based content. Adobe pointed that out in its statement, too. “We do want to point out that Apple’s restriction on Flash content running in the browser on iOS devices remains in place,” the company said.