Create HTML5 in a Flash
posted Sunday Jul 3, 2011 by Scott Ertz
We know that Google is very interested in the future of HTML5 and to prove it, they launched a new product in Google Labs this week called Swiffy. The service, as it stands, allows you to upload an Adobe Flash file and convert it into HTML5.
The positive of the service is that it allows you to take an existing Flash application and create something that can be used on an iPhone without having to recode everything from scratch. The downfall, however is that the code only works in webkit browsers. For most mobile phones, that is no problem, but it does create a major problem for most of the users of computers.
How does this affect regular computer users? Hit the break to find out.
The only browsers that are webkit-based on PC are Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari, neither of which have major presence. If you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Mozilla's FireFox, you are entirely out of luck. What that means to me is that the code being generated is actually not true, valid HTML5.
Now, this isn't the first time Google has fought against the true HTML5 standard. In fact, Chrome does not support H.264, which is the official standard for HTML5. This is exactly how previous versions of web standards have been destroyed. However, in the past, it has been Mozilla who has fought against the standards. Now, even Mozilla believes that Google is in the wrong.
All of that information aside, it is a cool tool that I have taken the time to experiment with and it does work fairly well. If your intention is to take a Flash app and make it iPhone capable, this is for you.