For over 3 years, one of the biggest complaints about the Safari browser on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad, has been that Adobe Flash content could not be enjoyed on any of Apple’s popular iDevices. Fortunately, the prayers for working Adobe Flash player content have been heard and a third party Jailbroken app, Frash, has unlocked Flash content on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad devices.
I’ll explain what Frash is, its known features, and the pros and cons of installing Frash on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.
Flash on the iPhone has been a very controversial subject for quite some time. Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, has gone on record as saying that Adobe’s Flash player is both a huge battery drainer and prone to glitches. Critics often attribute Steve Job’s reluctance to incorporate Adobe Flash player functionality on Apple’s popular iDevices to Apple’s unwritten creed to overly control the user’s experience and the fact that lots of Flash player apps do exactly the same things as similar iTunes apps – but are completely free. Regardless of Steve Job’s Adobe Flash reservations and the foul claims of critics, iDevice fans and owners wanted Adobe’s Flash player on their iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad – and they now have it with the Jailbroken third party app known as Frash.
What is Frash?
Frash is a third party Jailbroken iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad hack that acts as an Adobe Flash Player emulator and allows iDevice owners the ability to once and for all enjoy Flash content on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. Installing Frash on any of the popular iDevices requires the device to be Jailbroken – voiding the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touches warranty – and requires a few quirky install instructions like installing OpenSHH via the Jailbroken App store, Cydia, and a few other manual install instructions. Click here for complete instructions on how to install Frash.
Why would you want to install Frash on your iPhone?
Adobe Flash player is reported to serve 99.9% of internet users, but wasn’t available on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad until Comex’s Frash player was released. Most online gaming and video websites and a host of websites are built on Adobe’s Flash player. Installing Comex’s Frash player on your iDevice will allow you to have access to one of the most used online platforms and will give you more access to websites once forbidden on all iDevices.
So what’s the catch?
Watching and interacting with Adobe Flash player apps, games, and videos on the iPhone are excellent features to have, but by the Frash player being such a new addition to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, it is currently a bit glitchy. Frash doesn’t display Flash content automatically and requires clicking on lots of unloaded gray Flash boxes in order to play Flash content, Comex’s Frash player has been known to crash the iPhone’s Safari browser, and the Frash player doesn’t provide full functionality for Adobe Flash player applications.
Another downside to installing the Frash player hack is that it requires an iPhone jailbreak in order to be installed. While Jailbreaking an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad might sound like a great idea to you, it’s against Apple’s terms of services and will void your iDevice’s warranty.
Over all, Comex’s Adobe Flash player hack, Frash, is a great addition to the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone, but does have a few bugs due to its early release status. Some might complain about Frash’s buggy state, but I’d much rather have a buggy Adobe Flash player on my iPhone, than to miss out on having Flash on my phone altogether.
For more, read Frash Brings the Flash Player to the iPhone 4 and iPad 3.2.1, The Most Annoying Frash Player Glitches on the iPhone 4 so Far, and 5 Absolute Must Have iPhone 4 Apps and Hacks for the Jailbroken iPhone.
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