Adobe Makes Streaming Flash Video to the iPhone a Snap

Plenty of iPhone users complain that their smartphone can't play many of the Flash videos embedded in web sites. Adobe has now taken a big step toward fixing this problem.

Flash support isn't being added to the iOS. Instead, the newly-released Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 includes support for streaming video in the format the iPhone and iPad do support. Companies that use this new version on the backend of their websites can easily make their videos accessible to Apple's mobile products.

When a computer visits a webpage with an embedded video, the video is presented in the format that the device supports. If it's a PC, that format is Flash. If it's an iPhone, it's in HTML5.

The release of the new version of Flash Media Server should lead to significantly more online videos being available on iDevices. However, this advancement is only for streaming video. It does nothing for Flash-based apps.

Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 is available now. Prices start at $1000.