Wiley iOS Development with Flash: Your visual blueprint for developing Apple apps 978-0-470-62204-9 Manuale Utente

t is an exciting time to be a Flash developer. Adobe 
has taken big steps in making the Flash Platform 
available on as many devices as possible. The Open 

Screen Project is an Adobe-led initiative whose goal is to 
bring rich Internet experiences seamlessly across as many 
devices as possible. Flash Player 10.1 will be available for 
multiple mobile platforms, such as Google Android, RIM’s 
BlackBerry, Palm Pre, and Nokia, as well as numerous 
other devices such as TVs, set top boxes, tablets, and 
netbooks. Adobe is working with these and over 50 other 
partners to optimize Flash Player 10.1 in order to work 
better with the different devices.
However, one manufacturer that is not part of this 
initiative is Apple. To allow Flash developers to create 
iPhone applications, Adobe has created a cross-compiler 
for the iPhone called the iPhone Packager. The iPhone 
Packager, which comes with Flash CS5, takes your .swf 
file and converts it to a native iPhone application.
The workflow is similar to what you are familiar with 
when building your Flash applications for the Web. You 

write ActionScript 3 code and compile it to an .swf file. 
An .swf file contains an abc block, which stands for 
ActionScript byte code. This is what all of your 
ActionScript 3 code gets compiled to when publishing 
your file. The iPhone Packager goes through your .swf 
file, finds all of the abc blocks, strips them out the file, 
and converts them into native ARM assembly code using 
the LLVM (low level virtual machine) compiler 
infrastructure. Your application is then signed using the 
Apple signing process. After it is signed, it is ready to be 
deployed on a device running iOS (iPhone OS).
There are three devices that run iOS — the iPhone, the 
iPod touch, and the iPad. Each device has different 
features and different hardware. It is important to 
understand the difference between each device. It is a 
great idea to have as many of the different versions of 
the devices on hand so that you can test your application 
on each of them.

The hardware for the first generation iPhone and the iPhone 
3G are very similar. They both have a 620MHz underclocked 
to 412MHz Samsung 32-bit RISC ARM processor, PowerVR 
MBX Lite 3D GPU, 128MB DRAM, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, and a 
2.0 megapixel camera. The biggest difference between the two 

is their design. The first generation came with an aluminum 
back, which was later switched to a glossy plastic back for the 
3G version. Also, the iPhone 3G has assisted GPS and can 
communicate over the 3G cell network.

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