This tutorial will discuss how well Flash^R CS5 supports the mobile tablet's input capabilities. Like the computer, the iPad has its own group of input features. The ones that are most different from the computer are the shake, tilt, spin and rotate. Although you can pick up your laptop and shake it, the computer is not programmed to recognize this as a user input event.

On the other hand, some newer computers are catching up with the Multi-Touch devices. Apple's MacBook Pro's trackpad and the Magic Mouse have some Multi-Touch support, similar to the mobile tablets, for the touch, swipe and the pinch to zoom.

However, there are a couple of input features original to the iPad and other tablet devices that the computer just doesn't understand (yet) such as the Accelerometer which keeps track of the orientation of the tablet and changes the display between landscape and portrait accordingly and the GEO location which can tell where you are at all times. At this time, Flash does not support the camera, microphone or StageWebView features, so you will not be able to include these features in the apps created with Flash CS5.

Touch, drag, swipe and other gestures
Accelerometer
Geolocation
Shake, tile, spin and rotate
Microphone - Voice and audio
Camera
StageWebView
File or database
URL protocol - SMS, phone and Email

Graphics for the iPad

One thing that Flash developers and designers have preached for years is that vector graphics are better than raster for animation in Flash. I have found this to be true when creating raster animations for Pamela Gladding ecards. Many complex animations are not possible with raster graphics because of the limitations of the Flash Player. Although this has become less of a hinderance over the past few years, that tell-tale flicker is still there for some raster animations.

You will need to let go of your love for vector graphics when creating apps for iOS devices, because the iOS device handles raster images better than vector.

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