Three days ago we reported that someone was working on a porting of Flash for Android for iPad, called “Frash”. Now, Engadget has the download link to the first version of Frash (0.01) which allows you to play games and other Flash content on your jailbroken iPad, but doesn’t have video playback support yet. It’s coming in a future release.
Here’s how you can install Frash on your iPad.
Requirements:
- Jailbroken iPad with Open SSH installed;
- The Frash .deb file. Check out Engadget’s post for the link (24MB download);
- An app to access the iPad’s file system (check out our tutorial on how to access the iPad folders from your Mac OS X Finder)
Once you’ve downloaded Frash, open the Media folder in /var/root. Go create one if it’s not there. Inside Media, create a Cydia folder. Inside Cydia, create an AutoInstall folder. Copy the .deb file in there.
Like we always say, be careful with this process - you don’t want to screw up your iPad file system. Don’t mess with system folders and files you don’t know.
Once you’ve uploaded Frash, reboot your iPad. You can easily do this using SBSettings, which you can download from Cydia. Once the iPad is rebooted, go open a page with some Flash content on it (but again, no video yet). Let’s say homestarrunner.com or Alien Hominid.
Boom. See the huge F? That’s Flash, running on your iPad. To enable it (pretty much like ClickToFlash on Mac OS X) tap on it and Flash will load. Audio and video are in there, controls are pretty smooth and stable even though it’s a first release. We’ll keep you posted about future updates with video playback support.
Now the question is, should you install it? If you’re curious, yes - why not. You have a jailbroken iPad, maybe you’re interested in giving it a try. Me, it’s my job to keep you guys updated about tweaks and news, so I installed it and it’s currently running some Flash games. I’ll also keep you posted about battery life on the long run.
But for anyone else, you don’t want this. You don’t want crashes, you don’t want those big Fs, you just want a smooth and stable experience. Stay away from this, and enjoy HTML5.
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