A new statement from Apple would seem to indicate a more conciliatory and open approach to its relationship with developers of software for iOS devices. It’s great news in particular for developers who rely on cross-platform software toolkits, which seemingly ran afoul of Apple’s SDK license earlier this year.

Jim’s got (as usual) a smart take on this. But great news for cross-platform software toolkit users? I wouldn’t go that far. It’s really going to depend on the toolkit, and its usage. I think there’s more than enough ammunition in the App Store guidelines list for Apple to continue to reject (for example) any misbehaved Flash apps. They just won’t say it was for being built with Flash anymore. The same with any other toolkit.

Which is smart. If someone manages to meet all of Apple’s criteria with a Flash-built app despite the runtime, why shouldn’t it be published? But keep in mind: That’s probably not possible, except possibly for full screen games. And even they are going to be walking all over battery life.

Edit: The above looked like I was equating cross-platform software toolkits with Flash. Unintentional. Fixed.

If you read a site and care about its well being, then you should not block ads or you subscribe to sites like Ars that offer ads-free versions of the site. If a site has advertising you dont agree with, dont go there. I think it is far better to vote with page views than to show up and consume resources without giving anything in return.

Let’s be clear here: I don’t run an ad blocker. I do run a Flash blocker, because Flash is unstable and insecure. And no, I will not white-list you to let you load Flash automatically.

And before you ask, you can’t have my root password either.

I also don’t keep a list of sites I’m not welcomed at. For the half dozen times a year I read a story on Ars (at most), I’m not going to feel guilty either.

Look, in the comments you have admitted you don’t control the content of the Flash:

We don’t allow ads with non-user initiated sound. So unless you interact with the ad you shouldn’t hear a thing. If you ever do then let us know so we can fix it/nuke it.

If ads make sound uninvited, tell you?!? Are you serious? What if they use some new Flash exploit to root around and steal my private key, or otherwise execute arbitrary code on my computer?

Should I tell you then, too?

The first step to getting on my white list is to write your own Flash, not just serve someone else’s. Taking people’s security that cavalierly probably should be criminal.

You can’t just say “Oh, that’s on Adobe.” By now you know what an insecure mess Flash is.

If you serve me HTML ads, I’ll be happy to view them. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but it turns out that you can do a lot of cool things with HTML.

Also I just checked, and Javascript can (indirectly) detect my Flash blocker. There’s no reason you should try to blame users like me rather than take the responsibility on yourself. The difference between my Mac and an iPhone is that you’re able to detect the latter without much effort, but the former would take a little more effort on your part.

Look, I’m sorry I cost you a fraction of a penny. But the potential pain for me in choosing to run Flash is far, far greater. And if you really cared about your users, you’d know that and have moved on from Flash already. Don’t try to lay a guilt trip on me!

I’ll see you in six months. Not intentionally, that’ll just be the next time I have reason to visit Ars. Maybe you’ll have this sorted out by then.

And now Adobe Flash ads hijacking the clipboard.

That said, this isn’t really that much of a security issue, just a major annoyance. It’s not like these Flash ads are submitting the contents of my clipboard to someone. Now that would be a cool and dangerous demo.