iSwifter brings Google+ games to the iPad
Following the launch of games on Google+ last month, Adobe Flash streaming app iSwifter today is adding compatibility to work with those games, giving iPad users a way to play them on Apple's tablet. The functionality is being added to iSwifter's existing application (iTunes) as a free update today, and will join iSwifter's catalog of games on Facebook. The first thing you're probably wondering is if this means you can play Google+'s social version of Angry Birds. The short answer to that is no. It's one of the only titles I couldn't get working in a pre-release version of the software, something that's due to that version of Angry Birds being written in HTML5. iSwifter founder Rajat Gupta told me the software's back-end technology is not yet set up to run HTML5, but will eventually. In the meantime, the iPad's built-in Safari browser simply redirects users to download the native version of Angry Birds in app form when trying to access the Google+ game page.iSwifter runs Flash games and applications on the company's servers, then streams them to the iPad, cutting out the need to have Adobe's Flash player installed--something Apple does not allow. Products like Skyfire and Photon have approached the limitation with similar solutions for Web browsing.iSwifter launched as a paid app last September, and has since converted to a free app with in-app purchase that gets rid of a nag window and adds additional features. That change has helped fuel adoption of the app, which now pulls in some 750,000 active users, up from the 500,000 the company reported in July.Gupta said the company is still at work on building a version of iSwifter to the Macthrough Apple's App Store, but did not provide any additional details on when that would be. In late July the company told CNET it was taking aim at the Mac to compete with Adobe's own Flash Player plug-in, which does not ship with Apple's computers.
