The launch of iSwifter - YouWeb's Flash streaming app for iPad – rather smartly came at a time when both Apple and Adobe were very publicly trading blows across the press.

The firm's second initiative admittedly launches into a world where Steve Jobs' personal problems with Adobe generate far fewer headlines, but its promise of enabling players to take on browser-based Flash games means it could still make significant waves.

Swift move

Dubbed Flash Gaming Browser iSwifter 3.0, the app allows users to play Facebook games in-browser, as well as what the company describes as a wide variety of MMOs.

The app comes with a monthly subscription fee of $4.99, but the firm believes iSwifter offers consumers a slice of what they've been yearning for: more free social gaming content on their iPads.

The company claims it's also 'content aware', with multi-touch input technology delivering an ideal set up for both Facebook games and iPad MMOs.

Meeting demand

"Playing social games on the iPad is something users are clamouring for," said iSwifter co-founder Rajat Gupta.

"But it's not as simple as building a Flash video player: we have spent the last year building a cloud-based Flash browser technology that provides low latency interactivity and high frame rate rendering for an optimal user experience.

"Social game and MMO developers benefit greatly from instant iOS compatibility without having to spend months porting their Flash games to tablets."

Gupta points out that iSwifter is likely to prove popular with the development community, too, thanks to its ability to open up Facebook games to an entirely new audience for no extra effort.

iSwifter 3.0 can be downloaded without charge, and comes with a free seven-day trial.