With carriers able to support larger downloads and iOS hardware relentlessly marching forward, developers are able to build larger apps. Apple itself acknowledged this by doubling its over-the-air download limit, making it possible to include more bandwidth-heavy content such as video and high-quality audio.
On the web, the Flash platform has been a leader in both video and audio playback for many years. Adobe AIR brings many of these capabilities to iOS, enabling the creation of apps that will engage, inspire, and immerse the user.
This chapter will explore the many options for working with video and sound. It will start by guiding you through the steps required to include and play back video, before moving onto the handling of embedded and streaming audio.