Flash galleries not working on Iphone = possibly frustrated client

[aracaris]

I built some Flash galleries for a client, but it has been brought up that it doesn't work on an Iphone. I think that Flash doesn't work on the Iphone could change soon, but who knows? I guess I sometimes forget that most people don't necessarily know how limited these devices are.
I can make a separate content for Iphone users specifically, but this is something I'd have to do from the ground up.
Seems like every little hand held device out there has different things it can or can't handle, and they are all very limited.
What do you think is the best way to approach this subject with clients, I know it can be frustrating to learn that things like Flash, etc...don't work on the Iphone or some other device.
Should I perhaps always give some sort of warning to clients that if Iphones are important they shouldn't have Flash content, or offer to create separate Iphone compatible content for an extra fee?
Anyone here built a Flash site (or some other content not mobile device friendly) for their client, only to have them be surprised (and possibly frustrated) when they find out it won't work on certain devices?
Did you find some way to make that client happy?

Edit: client's been very understanding so far, and I'll probably have a chance to look at it in an Iphone soon, but there's so many different devices, how do you guys deal with those? I can't imagine most people have the money to go out and buy all of them, but so far I have been disappointed with the emulators I've found.


Is there a good way to test what a website would function like in different devices if you don't actually have those devices?

 

[craftygeek]

I always try and stay away from flash these days - search engines don't really get on with it either.

Its not just the iphone that doesn't do flash, the new ipad doesn't either - & I don't think it ever will. The general consensus is that flash is dying at the moment.

I use jquery for galleries and slideshows these days...jquery does work to some extent on mobile devices, although how much so I can't say as I don't have an iphone either...I have read up on it a bit though - I suggest you have a google.

 

[aracaris]

I often use Javascript for them myself, but the Flash option was the best liked one by the client, aside from the Iphone issue. Seems like a lot of things don't work on Iphones, even some basic javascript stuff is really wonky or unworkable on them, and java is simply unsupported.

I know (or at least have heard) good SEO is possible with really Flash heavy sites(but Flash specific SEO is definitely not my specialty), but personally I've tended to keep it as sort of a nice addition, but not a focal point of sites, and found that dealing with it that way tends to work pretty well. I think especially for games it does have its place.

So even putting the lack of Flash support aside, there's still the issue of trying to make sure a site will work on a device that is much more limited than a PC, or Mac.

I know there's a few options for dealing with such devices, but I'm really really not settled on which one is best, and not sure how the best way to figure out whether something is going to work on all these different devices is without running out and buying them all, which is very costly.

What I really dislike about these devices is it seems like almost going back to the days where there were tons of frames/no frames sites, and all kinds of crazy non-standard stuff on different browsers (not that, that ever became a true non-issue, but at least things seemed to be going in the right direction with web standards), argg.

edit:
I've heard about jquery a little, and think I'm really going to start looking into it.