Adobe Labs has released an early preview version of a new Flash conversion programme, codenamed Wallaby. Wallaby Technology Preview is designed to convert Flash-based content into HTML5 quickly and easily, and will be of most interest to web developers conscious that any Flash content they provide is not visible with Apple’s mobile range of iOS devices, including iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Wallaby runs on both Windows and Mac platforms, and does all the hard work of conversion for the user: just select your Flash file, click Convert, choose an output folder and wait for the process to complete.

At this early stage in its development, Wallaby is only capable of converting selecting Flash content, including images and FrameSets, fills and – partial support only – layers. It’s currently incapable of converting both embedded and hosted video as well as sound, making it of limited use at present.

Flash content is converted into HTML5-standardised files – HTML5 is the first revision of the HTML format to directly support animations and video without requiring external plug-ins. Like Wallaby, however, HTML5 is still not quite ready for primetime, and at the present time is only supported by Webkit-based browsers, of which there are currently just two mainstream titles: Google Chrome and Apple Safari.

Adobe Wallaby Technology Preview is available for both Mac (OS X 10.5 or later) and Windows (XP or later), and requires Adobe AIR, which is included as part of the installer file.