Adobe and HTC Bring Flash Platform to Android
Posted by Mark Doherty in Android, Distributable Player Solution, Industry News on June 24th, 2009
Today we announced with our partners HTC that we’ve extended Adobe® Flash® to the Android platform for the first time. We really excited to finally enable rich web browsing to the open source Android platform, and particularly to such a great smartphone. As a top of the range device it sports multi-touch HVGA, accelerometers, GPS, Compass, WIFI, a 5MP Camera and the incredible Android Webkit Browser. With Flash the web browsing experience on the device is fantastic, rich and gives you access to a more complete Internet.
What will Flash on Android do for me as a user?
If you’re a user of the HTC Hero you’ll be able to view much of the available online video, of which 85% is played through Flash Player. In this mobile optimized runtime we also have support for streaming audio, and with it’s Actionscript 2.0 support we believe that you can view around 80% of the Flash content on the web today.
You’ll be able to interact with games and rich Internet sites, widgets and of course the HTC Hero is a touch device with a huge HVGA (320×480 px) screen. As a nice addition, you can run Flash content in full screen simply by double tapping on it in the browser. As Flash is scalable you’ll find that this works exceptionally well, and the experience is really solid.
In the near future we’ll be shipping full Flash Player on the Android platform, enabling the richest possible web experiences. Android is a fantastic open platform for users to consume content under your terms, happy Flashing!
I’m a developer, what does this mean for me?
As part of this announcement HTC has announced their membership in the Open Screen Project, an industry initiative led by Adobe. HTC and Adobe will work together with 25 other industry leaders to deliver the full Flash Player on a huge range of devices and platforms moving forward. As a developer this should give you some indication of the level of support that we’re seeing for the initiative. We’re really happy to see an industry leader such as HTC commit to delivering a consistent Flash Platform on their devices, and working with us for a more consistent web experience on devices.
There is no doubt that HTC have been shipping some of the most stunning devices available today, they led the charge with the first Android platform device the G1. For you as a developer this translates to significant sales to end users, and an opportunity for content distribution as the platform and devices scale. HTC reaches deep into the US, European and Asian markets and in fact we support many of their Windows Mobile smartphones with the Distributable Player which is now available in 29 countries (and counting).
As you’ve read above this device ships with Flash in the browser as a plugin, but it is accessible for immersive full screen playback. Distribution through content aggregators such as Playoo, GetJar and GamesPlaza should work really well and naturally. Another potential opportunity is to use the Android WebView class, which is essentially a way to create air like applications that use webkit. Don’t bank on this though, but do tell me if you get it to work 
To read more, and see the new device in action go here.
Flash Player 10 Beta for Smartphones at MAX
Posted by Mark Doherty in Conference, Flash Player on June 20th, 2009
This week Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen announced during our earnings call with investors that we will release a beta version of Flash Player 10 for smartphones. Predictably this will happen during Adobe MAX 2009, where mobile will be front and centre.
It will be a developer release and for web browsers, this will enable us to collect feedback, fix bugs and give you a chance to get started and speaking with your customers about this new technology.
So, like I said in my previous post during the slow summer season it’s a perfect opportunity to begin learning AS3 and Flash Player 10 features. I have already started learning more and more over the past few months, and the good news is that life is much much easier with AS3!
I’ve also began to learn Flex, which is such a great product and I can recommend these to get started:
Flex in a Week (very optimistic!)
As we move through the summer you’ll start to hear more about my experiences as I find out new tips and tricks.
Device Central CS3 – Update 9 Now Available
Posted by Mark Doherty in Device Central Updates on June 19th, 2009
Device Profile Update #9 is now available on Adobe Device Central Online, and this is the final update of profiles for the CS3 version. It includes the following profiles including some Sony Ericsson Capuchin enabled devices.
Updates to profiles will of course continue via the online library in Device Central CS4, and so if you haven’t upgraded now is a good time. In Device Central CS4 there are numerous new features to make your working life easier:
- High-quality video for communicating ideas
- Improved video support and integration
- Organization of work for mobile projects
- Performance simulation and testing automation
- Easy upload of content to multiple locations
- Integration with Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, Photoshop® CS4, Illustrator® CS4, Dreamweaver® CS4, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4, Adobe Captivate 4 and After Effects CS4
You can look at the full feature set and watch the videos here
Distributable Player Expansion – 29 Countries
Posted by Mark Doherty in Distributable Player Solution, Flash Lite, Industry News on June 18th, 2009
We’ve been hard at work enabling support for new countries with the Flash Lite 3.1 player, enabling you to use the most recent player with the Adobe Mobile Packager 1.1. I’m happy to announce that we’ve continued to accelerate the addition of new countries around the world adding 16 countries, and bringing the total to 29.
The countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UK and the USA.
Right now we’re looking at how to enable support for new devices on a platform level, so rather than certifying each device we can certify whole platforms. It’s not an easy task but we’re very confident that the player won’t start breaking.
Flash Lite 3.1 Update for Nokia 5800
Posted by Mark Doherty in Devices, Flash Lite on June 18th, 2009
Recently as you know Nokia updated to the latest Flash Lite player on their 5800 XPressMusic device. This proved very popular with the user base with many thousands of downloads per day (that’s a great stat).
Since this was the first OTA update, and a new runtime, there were a few reported issues. They were with the security model and older content, softkey FSCommand and the Flash version string. I’m glad to say that Nokia have come through and another update is now available via the App. Update. application.
So get updating!
[Edit]
Additionally, you may also notice that the browser will trigger the update of the Flash player just like it does on the desktop. Unfortunately I didn’t take a screenshot, but it reported something like “Application update available”.
Great job Nokia!
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