BSQUARE is reportedly porting Adobe’s Flash to Android on behalf of “a global Tier 1 carrier.” It’s still unknown whether or not Flash on Android will be restricted to only those contracted under this global carrier’s service, but it’s an advancement in the field nevertheless. Details at this point are few and far between, but it’s assumed that Google and Adobe condone this action or else BSQUARE wouldn’t go waving it about; BSQUARE also has “built an Android competency” not to mention that they purchased NEC’s Adobe Flash Technology Consulting and Distribution Business back in December, so they seem to have the skill to do the job well.
It’s still unknown whether or not Flash on Android will be restricted to only those contracted under this global carrier’s service, but it’s an advancement in the field nevertheless.
This seems like a step back instead of an advancement. We need more platforms and architectures out there that don’t support Flash to get these web sites to provide alternatives or better yet…no flash at all.
I was hoping that Android, and these ARM based netbooks would force websites to stop using it.
This is garbage.
Google owns youtube, do the math.
Not quite as relevant as it may first seem….
Although youtube is owned by google, android has an app called ‘youtube’ that streams the video and so no flash is actually needed.
This app automaticly launches if one clicks a link that goes to a youtube.com address.
Sam
Maybe webkit should have an HTML5 video-tag, so the webkit-based browser on android doesn’t need any flash to play videos on Youtube.
I would love a world without flash. But of the streaming video sites I use only youtube and joost have provided non-flash alternatives in all the time the iphone’s been around. New sites might, but existing ones have shown very little concern for updating for support of mobile devices.
While that would be nice, it hasn’t really worked out that way – not yet, at least. Take the iPhone for example. It’s popular enough that sites like youtube and ustream want their content to be accessible to iPhone users – but they’ve done that by writing iPhone-specific clients. And that doesn’t help anyone else who’s running a device that lacks Flash support.
Personally, I think that Flash is the lesser evil of the current video delivery methods. It would be great if Flash video were replaced with something a bit more open/standard – but I don’t believe that the big content producers are even considering that option. They’re choosing between Flash and Quicktime, Windows Media, or (God help us) Real Media.
No matter how much you hate Flash, it is here to stay. Netbooks and phones are not going to be the death-knell for Flash no matter how many are sold. Get over it and install or develop a Flash blocker plugin for the major browsers if you don’t like it so you and other’s needn’t be victimized by it. It may not be my favorite technology, but it is what it is.
Jeff
The Camino browser is nice as it has a simple checkbox in it’s preferences to turn off Flash.
Makes for a MUCH better web browsing experience.
I would sooner have Flash than the old system of having three different media players installed just to have a smooth internet experience. The only problem that I see with Flash isn’t the technology but Adobe’s anti-opensource rhetoric via their refusal to fully open all the specifications around Flash and support non-Adobe implementations through a ‘summer of code’ grant scheme.
Lord knows, the way Adobe is acting with their anti-opensource agenda – they’re actually making Silverlight look like half decent technology!
Edit: How f*cking pathetic, less than a couple of minutes and some pathetic parasite marks down my post; anyone surprised? I’m not. Really tells me alot about the low life scum who hang out here.
Edited 2009-03-26 05:00 UTC
I would sooner have Flash than the old system of having three different media players installed just to have a smooth internet experience. The only problem that I see with Flash isn’t the technology but Adobe’s anti-opensource rhetoric via their refusal to fully open all the specifications around Flash and support non-Adobe implementations through a ‘summer of code’ grant scheme.
Yeah, I remember when you were quite literally forced to install Realplayer and Media Player and Quicktime and what not if you wanted to fully enjoy the web and video-related websites. Compared to that Flash is a step forward.
On the other hand though, it would be awesome if Adobe did start supporting f.ex. Gnash. I just installed OpenSuSE on my old iMac G5 and while Gnash plays some of the flash content well it usually fails in more complex things. Good thing though that Gnash does work at all, without it I would be left completely without Flash
Edit: How f*cking pathetic, less than a couple of minutes and some pathetic parasite marks down my post; anyone surprised? I’m not. Really tells me alot about the low life scum who hang out here.
I honestly don’t like you either
You have such an arrogant tone in almost all of your posts and you have the habit of trying to incite flame wars instead of avoiding such. But still, to be fair, what you said was correct so I modded you back up 
Kaiwai,
Hint: maybe smoke some dope or have intercourse with your favourite being before coming on here. I just do not understand it: 90% of the time you are spot on,insightful, informed or usefully opinionated, and then we have to experience the foul-mouthed frothing at the lips jive because someone seems to disagree with you, or you find something ‘pathetic’.
Have some self-respect, man. And develop some for others, too.
You probably got marked down because you based your argument on a matter of ideology, not the technology itself.
For Youtube et all, Flash is the best technology for the job. Silverlight is a non-starter due to running well only on Windows. End of story.
Have you had bad experiences with it on other platforms? If so, what were they?
This could pave the way for Android on the netbooks.
I never understand why all this hate for Flash. It’s a mature technology that offers something that no other web technology does on 90%+ of the computers connected to the internet.
Well, I have a love/hate relationship with it. Closed format or no it, more than any of the work done by the community, was what made embedded multimedia “just work” for Linux. And now that the format has opened up I really could come to like it, except… that even the official Adobe plugin is such a klunky resource hog compared to streaming the media through Totem, VLC, or others. Full screen video which would be trivial to play on a real media player are jerky and slow under Flash.
That’s sure unfortunate for Linux users, but that’s probably only 1% of all desktop computer users. IMO it’s a miracle that a big corporation like Adobe bothered to make a version at all. Linux should get more marketshare and better versions of Flash will roll in. It’s all about ROI.
You are misnunderstanding me. From what I’ve seen, flash is slower and jerkier than the native media players everywhere.
I’d say that, on the balance, the popularity of Flash has been fortunate for Linux users, but unfortunate for users of all platforms who care about playing media efficiently.
I’m hoping that gnash and/or swfdec might hold some hope for at least some of us.
BTW, I doubt that Adobe would have made the flash plugin available for a platform which they felt had 1% of users, as you imply.
Edited 2009-03-26 21:29 UTC
I dunno. Flash video is slower than regular players but it’s quite ok, even on my older machine (2600+ sempron), playing fullscreen 720p video.
Some, but not much. It’s hard playing catch-up to someone with the resources of Adobe.
Well, this seems to be the number that seems to be tossed around in all discussions. In my country it seems to be even lower – sub 0.5%.
I suspect that Adobe does it for PR and also for the embedded devices running Linux.