Adobe Systems announces the release of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to its mobile platform partners.
Adobe Systems has announced the release of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to its
mobile platform partners.
The long-awaited release has been redesigned from the ground up with new
performance and mobile-specific features, Adobe officials said. Flash Player
10.1 is the first release that brings the full Web across desktops and devices.
Mobile users will now be able to experience millions of sites with rich
applications and content inside the browser including games, animations, rich
Internet applications (RIAs), data presentations and visualizations, e-commerce,
music, video, audio, and more.
Already one of the top free apps on Android Market today, Flash Player 10.1
will be available as a final production release for smartphones and tablets
once users are able to upgrade to Android 2.2 "Froyo." Devices supporting
"Froyo" and Flash Player 10.1 are expected to include the Dell Streak, Google
Nexus One, HTC Evo, HTC
Desire, HTC Incredible, Droid by Motorola,
Motorola Milestone, Samsung Galaxy S and others.
On June 22, Adobe announced that Flash Player 10.1 also was released to
mobile platform partners to be supported on devices based on Android,
BlackBerry, Palm WebOS, future versions of Windows Phone, LiMo, MeeGo and
Symbian OS, and is expected to be made available via over-the-air downloads and
to be preinstalled on smartphones, tablets and other devices in the coming
months.
"We are thrilled that more than three million Flash designers and developers
are now able to unleash their creativity on the world of smartphones, tablets,
netbooks, televisions and other consumer electronics," said David Wadhwani,
general manager and vice president of Platform Business at Adobe, in a
statement. "The combined power of the leading rich media technology platform
with millions of passionate creatives is sure to impact the world in ways we
haven't even imagined yet."
Device and technology partners including ARM,
Brightcove, Dell, Google, HTC, Intel,
Microsoft, Motorola, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung, Texas Instruments and
others announced more specifics around their support for Flash Player 10.1.
In addition, content publishers including AgencyNet, AKQA, Armor Games,
Blitz, CNET.com, HBO, JustinTV, Kongregate,
Mochi Media, Msnbc Digital Network, Turner, Nickelodeon, Odopod, Photobucket,
RAIN, Roundarch, Sony Pictures, South Park Studios, USA Network, Viacom, Warner
Brothers and many others have also started to optimize Flash content to deliver
the best possible experience within the context of smaller screens, which includes
larger buttons for interactions, layout adjustments for mobile screens and
more.
"Although it is labeled a dot release, Flash Player 10.1 is a
significant update that includes a number of new performance and mobile
specific features," said Al Hilwa, program director of the Application
Development Program at IDC. "This
allows consumers to see a much bigger part of the Web and allows developers to
bring their Flash Platform skills to a much bigger swath of devices."
Flash Player 10.1 delivers new interaction methods with support for
mobile-specific input models. Support for an accelerometer allows users to view
Flash content in landscape and portrait mode. With Smart Zooming, users can
scale content to full-screen mode, delivering immersive applicationlike experiences
from a Web page. Performance optimization work with virtually all major mobile
silicon and platform vendors makes efficient use of CPU and battery
performance.
The new Smart Rendering feature ensures that Flash content is running only
when it becomes visible on the screen, further reducing CPU and battery
consumption. With Sleep Mode, Flash Player automatically slows down when the
device transitions into screen saver mode. Advanced Out-of-Memory Management
allows the player to effectively handle non-optimized content that consumes
excessive resources, while automatic memory reduction decreases content usage
of RAM by up to 50 percent. Flash Player
pauses automatically when events occur such as incoming phone calls or
switching from the browser to other device functions. Once users switch back to
the browser, Flash Player resumes where it paused.
"For the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to test an Android Froyo
device loaded with a beta of Flash Player 10.1," said Ben Bajarin, principal
analyst at Creative Strategies, in a statement. "The overall experience and
performance of Flash has been impressive. Mobile users now have access to full
Web pages with rich Flash content on millions of sites. With the new mobile-specific
features, developers also have an important opportunity to help shape the way
Web content, games, touch capabilities and more are presented across platforms
and devices as Froyo and other platforms deliver full Flash support."
Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.
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