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Adobe's fast new full-featured version of Flash is headed to the Google's G1 smart phone within "a few months" according to Adobe's top executives. Let the Flash ads with dancing monkeys commence.  (Source: Engadget)
Flash is around the corner for Google's G1 and Nokia's Symbian smart phones; Flash on Blackberries likely coming as well; Apple continues its apathy towards Adobe

The best selling phone in America, Apple's iPhone, could be the last of the smartphones to get Flash.  At a slew of press events over the last few days, Adobe unveiled a new version of mobile version of Flash -- a leaner, faster, smart phone-aimed version of Flash 10.  The new version is optimized for ARM processors like the one used in the iPhone.

Any smartphone with a 200 MHz or better processor and 16 MB of RAM should be able to run the new version of Flash, opening many phones up to the software.  A "completely capable [Web] browser" is also required, implying support of typical standards.

Previously, Flash was only available on a few smartphones via Flash Lite, a greatly stripped down version of the software.  The Nokia N-series has it, and Verizon's LG EnV2 uses it to animate its home screen.  However, when it comes to Flash, most users are in the dark.  Thanks to a partnership with Qualcomm and ARM, Adobe plans to turn on a more full-featured version of Flash for many new users.

The new version will be available for phones running Symbian, Android, and Windows Mobile, among other platforms.  Qualcomm BREW feature phones, such as the LG Voyager and Samsung Delve will also support the new product.  Steve Sprigg, Qualcomm SVP of engineering states, "We've integrated the tech in a way that allows a Flash developer to author a full-blown app for the BREW mobile platform … and they haven't written any [additional] code."

Google's G1 and future Android smartphones will likely soon be getting the update, either over the air or in Google's store, although no official release date has been announced.  Flash was demoed fully working on a T-Mobile G1 phone, though.  Adobe's Anup Muraka adds, "It's our belief that you'll see an Android-based version of Flash in the coming months.  We've talked previously about Microsoft licensing Flash for use in Windows Mobile. We've been working closely with Nokia on getting it to work on the Symbian platform."

Mr. Muraka added that Adobe is in talks with Research In Motion about bringing Flash to Blackberries.

The addition will open up a new world of advertising possibilities for Google and others.  Flash apps will also be great asset as an animation and program platform tool.  Flash games or tools could be developed for smartphones, a seemingly intuitive match.

With all the Flash hoopla, the one party notably absent is Apple's iPhone.  Continuing its tradition of blocking features its customers want, Apple has blasted Flash saying that it will not support it in the foreseeable future.  Apple CEO Steve Jobs has stated that Flash "performs too slow to be useful" on the iPhone.  Apple's software developers' agreement bans Flash by introducing a provision prohibiting third-party software from "launch[ing] other executable code".  This bans interpreters like Flash.

It seems like Flash and the iPhone would be a logical fit, but Apple doesn't think so.  Adobe has tried to woo Apple first with ARM-support upgrades and now with even more ARM-processor optimization.  The iPhone's processor clearly can support Flash, and can support it well, but Apple remains obstinate in its refusal to adopt the technology.

Some in the iPhone rebel community have taken it upon themselves to release an underground version of Flash.  Belgian university consultant Thomas Joos has developed a multimedia toolkit for the iPhone that enables Flash Lite, a clear violation of Apple's developer agreement.

As to things of an official nature, it appears Windows Mobile phones, Google's phone(s), and RIM smartphones are finally on the verge of getting Flash.  And it looks like the iPhone may be the last one left out of the Flash party, due to its own decision not to come, despite numerous invitations.

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About Damn Time
By Gzus666 on 11/18/2008 10:45:20 AM , Rating: 2
Finally, I hate going to pages on my G1 and getting no Flash. Annoys the piss out of me. Sucks to be an Apple user I guess, they exclude Flash in their little agreement.




RE: About Damn Time
By michael2k on 11/18/08, Rating: -1
RE: About Damn Time
By killerroach on 11/18/2008 12:30:05 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
The rest will fall in line sooner or later or be left out of the iPhone demographic


Funny, I thought the iPhone had Safari so that it could access "the whole internet, not the mobile internet or a stripped-down internet."

:)


RE: About Damn Time
By michael2k on 11/18/08, Rating: -1
RE: About Damn Time
By Gzus666 on 11/18/2008 12:48:44 PM , Rating: 3
HTML isn't the Internet either. The Internet is merely an inter-network, what someone does with it from there is their choice. It just so happens to be the biggest one so it gets a proper noun name of it's little brothers.

Once again, you are trying to defend Apple to the death for taking things from you.


RE: About Damn Time
By kinnoch on 11/18/2008 12:55:42 PM , Rating: 4
I'm pretty sure Flash is an important part of the internet.


RE: About Damn Time
By omnicronx on 11/18/2008 1:55:13 PM , Rating: 3
Flash is basically a requisite for Web 2.0, Michael is just trying to defend Apple as usual.. As great as the iPhone is, if other companies start releasing phones with Flash and Apple does not, I will probably never get an iPhone, and I don't think I am alone in saying this.


RE: About Damn Time
By Mojo the Monkey on 11/18/2008 6:46:25 PM , Rating: 2
You've got to be kidding me with this "Web 2.0" crap. I'm all for flash, but we [dailytech readers] are not 60 year old fuddie-duddie execs that need to be sold a bill of goods in order to rubber stamp extra company web development.

Haha. "Web 2.0 to the extreme!"


RE: About Damn Time
By Etsp on 11/18/2008 9:29:23 PM , Rating: 3
"Web 2.0" is a term that commonly refers to sites that are interactive and/or are composed of user-generated content, instead of static content posted by the site administrators... Something that wasn't feasible just a few years ago...

So, thinking of it in software development terms, Web 1.0 was the original product, that was enhanced and evolved over time, making it to maybe "Web 1.5" and "Web 2.0" was the addition of many new features and capabilities.


RE: About Damn Time
By Samus on 11/19/2008 2:37:04 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
I'm pretty sure Flash is an important part of the internet.


Ditto. It's like people don't even realize that the YouTube and MySpace framework was originally based on Flash.


RE: About Damn Time
By soydeedo on 11/18/2008 12:57:07 PM , Rating: 5
Yeah, man. Youtube is just a site with inane, random comments based on the big bold titles you see above that beautiful black box. What a magnificent centerpiece it is.


RE: About Damn Time
By michael2k on 11/18/2008 1:12:25 PM , Rating: 3
Um, I get the videos too. Click on the video, it downloads, and I watch.

It just isn't implemented in Flash.


RE: About Damn Time
By Yawgm0th on 11/18/2008 8:06:57 PM , Rating: 1
HTML isn't part of the Internet, either. The Internet is a series of connected networks. Routers, routing protocols, and IP addresses are the Internet. What runs on top of the Internet simply uses the Internet.

HTTP, or the World Wide Web, runs on top of the Internet, and utilizes a number of technologies. HTML and other markup languages are a big part. Flash and similar technologies are another part. Just because Flash isn't a markup language doesn't preclude it from being part of the Web.

Not that whether it is "part of the Internet" or "part of the Web" is really relevant. It's an important feature that users want -- and that Apple won't provide.


RE: About Damn Time
By omnicronx on 11/18/2008 1:52:58 PM , Rating: 5
BS Flash is one of the most wanted features of Apple users. Far more than those who are waiting for copy paste..

Lets face it Apple does not want to allow flash for one reason.. It would totally circumvent their App store. You would be able to get a flash version of pretty much anything you can make with Cocoa Touch.

Apple assumes that the youtube player is enough for the masses, and until another phone comes out with decent flash playback, (i have flashlite 3 on my WinMo phone and it still sucks) Apple won't release flash for the iPhone, even if Adobe has a working version.


RE: About Damn Time
By michael2k on 11/18/08, Rating: -1
RE: About Damn Time
By Gzus666 on 11/18/2008 12:02:41 PM , Rating: 2
Who would have guessed you would justify missing something as good?


RE: About Damn Time
By michael2k on 11/18/08, Rating: -1
RE: About Damn Time
By Gzus666 on 11/18/2008 12:45:55 PM , Rating: 2
I never once said Flash is "good". Having the choice to use it is. You are praising them making the choice for you. I don't use MMS, does that mean it shouldn't be there? I have not once used copy and paste on my G1, should it have been taken out? If you don't want it, don't use it, it is easily turned off. You are making excuses to defend Apple no matter what they do, that is why you are a fanboy.