There is still no agreement between Adobe and Apple over its Flash technology being allowed to boost the web browsing capabilities of the iPhone, but the same can’t be said for other devices from today.
Adobe is announcing the release of Flash 10.1 at its MAX worldwide developer conference in Los Angeles. It will bring better browsing and HD performance to smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PCs and other web-connected devices.
Around 75 per cent of all videos online are delivered using Flash, more than 70 per cent of Web games are built with Flash and the technology is used to add rich features to many web sites.
Now companies such as Nvidia and Qualcomm are optimising graphics processing units (GPUs) and Arm-based CPUs for Flash with the 10.1 release, boosting the multimedia capabilities of new devices.
Flash integration with Arm-based devices will negate one advantage Intel has claimed up to now over Arm, of superior optimisation of its chips and chipsets for Flash and web browsers.
I was impressed by a demonstration by Nvidia last month of a beta install of Flash 10.1 being GPU-accelerated on a netbook – the new $400 HP Mini 311. They streamed 720p HD content off the web at 30 frames per second with this new integration of Flash with their ION graphics processor.
Similarly, expect to see soon smartbooks and smartphones from the likes of Toshiba using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Arm-based processor optimised for Flash 10.1.
On smartphones, such as Palm and Blackberry devices, Flash 10.1 will give more powerful features than the existing Flash Lite software and be less of a drain on resources.
Adobe says rendering of graphics on mobile devices will be 87 per cent faster, while memory consumption will be reduced by 55 per cent.
This may answer one of the alleged criticisms that Apple has of Flash – that the software would slow the iPhone’s performance to an unacceptable degree.
But there will be no announcement at MAX of any agreement with Apple, Adrian Ludwig, group manager of the Adobe Flash platform told me.
“We have been doing very active development in that area, but there are limitations on our ability to bring something to market,” he said.
“We are constrained just like every developer by the set of capabilities expressed in the iPhone SDK and developer programme and those just aren’t sufficient. We’ve made great progress, but without direct assistance from Apple, we will not be able to get the Flash player on the iPhone.”
Perhaps with every other major smartphone player becoming Flash capable with 10.1, that assistance from Apple may finally be forthcoming.
UPDATE: Adobe has just announced at the MAX conference that Flash developers will be able to export their creations to the iPhone and iPod touch, easily converting them into applications for the App Store. This still leaves the Safari browser unable to play Flash.
Kevin Lynch, Adobe chief technology officer, said: “The engineering teams at Adobe have succeeded in bringing the latest Flash technology to the iPhone, opening the way for the Flash community to deploy to the App Store. When Apple is ready to bring the full Web browsing experience to iPhone users, we’ll be ready to bring Flash Player to Safari.”
