The Flash barrier
 

Re: The Flash barrier
 

I all the way with you on that one RogerS. There's no acceptable reason flash support for mobile devices in general is so poor. I mean how powerful does a mobile device have to be to get version 9 if the N800 barely made the jump from 6 to 7? And by the time a capable mobile finally receives version 9, how obsolete will it have been?

http://net9.blogspot.com/2007/01/id-...ter-flash.html

Re: The Flash barrier
 

The only reason Flash is anything, is because of IE, Firefox and, I guess Opera (barely). If browsers didn't support it, it would be abandon-ware. I think Adobe wanted it to be a stand-alone application framework, but is has simply become just an eye-candy dispenser for web pages.

I would rather websites stop using it, or simply have alternative non-Flash views. It is not just my 770 that can't use Flash - my cell phone has internet access, and it won't run Flash, either.

An alternative is for folks to save their Flash pages in version 6 format. Can they do that? I guess?

Re: The Flash barrier
 

Flash 9 was only recently released for Linux. Until then, Flash 7 was the most recent version.

The speed difference between the two is pretty amazing, as well -- I've seen it said that the new version is 10x faster. It's not necessarily the case that the new version is that much more blazingly faster, but that Flash 7 was so dog slow.

Since the Nokia N800 is still a pretty slow and underpowered machine compared to recent powerful desktops and laptops (with good reason: portability, battery life, etc.), of course a port of the already slow Flash 7 for Linux to the Arm will be pretty pathetically slow. Those modern Linux desktops even had some issues playing flash video with Flash 7, by-the-way.

I think that it probably wasn't expected to take so long for Flash 9 to become gold, and Nokia had deadlines to ship the device. They're probably (hopefully) testing Flash 9 for the N800 right now. The delay for it being available for the device is most likely due to:

1. Porting to the Arm
2. Testing and fixing bugs for the Arm port
3. Possibly rolling Flash into a system update with other fixes

I believe that Flash 9 will be available soon for the N800 device. Adobe just released Flash 9 for Linux on Jan 17, 2007, after all.

Also consider that the release date for the Nokia N800 was Jan 8, 2007.

Just be patient. YouTube will work, eventually.

Re: The Flash barrier
 

I'd be happy if that assertion could be verified. Is there any way to find out?

My old teacher used to say that we should work towards making the difficult easy and the easy beautiful.

Nokia's done a wonderful job in making the web fit into our pocket. Now they've got to do the job of making it work really well.

And without a better, faster, more-compliant Flash, it's not ... well, perfect.

So I'm content to lobby Nokia. But is that the pressure point (to change metaphors)?

Roger

Re: The Flash barrier
 

Yes, the only people who've got any leverage here are Nokia. Adobe are just an ISV providing a system component, any lobbying at Adobe will be fruitless (if not counter-productive).

Opera have nothing to do with it: it's just a standard plugin.

So, that leaves Nokia. Therefore, the people associated with the visible face of ITT have the best option (i.e. people who can get interviews with Ari Jaaksi at CES ;-))

Cheers,

Andrew

Re: The Flash barrier
 

Andrew, are you suggesting we draft Daniel (thoughtfix) for this lobbying effort?

Hmmm... :D

Re: The Flash barrier
 

Dear Nokia: Flash 9 for Linux is final, ask Adobe to port it for the N800 from ringnokia.com

Comments regarding Flash 9 on N800 from John Dowdell who apparently works for Adobe concur with Andrew:

"The device manufacturers themselves are the major stakeholders in the budgeting for any such work, though, which is why both partners need to see the potential benefits to prioritizing that work. Letting the device manufacturer know is the starting point."

Re: The Flash barrier
 

The thread at RingNokia seems to say that

• Nokia needs to license the more recent Flash player from Adobe
• Adobe does the porting
• There's likely a fair amount of hand-tuning to get it to work on the CPU, OS, browser and hardware

And, obviously, somebody has to fork out the money for development, testing and maintenance.

It always sounded to me like Adobe's attitude was, "Sure, we'd like to have Flash everywhere, but we're not going to spend a lot of money on small markets."

Is Nokia being penny-wise and pound-foolish in not going for a richer license?

Or is Adobe asking an exorbitant amount of money to do the work?

Or is something actually happening already and we just have to be patient?

These are the questions I don't see answers to. But it seems crazy for people with less-powerful devices on smaller screens to be getting a better web experience than users of an 800x480 device running full (not embedded) Linux.

Re: The Flash barrier
 

I have to agree with michaelalanjones above: Instead of "improving" flash-support on any device, i'd rather have websites stop using it. Disabling Flash is the first thing I do on a new browser. I can't see what it's for - except commercial ads.

It's also kind of strange how people take all the benefits of an (almost) open platform but then complain they cannot use all the proprietary plug-ins they want. If the plug-in were an open project, one could port the most recent version to maemo and improve its speed by optimizing it. As it is not, you just have to live with what the involved companies release. Period. Stop whining.

Adobe is not to blame, neither is Nokia. The "bad guys" are those who use technology that eventually forces people to use certain hardware and certain operating systems: the authors of a few websites.