Adobe recently updated the Flash player roadmap document. No major changes, but there are a few things worth noting. (It also reads like a subtle hint that Flash will not be innovated as rapidly on desktop. Don’t know if this is just a change in course or there’s something else to it Here goes. ......continue reading

FITC (Future… Innovation…. Technology…. Creativity!) - what used to be Flash In Tin Can conference focusing on all the cool stuff in mobile app development is back in Amsterdam.  From FITC web site - “FITC Amsterdam 2013 is host to the latest and greatest in design, technology and cool shit from all around the world.” (I didn’t write that “Join fellow digital creators and renowned speakers at the Felix Meritis this February to learn about HTML5, CSS, virtual machines, design, creativity and much more! FITC Amsterdam will leave you inspired, educated and challenged to do something new and set the bar higher. ” ......continue reading

I came across this article via my network on linked-in and couldn’t agree more. There was a panel at Cable-Tec expo at Orlando and these remarks were made by Albert Lai, Innovation architect at Brightcove. Everybody is tremendously excited about HTML5 today but there’s tremendous amount of fragmentation today with respect to browsers, platforms features and what not. I often spend lot of time educating customers about these shortcomings and we plan on writing a white paper in the near future. ......continue reading

If you are one of those ‘early adapters’ of technology, you may have previewed latest Android update, JellyBean (aka Android 4.1). (Early adapter doesn’t have as much meaning these days like it used to have BTW - almost everyone that I know is eager to try new technologies - it is just a matter of time and money!). Once up, you’ll notice that Chrome has become default Android browser. The Webkit browser that used to be there until Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4) is gone. Now try typing ‘about:plugins’ in Chrome - you’ll get a message that the ‘web page is not found’. (For those who don’t know what ‘about:plugins’ does, it brings up list of all plugins installed on your system via a local web page and you can enable or disable plugins from there). ......continue reading

Rumors of Flash player being part of Windows 8 metro version have started appearing on more than one blog sites. Apparently Microsoft is in talks with Adobe to include Flash player into IE browser. The reason being given is that ‘there’s still plenty of content on the internet that uses Flash and not having Flash would have been looked at negatively on Windows!!’.  There were reports earlier that Windows 8 metro will not provide plug-in architecture and therefore will not support Flash the way it does on desktop today. But according to the reports, Flash will be integrated with the browser and distributed by Microsoft. ......continue reading

Adobe has started making announcements about future of Flash and as expected there are lots of twists and turns and caveats. For example, on Linux, it has been announced that Flash will migrate to Googles PPAPI ‘Pepper’ APIs and will be bundled with Chrome. This means that future versions of Flash will no longer be available for Firefox and other browsers that support Netscape plug-in APIs. This is expected to happen post Flash 11.2. ......continue reading

FITC (OK - this time FITC has a meaning and it stands for Future… Innovation…. Technology…. Creativity!) Toronto is taking place April 23-25 in Toronto. The conference features 70 renowned digital creators from around the globe and covers wide range of topics from HTML5 to making digital art. The conference also offers plenty of opportunities for networking via parties and such. Folks organizing FITC has graciously offered a discount code for readers of this blog. Use discount code EmbeddedFlash to get 10% off the tickets to FITC. ......continue reading

Much is being debated about Adobe’s decision to end life for Flash mobile. Remarks have ranged from ‘didn’t Steve Jobs say so’ to ‘what the *#$$’ to ‘I feel like I’ve been let down by Adobe’ and so on. While I am sure Adobe has its own reasons, but in my opinion, it simply came down to ‘Return on Investment’. Now keep in mind, we are Adobe’s scaling partners. So our goal is also to make profit with Flash player (identical to Adobe’s), and have experienced every pain that Adobe has. In this capitalist world, goal of any business is to create ‘value’ in exchange of the ‘effort’ one puts in. In this case, it was just a matter of deciding whether the return on investment on Flash was worth the effort. Ultimately Adobe decided to follow route that would generate dollars as a business and in the process ended up killing Flash on mobile. ......continue reading

Much has been debated about Steve Job’s decision to not support Flash on iPhone.  Even though 99 % of all internet enabled PCs are Flash capable , Steve decided to choose not to go with Flash. Much has been debated about Steve’s decision and the battle between two. Many people(including myself) love the functionality that Flash offers and don’t want to miss out when they start using a smart phone. Several Android phones come equipped with Flash made by prominent OEMs such as  O2 - Samsung Galaxy. Now iPhones accounted for ~ 17% smartphone share for the final quarter of 2010. So that left more than 80% of smart phone users with access (or potential access) to Flash.  Samsung, of all companies, seems to be doing great when it comes to selling smartphones (and tablets) and, not surprisingly, there’s a legal battle going on between Apple and Samsung for ‘copying ideas’. ......continue reading

We are glad to report that we have certified Flash 10.3 on Freescale’s i.MX53 reference platform. The port runs on Android OS and uses hardware decoder for H.264. Parts of On2 and Sorenson video are also accelerated in hardware leading to a much better user experience.  Freescale’s i.MX processor is based on ARM Cortex A8. i.MX51 runs at 800 MHz whereas i.MX53 runs at 1 GHz. The i.MX53 port is built on top of the previously certified i.MX51 port and includes new security patches and some additional hardware integration. The certification is done at a resolution of 1024X768 and we feel that it may be possible to go as high as 720P resolution. (We have not run tests at this resolution yet - so no promises but a possibility This assumes that 20% increase in speed compared to i.MX51 and hardware integration will help). ......continue reading

FITC is coming to Amsterdam in 2011. This event promises to showcases work that is shaping the future of the digital interactive industry. (BTW, I think FITC stands for Flash In Tin Can but I am not sure….. On a side note Flash related conferences do have some ‘Flashy’ names like ‘Flash’ on the Beach Anyways, if you are interested in going and want to save some $$s, feel free to use discount code ‘EmbeddedFlash’ while registering. It’ll save you at least 10%. The tickets are priced low for early registrants and you can save even more if you use the code. ......continue reading

Well, I have been lazy when it comes to writing a blog of late, but here I am. Lot of things have happened since my last post and the world of multimedia continues to get as interesting as it could. Flash has been upgraded to Flash 11 and AIR 3 is now available. The greatest improvement in Flash 11, Stage 3D (previously known as Molehill), promises to revolutionize the gaming industry with stunning 3D capabilities. ......continue reading

We’ve been working closely with Freescale for a while now on certification of Flash 10.1. I am glad to inform that Flash 10.1 has been certified on MX51 platform. The certification is complete for both Android as well as Linux. Freescale’s i.MX 51 platform features a 800 MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor featuring Neon instruction set. The platform also offers a Hardware accelerator support for H.264 alongwith hardware alpha blending and color space conversation support. The port is available to customers via Freescale immediately. ......continue reading

Adobe has announced that Flash 10.3 is now available. According to Adobe, “Flash Player 10.3 improves stability, enhances security and user privacy protection, and provides new desktop video and audio capabilities for enterprises and developers”. Not all the features are available on 10.3 mobile though- in fact the key feature that allows application developers access to analytics data is not available on mobile. This is not surprising given the fact that the Omniture engine is for desktop environment and will not be available until it is ported to Android or some other mobile platform. ......continue reading

Google has recently announced that they are dropping support for H.264 in Chrome browser. What this means that the developers wanting to use H.264 video in their HTML5 content will have to encode it using WebM or Theora video codecs. WebM is based on the On2 technology’s VP8  codec that Google acquired last year. ......continue reading