Users of Blackberry, Google Android, Symbian OS, Palm webOS, and Windows Mobile can expect to have full Flash player capabilities for their phones within the next few months, according to multiple sources, including Adobe.
Today at the Adobe MAX developer's conference in Los Angeles, Adobe introduced Flash Player 10.1, part of Adobe's Open Screen Project, an initiative to "provide a consistent runtime environment across mobile phones, desktops and other consumer electronic devices." Flash Player 10.1 is GPU-accelerated*, so users can view videos in HD, while [hopefully] conserving battery life and CPU** usage. Flash 10.1 will also support the capabilities of each mobile device, including multi-touch, accelerometer, gestures, and screen orientation.
Flash Player 10.1 will be available in beta for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS phones later this year; the beta version will hit Google Android and Symbian OS phones in early 2010.
One smartphone, however, is blatantly absent from this list: the Apple iPhone. Over a year ago, Apple declared that desktop Flash was too CPU-hungry, and Flash Lite too poor-quality, to be used on the iPhone. As early as June 2008, Adobe developers began work on a Flash version that would meet Apple's requirements. The latest news from Adobe was that the development of Flash for the iPhone is "in [Adobe's] court." There has been no word today on whether Flash capability for the iPhone is forthcoming.
Is this another case of Apple refusing to play nicely with other technology companies? Or is Apple waiting for a Flash Player version that will meet certain standards of quality for the iPhone? Or, as one blogger speculates, is Apple intentionally providing a respite for web users weary of tiresome Flash animations?
One report suggests that Apple might indeed be taking a step in the Flash-friendly direction. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) reports that Adobe Professional CS5 will enable Flash animations to be exported to iPhone/iPod Touch applications. So even though iPhone users will be unable to view Hulu and Facebook videos on the device, they will be able to use iPhone applications that feature animation.
I look forward to seeing what Apple communicates with its continuing lack of Flash capabilities for the iPhone. Will Apple announce that a version of Flash Player will soon be made available for the iPhone after all? Will they report that the decision for the iPhone to go without Flash was made with the consumer in mind? Or does Apple have something else up its sleeve?
Stay tuned.
Brief glossary:
*GPU = Graphics Processing Unit
**CPU = Central Processing Unit
Showing posts with label smartphone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smartphone. Show all posts
Monday, October 5, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Mobile App Idea #1: Gas Station Locator
From time to time, I think of ideas for marketable new products or services. My dear readers, I would like to share some of these ideas with you. If you find one of my ideas to be absolutely brilliant, so brilliant that you want to actually develop it, please do so. Unless otherwise noted, I will demand no royalties for my ideas.
However, if I conceived an idea, I might have further insights on how to actually implement it. You may want to pick my brain. Or at least send me a thank-you note for inspiring your profitable new invention. Just a thought.
Allow me to share with you an idea that came to me today for a new mobile phone application: a Gas Station Locator.
Running out of gasoline can be a rather inconvenient experience. Not that this has ever happened to me, of course; this is just what I hear.
Someone (maybe a fuel company? maybe AAA?) should develop a mobile phone application that uses the phone's GPS to locate the nearest gas stations. The app could be geo-visual, like the Nearest Tube application for the London Underground (see the YouTube video below).
The Gas Station Locator app (perhaps it could be called "Fuel Up!") could generate bubbles containing relevant information for each gas station - items like the station name, distance, estimated driving time till arrival, gas prices, sales and specials, availability of restrooms, and customer ratings. Maybe the application could even communicate with the vehicle's computer, to report how much further one can drive before running out of gas. Perhaps the driver could set a minimum gas level (something like "3 gallons", or "1/4-tank"), below which the application would automatically open and start locating nearby gas stations.
But drivers staring at cell phones kill people, you say.
The app should be completely audio-driven and voice-activated, so that the driver does not even need to look at the phone. The driver could ask the application to audibly list the stations in order of distance, or gas price. The app could even give spoken, turn-by-turn driving directions to the selected gas station.
Do you think drivers would like an app like this one? Do you know how to build it? How to coordinate all of that information? You are welcome to develop it with my blessing - you might be nice and let yours truly download it for free, though.
However, if I conceived an idea, I might have further insights on how to actually implement it. You may want to pick my brain. Or at least send me a thank-you note for inspiring your profitable new invention. Just a thought.
Allow me to share with you an idea that came to me today for a new mobile phone application: a Gas Station Locator.
Running out of gasoline can be a rather inconvenient experience. Not that this has ever happened to me, of course; this is just what I hear.
Someone (maybe a fuel company? maybe AAA?) should develop a mobile phone application that uses the phone's GPS to locate the nearest gas stations. The app could be geo-visual, like the Nearest Tube application for the London Underground (see the YouTube video below).
The Gas Station Locator app (perhaps it could be called "Fuel Up!") could generate bubbles containing relevant information for each gas station - items like the station name, distance, estimated driving time till arrival, gas prices, sales and specials, availability of restrooms, and customer ratings. Maybe the application could even communicate with the vehicle's computer, to report how much further one can drive before running out of gas. Perhaps the driver could set a minimum gas level (something like "3 gallons", or "1/4-tank"), below which the application would automatically open and start locating nearby gas stations.
But drivers staring at cell phones kill people, you say.
The app should be completely audio-driven and voice-activated, so that the driver does not even need to look at the phone. The driver could ask the application to audibly list the stations in order of distance, or gas price. The app could even give spoken, turn-by-turn driving directions to the selected gas station.
Do you think drivers would like an app like this one? Do you know how to build it? How to coordinate all of that information? You are welcome to develop it with my blessing - you might be nice and let yours truly download it for free, though.
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