By: Hillel Fuld
Wow, this is seriously starting to heat up. At first we thought that Apple just left out the Flash technology maybe because of political considerations or maybe technological ones, but there were rumors circulating that that was just temporary. At some point or another, most of us believed Flash would eventually make an appearance on iPhone OS. That all changed when Jobs wrote his famous blog post calling Adobe Flash a technology of the past and saying that it was tot closed a platform for the iPhone (oh, the irony!).
Adobe, of course responded, but their response was doomed to failure since when Lord Jobs speaks, it seems to generate unprecedented hype. However, Adobe did not give up. They began blasting the interwebs with videos of the competing Google platform running Flash. Some videos are official Adobe releases and some are a little less official, if you catch my drift. The bottom line is, I think the thought of Hulu on a mobile device as beautiful as the Nexus or Incredible is some serious competition to a Jobs blog post in terms of generating buzz.
Adobe seems to have succeeded, since a short Twitter search for the words “Flash Android” produces thousands upon thousands of tweets of the various videos. Last week’s big news was that Android surpassed iPhone in U.S sales for the first time ever. Add Flash to this equation and I think Jobs has a war on his hands. Let’s not forget for one second that Apple is definitely fighting back with the release of the next generation iPhone HD next month, which will surely give Android and its Flash capabilities a run for its money. Whatever the case may be, we are in for some good old fashioned geek entertainment in the coming months.
For now, just sit back and enjoy some nice videos of Flash running on various Android devices including the up and coming Google Tablet already dubbed an “iPad Killer”. Just for the record, I selected only a small number of the many videos on Youtube displaying Flash on Android, if you want to see more, just head over to this link.
Don’t forget to share your opinion in the comments about this never ending and highly entertaining battle between the two big A’s, Adobe and Apple (just in case you did not figure that out).
You had to expect me to comment on this one :). All I can say is wow. The phones running Flash look amazing. What I really liked about the videos is how the Adobe users took the high rode. None of them bad mouth Lord Jobs. It’s also great the the users are putting together the videos. They aren’t from Adobe. Adobe would be smart to put together some sort of contest for the best mobile Flash presentation and have people post them to the Flash facebook page. I look forward to getting a Nexus when I’m ready to get my next phone.
No mention of battery life consumption. Also, I heard the news reports of the Adobe demo, crashing twice on stage. No video of that.
But, Flash 10.1 has not been released. It is a theoretical discussion until they release something that can be installed on the phones being sold. So far everything I have seen indicates they are having a hard time making it work.
@Rena
I’m not a big fan of Jobs but I think you give Adobe way to much credit. These are demo videos, of course they will not bad mouth Jobs/Apple – the point of the video is to demo Flash on the Android not to sling mud. Both Apple and Adobe are both guilty of bad mouthing each other now and in the past so no one here is a saint or even taking the high road.
As for Flash, until it gets in the hands of third party reviewers and the regular consumer I shall remain skeptical that Flash can run well on low power devices like mobile phones.
@Ryan
Before I read this blog, I had a bone to pick with Apple. (Check out my blog: http://renareich.com/2010/05/03/why-i-cant-stand-apple/) I don’t like them, so you must understand that I am more than a bit biased when I say that I’m really happy when someone can show them up.
As far as Flash is concerned, it might take a bit of time, but I’m sure that they’ll work out the problems. It’s not like iPhones are known for their wonderful battery life. I have an iPhone, and I find it really annoying that I can’t keep bluetooth on or I won’t have a battery for the whole day. I use to have a Nokia E71 and the battery on that lasted forever.
I have to admit that the iPhone is a sweet device. I’m really glad to see that their is serious competition that can compete with iTunes App Store. My next phone will not be an iPhone.
Will anyone care except yourself what kind of phone you use.
Wow it must be magical to find Hulu working on a nexus when a presenter at a Flash conference said he can’t do the demo with the site.