Finally, proper banner ads for Android: Flash demoed on a G1

At Adobe's MAX event this morning, none other than Andy Rubin himself helped to demo Flash running on a G1, proving that it's possible (in case years of Nokias with S60 browsers haven't already done a sufficient job of showing that) and that Apple's running out of excuses. It wasn't mentioned exactly when we'd see it pushed out in an over-the-air update (or available from the Market, possibly, we suppose), but at least Rubin confirmed that Adobe and Google are pooling their collective noggins to make it happen. Ads for life insurance just aren't the same without an animated dancing dude or flying pig, so we're delighted to hear that some balance is going to be restored to the world.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2008 3:44PM]

better hurry up iphone......................................

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2008 3:50PM]

About time!

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2008 3:55PM]

haha. about time. the phones only been out for like a month!

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2008 4:15PM]

My G1 arrives today. I can't wait!

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2008 4:59PM]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Ive had my G1 for almost a month now. Y'all are gonna love this phone.
Make sure you get the following apps right away.
CC Cinema (much better than regular video player)
Shazam
Bonsai Blast (cute game)
The Weather Channel (cant live without it)
Compare Everywhere

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2008 5:04PM]

But isn't the irony that the Flash was developed to be a totally portable technology that could easily scale and zoom to accommodate virtually any screen size?

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2008 6:00PM]

Um, not really ironic. Once Adobe got ahold of it (and even during Macromedia's latter days) it became a bloated "development platform". Conceived to be a portable technology, yes. In practice/development, no.
In reality Flash is mostly bloated, resource hungry, snake oil. It's got some redeeming qualities (flash video encoder, for example), but is probably the most misused application I can think of.
I have used an iPhone extensively, and can tell you I don't miss waiting for Flash banner ads to load over the network, when I'm on the go and trying to access useful information in mobile Safari.
I will probably buy a G1 in the next month or so, but it being able to run Flash is not a buying point for me.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2008 7:14AM]

Steve, I agree

The fact of that adding flash to a mobile browser will seriously decreases performance, and probably crash the browser on many occasions is not something to look forward to.

[000000 Posted Nov 18th 2008 8:21AM]

@ steve & chris

You two are way too uninformed to make statements like that. Obviously you don't know the first thing about flash and it's capabilities. We're talking interactive vector animation. Not to mention a gazillion more games pretty much instantly available once a .swf player for the iPhone is available. I could care less about the Safari integration.

It seems all you do is surf the internet and get annoyed with banners. How about a flash disable switch in Safari? Wow. No, instead let's deny every aspect of the other capabilites of interactive vector/video animation/programming so you don't have to see banner ads...

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2008 12:22PM]

Yes, Flash as a development platform failed a few years ago. When Flash 5 and the corresponding Macromedia dev tools (ColdFusion, Dreamweaver, et. al) were gaining popularity, there was a minute when it looked every sales/promotional site would be developed in Flash. A few short years later and that had fizzled out. But in the hey day of Flash 4 and 5, it was most definitely light and portable and plenty of people expected it to be the future of mobile content delivery. The fact that it has completely failed to do so seems to nearly define irony.

Merriam Webster definition of irony: "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result"

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2008 6:51PM]

@ Frank:
In that context, you're absolutley right. I was talking about Flash's history as a whole (to present day), but I'll concede the point happily.

@ 000000:
So I'm uninformed about Flash? I'll guess that I've been developing content in Flash longer than you've owned a cellphone. I'm fully aware of the capabilities of Flash. And the downsides. Like a few years ago when Microsoft issued a security patch that "broke" nearly all Flash applications running in IE. Before you get your undies in a bunch, notice I said "applications".

"We're talking interactive vector animation." So you read the marketing materials from Flash 4... good for you. If you're unaware of even the basics, like that flash developers often use bitmap images as well as vectors, and encapsulate multiple movieclips into their timelines (making them resource hungry), then it's definitely you who are way too uninformed. Good developers know how to load, unload and optimize to get around this, but there are way too many hacks out there going to market with their crap anyway.

It's got nothing to do with being irritated by seeing banner ads, it has everything to do with the bandwidth and data those ads take up on a mobile platform where it matters.

Most websites have no need for flash, other than the ones that use it for video. The last thing I want to waste time on is watching some sophomoric attempt at making a "cool", "interactive" website load, with buttons that fly in, and an intro screen on my portable device.

If you want a standalone Flash Player so you can play games on your iPhone, I can understand that. If you want a Flash plugin for a mobile browser with limited data rates, and less-than-desktop processing power, forget it because we'll never agree.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 20th 2008 9:11AM]

My whole point is the stand alone .swf player. And yes that was M$ fault not Flash so why bash Flash? And yes obviously you can use bitmaps in your flash movies and make them resource hungry. I can also encode a video up to 10mbps. Should we then ban video players as well because they won't play it?

"it has everything to do with the bandwidth and data those ads take up on a mobile platform where it matters"

bandwith and data? What are you talking about? You can't comprehend the option button in your browser to disable it or NOT visit those sites? Like in Firefox... Where else would bandwith and data be an issue? You can't control where you browse on the internet? People can still make proc and bandwith and memory intensive web apps for the iPhone without flash you know... If any website wants visitors it's not going to make a flash based anything that would jeopardize getting visitors...

Sorry if I sound like I'm arguing here I just didn't like negative approach toward Flash when the benefits IMHO totally outweigh any negatives. Cars can cause accidents should we not have them?

Bottom line vector animation is a necessity for media portals like.........the internet. How else are you going to do it? Shockwave? Same thing. Silverlight? Same thing. Flash is embedded and has a great following and it works great.

[SParklingCYaNide Posted Nov 17th 2008 5:32PM]

Yuss FINALLY!!!

I can't wait for Flash to be Officially Released for my G1!!!

- D

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2008 8:04PM]

REAL youtube?
espn radio?
trutv?

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2008 9:55PM]

Real YouTube? Have you seen the YouTube App? It's as real as the website, but faster.

And yes, you can view ANY video - just search (like the website) or see the related video links at the end of a video (like the website)

But I am looking forward to flash... Homestar Runner! ;-)