Author Archives: Matt Rozen

Update for Flash Player 10.2 Support on Tablets

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Adobe will offer Flash Player 10.2 pre-installed on some tablets and as an OTA download on others within a few weeks of Android 3 (Honeycomb) devices becoming available, the first of which is expected to be the Motorola Xoom.

We are excited about the progress we’ve made optimizing Flash for tablets, alongside partners including Motorola, and expect our momentum to continue. As we announced last week, over 20 million smartphones were shipped or upgraded with Flash Player in 2010 and over 150,000 consumers on the Android Market are rating it 4.5 out of 5 stars. We have raised our estimates for 2011 and expect to see Flash installed on over 132 million devices by the end of this year. Consumers are clearly asking for Flash support on tablet devices and the good news is that they won’t have to wait long. We are aware of over 50 tablets that will ship in 2011 supporting a full web experience (including Flash support) and Xoom users will be among the first to enjoy this benefit.

**UPDATE (3/18/11): We’re happy to announce that Flash Player 10.2 is now available for download on Android Market. To see if your device is certified for Flash Player 10.2, go to http://www.adobe.com/go/cd1. Note that this is a production GA (General Availability) release for Android 2.2 (“Froyo”) and 2.3 (“Gingerbread”) devices and an initial beta release for Android 3.0.1+ (“Honeycomb”) tablets that include Google’s system update (from 3.0 to 3.0.1).

We’ve been collaborating closely with Google and the beta of Flash Player 10.2 for Android 3.0.1+ is an exciting release offering a full web browsing experience, including video, games and other interactive content, to the latest Android tablets. A production GA version of Flash Player 10.2 for Android 3.0.1+ is expected in the coming weeks.

For more details about Flash Player 10.2 performance enhancements, features and capabilities, please check out the Flash Player Team Blog post.

MWC 2011 and Flash Platform: Good Progress and Good Performance

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With Mobile World Congress coming to a close in Barcelona, we are seeing tremendous momentum for the Flash Platform runtimes on mobile devices. It’s incredibly exciting to see, touch and play with all the latest devices that our ecosystem partners are announcing and launching this year, including tablets like the Motorola XOOM, RIM Blackberry PlayBook and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S II, Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and neo and the five new Android smartphones from HTC. With beautiful web content for Flash Player and rich apps built with AIR, these devices highlight the wide adoption of both the Flash Player and AIR, especially since the former has only been available for about 6 months and AIR has only been available for a little more than 3 months!

While the momentum has been astonishing, there are still some questions on how Flash Player is performing on mobile devices. Tim Siglin, an editor at Streaming Media and co-founder of Transitions, Inc., wanted to find out for himself and published his findings in his whitepaper Performance or Penalty – Assessing Flash Player 10.1 Impact on Android Handsets. It is an in-depth look at the performance of Flash Player on a number of mobile devices, and the results may surprise you. Key highlights from the whitepaper include:

  • For the vast majority of video content delivered for Flash Player on mobile devices, performance is equivalent to the full frame rate experience on desktop. This is a huge improvement vs. video played back on previous devices.
  • The most significant factors impacting mobile battery life for video playback, for both Flash Player and the native device player, is appropriate video encoding and optimization.
  • There is minimal, if any, impact on mobile device battery life with Flash Player, even with multiple apps running.
  • All web content, running in Flash Player or not, consume battery power at consistent rates over WiFi in the native browser.
  • GPS, 3G and other resources on a phone consume more power than Flash Player, including when highly interactive content is viewed.
  • Flash Player 10.1 performance was 350% better than equivalent content in HTML, running an average of 24 frames per second for Flash Player 10.1 and 7 fps for HTML.

These initial findings support the positive feedback we have seen from users on Android Market where there have been over 6M downloads, 150K ratings resulting in a 4.5 out of 5.0 stars for Flash Player. Here are a few additional new devices that were announced yesterday at Mobile World Congress that are supporting the Flash Platform runtimes:

Flash and AIR Momentum from Mobile World Congress 2011

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We’re stirring up Flash Platform buzz at Mobile World Congress (MWC) this week by announcing strong mobile adoption of Flash Player and Adobe AIR, plus performance enhancements with Flash Player 10.2 to benefit developers and content publishers. Some highlights:

  • AIR applications can now be deployed to more than 84 million smartphones and tablets running Android and iOS.
  • Thousands of applications have been created and made available on Android Market and Apple’s App Store to date. For examples of popular AIR applications for Android check out m.flash.com.
  • Over 20 million smartphones were shipped or upgraded with Flash Player 10.1 on more than 35 certified devices in the first six months following the launch.
  • With more than 6 million downloads to date and more than 150,000 users giving it a 4.5-out-of-5 star rating, Flash Player is one of the top free apps on the Android Market.

Also, Flash Player 10.2 is now available for Mac, Windows and Linux users with several performance enhancements. The biggest feature of this release is support for Stage Video, which offers much improved video performance by optimizing hardware acceleration on desktops, mobile devices and TVs. Test results show up to 80 percent CPU savings when playing back video in 1080p on Windows and Mac OS—and existing H.264 video content on the Web will benefit from Stage Video without any changes to the content. Stage Video support for mobile devices will be available on Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” and BlackBerry Tablet OS.

Adobe also announced that leading global publishers, like National Geographic, Dennis Publishing, Martha Stewart Living and Condé Nast, are using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite tools to create and distribute their magazines and newspapers on Android tablets. The Content Viewer for Android is available now for publishing customers through the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite pre-release program.

Flash Platform developments don’t stop at MWC – the year ahead looks bright:

  • By the end of 2011, Adobe expects more than 200 million smartphones and tablets to support Adobe AIR applications.
  • For 2011, the company expects Flash Player to be supported on more than 132 million units worldwide.
  • More than 50 tablets are expected to support Flash Player this year alone.
  • Using Creative Suite 5 tools, over 3 million Flash Platform developers can create content across many devices for both Flash Player and AIR.

Watch David Wadhwani, senior vice president, discuss Flash Player and AIR momentum in 2011:

Watch Danny Winokur, vice president, discuss Flash Player 10.2 including Stage Video and performance updates, and upcoming 3D functionality:

Are you in Barcelona at MWC, and taking video you’d like to share? Send us an e-mail and maybe we‘ll cut it into our highlight reel.

Our partners are busy with the Flash Platform as well. Check back this week for links to some of their news…

Flash Platform in Action at CES 2011

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Thanks to Renaun Erickson (@renaun), Flash Platform evangelist, who traversed the CES show floor to get video of various partners and other companies who were showing TV’s, set top boxes, phones and of course – tablets.

Here is some of what he experienced:

Now we’re prepping for Mobile World Congress, you going to Barcelona for all the fun? Be sure to attend Ben Forta’s panel on Monday, Feb. 14 from 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Topic: App Planet Forum: Making Apps Profitable. Find out more about the panel here.

Oh – and if you are attending MWC, take some video of it and I’ll cut it into our MWC vid. (Send an email, and we can figure out how best to get it over.)

Flash Platform at CES 2011

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Happy New Year! Know what early January means besides new gym memberships? CES of course! The world’s largest consumer tech show, with 2500 exhibitors unveiling “next generation” consumer electronics is under way, and there’s some great news about new devices, apps, chips and services from Open Screen Project partners and others.

  • At MAX 2010 we announced AIR for TV for developers and content providers to extend rich media experiences and interactivity to TV. At CES, the HDTV market leader in the U.S., Samsung, and Adobe announced that Samsung will be the first to integrate support for Adobe AIR 2.5 for TV, making it easy for developers to build (using Creative Suite 5), distribute and monetize standalone applications through Samsung’s Smart TV applications store, Samsung Apps. All of Samsung’s 2011 Smart TVs and Smart Blu-ray players will include support for Adobe AIR for TV. Samsung also announced plans to bring Flash Player 10.1 to its Smart TV browser, extending the company’s current support for Flash Player 10.1 on Samsung smartphones and tablets.
  • What will the AIR app experience on Samsung TV’s be like? Companies such as CNET, Epix and YouTube are now developing apps for Samsung’s TV app store. Check out the video below for an early look:

Want to start developing your own apps for the new Samsung TVs? Watch Don Woodward’s MAX 2010 session, “How to Develop AIR for TV Applications” and then check out the resource pages here.

  • Motorola made news about upcoming devices:
    • With Verizon, they unveiled the Motorola XOOM — the first device on Google’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS designed from the ground up for tablets. Coming Q2 2011. They also announced the DROID Bionic 4G, a new, fast, Android smartphone. Both with support for Flash Player 10.1.
    • With T-Mobile, Motorola announced Motorola CLIQ 2™ with MOTOBLUR™, a 3.7-inch touch screen smartphone with a slide-out keypad. Powered by Android 2.2 and Flash Player 10.1. Available in late January.
    • With AT&T, they launched the Motorola ATRIX 4G, which runs a full Mozilla Firefox 3.6 browser and supports Flash Player 10.1. Available Q1 2011
  • NVIDIA announced the arrival of NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 chips that will power “superphones.” Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was on stage with NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang discussing the new developments and the importance of Flash support on devices. Watch a demo of a new LG Optimus 2X superphone on CNET
  • AMD announced the Fusion family of APUs with low battery consumption, improved graphics and video performance on notebooks and netbooks. AMD Fusion APUs will compliment the upcoming release of Flash Player 10.2, which will include a new video hardware acceleration model that enables dramatically enhanced video playback performance. Sigma Designs, a leading provider of SoC solutions for delivering home entertainment, announced support for AIR for TV and Flash Player running in an Espial browser for TVs. STMicroelectronics, a leader in chips for set-top boxes and digital TVs, introduced out-of-the box content protection for premium Interactive TV video using Adobe Flash Access. Flash Access is integrated with AIR for TV for a content protection solution with support of a broad range of business models, including electronic sell-through, pay-per-view, subscriptions or rentals, just to name a few. Support for Adobe AIR for TV with Flash Access on STMicroelectronics chipsets allows device manufacturers and content providers to rely on a secure, flexible and scalable solution for content distribution and monetization across many devices.
  • Another interesting announcement from CES is for UltraViolet, a new system that will allow consumers to purchase digital content and watch it wherever and whenever they want. People who purchase UltraViolet entertainment can watch film and TV content across multiple branded platforms, such as computers, connected TVs, game consoles, smartphones and tablets. UltraViolet came about from a consortium of companies as part of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), which includes Adobe and dozens of other companies such as Akamai, Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Dell, Fox, HP, Intel, LG Electronics, Lionsgate, Microsoft, Motorola, NBC Universal, Netflix, Nokia, Panasonic, Paramount Pictures, Philips, RIAA, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Technicolor, Toshiba and VeriSign.

Be sure to check back after CES as we hope to provide some on-the-floor demos of the Flash Platform in action!

The Flash Platform Top 10 for 2010

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Wow on you 2010! It’s the end of a decade that I liked to call the “oughts” (although I think I was the only one…) and an impressive year for the Flash Platform. There was some adversity to overcome, sure, but there were many more successes, innovations and milestones; all those things you can look back on and say, “cool – THAT happened.” So I’m happy to take the mantle of penning/typing the Top 10 List post for 2010, and provide a (relatively) swift look back at some of the most important Flash Platform advancements.

(I should note before jumping in that this is my own list in my own order, and the order is like a Letterman Top 10: most of these could be anywhere in the list and the #1 listing could maybe be #2 or 3 on yours. So, feel free to leave a comment if you think I left something out. And even better, feel free to provide your own list – such as… “The Top 10 things you created with the Flash Platform in 2010 that you couldn’t have done in 2009.” Make sure to send links to sites and apps so everyone can check em out and we can promote with Flash Rocks, a program we’ll be building out more strongly in 2011.)

(Oh and thanks for the feedback on what to include here. I think I got most of it…)

On to the show:

#10 – Mobile/multiscreen Development with Flex and Flash Builder
“There’s going to be wholesale reversal to start thinking of mobile devices first, not as an adjunct or secondary,…If you’re designing content–applications, video, web pages–you’ve got to starting thinking about mobile.” So said Kevin Lynch in a MAX 2008 interview with CNET. And this year it went full force with the preview releases of Flex SDK “Hero” and Flash Builder “Burrito” so developers can begin mobile application development with Flex. The goal? Help reduce the time and cost associated with development and testing while providing users with great apps for tablets smartphones et al. You can get Burrito and Hero on labs. Read more here and watch more here.

#9 – Introduction of InMarket
So now that you’re creating mobile apps, how do you get them in the different mobile markets? With Adobe InMarket, you’ll use one centralized portal to publish and manage your apps in multiple stores. Using it yet? It’s free to get started.

#8 – MAX 2010 – Giveaways and More Giveaways and Demos and More Demos
Of course so much happened at MAX 2010 I could probably have just made it the entire top 10 list, but two of the greatest things from MAX (like in life) were free: the Droid 2 and Google TV giveaways for attendees. We teamed up with Motorola and Google to get developers and designers to start making great content.

Watch when Moto took the stage to announce their giveaway:

Watch Kevin Lynch demo Google TV on stage at MAX.

MAX also hosted the first live demo of the RIM Playbook, which has AIR all over it.

And the Device Bar at MAX had even more gadgets to show off:

#7 – Flash Access 2.0
Are you providing premium content as a stream or download to a browser or app? Check out Flash Access 2.0, which can be used on its own, e.g. to protect content delivered over progressive download, or in combination with other video distribution technologies such as Flash Media Server or HTTP Dynamic Streaming. With support for subscriptions or rentals, Flash Access can create new opportunities for developers and media companies, such as new revenue sources, and it’s good for your customers who can get access to great video content that otherwise wouldn’t be available online. Learn more about how you would use Flash Access.

#6 – Open Source Media Framework 1.0
Want to create a video player with customized playback controls, that keeps the look and feel of your app design? OSMF is free and lets you assemble, rather than code, new player functionality. Gives you more time to focus on custom features and overall UI and UE. Go to OSMF.org to get more info, docs, forums and tutorials.

#5 – Partnership with Amazon: Use Flash Media Server on Amazon Web Services – Pay as You Go
In order to fulfill one of the most requested features by developers and business who use Amazon Web Services and Flash Media Server – Adobe is now partnering with Amazon to lower the entry barrier for developers and companies who want to leverage the full feature set of the Adobe Flash Platform, including all the communication and streaming functionality enabled by Flash Media Server. You can use Flash Media Server on Amazon Web Services without purchasing hardware, network infrastructure, or a full license of Flash Media Server.
This is for you if:

  • You work for a business that needs to maximize delivery capacity while minimizing network and licensing costs
  • You work for a school or other educational institution that wants to create virtual classrooms or broadcast live interactive experiences
  • You work for a government agency that needs to implement real-time communication or interactive training
  • You simply want a low-cost way to evaluate and deploy Flash Media Server.

All you need to know to get started is here.

#4 – AIR for TV
When AIR 2.5 came out, we announced support for smartphones and tablets based on Android OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, and iOS; desktops running Win, Mac and Linux – and TVs, with Samsung as the first television manufacturer to ship Adobe AIR in its line of Samsung SmartTV devices. AIR for TV, to me at least, is pretty intriguing. I’m hoping it means that I’ll be able to watch a football game at home, with my buddies who are in front of their own TVs, and maybe we can text each other about the game in real time, on our screens, with the game on the screen. Perfect for fantasy football razzing! And if Pizza Hut makes their AIR app available, then I can order food without having to leave the couch or game. I like. Can’t miss a minute, you know.

2011 is going to be an interesting year as the web and TVs start to converge. Got some ideas for good TV apps? Start learning about how to make them by watching Don Woodward’s MAX 2010 session.

#3 – 3D “Molehill” APIs for Flash Player
AT MAX 2010 we showed 3D functionality for Flash Player in the form of the “Molehill” API’s. Boy did that get a lot of attention – and we were simply showing what could be done, it’s not broadly available. So why the interest? These will be a new set of low-level, GPU-accelerated 3D APIs to give advanced 3D and 3D engine developers the flexibility to leverage GPU hardware acceleration. Today, Flash Player 10.1, renders thousands of non z-buffered triangles at approximately 30 Hz. With the new 3D APIs, developers can expect hundreds of thousands of z-buffered triangles to be rendered at HD resolution in full screen at around 60 Hz. The 3D capabilities enabled by the new APIs will also be available to the broader developer community through popular ActionScript 3D frameworks, such as Alternativa3D, Away3d, Flare3D, Sophie3D or Yogurt3D. Visit Tony Lukasavage’s blog to see some pretty awesome demos, including what we showed at MAX. So when is it all coming? Developer beta program expected first half of 2011.

#2 – FP 10.2 beta – Stage Video preview
CPU/battery power/Flash Player sure is a popular topic. Flash Player 10.2 (in beta from Adobe Labs) might help squelch performance issues for users watching video in Flash Player. FP 10.2 introduced “Stage Video,” a new method for video playback so developers can leverage complete hardware acceleration of the video rendering pipeline. Stage Video can dramatically decrease processor usage and enables higher frame rates, reduced memory usage, and greater pixel fidelity and quality.

No better way to show it off than Tinic’s demo from MAX 2010:

#1 – Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile
Here’s why having Flash Player 10.1 on my Droid Pro is so great. I was looking up a question about how to grout my bathtub and a site I found had videos so I clicked on one and it played. Just clicked and played right there on the browser page. I watched, and listened a little and scrolled while listening to read the instrutions near the video. All happening right then and there. No need for me to leave the site for another app. For me – that’s the difference between having a phone with the internet and a phone with the “full web.”

Flash Player 10.1 was completely redesigned and optimized for mobile. It has new interaction methods with support for mobile-specific input models, support for accelerometer and Smart Zooming, to scale content to full screen mode. Built initially for desktops and laptops that have loads of battery and processing power and storage – it was no small feat getting Flash Player to work on small devices. Not to mention all the different chipsets and specs that need to work with Flash Player. No small feat at all. A truly incredible job by the Flash Player team. That’s why Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile is my #1 in 2010.

Want to know if your device supports Flash Player yet? Check here. Be sure to visit m.flash.com from your device, Adobe’s showcase site for optimized Flash content, and for more information on how to optimize Flash content for mobile, visit www.adobe.com/go/fpmobile.

Thanks for getting to the end!
Wha’d I miss?

A BIG Thank You to our Facebook Fans

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UPDATED: Two new vids from Adobe Flash Professional engineers – scroll to watch.

Wow – we’ve hit a Flash Facebook page milestone – 100,000 fans! Nice! Thank you for all the love you’ve shown us. The Flash community is one of the most supportive, creative, and cool communities out there, thanks to you. Lee Brimelow, Flash Platform evangelist, decided to share a few words of gratis in the vid below. He also talks about how Flash changed him when he was just a lad (uh..how old are you, Lee…how old is Flash again…?)





We invite you to join us in celebrating our 100k Friends of Flash on Facebook milestone by telling us your own Flash story. Show us a demo of your proudest Flash moment (project, site, game…) and tell us about how Flash has changed you and we’ll feature it on our facebook page. Simply create a video, upload it to YouTube and share the link with us. We’ll highlight it in our “Flash Fan Stories” YouTube Playlist. Or, simply post the video and/or your thoughts to your Facebook page and tag it with @Adobe Flash and we’ll find you.


Can’t wait to hear your Flash story!

Went to Max? Got a Droid 2? We Want Your Apps!

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Thanks to all of you who joined us at MAX 2010. We hope your new Droid 2 is already helping you create some amazing mobile experiences that use Flash Player and Adobe AIR because we want to expose what you’re making! Adobe and Motorola are looking for cool new Flash Player compatible web sites and AIR for Android apps that will ‘wow’ Droid users – whether they are regular folks or business types. If you have something great, it could be featured in:

  • Motorola print or TV ads
  • Adobe TV demos and success stories
  • The m.flash.com showcase
  • The Adobe Times Square billboard
  • Demos at industry events
  • SHOP4APPS by Motorola – currently available in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and China (1 million + downloads in China)

So submit your apps and sites here!

Need help getting started? Go to the Adobe Mobile and Devices Developer Center.

Important Upcoming Dates

To submit for CES (January 6-9, 2011)
Deadline: December 17

To submit for Mobile World Congress (Feb 14-17, 2011)
Deadline: January 5

An Update from Google on Flash Searchability

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Check out the post from Google’s Webmaster Central blog for a progress report on Google’s indexing of Flash content. According to Google, their work has enabled them “to index all kinds of textual content in SWF files, from Flash buttons and menus to self-contained Flash technology based websites.” Recent work by Google and Adobe adds a new library with features supported by Flash Player 10.1 and video indexing has further improved. More updates on the Google blog, and a few suggestions for designers and developers to ensure their content for Flash Player is “find-able.”

The "Device Bar" at Adobe MAX 2010

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Lots of smartphones and tablets are now supporting Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR. Diana Helander, group marketing manager for Flash Platform, demos games and other apps on devices such as Samsung’s Galaxy tablet and Galaxy S (phone), as well as the ipod Touch, HTC EVO and Incredible, and Droid X. Check it out: