Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen, said Tuesday that Adobe has officially started development of a Flash player suitable for use on Apple’s iPhone and hopes to finish development by June.
Narayen made the comments during a conference call with investors, explaining that Apple’s recent release of an iPhone software developers kit (SDK) has afforded his company the necessary tools to finally begin work an iPhone version of Flash Player.
“We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone,” he said. “We have evaluated (the software developer tools) and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves.”
Adobe hopes to deliver their missing product via Apple’s new App Store, set to open in June alongside the release of iPhone software version 2.0.
So much for Jobs’ comments about the iPhone not being able to support Flash because of a limitation with the Flash player. It seems ridiculous that Apple’s position is a limitation in the Flash Player given that the Flash Player works perfectly on the Nokia 810, countless other portable devices, the Skyfire browser, Pocket IE, and Opera Mobile 9.5. I am very happy to hear about Adobe’s new position on the issue.
Source: Apple Insider, Wall Street Journal
Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s iPhone software development capabilities.
584 Flash Capable Windows Mobile Devices in World’s Largest PDA Database
I stumbled across the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest PDA Database,” and as soon as I did I thought, “I can finally get a tally of how many Windows Mobile 2002, 2003 or 5.0 devices are on the market!” In total I found 584 devices. Unfortunately, however, there is no data on the penetration of these devices.
Why is this important? Adobe offers installers for Flash Lite 2.1 for Windows Mobile 5.0, Flash Player 7 for Pocket PC 2003, and the Flash Player 6 for Windows Mobile 2002. Although this does not have the mass market appeal of Verizon Wireless, it is certainly notable.
Flash is pre-installed on:
- 70 Nokia Phones (includes N96)
- 58 Sony Ericsson Phones
- 13 BREW Phones
- 6 Sony CLIE PDAs
- All NTT Docomo handsets
- All KDDI handsets
Flash can be installed on:
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Phone Edition (166)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Premium Edition (52)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Professional Edition (10)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone (61)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition (25)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Premium Edition (54)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Professional Edition (6)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone (11)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Phone Edition (57)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Premium Edition (41)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Professional Edition (4)
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Smartphone (35)
- Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition (20)
- Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Premium Edition (33)
- Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Professional Edition (2)
- Microsoft Smartphone 2002 (7)
Note from Adobe.com:
Note: This version of Flash Player is for the individual use of developers of Pocket PC devices. For more information about Adobe’s Flash Player distribution policy read the FAQ.
When you download the free player, it is provided “as-is”—which means that Adobe will support it only for Windows Mobile 5 and Pocket PC 2003 OS devices through available online resources on our website. If you experience any problems for non-certified devices, you should discuss them with other developers in various forums.
The World’s Largest Handheld Database
First let me preface this by saying that this trick currently is only support by Flash Player. Flash Lite does not support PNG-8 files with alpha made with Fireworks (Note that it may be a handset issue and not a Flash Lite issue). If you want to petition for this feature, feel free to comment and I will pass the “signatures” along.
I understand that you can create a PNG-8 image file with alpha transparency using Adobe Photoshop. However, those files are far more inferior than a PNG-8 image that is created using Fireworks. I will demonstrate why a Photoshop PNG-8 lags behind a Fireworks PNG-8 in the follow paragraphs.
First off, PNG-24 looks better than anything else, but the filesizes are much larger than any other format. The ideal goal would be to create a PNG-8 with alpha that looks like a PNG-24—Fireworks comes close. Both Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks allow you to save a PNG-8 file with alpha, however, a Fireworks PNG-8 lets you combine color data with alpha much like a PNG-24.
To get a clearer understanding of what I mean, create a file with Adobe Photoshop and set the background to transparent. Next, create a new layer—fill it with content—then blur it to death. You will have created pixel data that has both color and alpha transparency. Use the “Save For Web” dialog and notice the differences between the PNG-24 and the PNG-8. The PNG-8 will be much smaller, but look much worse than the PNG-24. Click the image to see a larger version—it shows what I mean.
Next, take that PNG-24 and import it into Fireworks. In the “Optimize” panel, match the settings that I used and select File >> Export. You will be exporting a 256 color, PNG-8 with alpha transparency (you may not even need all 256 colors).
Finally, review the different options for image files that use transparency. As you can see, the PNG-8 created with Fireworks looks almost exactly the same as the Photoshop PNG-24, however, it is less than 1/3 the file size. This method of creating PNG-8 files with alpha will benifit any Web designer that creates Flash Web sites or banners.
