Say Goodbye to Adobe Flash Player for Android
We hate long goodbyes, don't you?
You might remember, back in November, when Adobe revealed its plans to focus on Flash for the PC and mobile applications packaged with Adobe AIR. Part of this shift in focus involved the discontinuation of development of Flash Player for mobile browsers. Now it seems the end has arrived for the Flash plugin for Android.
Adobe in June announced that Flash Player was not certified for use with Android 4.1 and recommended users with devices running 4.1 uninstall the plugin. Further, the company confirmed that beginning August 15, it would use the configuration settings in the Google Play Store to limit continued access to Flash Player updates to only those devices that had Flash Player already installed.
In case you haven't had a chance to check your calendars, today is August 15. It seems Adobe is prepared to let the day pass without any formal announcement on its official Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash Player Team blog. Adobe announced the August 15 deadline shortly after Android 4.1, AKA Jelly Bean, was unveiled.
In November, Adobe pointed to the widespread support of HTML5 as the reason for Adobe's departure from the mobile market.
"[...] HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively," the company said last year. "This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms. We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers."
The comments bring back memories of Steve Jobs' crusade against Flash on iOS. When asked why the iPad didn't support Flash, Jobs called the plugin buggy, and said that 'whenever a Mac crashes, more often than not it's because of Flash.' The late CEO of Apple then said that the world was moving towards HTML5.
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HTML5? Right click, open source, and it will reveal everything.
This is a step backwards, especially when it comes to Android taking its first steps in the netbook/notebook/desktop market. Flash isn't going away for a while and it works flawless on my 16month old SGS2. Can do HD video without any lag.
If there are any out there who say good riddance: have you uninstalled Flash on your desktop/laptop? Thought not.
We'll just have to save the flash apk. I feel sorry for the average Joe who doesn't know it's possible to just side-load Flash.
HTML5? Right click, open source, and it will reveal everything.
I believe he meant the security of the codes (intellectual property). Its too easy to access the codes, and all it takes is a good enough programmer to replace all the images/sounds and call it a new game/app.
Well, afaik anyway. Not a HTML5 programmer full time.
This is a step backwards, especially when it comes to Android taking its first steps in the netbook/notebook/desktop market. Flash isn't going away for a while and it works flawless on my 16month old SGS2. Can do HD video without any lag.
If there are any out there who say good riddance: have you uninstalled Flash on your desktop/laptop? Thought not.
We'll just have to save the flash apk. I feel sorry for the average Joe who doesn't know it's possible to just side-load Flash.
Ya adobe has been at the pinnacle of security for.....HAHAHAHAHA.....em..sorry couldn't even type that with out laughing.
Android is now copying Apple yet again!
Apple realized that it was time to change, and sometimes you need to make some sacrifices and use a heavy hand to get changes done. Yes, it sucked in the beginning when iOS didn't have flash and HTML5 wasn't ready, but I believe it was Apple's decision to completely get rid of Flash on their mobile devices that has caused the world to adopt HTML5 so fast.
Regardless of your feelings for Apple, this was a *really* good thing for the web as a whole, and I can't wait until Flash is completely dead.
Open-source does not mean insecure. Quite the opposite really. Google Chrome (derived from the open source Crhromium project) has run 4 straight years without being compromised at a hacking contest. It was then compromised through the Flash plug-in.
Ubuntu is leaps and bounds more secure than any Windows operating system, especially for the typical home user. There is practically no malware written for the system.
The open source model allows for multiple programmers to look at the code, identify security flaws, and patch them faster than the proprietary model can even identify them. And as Adobe has made clear, it sometimes may not be in the best interest of a company to patch a piece of software when they can release a new version and force you to upgrade. *coughcoughCScough*
I am not sure what android is doing. this sucks for a lot of people
i love adobe flash. believe it or not, a lot of websites are still supporting flash
and i don't think everyone will convert to html5 soon.
i love how apple users quickly jumps in and credits apple for this nonsense
this is a step backward.
i see some cool new features on my cousin's google galaxy nexus with jeally bean but i don't think i will upgrade my galaxy s3 to jelly bean when the day comes
Not sure if trolling or just didn't read the article.
"I am not sure what Android is doing."
Android is not doing anything. This is Adobe's decision.
What exactly do you love about Flash?
How is moving from a closed, proprietary software that requires licensing, to an open, standardized solution a step backwards?
So, you're able to right click on youtube, and get the source for their HTML5 video player? The audio and video players are not written in pure HTML, and viewing source only shows the HTML, not the application code...
I've also seen sites that have HTML coded so that you cant actually see the Image links when viewing source (preventing you from right clicking and downloading an image, OR from viewing source, and getting the image by it's direct URL, or through wget, etc).
Honestly, Flash has a metric tonne of problems. It is extremely resource intensive, even on current 4-core, 6-core, 8-core, 10-core and 12-core systems. And you can validate this for yourself. Switch youtube over to HTML5, and bring up a video that is HTML5 compatible. Watch your system load (Task Manager on Windows, Activity Manager on Mac, Top on Linux/Unix). Then, close out the browser, re-load youtube, set it back to Flash only, then watch the exact same video. I can almost guarantee that you'll be pegging at least 1 core at 100%. Java is the same way. Yes, it will run "Everywhere", but it wont run Anywhere well...
Slower isn't better. "Open" is better than "Closed."
This is the first iteration of HTML to have video tags, performance will improve with time. Flash wasn't great when it first came out either.
With Flash, Adobe chooses which platforms to support and which not to; Adobe chooses what features exist and who to license to; Adobe chooses what to fix and when to fix it.
With HTML, you can watch those videos on anything that supports HTML, and the code is open and standardized.
Moving from Flash to HTML5 is a big move, and there are some bumps involved, but "I don't want to because I might see some performance loss," is not an acceptable excuse.
Quit being selfish and realize that moving to open standards isn't just about you, it's about the web as a whole.