Google and Adobe bringing improved Flash Player support in Chrome
There’s been lot of buzz in the blogs about this over the last 24 hours. Now, the news is official: Google and Adobe are bringing improved Flash Player support in Chrome.
Paul Betlem: Today, Google is releasing the initial integration of Flash Player with Chrome in their developer channel (behind a command line flag). Moving forward, Google will be including Flash Player in Chrome so users will always have the most current release and a safer and more seamless experience. The robust integration between Chrome and Flash Player will serve as a showcase for more consistent, seamless, and efficient Web browsing experiences. We feel that this significant effort by both Google and Adobe will directly improve the speed of innovation and move the Web forward, benefiting the entire community of developers and end-users.
Adobe is also working with Google, Mozilla and the broader community on a new plugin integration API that will be OS- and browser-neutral and thus maximize consistency across platforms. The new API will also provide performance benefits as the browser will be able to directly share more information about its current state and also provide a more secure browsing experience.
For more information, check out the Chromium Blog and Paul Betlem’s blog post on the Flash Player team blog.
To enable the internal Flash Player on OS X, download and install the Chrome developer channel version. Then open up Terminal and type: “open -a Google\ Chrome –args –enable-internal-flash”
CERN using Flash to visualize the end of the world
CERN is currently conducting another Large Hadron Collider experiment. While I have no idea what all this means, it is cool that you can be part of this historic event from the comfort of your home/office.
CERN has 5 different live streams (using Flash Video) so you can see all the different control centers that are involved in this experiment. (I noticed some hiccups in the live stream but I am guessing that a lot of people are currently watching the stream…)
If you really want to geek out, you can even see the live data streaming in.
CERN uses a lot of Flash internally. I remember meeting one of the CERN developers on the On AIR tour. I remember him showing some of the applications he was working on. Amazing stuff… And this live dashboard is another great example!
Speaking at DroidCon: First Android mobile conference in Belgium
As most of you know, I switched to a Google Nexus One about 7 weeks ago. (Hmm… That reminds me… I really should finish that blog post I’m writing so you can get an idea how I get on with the N1 coming from 3 years of using Apple’s phone). I absolutely love that the Android platform is an open platform where developers can really use every single API and build any type of application without anyone breathing down their necks. I love that Android devices are soon going to get Flash Player 10.1 and even AIR for standalone applications. That will enable me to build applications without having to learn anything new. And I love that Android is not just about mobile phones.
I am really excited to be speaking at DroidCon, the first ever Android mobile conference in Belgium, next Friday in Brussels. The speaker lineup is really impressive and offers a great variety of topics. With speakers from Google, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, all mobile telco’s in Belgium and application developers this should be a very interesting day.
I will be talking about Flash Player 10.1 and AIR2 coming to Android devices but I realize that the message is a lot stronger when you see it. So I’ll also be showing Flash Player 10.1 in action on my Nexus One and AIR2 on the Motorola Droid.
Tickets are still available on http://www.droidcon.be. Hope to see you there!
How would you improve Adobe AIR and the Flash Platform?
The release of AIR2 is just around the corner and it has a ton of new (community-requested) features. When we first released AIR a lot of people asked if it was possible to launch and communicate with native processes. We also heard requests for things like better printing support, USB volume detection and multi-touch. Despite the fact that it may not alway be very obvious and that we can’t add every single feature request to a next release, we do listen. The same thing goes for all the Flash Platform tools and runtimes.
To make it easier for you to get your ideas to us we launched a new site. Adobe Ideas allows you to submit ideas on how to improve the Flash Platform as well as vote and comment on existing ideas from others in the community.
I already voted for my favorites and have some ideas lined up to post. What are your favorites?
Update: I just posted 2 simple ideas that I’d love to see in a future version of AIR.
- First of all I’d like to see us add modal windows that require the user’s interaction before continuing with the app.
Click to vote. - I’d also love the ability to add icons to the menu bar on OSX.
Click to vote.
The power of the Flash Platform: Audiotool
Andre Michelle and Joa Ebert have inspired and amazed me many times. The things they do with Flash are unbelievable. The new version (completely rewritten from the ground up) of their Audiotool is absolutely amazing and a must see. They built an entire electronic music studio with the Flash Platform. I cannot think of a better way to demonstrate the power of the Flash Platform than to point you to http://www.audiotool.com
Aah man… This is going to keep me busy for hours and hours and hours!
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