Well, here's something of a surprise. In addition to demonstrating Flash running on phones like the Nexus One and Palm Pre at the now-happening Web 2.0 Expo, Adobe also has a prototype
Android tablet of some sort on hand that, according to
Zedomax, runs Flash and Air apps "flawlessly." Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any details at all on the tablet itself, and judging from the looks of things, it is a prototype in the truest sense of the word (check out the other shot after the break). It does seem to deliver the goods when it comes to Air and Flash, however, with it able to run Wired's Air-based magazine app and play YouTube videos without so much as a hiccup, although we'd definitely like to see it in a few more taxing situations. See for yourself in a pair of all too brief videos after the break.
Update: looks like that "flawless" Flash performance is all thanks to
Tegra 2, as we've been informed by NVIDIA just now. Here's the statement:
"It is indeed Tegra 2. We worked closely with Adobe to show how next-gen Tegra can bring the complete web to tablets at Web 2.0.
You can expect to start seeing Tegra 2 devices appearing this summer, with plenty on the way in the third and fourth quarters of the year."
posted May 4th 2010 8:44PM
about time
@Twoleaf
Yeah it seems pretty smooth for embedded video!
@Twoleaf the best part of this is that i just watched a video of HTML failing massively on the iPad...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfmbZkqORX4
cant tell if this guy is SERIOUSLY in support of HTML5 and the ipad but after watching it i cant imagine he is
@SteveyAyo
Lol, my 4 year old windows mobile phone renders 3d images better than that. That is uberfail.
@SteveyAyo
The "almighty" Steve still thinks HTML5 is the future, and that you should use that instead of flash. *snicker*
@DoctarPeppar yeah it was a pretty epic display of the ipads shortcomings in the form of a fan video trying to promote it
@Twoleaf I think they were rushing it before. I don't know how 95% of the stuff on a computer works, but I know when something was just banged out in two weeks just so they could say they had it.
@SteveyAyo Its not a shortcoming for the iPad, its a shortcoming of web apps not designed for touch. It would have been more useful if he tried HTML5 video, but whatever.
@SteveyAyo Nice Try. You can write crappy software in any language/platform. Take it from an old programmer. Have you seen Quake being played using HTML 5? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhMN0wlITLk Try again.
@Matt l Seems to me that a device that claims that claims you dont need Flash because HTML5 is the best would fail if HTML5 lagged to hell and back on it and ran like flash 1... also that website he kept picking his links from was designed specifically for the ipad so it seems to me like the touch input of the iPad interferes with its usability with HTML5
@JojoMojo and yet that doesnt run on the iPad...
@SteveyAyo HTML5 is about as mature as hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.
In theory, it should work, but in practice it is clearly an immature future technology that results in a horrific user experience at present.
@JojoMojo also it requires chromium which the iPad doesnt in any way support so you sir may try again... im fine with my original correctness
@SteveyAyo
Youre going to think im making this up, but when I tried watching that flash video in youtube it started playing the sound in the left ear from the video embedded in the engadget article(which wasn't running at the time), and in the right ear it played sound from the link you posted, but the video in the link was frozen.
HTML 5 might not be ready to take over yet, but I am definitely ready for Flash to die.
@SteveyAyo Of course many of these HTML5 demos weren't done with touch input in mind, but this does pretty much destroys one of Steve's points about why Flash is bad - that it uses mouse as input method. Obviously that problem is not unique to flash.
HTML5 Who?
@JojoMojo I too am an old programmer. The reason HTML 5 will always be inferior to Flash and Silverlight for many tasks is because it is a standard that must be interpreted across a multitude of devices by a multitude of browser and device developers. Just like all prior versions of HTML and XHTML. It is why web development is so incredibly painful. It is why companies write rich applications in Flash and Silverlight in the first place. A single company controls the experience across every browser on every platform. If it is broken, they kick one ass and get it fixed. Whose ass do you kick if Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Safari all implement an HTML proposed video or canvas tag according to the proposal but slightly differently? There's no ass. Or more correctly, there are WAY too many asses.
Yes, perhaps HTML 5's video might make Flash unnecessary for most web video. But believe me, RIAs--that's rich internet applications if you're too old a programmer ;)--will likely always require a single target. Games as well.
There are so many that believe HTML 5 is the savior. I REALLY don't think a one of them is a web developer. Or at least not an old...err...experienced one.
@SteveyAyo Most likely an Adobe/google fanroid. This is ridiculous
@SteveyAyo lol heres a video of the nexus one owning the ipad
@DrDr I would absolutely believe you if you are using a mac on safari... but not everything works perfect all of the time, i myself have never experienced a crash due to flash on my pc but i know someone who has once... Flash is damn good and AIR is a huge step forward for cross platform gaming and i CANNOT wait
@SteveyAyo
Lol, that iPad HTML5 demo can go right on the failblog.
You have to have a dark humor like this guy to really enjoy it. I love his comment in the end.... "I hope you liked it." lol
@furquanatique
If your lucky you'll be able to use that tablet for about 2 hours tops with running flash. Until some battery specs are released I am not impressed.
@ddddd pitiful
flash, meet unity 3d
http://unity3d.com/
http://unity3d.com/gallery/live-demos/tropical-paradise
http://unity3d.com/gallery/live-demos/shadows
Bow before your 3-d master Flash
@Twoleaf So fuc£in' run 'FarmVille' if it runs Flash... Show us what everyone thinks they'll be getting
@SteveyAyo Did you even see the link? It is running on safari ... on OS X. Try again.
@PaulY You may be surprised.... I agree with you completely. The point I was simply trying to make earlier is that it is possible to write crappy software using any tool. And yes... even with HTML 5. If you can run Quake II inside a browser with an acceptable frame rate (hats off to the guys who did it)... you can do a lot of things. That being said... perhaps it is not mature yet. It will get there one day and we need to fasten this process.
@Twoleaf
Yup. We've needed a device that runs Flash smoothly for a while because there simply aren't any... apart from every PC that isn't a Mac that is.
@SteveyAyo That video was indeed very funny. In fairness though, Steve Jobs never said that HTML5 was to replace Flash for *games*. Obviously, anyone can make apps that break on a tablet, regardless of the tools used to make them. For example: the "chain reaction" game relies on hovering, which is simply not possible on a tablet like the iPad.
@Michel Jansen
but its extremely stupid, if you go around criticising a company and calling it utter shit, then say everyone should use something else, the something else should be better, html5 is in no way better.
theres another video showing steve jobs' favoured html5 cpu usage (on a mbp no less) versus flash, it was something like physics based stuff, it hogs up a TONNE of cpu for a barely even basic application, whereas the guy went onto a 3d flash thing where you could interact with high detail cubes throwing them about, and it used the same CPU.
its madness, html5 runs badly on even his own creations, yet he still claims it runs better than the heathen flash?
ill stick to flash thanks :)
@PaulY So why have a web at all? Just make the browser a Flash player and nothing else. Then it would be super easy for you to make content and it wouldn't be "so incredibly painful."
@PaulY
You hit the nail on the head my man. Video I could give a shit about. Interactive vector animation, I need that. And Flash owns that environment right now. And from my opinion of using it for years(since Flash5) is that it's one of if not the best, simple to learn GUI driven development environments I've used. I think Steve Jobs is paranoid of Adobe's control of the web. My take is this:
There will soon be a "internet police" established. Yeah scary. Anyway seriously, Apple's take is there needs to be one standard best standard. And he thinks Adobe's not it. Well guess what skinny old man. The Flash footprint is sick. Sick. Flash is supported to a very good degree among almost all operating systems in the world. If you're using a keyboard/monitor/mouse computing device there's a very high change(I'd say 95%) that Flash is supported.
The magic Flash developers can create in Flash developer is so cool. Developers love this environment. So maybe the current state of Flash should be tweaked a bit. Why shitcan the whole ecosystem.
But I am not saying I can not be sold on some alternative to "Flash". But it better include interactive vector animation to the likes of it's predecessor and the ease of use to create it for an audience as large as it is today.
Apple: Suck it
@Twoleaf Whenever we see flash on a tablet. a lot of us, goes on a berserk of excitement. The question is, is it because there's really flash in it.. or only because we just like it, because Apple doesn't want to put it in its iDevice? Well anyway, hopefully this one won't end up like the courier.
Waiting for the slate. http://j.mp/hp-slate-first-concepts
Who's it from?
@Charbax
Love your site, but it hasn't been updated in a while though.
not impressed
@buzski I'm really not impressed, either. Flash really isn't a big deal.
@s2m0 it is when you think of all the amazing free games and web experiences you are missing out on without it...
@buzski
Just think of it this way. When Android gets flash, the day it does, it will have more games then the app store.
And EVERYONE is impressed with the app store.
Hows THAT?
@buzski
I'm not impressed either...how about you get a 3rd party manufacturer to do this Adobe.
Why should anyone expect any different from the makers of Flash?
Bottom line is that you know your product is shit when you have to work so hard JUST to get it to run decently...
@TheRogueFFAngel um... companies always work hard to get their products to work, not to mention it works flawlessly on stable OS'... just apparently not on second tier operating systems like OSx... i mean Flash is amazing and AIR will make the app store a moot point
@Kamil R I don't understand your comparison to the app store, has nothing to do with my comment. It's just taken a while in order for flash to come to fruition on a tablet, hence me not being impressed considering the time it's taken.
@buzski well your comment isnt important anymore as its been downranked into oblivion... so the rest of thus started up a new thread beneath your failing
@Kamil R Whats everyones fascination with shitty flash games. Just because there are a million out there doesn't mean they are good. At least with the App store your getting games developed for the UI and not run behind some shit program that drains the he'll out of your battery.
By the size of that tablet it tells me they had to have some beefy hardware to run it.
@jsbaugh doesnt the app store have like 100 fart apps? and there are a lot of amazing flash games on the internet for free, our fascination is on free high quality games; some flash games are in fact crap but same goes for the iFart Store
@jsbaugh In the same way that there are some pretty sweet games on the App Store, there are some really nicely done games that run on Flash. You have to be really narrow-minded to believe otherwise. Try 3D Logic 2, an awesome 3D puzzle game:
http://www.microgames.info/logic-stronghold-sage-p-860.html
@saposmak not to mention that the majority of iPhone games i personally had on my iPhone were just dumbed down versions of amazing flash games; PVZ?
@Kamil R
yes, and 90% of those games will be virtually unplayable on any android phone because they are made for mouse interaction and do not respond well with touch-based input or make use of other cellphone hardware features...
Have fun with those games.
@SteveyAyo 100 out of 200,000. Won't most flash apps need to be rewritten for touch OS given the lack of mouseover etc. That would suggest that there will be no giant stock of flash games for non-iPhone OSs even if flash does work well.
@capnbob66 200,000 apps on the app store and about 100 worth having... not to mention most of those 100 are wildly overpriced. I do believe that rewriting flash apps is relatively easy to do and wouldnt be difficult to implement for touchscreens... i guess well find out soon sir