HTC Hero is the first Android device to support Flash
June 26th, 2009 by scottjanousek
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Some pretty cool news yesterday. Flash has come to it’s first Android based device, the Hero from Open Screen partner HTC!
It’s a follow up to the G1, and has a multitouch HVGA screen, accelerometer support, GPS, Compass, WIFi, 5 MP camera, Android Webkit Browser, and now with Flash makes for even more rich mobile web user experience.
Check out the device here!
Adobe has a good a press release which explains all the details. They also have a really good video where the Adobe Platform team explains some of the features of the Flash implementation on the HTC Hero device.
According to Mark’s post, it’s possible to view up to 85% of online video through the Flash Player, steam audio (latest Flash Lite 3.1 supports streaming audio capabilities), as well as support for around 80% of Flash content on the web today through the device’s web browser.
On this device, double clicking Flash content (games, ads, etc) brings it fullscreen mode, which seems to work very intuitively:
Demo of Flash on the HTC Hero (an Android device)
What version of Flash is this? Well, right now it’s Flash Lite 3.1 according to Adobe. However, there have been prior public announcements that Flash 10 is coming to Android (by as soon as end of this year), as well as other mention of SmartPhone platforms (webOS, Windows Mobile, & Symbian for starters) down the road.
According to Mark, the HTC Hero has Adobe Distributable Player. I’m thinking they (HTC) may upgrade the device at some point later (whether that means Flash Lite 3.x or Flash Player 10 is anyone’s guess).
Here is some commentary from Adobe:
Here is some interesting comments from the community I’ve caught (sure there are others with thoughts):
With over one billion devices running Flash, and Android represents a nice (open) platform in which Flash to play.
The HTC Hero device represents the new mobile (web) experiences possible (and people are expecting!) and I think we’ll see much more in the future … as the “SmartPhone Wars” continue into 2010 and beyond.
Where’s Apple? Well, I think it’ll be a while still, but at least we’re seeing compeition … don’t believe me? Have people seen the Pre? The user experience is tight, and webOS is pretty darn sweet.
Apple may have the lead, we’ll see if the tortoises can really beat the hare in the next year or so.
Welcome to Web 3.0! Mobile Web!