Flash & Core Animation on Mac OS X

Flash Player engineers have been working closely with Apple to improve Flash Player performance on OS X, to the point where Flash Player 10.1 (now available for testing) will run faster on Macs than on Windows.

Now Flash engineer Tinic Uro has provided some interesting info on Flash & Core Animation, highlighting some of the bottlenecks that the teams are now overcoming. It's techie but readable, and it portends good things for the future.

Posted by John Nack at 2:43 PM on February 11, 2010

Source : http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/02/flash_core_animation_on_mac_os_x.html

Flash development for Sony PSP™

The Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP™) is a leading handheld game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment. A Flash-enabled device that supports Flash Player 6, the PSP™ enables consumers to play games, browse the web, watch movies, listen to music and more. Since its launch in Japan in December 2004, Sony has shipped more than 15 million PSP’s™ worldwide, establishing its position as a new handheld entertainment platform around the world. Sony PSPs are available globally to consumers and can be purchased online or through retailers.
Flash Player availability for Sony PSP™

To get the Flash Player 6 installed on your Sony PSP, you must have the Sony PSP ROM update version 2.70 or later. The Flash Player 6 is enabled only through the web browser so in order to view SWF files they can be either embedded in HTML pages (just like desktop web pages) or just viewed as standalone SWFS by specifying the target file path in the web browser.
Getting the Flash Player installed on Sony PSP™

1. Download and install the latest ROM update for the Sony PSP™ (version 2.70 or later).
2. Follow the install instructions.
3. Once it’s installed you will need to manually enable the Flash Player via the settings options.
4. Read Designing and Developing Flash Games for the PSP

Viewing SWF files on the Sony PSP™

1. Create a folder on the root of your memory stick called “Flash”.
2. Transfer any SWF files to the “Flash” folder.
3. Open up the web browser on your Sony PSP™ and in the address bar type in: file:/flash/filename.swf
4. Note: you can create subfolders under the “Flash” folder to store SWF files.

Technical information
Flash Player version

(6,0,72,27)
Supported input and output

* Mouse: Analog stick and the Enter button work as one-button mouse.
Pointer movement, click and drag & drop features are supported.
* Keyboard: The directional keys work as the up, down, left, right cursor keys of a keyboard.
* Character Input: Supports character input in the text boxes using the on-screen keyboard.
* Font: Supports device font. The applicable scope of the font size and style are same as the Internet Browser.
* Sound: Supports PCM, ADPCM and MP3 audio/sound playback for the speaker and headphone.

Unsupported features

* Clipboard: Text copy, cut and paste features are not supported.
* Video: The playback of video data such as H.263, Sorenson Video or Motion JPEG is not supported.
* Context menu: Context menu display, control or the features that are normally included in them are not supported.
* Printing: Print out feature is not supported.
* Live Connect: The communication feature between JavaScript and Flash Player plug-ins is not supported.
* FCS/FMS (Flash Communication Server and Flash Media Server): A connection to FCS/FMS, or features that requires it are not supported.
* XMLSocket: Continuous connection and communication with the server using the XMLSocket feature is not supported.
* Transparent background display: Displaying the background in transparent by specifying the wmode to “transparent” is not supported.

Known issues

* Frame rate between 18-24 fps, depending on type of content.
* Large size Flash contents cannot be played. The size of the content in a page should be within 1.5 MB approximately.
* The timing for external file loading may be different from PCs. Load completion must be confirmed.
* The device font has 5 sizes, same as the Internet Browser. The layout used for PCs may not be available.
* The mouseout event may not occur when the pointer gets out of the content if objects are arranged on the edge of the content field.
* Restrictions when deep nesting occurs with ActionScript are different from PCs.

Source : http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/psp.html

Open Bug Base (Jira) + Flash Player = Happy Customer

Posted by : Brooks

A couple of months ago I ran into a pretty nasty bug with Flash Player 10. Turns out when using everybody’s favorite browser, IE, and playing back an MPEG4-AVC (h.264) file it was extremely easy to crash IE completely when seeking within the first couple of keyframes. I gnashed my teeth, dropped multiple f-bombs and threw 2 birds in the direction of San Francisco. Then, I hopped online, posted a bug report in the open Flash Player bug base and implemented a hack workaround.

Fast forward 2 months, a new version of Flash Player 10 gets pushed and I’m cruising the Flash Player release notes, because, you know, that’s what an ultra cool nerd like me does on a Tuesday night. What do I find? That’s right, Tinic and friends fixed that nasty little bug that had me cursing their mothers and sticking voodoo needles in a Chumby. Great Scott, Batman–this open bugbase stuff actually works. Congrats FP team, if you lived close I’d show you some serious man-love and buy you a midwest beer (you know the 22oz kind).

Source: http://www.brooksandrus.com/blog/2009/02/24/open-bug-base-jira-flash-player-happy-customer/

How to install Adobe PDF Reader with Plug-in for Mozilla Firefox in Feisty Fawn

Adobe Acrobat was the first software to support Adobe Systems’ Portable Document Format (PDF). It is a family of software, some commercial and some free of charge. The Adobe Acrobat Reader program (now just called Adobe Reader) is available as a no-charge download from Adobe’s web site, and allows the viewing and printing of PDF files. It is a major component of the Adobe Engagement Platform, and is widely used as a way to present information with a fixed layout similar to a paper publication.

Several other PDF-editing programs allow some minimal editing and adding of features to documents, and come with other
modules including a printer driver to create PDF files.

In Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Acrobat Reder is not in Main Repositories because of licensing issues so you need to install using one of the following methods

Using medibuntu Repository

Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu) is a repository of packages that cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons (copyright, license, patent, etc).

Add gpg key using the following command

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Edit sources.list with new repo data

sudo wget http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Update the source list using the following command

sudo apt-get update

Install acrobat reader with firefox plugin in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install acroread mozilla-acroread acroread-plugins

This will complete the installation

If you want top open acrobat reader go to Applications -> Office -> Adobe Reader

Using Edgy Repository

Edit the sources.list file

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

Add this line at the end of sources.list

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy-security restricted main multiverse universe

Update the source list using the following command

sudo apt-get update

Install acrobat reader with firefox plugin in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install acroread mozilla-acroread acroread-plugins

If you want top open acrobat reader go to Applications -> Office -> Adobe Reader

Using Automatix2

Automatix is a graphical interface for automating the installation of the most commonly requested applications in Debian based Linux operating systems.

If you want to check how to install automatix2 in feisty check here

Source: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-install-adobe-pdf-reader-with-plug-in-for-mozilla-firefox-in-feisty-fawn.html

Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 first public betas

We just released the first public betas for the two client runtimes: Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2. You can grab them from here and here.

The cool thing about this release is that there are versions available for all three operating systems Win, Mac OS, and Linux (openSUSE, Fedora, and Ubuntu) right from the beginning.

For now Flash Player 10.1 is available only for x86-based computers/netbooks. Later on we will have other releases with support for mobile.

Here you can see public demos and interviews for Flash Player 10.1. You can learn more about features like hardware video decoding, graphics acceleration, instance management, multi-touch support, or microphone access.

You can install sample applications for AIR 2 from here. Here is a list with the new AIR 2 features:

• Support for the detection of mass storage devices.
• Advanced networking capabilities like secure sockets, UDP support, and the ability to listen on sockets.
• Support for native code integration.
• The ability to open a file with its default application.
• Multi-touch and gesture support.
• New APIs for access to raw microphone data.
• Webkit update with HTML5/CSS3 support.
• Global error handling.
• Improved cross-platform printing
• Improved security and support for enterprise and government standards.

You can read more about this here and here.

If you have feedback, please don’t be shy

Source: http://corlan.org/2009/11/17/flash-player-10-1-and-air-2-0-first-public-betas/

Free Flash Player Download 10 (BETA Version)

This is a developer prerelease version of the Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 software for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. It is being made available for developers to test their content to ensure new features function as expected, existing content plays back correctly, and there are no compatibility issues. Consumers can try the beta release of Flash Player 10.1 to preview hardware acceleration of video on supported Windows PCs and x86-based netbooks. The Flash Player 10.1 prerelease is available in all supported languages; however, the prerelease installers are only in English and we can only accept feedback in English at this time. Release versions of Flash Player are available from the Flash Player Download Center on Adobe.com.

Source : http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html

Flash Player 7 and 10.1 for Mobile, Smartphone Devices

Flash Player for Mobiles enables us to play Flash movies, Games in all our Windows Mobile, Pcket PC devices. We can download the free Flash Player 7 for Pocket PC today to start experiencing rich Flash content, application and Mobile services right from our pocket.

Flash Player for Mobiles enables us to play Flash Movies and Games in our Pocket PC devices in full screen mode and in landscape mode too, and it is supported WM2003. As well as VGA and Square screen Aware. Windows Mobile 5 and 6 are compatible and we can zoom upto 100% to 150%.

No standalone player functionality provided with this Flash Player 7 installtion and we can be able to use Pocket IE to view Flash content embedded in webpages. My friend asked me about Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile devices and Smartphones. A new version of Flash which supports and delivers full Flash Player experience to Mobile devices, Smartphones, Pocket Pcs, Notebooks, and Desktop Computers. Flash Player 10.1 includes multiple screen orientations and supports Hardware graphics acceleration for H.264 video on chipsets including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and NVIDIA GeForce, ION, and Tegra, and support for multi-touch gestures and accelerometers where present.

Flash Player 10.1 for Mobiles has been implimented and built-in will likely be available for mass market puchase in the first half of 2010. Flash Player 10.1 for Google Android and Symbian are palning to release in early 2010. To run Flash, system requirement for mobile devices require at least a 500-MHz ARM11 processor, with minimum of Windows Mobile OS version 6.5, or Android OS version 2.0

Source : http://grabii.blogspot.com/2010/01/flash-player-for-mobile.html