Apply For A Flash Lite Licence?


Flash did just enought to simplify the mess embedded players (Windows Media and Quicktime) caused.

It's really silly that both of these other players failed to provide an effective solution to the video on a webpage situation.

What annoyed me about embedded videos back then:
  • No alternatives. You had to download an install either Quicktime or WMP (yay for vendor lock-in)
  • Many sites did everything they could to prevent downloading the video file for offline viewing
  • Very little options to control bandwidth usage, resuming broken video download (horrible with dial-up disconnects :( )
Flash (and youtube like sites) doesn't really fare better. Why must the link to download be hidden? Why isn't there an option to replace Flash for an alternative embedded player (without having to hack the web page with plugins/javascript)? How can I stop/continue/control the downloading of the video?

IMO, the current video on website solutions could use lot of improvement.
 
N900 has the same CPU - is Linux based - and according to:
http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/specifications/
it has Adobe 9.4 flash support...

So... I may be dense, but why wouldn't that same version of Adobe ARM flash work on the Pandora?
 
Grench said:
N900 has the same CPU - is Linux based - and according to:
http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/specifications/
it has Adobe 9.4 flash support...

So... I may be dense, but why wouldn't that same version of Adobe ARM flash work on the Pandora?
Click to expand...
Because things aren't always so black and white. Their flash player may have a bunch of stuff preventing it from running on anything other than a n900.
Also, Nokia licensed flash support, so taking the plugin and using it on the Pandora might be considered illegal.
 
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Prometheus said:
I may not be Flash's biggest fan (I'm largely indifferent to it, in fact), but I certainly don't miss the dark old days up to 2004-ish, where I would frequently encounter Windows Media video and/or audio files embedded on the web, with no option to view these files in any other format (I'm not a Windows user, nor was I at that time). Flash becoming more used for that sort of thing seemed like a godsend to me at the time, and a damn sight more convenient. :p
Click to expand...

^
This.

The flash devs are not shortsighted. They just have commercial interests.

Grench said:
So... I may be dense, but why wouldn't that same version of Adobe ARM flash work on the Pandora?
Click to expand...

Costs money.
 
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The reality is that if Flash 10 for mobile devices were available for free, people would use it. My skepticism is about whether Adobe will actually get on the ball with Flash 10 for ARM/Linux in any reasonable time frame. In principle it would be best for Adobe's proprietary formats if there were universal playback or consumption, so to speak. But the arguments against Flash for mobile devices (like the iPhone) always seem to focus on the fact that Flash is a complete mess and isn't worth dealing with. So while Adobe intends to make Flash 10 compatibility widely available (whatever that means), if they're going to get held up on anything, it seems like it will probably be ARM/Linux.

In the end, I think it's a self-correcting problem. If Adobe doesn't get Flash out there in a big way on mobile devices including ARM/Linux, then it probably will continue to lose out to other video file formats.

I've often wondered what would happen if we just asked Nokia for access to some of their N900 software. Nokia is actively in need of and in pursuit of a software development community for their open source OS. It seems like the N900 (and the Internet Tablet) and Pandora, as well as Beagle board, have parts of the same community actively engaged in working on them. Maybe there are ways for these interests to come together in some practical way.
 
cobaltage said:
[..]My skepticism is about whether Adobe will actually get on the ball with Flash 10 for ARM/Linux in any reasonable time frame.[..]
Click to expand...
That depends on what you mean by 'get on the ball'. Technically they're on schedule, Flash 10 was demoed by Adobe on a Nokia N900 earlier this year (and on lots of other ARM-based devices too). N900 is Linux/OMAP3 as you know. However, "technically" isn't everything of course.. managers at Adobe would also have to "get on the ball". And if they will still require licensing from non-x86 platforms is of course the real question.

EDIT: I thought we were in 2010 already..
 
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You may say anything about flash and html5 and all but we live now and in the real world where flash can be used and html5 can't. I would love to see html5 take off as I'm a webdeveloper by profession but it aint gonna happen anytime soon. Flash will be free of any licensing costs as of v10.1 so that problem is no more. Flash lite is discontinued as v10.1 will replace it. If the pandora team would join the openscreen project they would get help developing it for pandora. Don't know if they qualify for membership but it's worth a try. I would love Flash on Pandora. To be able to use the web fully would be great
 
Bagera said:
Flash will be free of any licensing costs as of v10.1 so that problem is no more.
Click to expand...
Free of licensing costs, but still not open source. In other words, you'll still have to make your own flash player, you just won't have to pay Adobe for the privilege. Adobe has opened up the specifications for flash, but they're borderline useless. There's nothing in the specs that the Gnash folks hadn't figured out on their own already. It's going to be a while (if ever) before there is a fully functional flash player that could be ported to the Pandora. It may be possible to take one from another ARM Linux platform (like the N900), but that isn't free software, so we can't exactly condone it.
 
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Chip said:
Bagera said:
Flash will be free of any licensing costs as of v10.1 so that problem is no more.
Click to expand...
Free of licensing costs, but still not open source. In other words, you'll still have to make your own flash player, you just won't have to pay Adobe for the privilege. Adobe has opened up the specifications for flash, but they're borderline useless. There's nothing in the specs that the Gnash folks hadn't figured out on their own already. It's going to be a while (if ever) before there is a fully functional flash player that could be ported to the Pandora. It may be possible to take one from another ARM Linux platform (like the N900), but that isn't free software, so we can't exactly condone it.
Click to expand...
But nothing stops anyone from making such a file available on The Pirate Bay or somewhere else.
As long as there are no links to it...
 
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Please excuse me, it is tired late, I am tired. Why do I only know notice that one would actually require a license for a flashlight... :lol:
 
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