Flash not coming to Ice Cream Sandwich--Yet

[nsane.forums]

Although Flash has been a staple on Android, don't expect to find it in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) just yet.

Speaking to Slashgear over the weekend, Google said that Ice Cream Sandwich will not come with Flash preinstalled nor will the platform be available in Android Market. The issue, Google told Slashgear, is that Adobe has yet to update its application to make it function properly on the new operating system.

Currently, Adobe's Flash Player only works with Android versions 2.2 to 3.2, according to its Android Market listing.

That should change soon, though. Speaking to Pocket-Lint today, Adobe told the site that Ice Cream Sandwich support is coming by the end of 2011. Future versions of Android, however, will not get Flash, the company told Pocket-Lint.

Ice Cream Sandwich is the latest version of Google's Android platform. The operating system comes with a refreshed design and a host of improvements. In a review of the operating system earlier this month, CNET's Jessica Dolcourt said that Ice Cream Sandwich succeeds "in moving Google forward, and reaffirming its staying power as a mobile OS." The operating system is making its debut on the Galaxy Nexus, and will come to a host of other smartphones in the coming months.

But whether or not Flash's addition to Ice Cream Sandwich will really matter over time remains to be seen. After all, earlier this month, Adobe announced that it was abandoning its mobile Flash player to focus its efforts on helping HTML5 become the standard on smartphones and tablets.

"HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively," Adobe said in a statement announcing its decision. "This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms."

Neither Adobe nor Google immediately responded to CNET's request for comment on when Flash will be coming to Ice Cream Sandwich.

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[visualbuffs]

Flash will be coming to Ice Cream Sandwich

Despite the claims that Flash was dead or was in its final death throes, it seems that the much-maligned program will be making its return on Android 4.0. Information given to Pocket-Lint by Adobe themselves suggests Flash will be remaining with Android.

Adobe also admitted that this would be the last release of Flash on Android, meaning that Flash as a mobile application is gone. This news should no doubt please many people who are considering buying the Galaxy Nexus handset, which is the flagship phone running Android 4.0.

Adobe themselves have said they will be reorganizing their efforts to pursue their goals as a company and this means that Flash must be discontinued for mobile devices, though the company will still release periodic updates to address security flaws. Adobe then went on to say that they will develop their AIR framework further. For those unaware, AIR is the framework that some applications run on. Perhaps the best known of these applications is the TweetDeck Twitter client, though other examples exist.

Adobe even discussed their views on the future of the Flash Player as a whole. These views were summarized by the company as follows:

"Of course, with the growth and continued improved browser support of HTML5, the role of Flash will change. For the foreseeable future, Flash offers advantages in delivering premium video with content protection, as well as providing a high performance, feature-rich and graphically advanced gaming platform. We are focusing our Flash Player efforts around these areas."

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[DKT27]

Threads merged. ;)