Flash - Ah - Adobe Will Save Ev'ry One Of Us

[Rocco Augusto]

http://www.mobilitysite.com/2007/02...y_one_of_us.php

"Barely a day goes by on Aximsite or Mobilitysite or anyothersite for that matter without someone asking about playing flash videos on their pda/smartphone.. and up until now the answer has been 'err... umm... well the thing is ... well if you er.. um sort of convert...er'. Well those threads are nearly over now due to adobes big announcement at 3GSM. 'Support for video will be integrated in the next generation of Adobe® Flash Lite™ software, Adobe’s award-winning Flash® Player runtime specifically designed for mobile phones. Flash Lite 3, expected to be available in the first half of 2007, will bring the Adobe Flash Player video format from the desktop to mobile phones and devices, enabling operators, handset manufacturers and developers alike to deliver more compelling and engaging experiences to mobile users.'"

I think I'm the only person on the planet who dislikes Flash as well as Flash video as much as I do. Personally I think Flash is the most overrated piece of Internet technology on the face of the planet, especially when it comes to video. I think my main complaint with Flash video is that a majority of it looks like crud, while better technologies (at least in my opinion) like Divx Web Player go completely unnoticed. I blame this new fad of subpar quality videos on YouTube.com and the Blindfolded Pianist .
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Smartphone Thoughts
Contributing Editor

[SteveHoward999]

The sub-par quality is down to the sub-par source and over-compression of output.

Flash video *can* be great. But the stuff you see on YouTube etc is normally amateur movies in the first place.

When Flash Video is used for multimedia purposes, not home movies, it has features and functionality like few other tools out there - dynamic drop shadows are just the start (yeah I know you don't care ) ...

Where I am most interested in Flash Video on devices, though, is professionally. I've been building multimedia-based educational content for close to 10 years. Video is one of many tools in my arsenal that can be used to create effective training. Up to now it has been difficult to create training that includes video which can be delivered to multiple target devices - PC, Mac, PocketPC, Symbian phone. This announcement makes it possible to do that, without worrying about converting movies to .mov, mpg, DivX, wmv, 3pg etc etc so that it can play on the various devices.

Of course, most of the world just wants to see YouTube when they are on the bus or in Starbucks