Flash for Android and Android 2.2 "Froyo"

[RaZeaL]

I found this interesting article... You can read the full article here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363965,00.asp

Flash 10.1 for Android

For Android phones, Flash support will require Android 2.2 and an ARM Cortex-A8 or better processor. That means the HTC Incredible, Google Nexus One, Sprint EVO, and Motorola Droid will be the only Flash-capable phones currently on the market, if and when they get 2.2 OS upgrades.

The thing is, making Flash work is a much bigger task than just writing a player. You also have to get Flash site designers to understand mobile screen sizes and to be aware that some people will be tapping with their fingers rather than clicking-and-dragging.

Hulu and ABC.com, for instance, don't work because their owners don't want you watching them on mobile phones. No software will fix that. Other video sites, including TNT, Fox, The New York Times, the BBC, and South Park Studios all played videos well. Videos didn't have lip sync problems, but some came through with slow frame rates. Double-tapping on videos blew them up to full screen size.

Frame rates and battery life will improve as OS and hardware providers start including hardware video decoding, Murarka said. "There's a lot of additional work going on in parallel," he said. The current test version offers about three hours of video playback on a charge for the Nexus One.

Flash is about much more than video, though; it also powers interactive games, menus, and animations. Most Flash sites are optimized for mouse clicks, not finger taps. So Flash gaming was very hit or miss, because games are often very dependent on complex mouse movements that the mobile client didn't perfectly translate into finger movements. Some games with very simple interfaces worked great, such as Assembler and Fly Away Rabbit. Many others did not, such as Demolition City and Moto Rush. A full listing of Flash-enabled sites for games that are optimized for the Nexus One can be found at Adobe.

"We've certainly got tuning to do in how to emulate events that wouldn't normally be available," Murarka said. "It's also about how to develop best practices for a different type of interaction. There will be some adjustments to Web content over time."
Sites with Flash animation or navigation on their home pages generally worked pretty well. HTC's site, the site for childrens'-products manufacturer Maclaren, and Mint.com all worked on the phone. But jumping to MTV.com showed another problem. Many Web sites, when they see you're using a phone, automatically bump you to a dumbed-down WAP page (including our own pcmag.com site.) Many site designers need to get smarter to even allow phones to see their full-scale, Flash-heavy Web pages at all.
Adobe isn't stopping with Android; it's also working on Flash for Symbian, Palm WebOS, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry, Murarka said. He didn't announce dates for the other versions.

Android 2.2 "Froyo"

Android 2.2, named Froyo, is a step in the right direction for Google phones, but it's an incremental step. That said, one feature which we couldn't verify could lead to decent 3D games finally coming to Android phones. Google would not respond to any of our questions about Android 2.2.

The jump from Android 1.6 to 2.0 felt substantial. Android 2.0 added, among other things, Exchange support, a combined inbox, multiple e-mail account support, many camera additions, a better browser, and a revamped calendar. Android 2.2 is more along the lines of the jump from 2.0 to 2.1—you get a few new flashy things, but it won't blow your mind.

One subtle setting might really change things for Android users. The application manager appears to allow apps to be moved to a microSD card. At the moment, Android only lets you store apps locally in a special internal memory partition, which severely limits the size of apps - most 3D games, for instance, are just too big to fit. If 2.2 lets apps expand into storage memory, that could be a real boon for Android users.

Android 2.2 also adds tethering and mobile hotspot functions, accessible in the wireless settings. This is going to be dependent on carrier support, though, and we don't see U.S. carriers allowing this feature for free. The EVO 4G from Sprint, for example, is offering a Wi-Fi hotspot feature for $30 extra per month.

The home screen still looks about the same as 2.1, but the pop-out app tray has been replaced with an app launcher bar. There's a phone icon that launches the dialer, a grid icon that makes all of your apps appear, and a world icon that launches the stock browser. A new Android tips widget is also included;it helps new converts to Android with setting up their home screens and finding their way around the OS.

A slight improvement has been added to the Camera app. Instead of having a hidden settings menu, you have settings icons inside of the camera frame instead. This makes it a lot easier to change settings while taking pictures and see adjustments faster.
Also included in settings is a new listing titled Dock. It allows you to turn audio dock noise on or off. After you pop the phone onto a compatible dock, it allows you to change audio settings associated with the dock.

Of course, all of these new features are dependent on phones getting Android 2.2, and OS upgrades have been a big problem for Google. Android 2.1 was announced in January; the Droid got it in April, and the Droid Eris, HTC Hero, and Samsung Moment all got an upgrade during the past week. Hopefully phone owners won't have to wait four more months for the next installment.

[RaZeaL]

If you look at the last paragraph, it looks like they officially launched the Android 2.1 in the States during the past week... Could then make it's way to us soon soon

As for some of the functions of 2.2, you get on 2.1 custom Rom's. Like the option of storing apps on the SD card. You can do that with a simple patch on Vanilla or Sence even the Espresso versions support it.

So in my opinion, we wont see a big difference except for the Flash support. No biggy in my world to be honest... But lets wait and see. Maybe the developers will add something WOW to it on final release, like the proper games they refer to!!! That will be sweet

[TobyK]

I think you'll want 2.2 so that Apps in the market that require 2.2 will install. I suspect many apps will need the speed of the JIT compiler to help them along.

One thing I find surprising was that they did not mention anything about moving the built-in apps to the app market. This means that we still need firmware updates just to get new features in the gmail app, or a newer webkit engine in the browser. Very disappointed about that.

I used to chuckle a little to myself when people threw hissy fits about not getting a 2.1 upgrade for their device yet, because I knew 2.2 was coming, and now they are going to throw a hissy fit about not getting 2.2, even when they do get 2.1 :-D

[Oxycute]

"That means the HTC Incredible, Google Nexus One, Sprint EVO, and Motorola Droid will be the only Flash-capable phones currently on the market, if and when they get 2.2 OS upgrades."

I don't see the desire in the list was that on purpose, is that because the Nexus and Desire is so similar?

[eitai2001]

Desire is exactly the same internal spec as the Nexus One ... and neither Nexus One or Desire use the ARM-Cortex A8 chip, they use Qualcomm so I wonder if this article was 100% correct.