Flash Player 10.2 Arrives For Android

Darryl K. Taft,

Flash 10.2 is designed to deliver a full browsing experience to Android tablets and smartphone, according to Adobe

Adobe Systems has announced that Flash Player 10.2 is now available for download on Android Market.

As of 18 March, Flash 10.2 is available for Android 2.2 (Froyo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread) devices and as an initial beta release for Android 3.0.1+ (Honeycomb) tablets that include Google’s system update (from 3.0 to 3.0.1), Adobe said.

In a blog post on the Flash 10.2 availability for Android, Adobe Flash Player Team blogger Antonio Flores, said the beta of Flash Player 10.2 for Android 3.0.1+ brings a full web browsing experience, including video, games and other interactive content, to the latest Android tablets.

Optimisation

“We have been working very closely with Google through the development of this beta to ensure tight integration and optimisation between Flash Player 10.2 and new OS and browser capabilities, Flores said.

According to Flores, improvements in this release include:

  • Performance enhancements to take advantage of new hardware in both Android 3.0.1+ tablets, as well as existing hardware in many Android 2.2 and 2.3 devices
  • Tight integration with the new Android 3.0.1+ browser to treat Flash content as part of the web page instead of as a separate “overlay.” This results in improved scrolling of web pages and the ability to display pages in the way intended by the page designer, including new support for compositing HTML and other web content over Flash Player rendered content.
  • Automatic soft keyboard support to simplify text entry for rich mobile and multi-screen experiences

Flores said Adobe also is working to optimise the interaction between Flash Player and new browser capabilities prior to releasing a production general availability (GA) version of Flash Player 10.2 for Android 3.x in the coming weeks, “at which point we intend to enable hardware acceleration and Stage Video support in the production GA release”. The optimisations are aimed at delivering a better embeddable in-browser experience.

Flores said users can check to see if their device is certified for Flash Player 10.2 by going to: http://www.adobe.com/go/cd1.

Adobe also said this new release includes a security update to address a Flash Player vulnerability announced on 14 March.