Mobile Flash - All it's cracked up to be or a damp squib?

Oscar_The_Grouch

I've just read the following article (clicky) regarding testing of Mobile Flash Player for Android, which I found quite interesting, if a bit harsh on Adobe. Then again, you don't get people reading your article if you are nice to everyone!!

Now I don't have an Android phone, so this isn't something I can test. Perhaps others can confirm whether:

1. the plug-in does cause problems, or
2. it's more like the "death grip" issue and doesn't actually affect the day to day use of the phone for most users.

To be honest, I'm expecting the results to show that this is just another sensationalisation (if that's actually a word) of something that most people don't care about.

nickmack

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

Now I don't have an Android phone, so this isn't something I can test. Perhaps others can confirm whether:

1. the plug-in does cause problems, or
2. it's more like the "death grip" issue and doesn't actually affect the day to day use of the phone for most users.

In my limited testing with a Desire, it seems smooth enough on the Sony trailers and BBC iPlayer. I'll do some more playing later with 4OD and some other TV sites and see how it fares.

Snakeeyes21

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYV_XIfXLpQ

ampletime

Worked fine for me using tvcatchup, BBC News and a few others.

I think many inc those at Apple HQ will hope it doesn't work but then at least there is the choice to use it or not which Apple have decided for those with an iphone or ipod.

The so called death grip did cause some people problems and i doubt that Flash will. It will be a welcomed addition to the phone and do what it is meant to do, to let people watch what they once couldn't.

mitchec1

Works great on sites like skysports, bbc, bbc iplayer, formula 1, nasa, national geographic to name a few.

I've played a few flash games without a problem

Biglad_3

Flash works brilliantly on my Desire as I have it setup to view full websites and not be redirected to mobile versions. If you go to iplayer or the bbc news audio/video page with all the thumbnails it is worth seeing how much Flash is worth it.

Snakeeyes21, I tried to reproduce that fault and it does not impact my phone at all.

bubblesmoney

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

I've just read the following article (clicky) regarding testing of Mobile Flash Player for Android, which I found quite interesting, if a bit harsh on Adobe. Then again, you don't get people reading your article if you are nice to everyone!!

Now I don't have an Android phone, so this isn't something I can test. Perhaps others can confirm whether:

1. the plug-in does cause problems, or
2. it's more like the "death grip" issue and doesn't actually affect the day to day use of the phone for most users.

To be honest, I'm expecting the results to show that this is just another sensationalisation (if that's actually a word) of something that most people don't care about.

its not the plug in, the plug in is fine ....
the reasons for the problems are many (from a laypersons point of view as i understand it. please bear in mind i am not a techie)

• multitasking
• limited memory on phones
• there are different limits placed by the system on android for RAM memory usage for different purposes. so loads of multitasking will breach those limits and cause issues sometimes especially if loads of stuff runs and some will be culled by the system automatically. my RAM is usually 60% utilised even when i am not doing anything as i have loads of stuff running all the time, so when i do stuff it is used more. my CPU though runs at 998MHz almost 25-30% of the time and 65% of the time at 245Mhz or there abouts and rest in between. so the system is well tuned on froyo i think.
• type of RAM used on phones are a slower version as far as i am aware
• peoples expectations about having a moped and expecting to have the same performance of a 1000cc bike
• website streaming issues
• network problems
• user issues
• handset issues
• application issues

i tried all the websites mentioned in the article you linked, both from my mobile in regular browser mode (with mobile mode disabled) and also mobile mode enabled, both with flash enabled always (rather than on demand) and also tried the same websites and games on my laptop (3gb RAM, multimedia HD 720p laptop) both devices working on the same wifi connection.

i also tried youtube app and streamed video game demos and other videos with no problems at all. beebplayer plays fine too. HQ quality videos on youtube stream fine over 3g and also wifi. all tech websites that i regularly read like techradar, pocketnow, pocketlint, xda, etc etc all load fine. bbc website is fine too.

it does slow down a bit on some flash heavy websites like pocket now and techradar (sometimes) due to loads of flash based adverts and other stuff all over the page loading and changing constantly. but even them it loads them fine, just a slight noticable lag compared to flash lite used on htc sense 2.1. the website loads a bit faster when flash is disabled but those flash videos cant be seen. also when set to flash on demand mode then it loads a bit faster as well. but for true laptop like experience flash needs to be on all the time but does eat into data and also load speed because more things need loading. pretty obvious reasons i think. but it still does them reasonably.

also due to the limited RAM on phones and also them being of a slower type than used in most modern laptops, there might be some issues too. obviously GPU and CPU performance between phones and laptops is vastly different and there is bound to be some lag. thats why i gave the moped example above. the lag is not that noticable anyway and even when noticable is not great. this obviously depends on your data download speeds. some networks are SHIIIIIITE at download speeds, see the ping times and download speeds thread to which i had contributed. the speeds are vastly different among networks in the uk and also in the usa. in general the usa networks seem to have slower speeds (i cant comment about 4g networks as coverage is very limited at present).

the blood red game that the chap is reffering to on the link, i tried that too on my laptop and my mobile. the game is pathetic even on the laptop and the controls are poor even on the laptop and there is a bit of lag even on the laptop with 3gb RAM and with a decent video card in and i made higher scores on my phone!!!!! the controls are optimised for use with a mouse rather than a touch screen or a trackpad. i used the trackpad on the laptop (as i dont have a touchscreen laptop yet, although probably 'might' consider tegra 2 dual core touchscreen tablet which are due to be released soon though). it is sad to see a tech website make basic errors in analysing tech issues like on that link. bloody comparing a mouse optimised game not working properly on a touchscreen phone. next the author of that article will be cribbing his xbox360 of PS3 game doesnt work properly on his phone.

also note on those videos that loads of times during those videos he has on that website, during his testing loads of times his emails etc are popping and alerts are coming frequently. so he has not shut down his other apps which are also hogging the bandwidth which will be another reason for lag if loads of apps are accessing the net at the same time. he was getting frequent email alerts. his signal strength was fluctuating around one bar. he didnt always have a hsdpa connection if you see the icons. some initial froyo versions had some issues. he was using a droid i think that was known to have a few issues and got some frequent updates to sort them out. his browser settings were not shown. for all you know he could have had the facebook / twitter / emails / weather / etc etc apps all accessing the net at the same times as the website rendering which will obviously cause lag issues. i dont know how many others were sharing that wifi connection he was using sometimes. apart from the wifi, one doesnt know the speedtest results for his landline and also for his 3g/4g connection. so lot of unknowns and not exactly a proper test for them to be moaning on a techie website of all things. bloody doing tests like some numpty off the street and claiming to be a tech website. there wasnt even a control netbook rendering the same webpages / games as controls. i did use my laptop as a control on all the websites and games mentioned on that link i think.

regarding the fox.com website, i couldnt load the videos on my phone or my laptop and got the same errors on both devices so it could be a buggy website.

google earth is much better on my htc desire with stock 2.2 froyo on 3g connection on three network than on my laptop or other laptops that i have used.

havent yet had much problems with any videos on youtube on the youtube app and on the browser on mobile version and also tried the browser after disabling the mobile version and seeing the desktop version of youtube on my phone too. occassionally there have been lags but that happens sometimes on laptops as well. i dont use task killers. i have 2 separate email accounst continuously on pushemail.

i have 58 widgets/apps (i can have more widgets because i use the multicon app where i can have 4 icons in the place of 1 icon) loaded on my home screens plus the the power control widget bar and also htc sense widget bar for clock and weather, plus favourites contacts page notebook widget etc, live wallpapers running all the time. plus about 117 apps/icons on my app/program tray i think or there abouts. i didnt kill any of the tasks while i was checking out the links mentioned in that article or playing that flash game or videos on youtube etc. i have 2-3 different signal trackers running all the time as am trying to map my own coverage maps for the areas in use the phone. one of these apps runs every 3mins. plus synching on for gmail, weather, finance, some 600 articles of RSS feeds daily, weather and world time set for some 12 locations around the world. etc etc and i dont have lag issues or only occassionally. all this on a device that fits my shirt pocket easily.

ps: after all that type of use today. i fully charged and disconnected the phone at about 7am today and while driving during the day probably charged the phone for about 20mins in my car and probably for another 15mins in the evening (although am not sure if i did that today evening) and even now i have 84% of battery charge left!!!! thats after working in poor signal areas today. phone 'uptime' of 14h15mins with 'awake time' of 3h25mins with about 25% of the time without signal in the afternoon and probably a similar amount during the morning so my phone would have spent more power trying to get a signal. battery life is a lot better after i calibertated the battery/power software a few times over.

yes there are issues on some websites but depends on what else your phone is doing as well. something has got to give if there is too much multitasking.

just like problems with flash there are issues with html 5 as well and there are many versions of it around or so i read and people havent exactly agreed on a uniform standard for that and the one proposed to mostly be more prevalent type of html5 on the web is promoted by google anyway and android can natively do html5 even now. by the time they actually sit and decide a uniform standard for html5 videos, all of us would have ended our contracts and probably upgraded our phones furthet anyway and hardware on phones will have moved much further by then. there was a recent article discussing issues about html5 that i read recently on one of the tech websites but dont remember where though now.

let me end my usual :D long story by saying that since i bought the desire in may, i hardly ever use the work computers for personal use now. infact have just used it on a couple of occassions in the last 3.5 months as i find using my phone is quicker and easier and less of a hassle logging in etc. even at home if my wife is using the laptop i use the phone for browsing.

the overheating issue video linked below your post by snakeyes on this thread on some desire handsets has been discussed on xda forums and i have commented on that querying whether non htc chargers (wall or car chargers) or usb cables etc can cause some issues with heating on the phones and damage the circuitry. motherboard replacements have sorted the issue on some phones but if they use the same chargers then might recur especialy when using gps etc as that causes more power uses and more heat generation as well. probably best for people to used htc approved accessories rather than use some other stuff and land into problems with overheating etc later. this is just my guess and could be a hardware fault on some handsets. but 3 handsets in a row having faulty motherboards is a bit hard to imagine unless all of them were from the same faulty batch!