A Blog From Behind the Trenches

Great Idea
I haven't seen a mobile browser which can support flash on Mobile phones !

As far as I know (didn't try it yet) my Nokia N79 (a Series 60 handset) has Flash Lite 3.x

I'll test if flash works...

Flash Lite is maybe available already (for all S60 phones). Full Adobe Flash 10.1 probably coming in 2010:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/10/06/adobe-flash-player-10-1-for-mobile-devices-and-smart-phones/

Originally posted by haavard:

Hades32: It would be great if you could give it a try. However, I fear that it might be a plugin created specifically for the built-in browser, and that it has been made different on purpose to prevent other browsers from using it.

You seem to be right
The flash test page only works with the built in browser...

Great post

The java Nokia 5300 music express does Flash screensavers & wallpapers within the phone..so the power is there, maybe, if opera ever want to capitalise on it. Same with animations, sounds & vibrate...work o.k. in games..

I probably will not surprise anyone if I say that many of my friends just love to show some new cool clips while drinking beer at pub. Almost everyone of them tried Opera Mini or Opera Mobile previously, but now they use other mobile browser or use some application for watching video, and I fully understand why... BTW, I know couple of people that changed their phones just to have ability to watch Youtube clips (silly, I know).

Unfortunately we will not see OGG video (that can be played w/o plugins) on major sites such as Youtube, Rutube or Vimeo for couple more years (if ever they will provide such support until all major browser vendors are agree on something).

So, seems that this is the only way for now. And I hope Opera also stop play politics here and provide goods for the end users.

Some browser vendors even managed so add Silverlight support, all for compatibility with current web and greater user experience.

Summary: video is an important part on the web nowadays, and video on the web is mostly Flash currently, so it should be supported if browser vendor wants to attract new users and not lost current ones.

Disclaimer: as a web designer/developer I'm all against proprietary technologies like Flash and Silverlight, and would never use them in my projects (except video currently).

Did not know Microsoft would allow some one else to have silverlight support before them

Originally posted by FataL:

I'm all against proprietary technologies like Flash and Silverlight

I would also prefer a non plug-in based video code (save the end user a lot of trouble)

Most people don't under stand the difference between a plug-in and a browser (I would say most think it is part of the browser)

It has to do with the Flash being a plugin, and that plugin apparently not being available.

I understand the problem with missed plug-in. Adobe just can't release plug-in for every platform. Same as you guys can't release browser written in native code for each platform and phone. You understood this early and created perfect solution for this problem -- Opera Mini, which renders almost everything (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) on server. So, why not to do this with other technologies like Flash? And it's proven as doable...
Also all this perfectly applies to Opera Mobile with Turbo technology...

I think it's wrong to expect all these things on a free 'low end phone' browser.
Maybe there could be a 'pay for' mini that might address all these problems. €3 or 4 via phone credit would make more sense for good video or high end trix.
=o)

Of course it would be inside it or support by different way.It is really necessary on mobile browsing.For example,even if I am hard fan opera ,sometimes just for this I have to open different mobile browsers to see flash content...

Hi gang, this is Jeff from Skyfire. Came across this thread. I am personally a big fan of Opera Mini for phones where you can't get Skyfire (and this thread is correct, Skyfire's server-assisted browser currently can't extent to very low end feature phones. That's an Opera strength.).

A few people here have cited that they can't find a browser that supports Full Flash 10.1 for Symbian or WindowsMobile. I just wanted to correct the statement that none exists. Skyfire handles them, and I encourage them to give it a try. It's free at Skyfire.com. In full disclosure, I work at Skyfire, and don't want to intrude on the Opera discussion. But there were a few factual mis-statements we felt bound to correct.

As to how can Skyfire afford to transcode all Silverlight and Flash and WindowsMedia and RealPlayer video in real time, that's the key to all the R&D we've done for a few years. We have it down to a hyper-efficient level of a few dimes a year per user. And thanks to search and ad rev share, the business makes sense. Especially as mobile advertising grows over the next few years and matures in scope.

Since this thread, Opera Mobile has added Flash Lite support. But we're under the impression that the architecture of Opera Mini, since pages are transcoded entirely into OBML for compression, does not currently allow any plug-ins. Opera should correct the industry impression if that's incorrect. It's their decision, but the tremendous speed of Opera Mini (only matched by skyfire) is its calling card, and we imagine Opera doesn't want to re-do the architecture and risk that. Skyfire has a different, more Citrix-like approach, so comes at it differently.

Originally posted by JGlueck:

As to how can Skyfire afford to transcode all Silverlight and Flash and WindowsMedia and RealPlayer video in real time, that's the key to all the R&D we've done for a few years. We have it down to a hyper-efficient level of a few dimes a year per user.

That sort of makes sense. After all, Skyfire doesn't really show video. It's more like a slideshow. A low-fps series of low quality images.

Originally posted by JGlueck:

the tremendous speed of Opera Mini (only matched by skyfire)

What makes you think Skyfire's speed matches Opera Mini? It clearly doesn't.

I have flash lite 3 on E71, but it works only with the native browser. Flash 10.1 has been recently released for android, let's hope they make a version available for s60v3 9.1 also.