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cdnronin
2007-07-18, 21:35
I am another new 770 user. When I use the Opera browser for some websites, I get an error message saying I need to install a Flash player for the web page content. I used my Appz Manager but couldn't find a repository for a Flash player.

How does one go about installing it?
aflegg
2007-07-18, 21:46
It's built-in. If it doesn't work on a given site, the likelihood is that it requires a later version of Flash.
cdnronin
2007-07-18, 22:16
I take it then that I can not upgrade o a new version of flash?
Milhouse
2007-07-18, 22:18
Or the web site is badly developed and isn't detecting Flash very well.

Flash 7 comes as standard with your 770, but some sites may require Flash 8 or Flash 9 (neither of which is available for the 770).
jrock2004
2007-07-19, 01:38
little off subject but why cant it be upgraded? I thought flash what open source. I could be wrong.
phi
2007-07-19, 01:56
um, actually, i think its only flash 6 the 770s since 7 had some support for video and 6 didn't.
tom61
2007-07-19, 02:29
It can be upgraded, but you have to install OS2007HE (The 'Hacker Edition' that brings the OS2007 from the N800 to the 770), which is not an easy task it seems and poses the risk of 'bricking' your 770. The current OS2007HE will add Flash 7. If you're patient, there might be a next OS2007HE, which could support Flash 9. I need to try it myself, as I'm getting tired of all the sites it can't browse due to only having Flash 6 as well.

Macromedia Flash is in no way open source. The Flash player in the 770 is licensed from Macromedia and paid for by Nokia. However, there is a reverse-engineering effort called Gnash that is making progress in running Flash content, that is open source.
phi
2007-07-19, 02:35
from my understanding, even the current hacker edition doesn't
give you the newer flash, its still 6, nor is the browser updated.
Traecer
2007-07-19, 02:37
little off subject but why cant
it be upgraded? I thought flash what open source. I
could be wrong.

No, neither Opera nor the Flash plugin are open
source. Flash does have some published specs, the player code itself is proprietary (originally owned by Macromedia, now by Adobe).
Milhouse
2007-07-19, 04:34
Sorry for the duff information, it's Flash 6 in the 770. The N800 started out with Flash 7, then got upgraded to Flash 9 in the latest firmware.

Correct, Flash is very much closed source. There is an open source project to reverse engineer Flash Player but it's nowhere near ready for prime time.

Unfortunately, the licence Nokia have with Adobe prevents any newer version of Flash being distributed on the 770 device. Apparently Nokia signed device specific licences with Adobe. And the same applies to Opera. Well, that's the story anyway, so no newer versions of Flash or Opera for 770.

OS 2007HE retained the same Flash and Opera versions from OS 2006, as luckily they both still work in OS 2007HE without any modification which would be impossible as Nokia don't have the source code etc. And due to the unofficial nature of OS 2007HE it would be very unlikely that Adobe and Opera would respin their code to ensure compatability with an unsupported firmware.
jrock2004
2007-07-19, 11:47
So what happens to you go to download flash does it error? I do not have my 770 yet so that is why I am asking. Does it detect what device is trying to download flash and fail it?
Slakker
2007-07-19, 14:01
The problem is that there are no versions of flash past 7 compatible with the OS...so there's no way to install it.
TA-t3
2007-07-20, 10:18
Also note that a lot of sites use more or less broken javascript snippets to detect what flash version you use, often they fail to detect that you're actually flash capable at all, simply because you're not using IE or (at best) 'Netscape' on Windows. Even sites which detect flash correctly on FireFox on Linux may fail to detect that your other browser should work equally well. We discussed one such site in another thread some days ago.
ace7196
2007-07-24, 22:46
So I've been doing some research here, but I'm not all that caught up with the 770 quite yet...
So here are a few questions.
Is there anyway I access the directory to "toss" in the plugin for flash 9 beta so that Opera can utilize it?
Can I install a different browser to use?
Can I use gnash in any way (I believe it is at SWF8.5 now, so that's a little better than 6).
If plug-ins are available for debian, does that mean they will work on maemo?

So far I am using orb to encode on the fly, but I'd like some support built-in.

Lastly, since I feel I have used so much from the open source community, where I can learn to write my own programs (specially for the nokia 770), and what language do I use?

Thanks for your time, Ryan
jlomein
2007-08-20, 08:24
Also note that a lot of sites use more or less broken javascript snippets to detect what flash version you use, often they fail to detect that you're actually flash capable at all, simply because you're not using IE or (at best) 'Netscape' on Windows. Even sites which detect flash correctly on FireFox on Linux may fail to detect that your other browser should work equally well. We discussed one such site in another thread some days ago.


If this is the case, couldn't you use the Opera browser's "Change Agent" settings to make it pretend to be IE/Firefox?