Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

N900 is about to launch with it's new Maemo5 operating system. A lot has been talked about if it will have enough cool apps to be interesting enough for the mass market. In my opinion there is plenty "out of the box" and ready apps already. I would say that 95% of the apps that I will use are already available (Browser, mail, contacts+phone, calendar, RSS, notes, mediaplayer, maps - that's about 80% of my daily usage). But the public needs numbers.

I have understood, that the browser will have a full Flash supoprt. ie. it will run all (or at least almost all) the flash content in web pages. This doesn't mean only youtube and vimeo videos or animated ads. This means also games and other small applications. (Can they be run in full screen and saved on the device for offline use :confused:)

I haven't been following the progress in other models (been so busy with the N900 ;)), but I am under the expression that this is not a common feature in pocket-size devices. Should this be something to shout about? "When you get the N900, you will get thousands of Flash games - For free". And the same goes also for all the web applications, like google docs.

Meaby the maemo marketing team has had this in mind when they have sayed "full computer like web browser in your pocket". Then showing how youtube runs on web pages (sometimes slaggy, sometimes not). "So? I have a youtube app to do that on my phone" - says Joe Average.

The real possibilities of this devices browser is something I realised only a few days ago - and I have been focused on the N900 for a month! (And would not consider me as a stupid person :rolleyes:) Should there be some examples of playing advaned flash content (games etc) and advanced web pages (ajax/javascript based applications) on the device? THAT would be IMHO the WOW effect that the puplic is still waiting for. Something that hasn't been possible before.

Re: Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

I think that's a great angle to take.

One issue is that this won't really be a unique advantage that Maemo has over the competition for very long (i.e., when flash 10.1 is release for Windows Mobile 6.5 and Android), although it may be fair to argue that the N900 has the hardware to run these flash apps better then many other phones on the market.

I also think that it would be great if someone wrote an app/browser extension that made it dreadfully easy to find and save flash content for offline gaming. Being the first system to market with an easy way to play your favorite flash games offline would be a good unique selling point. I know it wouldn't be trivial to make this work with all flash content, but even something basic to begin with that could say save this - http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/castle - locally would be good. Even better would be integrating youtube ripping functions.

This might start running afoul of copyright (I don't think so because generally you're just moving something from temporary internet files to permanent files, but programmers should tread lightly/consider adding a disclaimer). More advanced stuff like google docs might require google's help (i.e., google gears) to get offline access, but I think making it easy to get offline access to flash content would be superb.

Re: Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

Please - don't support extensive use of flash content on maemo.. Developers are trying to push qt, linux core, opengl, common GUI - yet with flash, you get to use none of these features.. The only thing you get is nasty cpu usage, ok-today-i-feel-funny-so-let's-make-red-on-blue-with-octagonal-buttons user interfaces and maybe a on-desktop youtube video player (which still is like 20x slower than regular mplayer, only adobe knows why)..

Flash games - these could be ok... On the other hand, on PC I had opportunity to try a few flash apps (image editors, text editors etc.) - and these were all so incredibly lazy and non-standard looking, oh dear... And you had to have an internet access, of course...

The same thing with web widgets usage - why do you want full grown OS underneath - when you end up only using web browser, which slows down things a lot - no matter how optimized the javascript engine is...?

Why do you need Maemo, when you only want flash and web content? Maemo is operating system, not a web browser.... Think about it...

Re: Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

I really don't think that ANY of the Maemo developers would EVER consider developing in Flash. But there are already thousands of Flash developers and programs outside the maemo community - why should not take the advantage of them?

It's quite probable that within a year this feature will be more common (even on iPhone ;)) But N900 will be in the hands of the first-wave users in about a two weeks. If their friends asks "Is there any games for that", it would be nice if every one of them says "Yes, thousands of them". Rather than "Yes, there is this Bounce game and chess". Most of them are silly and useless - but so is the fart app.

Maybe a web page to collect useful and N900 -friendly (= well written) flash and web -apps? There might be a good site for this already, though?

Re: Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

Minor comment - my daughter really likes my N900 because it supports shockwave games, like on miniclip.com. In a way, the N900 does fufill this part of the 'full internet.'

Re: Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

:confused: there is no Shockwave for Linux/x86, let alone Linux/ARM... Adobe Shockwave system requirements

Re: Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

Google Docs don't use Flash.

Google's web applications use Google Web Toolkit: that means they write the applications in Java which is then compiled into javascript so the target browser requires nothing but a good javascript engine.

As for Flash support: it's a mixed blessing. Yes you can play games, but you'll also get more annoying banner ads that take no account of the small screen format.

Re: Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

dunno, but there is a Flash Shockwave plugin in the browser ... and I just tried it again, and it works (a bit slowly).

Re: Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

I know that i made me a lot of enemies when i started my
Flash project nearly two years ago but Kalle's interest in here
shows it once again: you can not deny Flash !

I remember back in the mid 90s when everyone was arguing
about all this animation/video thing on website called Flash
and nowadays the internet would not be the same without it.
That IMHO.

Kalle, just in case that you are curious check out my project
at http://www.mojocafe.net

Greetings,
Carlos

Re: Flash Apps = Apps for the N900
 

I know google docs does not use Flash. I was talking about Flash AND rich web content (ajax/javascript).