Adobe is testing optimized Flash beta for the MacBook AirToday Engadget sat down with Adobe's Shantanu Narayen and asked him what the MacBooks Air's increased battery life -- sans Flash installed -- meant for the future of Flash in the wake of HTML5. Narayen kinda dodged the question with this stay-on-message answer: "When we have access to hardware acceleration, we've proven that Flash has equal or better performance on every platform," but then went on to say that Adobe is currently testing a beta version of Flash specifically designed for the MacBook Air.
When Apple introduced the new MacBook Air news quickly spread when it was discovered they company had left Adobe's Flash off the system. You could still run Flash on the Air alright -- you just had to download and install it yourself. Apple said they left Flash off the Air so users would be sure to download the latest version. After the new MacBook Airs dropped however, Ars Technica ran some tests and discovered that having Flash on the MacBook Air could reduce its battery run time by as much as a third which led me to speculate that the real reason Apple left Flash off the Air is so they could advertise higher real-world wireless usage battery numbers. Shortly after that, Adobe's CTO said the reduced battery time would be the same if the Air was running web pages with HTML5 video.
With today's acknowledgment from Narayen, it's nice to see that Adobe is still trying to make Flash a contender, but really it seems like Flash doesn't have much of a future given virtually every major tech company has decided to throw their support behind HTML5.Adobe is testing optimized Flash beta for the MacBook Air originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/11/16/adobe-is-testing-optimized-flash-beta-for-the-macbook-air/
