Adobe has released Flash Player 11 for Windows, Mac, and Android. While desktop computer users get new “Stage 3D” hardware accelerated 2D and 3D graphics for rendering that’s up to 1000 times faster than Flash Player 10, mobile users will have to wait a little longer for those features. Stage 3D for Android, iOS, and BlackBerry Tablet OS will be available “in an upcoming release.”

That said, Flash for Android now supports protected content, which means that you may be able to watch some DRM protected videos on a mobile device soon. The update also offers bug fixes, security updates and performance improvements, although it’s not entirely clear from the release notes which of those improvements are available for Android.

Adobe also rolled out AIR 3 today. Adobe AIR is a runtime that allows developers to use Adobe’s Flash tools to write apps which run as native apps on Android and other platforms. Adobe says there are over 10,000 mobile apps available that are based on AIR… but to be honest, I haven’t come across many high quality Android apps that require the AIR runtime to run.

That said, AIR 3 does look like a nice step forward, with support for Stage Video Hardware Acceleration on Android 3.1 and up, access to front-facing cameras, speaker controls, and support for 16-bit and 32-bit color depth.

The Skyfire web browser for iOS offers an alternative to Safari which features social sharing features and easy access to web video — even Flash video. That’s unusual, because the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad don’t actually support Adobe Flash. But Skyfire gets around that little problem by using a remote server to convert Flash into a format your device can handle and streaming it to you on the fly.

But if you’re not looking to switch web browsers just so you can watch The Daily Show on your iPhone, there’s another way. Today Skyfire released a new app called Skyfire VideoQ. It’s a standalone app that lets you watch internet video on your device. Here’s how it works with Safari or other web browsers:

1. Register your email address in the app.
2. When you’re surfing the web and find a page with a Flash video you want to watch, open the share option and email a link to the page to [email protected]
3. When you open the VideoQ app you should see a list of videos you submitted, ready for viewing on your device.

It seems like a lot of work to go through to watch the occasional video — especially since videos from some sites (such as Hulu) won’t play anyway. But I suppose it’s better than running a whole different web browser if Flash support is the only feature you’re intersted in.

On the other hand, you don’t need to use a web browser at all to use Skyfire VideoQ. The app also includes a list of hot videos as well as video channels for technology, news, sports, and more. This allows you to simply fire up the app and find interesting web videos to watch at any time.

Skyfire VideoQ is available from the App Store for $1.99.

Adobe has pushed out an updated version of Flash Player 10.2 for Google Android. The latest version is Flash Player 10.2.157.51 and it includes a few bug fixes and security enhancements for all users running Android 2.2 and up. But the biggest improvements are for users with tablets running Google Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb.

For Honeycomb, the latest version of Flash Player offers hardware accelerated video and enhanced integration with the Android web browser which should improve web page scrolling and interaction with Flash in web pages.

Adobe Flash Player for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market. You can read the release notes at Adobe.

Firefox Mobile has been getting better with each release, but the latest version is still technically just a “release candidate.” Now Computer World reports that Mozilla plans to launch the full version of Firefox Mobile within the next few days. There may be a few bug fixes included, but essentially it will be the same app as the release candidate which has been available from the Android Market since last week. And that means that like all earlier builds of Firefox Mobile there will be one thing missing: support for Adobe Flash.

Early builds of Firefox Mobile were sluggish, bloated, and crash-prone. All that has changed recently, and I would seriously consider using Firefox Mobile as my primary Android browser today if it weren’t for the lack of Flash.

The browser now renders pages quickly, flips between menus just as quickly, and there’s barely any lag when you zoom in and out of pages. There’s also support for an ever-growing library of third party add-ons which extend the capabilities of the browser.

But while other browsers including the default Android browser, Dolphin HD, and Opera Mobile can handle Flash video, games, and other content with the Adobe Flash plugin available from the Android Market, Firefox Mobile cannot. Odds are the browser, which uses a completely different rendering engine than most other mobile browsers, can’t just use the version of Flash Adobe has already released, which means that Mozilla and Adobe would likely have to develop an entirely new plugin.

Until then, surfing the web with Firefox Mobile is a bit like using the Safari browser on an iPhone, you know, if Safari supported plugins and synchronization of your bookmarks, passwords, and other data with a desktop browser.

Opera has released updated versions of its mobile browsers smartphones. Opera Mobile 11  is available for Android, Symbian, and MeeGo, while Opera Mini 6 supports BlackBerry as well.

So what’s new in Opera Mobile 11 and Mini 6… and why does the company offer two browsers? In a nutshell, Opera Mobile is a full-featured browser with its own rendering engine and support for JavaScript, HTMl5. Opera Mini looks a lot like Opera Mobile, but it’s designed for phones with slower processors or users with limited bandwidth. Opera Mini relies on remote servers to compress some data before sending it to your phone for speedier browsing on less powerful devices.

Opera 11 packs a whole slew of updates. The Android version of the app now supports Adobe Flash and has a new user interface for tablets with large displays. The browser also features improved text reflowing when you zoom in, faster panning and zooming, and faster JavaScript performance. The browser also now supports Archos tablets and the Motorola Atrix 4G smartphone.

Unfortunately every time I tried to view a page with Flash content, Opera Mobile 11 crashed on my Google Nexus One. The safest thing to do for now might be to keep the default setting of click-to-load Adobe Flash.

Opera Mini 6 adds support for pinch to zoom, improved panning and zooming, and a tablet-friendly user interface. You can also now open links in the background and share web pages. Opera says the startup time has also been shortened.

Both browsers also support key Opera features including a Speed Dial page with thumbnail icons for your favorite web sites, an excellent tab switching user interface, and support for Opera Link which lets you synchronize your data between the desktop and mobile versions of the Opera browser.

You can download Opera Mobile 11 and Opera Mini 6 from opera.com/mobile or by visiting m.opera.com with your phone’s browser.

Opera Mini and Opera Mobile are also available from the Android Market.

Opera is also officially dropping support for Windows Mobile with the latest release, which doesn’t come as a huge surprise… but it’s a bit disappointing for folks still using phones with Microsoft’s older operating system. The company may eventually offer Windows Phone 7 apps. Opera Mini 5.1 and Opera Mobile 10 are still available for Windows Mobile.

Adobe may have announced this morning that Flash Player 10.2 for Google Android won’t be available for another week, but that hasn’t stopped a handful of people from downloading and installing it today. A leaked copy is making the rounds and it apparently works on devices running Google Android 2.3 or Android 3.0. Your results with other versions of Android may vary.

It should go without saying that this is a leaked, pre-release version of Flash, and it’s not currently supported by Adobe. If you run into any problems you’re on your own, and all told you might be better of spending the next week learning the meaning of the word patience. But if you’d rather throw caution to the wind, you can find download links in the My Droid World Forum.

via Android Central

Adobe has announced that Flash Player 10.2 will be available for Android tablets starting on Friday, March 18th. Flash Player 10.2 will also ultimately be available for smartphones and tablets running Android 2.2 and 2.3, but the Motorola XOOM with Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb will be the first officially supported device.

For devices running Google Android 3.0.1 and up, Flash Player 10.2 will support hardware acceleration for H.264 video playback. That will allow tablets with the appropriate hardware to stream 1080p HD video content from the web nearly as well as they can already play HD video files stored on the device.

Flash Player 10.2 will alos feature better integration with the Android 3.0 web browser.

If you’re using a device with Android 2.2 Froyo or Android 2.3 Gingerbread, you won’t get the web browser enhancements or hardware acceleration. But you will soon be able to download the latest Flash softwere soon, with improvements to the interaction between Flash content and your phone’s on-screen keyboard. Flash Player 10.2 will also be able to take advantage of dual core processors on newer phones such as the Motorola Atrix 4G and LG Optimus 2X.

Apple iOS devices don’t support Adobe Flash. But Adobe wants developers to use Flash to write apps for the web as well as mobile apps for Android and other platforms that can support the technology. So Adobe has been coming up with ways for developers to convert Flash apps into iPhone-friendly formats. The latest tool is called Wallaby and it can convert Flash apps to HTML5.

Adobe launched a preview release of Wallaby today. While this isn’t the first tool Adobe has made that lets Flash developers get their apps onto the iPhone, it has a key advantage over earlier tools. Instead of converting Flash apps into native iOS apps which Apple can reject from the App Store, Wallaby creates HTML5 web apps that anyone can access using an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad web browser.

Ad Download Squad notes, right now the preview release doesn’t do much just yet. It converts some Flash elements into HTML and creates some JavaScript code to handle animation. But not all Flash elements can be 100% converted with the tool just yet.

via InfoWorld