Saturday 30 June 2012

Adobe kills flash support for Jelly Bean


After Apple and Microsoft, it was Google’s turn to put its best foot forward and show off its prowess in the mobile terrain. The company launched the highly anticipated Jelly Bean operating system that now runs on its flagship tablet crafted by Asus. Though Jelly Bean is just an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich and not an overhaul, the search giant has brought in some nifty changes in the new operating system version. Adobe reveals through its official blog post that the company plans to end its mobile Flash support for the Google Play App store after August 15 and also won't support the newest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean version.

“Devices that don’t have the Flash Player provided by the manufacturer typically are uncertified, meaning the manufacturer has not completed the certification testing requirements. In many cases users of uncertified devices have been able to download the Flash Player from the Google Play Store, and in most cases it worked. However, with Android 4.1 this is no longer going to be the case, as we have not continued developing and testing Flash Player for this new version of Android and its available browser options.  There will be no certified implementations of Flash Player for Android 4.1.,” reveals the blog.

Starting August 15,  Adobe will use configuration settings in the Google Play Store to limit continued access to Flash Player updates to only those devices that have Flash Player already installed. Devices that don’t have Flash Player already installed are increasingly likely to be incompatible with Flash Player and will no longer be able to install it from the Google Play Store after August 15. The blog reveals that the easiest way to ensure ongoing access to Flash Player on Android 4.0 or earlier devices is to use certified devices and ensure that the Flash Player is either pre-installed by the manufacturer or installed from Google Play Store before August 15. So, basically as the device is upgraded from Android 4.0 to Android 4.1, the current version of Flash Player could exhibit unpredictable behaviour because it isn’t certified to be used with Android 4.1.

Android v4.1, Jelly Bean was unveiled amidst much fanfare at Google's annual I/O conference. Some of the highlighted features of the Jelly Bean OS, include -

Project Butter - As the name suggests, this feature aims to make the operating system on devices extremely smooth.
Text Input - As mentioned earlier, with Jelly Bean, the keyboard is a lot faster and more accurate.
Camera - On the camera side of things, the new OS brings to the table new UI and gestures, allowing users to swipe sideways, if they want to access a gallery. It is also possible to delete images by swiping them off the screen.
Notifications - With Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the notifications bar has also received an upgrade

At the event, the search giant also took the wraps off their much anticipated Nexus 7 tablet. This tablet, manufactured by ASUS is not just designed to take on Apple’s highly successful iPad, but will also pose a stiff threat to the Amazon Kindle Fire and Google aims to tackle the competition better with its pricing strategy. The Google Nexus 7 tablet is available in two storage capacities, which are 8GB and 16GB and the brand has priced it extremely competitively at $199 and $249, respectively.

At the event, Google also introduced their new streaming player called the Nexus Q. Dubbed the world’s first social streaming media player, the Nexus Q streams your favorite entertainment directly from the cloud to your living room. You can simply use the Google Play and YouTube apps on your Android phone or tablet to surf an ocean of music, TV, movies and videos, and Nexus Q will play it all on the biggest speakers and screen in the house.

Other updates announced included a major Google+ app update. The Android app has just received an update that includes a whole bunch of new features. One of the key features is Google+ Events, which allows users to add events, invite people and share photos and media in real-time at the location itself. There’s even a 'shared location' feature, where all the photos shot by the various attendees will be present at one place. The feature will also add the event directly to your Google Calendar. It’s available for Android phones and tablets and even the Apple iPad is going to get its own app. The update is available on the Google Play store, and if you’re already using the app you can simply update it. A new search function for Android 4.1 - Google Now is esentially a new search interface for Android users in real-time. Google Now aims to get users more relevant and real-time results. The search feature is card-based and users can bring up cards containing the data they require in real-time. Google Now claims to give all relevant info in a single swipe.

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