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Android versions of Adobe Flash and AIR are a step closer. Adobe has revealed Flash Player 10.1 is being tested, and will join Adobe AIR 2.0 in beta release for testing by developers for Google’s open mobile platform.
Flash is a platform usually used in Web pages to run video, animation and interactivity. Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is a platform that runs Web-connected applications on your desktop, capable of coping with the different operating system your computer might be using. The Android versions will allow users to create apps based on Flash and AIR.
In the eyes of many, Flash will give Android an edge over Apple, which notoriously refuses to support Flash on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Apple’s own Ming the Merciless, Steve Jobs, maintains that Flash is flawed and the future is HTML5. Even if he’s right, it does close off large parts of the Web experience to iPhone users in the here and now before HTML5 takes off — just ask the Justice League.
So far, you can only register to be notifed when the separate Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 beta tests open. To sign up, you need to be just a man with a man’s courage. Or woman, obviously. And you need to register with Adobe’s Web site. Adobe has not announced when the beta testing will begin, but has stated that RIM, Palm and Google will be putting Flash on their devices in the second half of 2010.
