Adobe Flash Player
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| Adobe Flash Player | |
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| Developer: | Adobe Systems |
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| Latest release: | 9.0.28.0 / November 14, 2006 |
| OS: | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, Windows CE/Pocket PC |
| Platform: | Web browsers |
| Use: | Media Player |
| Website: | Adobe Flash Player |
The Adobe Flash Player is a widely distributed multimedia and application player created and distributed by Macromedia (a division of Adobe Systems). Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, Adobe Flex or a number of other Macromedia and third party tools.
Adobe Flash, or simply Flash, refers to both a multimedia authoring program and the Adobe Flash Player, written and distributed by Adobe, that uses vector and raster graphics, a native scripting language called ActionScript and bidirectional streaming of video and audio. Strictly speaking, Adobe Flash is the authoring environment and Flash Player is the virtual machine used to run the Flash files, but in colloquial language these have become mixed: "Flash" can mean either the authoring environment, the player, or the application files.
Flash Player has support for an embedded scripting language called ActionScript (AS), which is based on ECMAScript. ActionScript has evolved in flexibility and complexity since its inception and may now be compared in capability to JavaScript (another ECMA-based scripting language). ActionScript matured from a script without variables to one that supports object-oriented code.
The Flash Player was originally designed to display 2-dimensional vector animation, but has since become suitable for creating rich Internet applications and streaming video and audio. It uses vector graphics to minimize file size and create files that save bandwidth and loading time. Flash is a common format for games, animations, and GUIs embedded into web pages.
The Flash Player is shipped with some browsers and is available for modern browsers (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox) as a plugin. Each new version of the plugin is completely backwards-compatible.
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[edit] Supported platforms
The latest version of Flash Player, Version 9, is available for Windows (98 and newer), Linux (x86 but only gtk2 based browsers) and Mac OS X. Version 7 is the most recent official version currently available for Solaris, Pocket PC, Windows 95 & NT, and classic Mac OS.[1][2] HP offers Version 6 of the player for HP-UX.[3] Other versions of the player have been available at some point for OS/2, Symbian OS, Palm OS, BeOS and IRIX.[citation needed] The Kodak Easyshare One includes Flash Player. The Flash Player SDK was used to develop its on-screen menus, which are rendered and displayed using the included Flash Player.[1] Among other devices, LeapFrog Enterprises provides Flash Player with their Leapster Multimedia Learning System and extended the Flash Player with touch-screen support.[2] Sony has recently integrated Flash Player 6 into the Playstation Portable's web browser via firmware version 2.70. However, if you try to install Player 8 it will probably not work, as they only want you to install 9.
The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet includes the Flash player, as does its predecessor the Nokia 770.
[edit] Internet Privacy ("Persistent Identification Elements")
Flash Player is an application that, while running on a computer that is connected to the internet, is designed to contemporaneously interact with websites containing Flash content that are being visited online. As such, under certain configurations the application has the potential to silently compromise its users' internet privacy, and do so without their knowledge. By default, Flash Player is configured to permit small, otherwise invisible "tracking" files, known as "Persistent Identification Elements" (PIE) or "Local Shared Object" (".sol") files, to be stored on the hard drive of a user's computer. Sent in the background over the internet from websites to which a user is connected, these files work much the way "cookies" do with internet browsers. When stored on a user's computer, PIE (.sol) files are capable of sending personally sensitive data back out over the internet without the user's knowledge to one or more third parties. In addition, Flash Player is also capable of accessing and retrieving audio and video data from any microphone and/or webcams that might be connected to a user's computer and transmitting it in realtime over the internet (also potentially without the user's knowledge) to one or more third parties. On many models of computers (especially laptops), the speakers also serve as built-in microphones which Flash Player can actively access as well for the purpose of transmitting live audio.
While these capabilities can all be affirmatively blocked and/or disabled by the user, the Flash Player application does not provide an internally accessible "preferences" panel to accomplish this. Instead access to the various settings panels necessary to manage the application's "Privacy," "Storage," "Security," and "Notifications" functions can only be achieved through a web-based "Settings Manager" page located on the "support" section of the Adobe.com website. Each of the functions can be enabled/disabled either "globally" to cover all websites, or set differently for individual websites depending on how the user desires Flash Player to be able to interact with each one.
Whilst the Flash Control Panel Settings in theory allow users to protect their Privacy it should be remembered that suitably crafted Visual Basic Script or similar code can overwrite any user defined settings before the Flash Player Plug-in is called by a Webpage.
[edit] History
[edit] Player versions
- Macromedia Flash Player 2
- First version under Macromedia brand
- Mostly vectors and motion, some bitmaps, limited audio
- Macromedia Flash Player 3
- Added alpha transparency, licensed MP3 compression
- Macromedia Flash Player 4 (May 1999)
- Macromedia Flash Player 5 (August 2000)
- Macromedia Flash Player 6 (March 2002)
- Support for the consuming Flash Remoting and Web Service (SOAP)
- Support for screenreaders via Microsoft Active Accessibility
- Added Sorenson Sparc video codec
- Macromedia Flash Player 7 (September 2003)
- supports streaming audio and video
- supports ActionScript 2.0, an Object-Oriented Programming Language for developers
- Macromedia Flash Player 8 (August 2005)
- Flash Lite 1.0 and 1.1
- Based on Flash Player 4
- Flash Lite 2.0 (December 2005)
- Based on Flash Player 7
- Adobe Flash Player 9 (June 2006) previously named Flash Player 8.5
- New ECMAScript scripting engine, ActionScript Virtual Machine AVM2. AVM retained for compatibility.
- Actionscript 3 via AMV2.
- E4X, which is a new approach to parsing XML.
- Support for binary sockets.
- Support for Regular Expressions and namespaces.
- ECMAScript 4 virtual machine donated to Mozilla Foundation and named Tamarin.
- Flash Lite 2.1 (December 2006)
- Running on the BREW platform
- Flash Lite 3 (Announced on february 2007)
- Support for FLV transcoding
[edit] References and notes
- ^ Macromedia - Flash Player SDK http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer_sdk/ (Taken 7th July 2006)
- ^ Adobe Success Story: LeapFrog Enterprises http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=casestudydetail&casestudyid=21019&loc=en_us (Taken 7th July 2006)
[edit] See also
- Macromedia Shockwave Player
- Gnash, a free software Flash player
| Macromedia Flash | |
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| Flash-specific file formats | .swf (Shockwave Flash) • .as (ActionScript) • .flv (Flash Video) |
| Other versions | FutureSplash Animator • Adobe Flash Lite |
| Miscellaneous | ActionScript • Adobe Flash Player • Local Shared Object • Flash animation |
