Filed under: Internet Tools
Adobe Flash Player 9 update out
The plugin formerly known as 'Moviestar' -- Adobe's H.264-capable version of the Flash player -- is now officially released for the Mac (along with Windows and Linux) and downloadable from Adobe's site. Sure, it can play back HD and fullscreen video, but will it reduce the performance hit that Mac users take whenever a Flash movie pops into a browser window? Let you know as soon as we try it. As our buddy David noted, if you've been running an early beta version of Flash 9 you may want to run Adobe's uninstaller before upgrading.
In terms of the wider online video market, the adoption of the H.264 codec solidifies the QuickTime/Flash axis of power in a big way. Content owners with libraries of QuickTime movies in H.264 now can republish for Flash without reencoding, and YouTube's effort to convert clips for iPhone use now can be leveraged to provide higher-quality Flash playback as well. Big day for Adobe, good day for video fans and producers.
[via Ars]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
look said 10:12AM on 12-05-2007
you mean 'was out'...
*you guys are always 2 days behind! and they say that bloggers are the new journalists...right.
Reply
damien said 10:39AM on 12-05-2007
Oh When Oh When are they gonna come out with flash for the Iphone!?!?!?
Reply
Leonard Nimrod said 11:23AM on 12-05-2007
First we need a decent Flash version for the ARM processor. Then ask your question again.
Kuy said 3:49PM on 12-05-2007
Flash already runs on ARM, e.g. Nokia's N800 series.
-Kuy
Flash Team
James Madley said 5:15PM on 12-05-2007
Flash is a resource hog remember (iPhone runs on OSX as well). Why would you want something like that on your phone?
thethirdmoose said 6:02PM on 12-05-2007
And it is on the Archos 605. Admittedly, it's not that good at games, but for videos it is fine.
5cents said 11:04AM on 12-05-2007
I don't think there are any performance improvements.
Reply
Sparks said 12:27PM on 12-05-2007
If you are on Leopard and running Time Machine, make sure to temporarily unmount your Time Machine volume before running the Adobe uninstaller. Otherwise, the uninstaller 'helpfully' tries to go through your entire Time Machine backup drive as well, removing all copies of Flash, and will take for...ev...er...
Reply
Zman said 1:54PM on 12-05-2007
When I go to the download site the link doesn't work. To I needed to change the macromedia to adobe in the url. When I try to install it, it keeps telling me to close all browsers before I can continue. I had none open when I tried to install. Anyone else having problems with the install?
Reply
Michael said 2:05PM on 12-05-2007
%$*@ Adobe! I have tried everything to install this and it just sits there for an hour+ (longest I have let it go). The horrible thing is that on the first attempt it broke my flash!
Still investigating... but if anyone else has Leopard and hangs on step 4 (drive searching) - maybe its a bigger issue?
All users should be aware though. Seems like there are even simple cometic issues when put on Leopard. SHAME on ADOBE!
Reply
Michael said 2:40PM on 12-05-2007
Update: I will need to pull the plugin out of the package as the installer is total bust for me. If you run into this problem as well... there is already an older (tiger) UB version of the plugin at
http://www.jonathansblog.net/media/flash_player_plugin.zip
that was taken from the Tiger install DVD.
You can also pull out the Leopard version from your DVD ( I have not done that yet either ).
Hope this helps people - Just got off the phone with Adobe - and their "Official" word is that "We do not support the Flash Player so there is no way we can help you"
I love adobe - but this fubar if you ask me.
David Chartier said 2:54PM on 12-05-2007
Link and name love from TUAW always warms my heart.
Alright Rose, you win. Once I'm finally 100% done with my thesis on Friday, I'll hop back into the TUAW talkcast and scare all the readers away again.
Mwahaha.
Reply
mikka said 3:22PM on 12-05-2007
what is the hold up for a ARM flash version? and Michael, could what sparks said be effecting you?
Reply
Mike said 3:30PM on 12-05-2007
Why do they have a UB and a PPC-native installer? Why not just a UB or separate Intel and PPC installers?
Reply
Michael said 12:36AM on 12-06-2007
Mike, The reason is because they want to support the 10.1 - 10.3 versions of the OS. Sure would be nice though to have an Intel only version as well :)))
error said 3:58PM on 12-05-2007
Michael, I'm experiencing the same problems. "Searching: Macintosh HD - 4 items to install" and Flash is broken on my MacBook. No problems during the installation on my PPC G5.
Really annoying. Also tried updating to FileMaker 9.0v3 - same thing: "Searching: Macintosh HD" for 90 minutes without installing a single file. Never had any of these problems like this before.
Reply
Michael said 12:49AM on 12-06-2007
I suspect the issue is the VSIE installer. While this is a bit off-topic and out of scope for this blog... curious to know what others have seen.
Sam Kennedy said 5:51PM on 12-05-2007
Any news on PowerPC performance improvements? I gave my mom an 800Mhz G4 mac, and youtube is super-choppy.
Reply
carlo Righini said 7:20PM on 12-05-2007
adobe suck.
bring on Aperture 2.0
Reply
moo said 8:15PM on 12-05-2007
way to be on topic there, killer.