HP Jumps on Mobile Flash Wagon

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/18564.html">http://wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/18564.html</a><br /><br />HP is putting the Flash 5 player in the 3900 series ROM, making it the first Pocket PC to have Flash out of the box. Very cool! It's nice to see them take this step. Hopefully all OEMs will follow suit in the coming year.<br /><br />"Macromedia's (Nasdaq: MACR) Flash player now will come standard on some HP iPAQ PDAs -- a development that is expected to boost the spread of mobile media content. Along with Nokia smartphones , which began shipping with Flash last month, the iPAQ is among the first wireless devices to come with the rich media player preinstalled. Because HP holds close to 80 percent of the market share of Pocket PC devices, the move represents an opportunity for Macromedia to convince a significant number of users that viewing rich media on a handheld screen will be worthwhile. <br /><br />Though the Flash player initially will be preinstalled only on the H3900 series of devices, it is likely that HP will make nearly all of its future releases Flash-friendly. Other iPAQ users can download a Flash player built specifically for HP handhelds from Macromedia's Web site." Source: Various

[Pony99CA]

"Though the Flash player initially will be preinstalled only on the H3900 series of devices, it is likely that HP will make nearly all of its future releases Flash-friendly. Other iPAQ users can download a Flash player built specifically for HP handhelds from Macromedia's Web site."


The original news article didn't give a link to the HP-specific Flash 5 player. I took a link to the Macromedia site, and found the following Pocket PC links (http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/mobile/player_download/flash_players.html).

For the HP-specific player, visit the Compaq Macromedia page (http://www.compaq.com/products/handhelds/macromedia.html).

As I've already downloaded the Flash 5 player from Microsoft and installed it on my iPAQ 3870, is there any reason to get the HP-specific one?

Steve

[qnelson]

So does this mean the current 3950 and 3970 have it installed in rom already?

[pt]

As I've already downloaded the Flash 5 player from Microsoft and installed it on my iPAQ 3870, is there any reason to get the HP-specific one? Steve

not really, but i'm going to uninstall the other one and install this one anyhow, it just takes a sec. there's not differences in the two.

cheers,
pt

[pt]

So does this mean the current 3950 and 3970 have it installed in rom already?

no- it appears not, perhaps the next batch is what i'd expect to see. i'll try to find out more.

cheers,
pt

[pdagal]

My 3970 didn't have it installed in ROM (probably a good thing, because you'd have to flash the ROM every time you wanted to upgrade the player).

Flash 5 comes on the CD that shipped with the 3970.

[pdagal]

I don't think there's any difference. The files have the same name and are the same size. Certainly look identical. More marketing than anything else, I'd assume.


As I've already downloaded the Flash 5 player from Microsoft and installed it on my iPAQ 3870, is there any reason to get the HP-specific one?

Steve

[Pony99CA]

As I've already downloaded the Flash 5 player from Microsoft and installed it on my iPAQ 3870, is there any reason to get the HP-specific one?

I don't think there's any difference. The files have the same name and are the same size. Certainly look identical. More marketing than anything else, I'd assume.


Well, file sizes are a good first pass, but there still could be differences. However, I just downloaded the HP Flash Player 5 and did a binary file compare with the Microsoft one. There were no differences.

Steve