Macromedia Flash Player 7 Doubles Performance of Rich Content and Applications

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/08-25-2003/0002005739&EDATE=MON+Aug+25+200' target='_blank'>http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/s...=MON+Aug+25+200</a><br /><br /></div>"Macromedia today announced Macromedia(R) Flash(TM) Player 7, the leading rich Internet client. This new version offers twice the performance of previous versions, user-controllable update notification, and powerful new development capabilities. The world's most ubiquitous rich Internet client, Macromedia Flash Player is installed across more than 97 percent of Internet-connected desktops and a growing number of mobile devices including Sony Clie handhelds, the HP iPaq Pocket PC, and all NTT DoCoMo i-mode 505i series handsets. <br /><br />'The pervasive reach of Macromedia Flash Player has enabled our customers to consistently deliver great experiences across a myriad of browsers, operating systems, and devices," said Venu Venugopal, senior vice president of product development, Macromedia. "Flash Player 7 opens up new possibilities with breakthrough performance gains, high-quality video, and web services connectivity. We can't wait to see what our customers will deliver when they combine the player's power with their passion.' "<br /><br />Version 7 doesn't appear to be up at Macromedia.com for the Pocket PC, or for any other platform for that matter.

[sponge]

Great. This happens every version. We get latest PPC Flash version, new desktop version released weeks later, people automatically use latest Flash, despite the fact they're doing nothing more than simple animation.

[Steven Cedrone]

From that same article:

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Macromedia Flash Player 7, a free download, is expected to be available
from macromedia.com in September in both English and localized versions.

Steve

[mbeatle]

Alot of people, including myself, refuse to install flash because the flash ads are so annoying. I'm not objecting to ads on whole, but flash ads are too much to take.

[ctmagnus]

Another thing to consider... If people won't wait 10 seconds for a website to load, why would they sit through a 30 second flash movie before they get to see the site? Personally, if there's no way to bypass the flash animation and get to the real content, I just close the window.

[iomatic]

...understand that for development purposes (e.g., interfaces, Internet-savvy data-driven applications), Flash is a great platform. Small, easy to deploy, cross-platform, and fast, Flash has its uses beyond annoying advertisements and "flashy" banner ads. Think of it more as a developer tool than a medium, or perhaps both.

US$.02

[ShivShanks]

Another thing to consider... If people won't wait 10 seconds for a website to load, why would they sit through a 30 second flash movie before they get to see the site? Personally, if there's no way to bypass the flash animation and get to the real content, I just close the window.

Use AvantBrowser which is wrapper over IE but it gives you one click toobar button to enable and disable flash. Instead of the flash animation it will show you a blank white area. AvantBrowser is really cool. It gives you tabbed browsing, popup blocking and lots of other controls like disabling flash, background audio, animation etc. Try it and see if you like it from www.avantbrowser.com

[Jason Dunn]

Another thing to consider... If people won't wait 10 seconds for a website to load, why would they sit through a 30 second flash movie before they get to see the site? Personally, if there's no way to bypass the flash animation and get to the real content, I just close the window.

That's just bad design - it has nothing to do with Flash itself. I could make a Web site with 500 KB JPEGs and you'd be just as frustrated, but you don't hear people complaining about JPEGs.

Honestly, I'm amazed that every time we mention Flash on the site that "anti-Flash brigade" comes out and chants. It's really freaky. :|

[Fzara]

Honestly, I'm amazed that every time we mention Flash on the site that "anti-Flash brigade" comes out and chants. It's really freaky. :|

I think its really funny. :mrgreen: It's almost like watching the anti-MS, anti-Intel, anti-Nvidia, and anti-PS2/XBox users fight because they think the company is too powerful, too much money, etc.

[Tari Akpodiete]

oh, hello, Flash is NOT bad; it is just sometimes used badly. and that's like a lot of things in life, guns for example, and white sugar and fast food immediately spring to mind as well.

didn't your grandma tell you not to throw out the baby with the bathwater? everything in moderation, that's the key.

by not installing Flash for a non-sensical reason, you're missing tons of really good/useful/interesting/entertaining stuff and you start sounding like a luddite.

Pocket PC Flash - the motherlode
http://www.pocketpcflash.net

something i'm working on for Pocket PCs
http://www.pocketrocketfx.com/_trivia/farscape.htm

and for those who actually like Flash ads (heh!)
http://www.bannerreport.com/html/gal_flash468x060_001.htm

so free your mind and try not to be a JN parrot - "all Flash is evil and all Flashers are going to hell" - because even he changed his mind. don't believe me? well, you need to keep up. scroll down past his original diatribe and read the bottom of this page

Flash: 99% Bad
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html

although he is a bit down on some mobile devices

Mobile Devices: One Generation From Useful
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030818.html

[eappell]

Interesting that Nielsen (who's UI advice I've been reading for years) joined up with Macromedia two years after the "99% Bad" article:

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/proom/pr/2002/macromedia_nielsen.html

Eddie

[Tari Akpodiete]

well, yes he did. just goes to show.