Adobe Flash Player: Difference between revisions
Added Opera to the "Causes videos to stop playing" comment. |
Adobe changed the URL for the Flash Player download center URL today. updating ref infobox... |
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| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Mac OS X]], [[Linux]], [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]] and [[Pocket PC]] |
| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Mac OS X]], [[Linux]], [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]] and [[Pocket PC]] |
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| platform = [[Web browser]]s |
| platform = [[Web browser]]s |
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| language = [[Chinese Simplified]], [[Chinese Traditional]], [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Korean language|Korean]] <ref>[http:// |
| language = [[Chinese Simplified]], [[Chinese Traditional]], [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Korean language|Korean]] <ref>[http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ Flash Player Download Center]</ref>. |
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| genre = [[Interpreter (computing)|Interpreter]], [[Media Player]] |
| genre = [[Interpreter (computing)|Interpreter]], [[Media Player]] |
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| license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]] [[freeware]] [[EULA]] |
| license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]] [[freeware]] [[EULA]] |
Revision as of 21:36, 30 September 2008
Adobe Flash Player Icon | |||||||||||||||||
Adobe Flash Player under Linux Adobe Flash Player under Linux. | |||||||||||||||||
Developer(s) | Adobe Systems (formerly by Macromedia) | ||||||||||||||||
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Initial release | 1996 | ||||||||||||||||
Stable release |
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Preview release |
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Operating system | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and Pocket PC | ||||||||||||||||
Platform | Web browsers | ||||||||||||||||
Available in | Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Korean [9]. | ||||||||||||||||
Type | Interpreter, Media Player | ||||||||||||||||
License | Proprietary freeware EULA | ||||||||||||||||
Website | Adobe Flash Player Homepage |
The Adobe Flash Player is a widely distributed proprietary multimedia and application player created by Macromedia and now developed and distributed by Adobe after its acquisition. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by 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. Since its inception, ActionScript has matured from a script syntax without variables to one that supports object-oriented code, and may now be compared in capability to JavaScript (another ECMAScript-based scripting language).
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 built into some browsers and is available as a plugin for recent versions of other browsers (such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer) on selected platforms. Each version of the plugin is completely backwards-compatible.
Supported platforms
The latest version of Flash Player, Version 9, is available for Windows (98 and newer), Linux (x86-32 only), Solaris and Mac OS X. Version 7 is the most recent official version currently available for the Linux/ARM-based Nokia 770/N800 Internet Tablets, classic Mac OS, Pocket PC and Windows 95/NT.[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.[4] 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.[10] Among other devices, LeapFrog Enterprises provides Flash Player with their Leapster Multimedia Learning System and extended the Flash Player with touch-screen support.[11] Sony has integrated Flash Player 6 into the Playstation Portable's web browser via firmware version 2.70. Nintendo has integrated Flash Player 7 in the Internet Channel on the Wii.
No x86-64 editions of the Flash player are currently available for any platform [5], due to the x86-32-specific garbage collector and just-in-time compilation engine [6]. Adobe engineers have stated that 64-bit editions for all supported platforms, including Linux, are in development [7]. They have been developing since 2005 a x64 edition of the Flash Player, but have yet to launch.
Although SWF has recently become an open format again, Adobe has not been willing to make complete source code available for free software development. The source code for the ActionScript Virtual Machine has been released as a project named Tamarin [8] under the terms of an MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license. It includes the specification for the ActionScript byte code format. This project is jointly managed by Mozilla and Adobe. The full specification of the SWF format is available without restriction by Adobe. The principal alternative free software player, gnash, is quite incomplete at this time, however since SWF is now an open format, it should have a much higher quality going forward as developers implement the official SWF specifications.
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 (PIEs)[12] or Local Shared Object 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 either built in or 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.
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" settings can be achieved through a web-based "Settings Manager" page located on the "support" section of the Adobe.com website, or by third party tools (see Local Shared Object). 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.
In addition to cookies, many banks and other financial institutions also routinely install Persistent Identification Elements using Flash Player on users' hard drives when they establish and access their accounts, as do other interactive sites such as "YouTube".
History
- 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 (version 6.0.21.0, codenamed Exorcist) (March 2002)
- Support for the consuming Flash Remoting (AMF) and Web Service (SOAP)
- supports ondemand/live audio and video streaming (RTMP)
- Support for screenreaders via Microsoft Active Accessibility
- Added Sorenson Spark video codec for Flash Video
- Macromedia Flash Player 7 (version 7.0.14.0, codenamed Mojo) (September 2003)
- supports progressive audio and video streaming (HTTP)
- supports ActionScript 2.0, an Object-Oriented Programming Language for developers
- Macromedia Flash Player 8 (version 8.0.22.0, codenamed Maelstrom) (August 2005)
- Macromedia Flash Lite 1.0 and 1.1
- Based on Flash Player 4
- Macromedia Flash Lite 2.0 (December 2005)
- Based on Flash Player 7
- Adobe Flash Player 9 (version 9.0.15.0, codenamed Zaphod) (June 2006) previously named Flash Player 8.5
- New ECMAScript scripting engine, ActionScript Virtual Machine AVM2. AVM retained for compatibility.
- Actionscript 3 via AVM2.
- 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.
- Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 1 (version 9.0.28.0, codenamed Marvin) (November 2006[13])
- Support for full-screen mode.[14]
- Adobe Flash Lite 2.1 (December 2006)
- Running on the BREW platform
- Adobe Flash Lite 3 (Announced on February 2007)
- Support for FLV transcoding
- Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 2 (version Mac/Windows 9.0.47.0 and Linux 9.0.48.0, codenamed Hotblack) (July 2007)
- Security Update
- Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3 (version 9.0.115.0, codenamed Moviestar or Frogstar) (December 2007)[15]
- Adobe Flash Player 9 (version 9.0.124.0) (April 2008)
- Critical Security Update
- Causes videos to stop playing at 2 seconds and occasionally lose sound on Mozilla and Opera. No solution has yet been released (other than downgrading to a lower version of Adobe), and Adobe appears not to acknowledge the problem.
- Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta (version 10.0.1.218, codenamed Astro) (May 2008)[16]
- Adobe Flash Player 10 RC 2 (version 10.0.12.10, codenamed Astro) (Sept 2008)
- 3D Effects
- Custom Filters and Effects
- Advanced Text Layout
- Enhanced Drawing API
- Visual Performance Improvements
- Rich Media
- Speex Audio Codec
- RTMFP (Real Time Media Flow Protocol)
See also
- Adobe Shockwave Player
- Adobe Flash Lite
- Gnash, a free software Flash player
- Flash Video
- Microsoft Silverlight
- Local Shared Object
References and notes
- ^ "Adobe - Flash Player". flash.cn (in Simplified Chinese). Zhongcheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
- ^ a b "_flash_install_packages_". flash.cn. Zhongcheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
- ^ "ADOBE® FLASH® PLAYER ENTERPRISE SUPPORT". harman.com. Harman International. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
- ^ "Flash Player官方下载中心". Flash (in Simplified Chinese). Flash.cn. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
- ^ "关于Linux操作系统下Flash Player个人版停用的公告". Flash (in Simplified Chinese). Flash.cn. 2021-05-10. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
- ^ a b "Adobe - Flash Player". Adobe.com. Adobe Systems. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
- ^ a b c d e "Archived Flash Player versions". Adobe.com. Adobe Systems. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^ "Download Flash Player 32 Beta". labs.adobe.com. Adobe Systems. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
- ^ Flash Player Download Center
- ^ Macromedia - Flash Player SDK http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer_sdk/ (Taken 7 July 2006)
- ^ Adobe Success Story: LeapFrog Enterprises http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=casestudydetail&casestudyid=21019&loc=en_us (Taken 7 July 2006)
- ^ "Persistent Identification Elements (PIE) and Internet Privacy".
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Emmy Huang: Flash Player 9 Update (9.0.28.0) release now available for Windows and Macintosh
- ^ Adobe - Developer Center : Exploring full-screen mode in Flash Player 9
- ^ Adobe press release: http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200712/120407adobemoviestar.html. Blog post from Emmy Huang, the Product Manager for Adobe Flash Player: http://weblogs.macromedia.com/emmy/archives/2007/12/flash_player_9_10.cfm
- ^ Adobe press release: http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200712/120407adobeastro.html. Blog post from Emmy Huang, the Product Manager for Adobe Flash Player: http://weblogs.macromedia.com/emmy/archives/2008/12/flash_player_10.cfm