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Flash Makes Splash in Gadgets

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the mini-movies-and-more dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Flash is winding its way into a growing number of gadgets and devices, according to an article at DeviceForge. Although Macromedia normally requires licensees to sign up for massive quantities of licenses before they can build its 'Embedded Macromedia Flash Player' into devices, the company as authorized NEC subsidiary Vibren to supply embedded Flash licenses in lower volumes to makers of POS (point-of-sales/service) terminals, personal organizers, PC replacements, small-screen airline entertainment devices, real-time securities trading terminals, digital signs, and more. Brace yourself for some juiced-up electronic billboards!"

3 of 316 comments (clear)

  1. can't wait by anotherone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't wait until embedded device designers take a cue from web designers and start using Flash for navigation and suddenly a simple thing like "adjusting the contrast on my monitor" takes 10 minutes.

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  2. Re:Adblock/Flashblock by Atrax · · Score: 5, Funny

    All cash registers will now have a 'skip intro' button.

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    Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
  3. Re:flash is evil!! by Sabaki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't you mean "poor UI design is evil"? Both the issues you describe seem to boil down to bad design and authoring.

    The only inherently bad thing I think think of that that's inherent in Flash for computers browsing the web is the fact that it won't work on all browsers, either because the browser doesn't support it, or a firewall blocks it. (Also they make handicapped access harder, but hardly anyone talks about that.)

    And none of those issues are likely to be a problem in a device designed up front to use Flash (although processor use could become an issue.)

    The technology should not be blamed just because some people use it poorly.