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Skyfire For Android Enables (Some) Flash Video

Posted by timothy on from the not-your-grandma's-headline dept.

harrymcc writes "Skyfire, a browser formerly available only for Windows Mobile and Symbian, is releasing a beta for Android. The most notable feature: It can identify Flash video on Web pages and convert it to HTML5 and H.264 on the fly, so it'll play on Android phones. It doesn't support all video, and may be rendered somewhat superfluous when Adobe ships Flash Player 10.1 for Android — but it's an impressive trick."

24 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Re:lol by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To be fair flash is a piece of shit on all platforms. It only exists because it makes creating content brain dead easy.

  2. Is it a security nightmare like opera? by h4rr4r · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I would rather not have someone recording every page I visit, which is what opera does with its man-in-the-middle attack is a feature browser.

    1. Re:Is it a security nightmare like opera? by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You have nothing to worry about. No one cares that you visit slashdot, and if you get good kharma, you can even turn off the ads.

    2. Re:Is it a security nightmare like opera? by Agarax · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I would rather not have someone recording every page I visit, which is what opera does with its man-in-the-middle attack is a feature browser.

      Like your ISP's DNS server?

      --
      Remember folks, slashdot doesn't have a -1 "disagree" moderation!
  3. Re:What could go wrong? by teh31337one · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not actually doing Flash video, it signals Skyfire's servers to fetch the video and transcode it from its original format to HTML 5 video. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20003714-1.html

  4. Is it really Transcoding? by Fahrvergnuugen · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Or is it just stripping the FLV container off of the H.264 video stream embedded inside?

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    1. Re:Is it really Transcoding? by buchner.johannes · · Score: 3, Informative

      It is neither, it works per proxy server.

      Like Opera Mini, earlier versions of Skyfire for Windows Mobile and Symbian were proxy browsers that compressed Web pages on the server side before transferring them to the phone. With this Android edition, the Skyfire folks are shifting strategy. Android’s Webkit-based rendering engine is already capable of displaying Web pages swiftly and accurately, they figure, so they’re not trying to duplicate it. Skyfire for Android uses the same Webkit rendering that Android’s default browser does–but rolls it into a browser with a bunch more features.

      The most notable of these new capabilities is Flash video playback. For that, Skyfire still uses a proxy approach: When you come to pages with Flash videos, it identifies them, compresses them, and converts them to H.264 and HTML5, then transfers them to your phone for playback.

      Would have been too cool if they had managed to do it on the client. I'd have wanted it as a Firefox plugin ...

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
  5. Cool, how can I block it? by straponego · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does anybody know if the default Android browser will allow blocking Flash when 10.1 ships? I think it's possible that I might find a use for a Flash program on a phone sometime, but if I can't block it by default I'd rather not have it at all. Screen, bandwidth, CPU and battery are at a premium on mobile devices. I'd rather not sacrifice them so I can watch a visual bedlam of ads for products that I will never buy (if you throw Flash ads at me, I boycott you. Ads only affect my buying choices negatively; so really, I'm doing you a favor by blocking your ads, marketing weasels. And I'm saving you money too!).

    1. Re:Cool, how can I block it? by postmortem · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hopefully it will have way to bock Flash, and let you open Flash items that you want - but that means less money from advertising.

  6. Re:What could go wrong? by nine-times · · Score: 3, Informative

    Of course, it's got to use a lot of CPU cycles on the server side to do this at any sort of scale, built into a browser. But I guess if you are making enough money off your browser, then cool.

    That depends on whether they're really "transcoding". Most Flash these days is H264 anyway, so it might just be doing something to bypass Flash and give the device access to the video stream. Of course, most sites are going to start doing this anyway (giving HTML5-capable browsers the ability to bypass Flash and go straight to the video), but this might work as an interim solution.

  7. Last I checked... by TrancePhreak · · Score: 2, Informative

    Skyfire would show more than just videos, it would show pretty much all kinds of flash content. From games to vector videos like Strongbad emails.

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    -]Phreak Out[-
    1. Re:Last I checked... by jpmorgan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Indeed it has full support for Flash and Silverlight in the Windows Mobile version. However if you've ever used it substantially, it becomes apparent that the backend for WinMo is basically implemented using screen-scraping. The Skyfire client is basically just a clever image viewer.

      From the sound of it they're implementing something more advanced (probably their own WebKit derived renderer) for the Android backend. Although I wonder if they're still delivering images, or just sending a special markup like Opera does with its Mini browser.

  8. Re:lol by nine-times · · Score: 2, Insightful

    but... but.... I'm shocked!

    First the summary tells me that Android phones don't already support Flash, and now you tell me that Flash is a "piece of shit"?

    I thought Flash was some kind of perfect standard for video and it was already supported on every platform in existence. After all, that's why everyone is so pissed at Apple for failing to support Flash, right? The only reason any device might not support Flash right now is if the manufacturer is evil?

  9. Re:lol by EvanED · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought Flash was some kind of perfect standard for video and it was already supported on every platform in existence. After all, that's why everyone is so pissed at Apple for failing to support Flash, right?

    Just because Flash sucks doesn't mean that "I can't get the content I want" is better.

    The only reason any device might not support Flash right now is if the manufacturer is evil?

    That's a Red Herring. Adobe would love to provide Flash support for the iPhone, but Apple won't allow it. That's what matters, not whether Adobe was quick-on-the-draw to get support to Android.

  10. Android does support Flash? by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just kind of assumed with all those bashing the iPhone for not supporting Flash that Android did it out of the box.

    Is there any mobile that supports full Flash well?

    1. Re:Android does support Flash? by evJeremy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm pretty sure the n900 does.

    2. Re:Android does support Flash? by linzeal · · Score: 2, Informative

      Windows Mobile with skyfire is pry the best flash platform for mobile flash viewing, atm.

      --
      An Education is the Font of All Liberty
    3. Re:Android does support Flash? by kurt555gs · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Nokia N900 supports Flash in it's own browser, or Firefox, or Chromium. Unlike iWhatever or Android there are no limits put on you. Oh, and you have root access, and can develop in whatever you want, and don't have to ask anyone for any permission, to do anything.

      So there!

      --
      * Carthago Delenda Est *
    4. Re:Android does support Flash? by lonecrow · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think the issue that that Apple forbids flash whereas flash support for Android has just not yet been developed.

  11. Uh oh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the license agreement:

    When you use the browser, Skyfire has access to, and in many cases will monitor, your Browser Usage.

    also

    Personal information collected by Skyfire may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Skyfire Labs, Inc. or its agents maintain facilities. By using Skyfire products and services, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.

    I understand that to work Skyfire needs to translate some stuff from Flash to HTML 5, but the word "monitor" is a little scary. Also I don't appreciate the fact that the GPS turned on before I even got a chance to read the terms of use.

    So... speaking personally... I'm not accepting.

  12. It is not a discharger by Ilgaz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If vendor of device is wise and OS is open enough to talk to chips, H264 will be possibly decoded on chip. Just like my Nokia does while running flash embedded video. Of course, it is a video and video does have some load on battery, just like if I launched a m4v from its file browser.

    Please don't get brainwashed by Steve. Today, a Mac Mini having Nvidia 9400, Flash 10.1 does play 1080P HD video with 4% CPU, if it is running Windows. If it runs OS X, it uses a lot of processing power since until 10.6.3, there was no way to talk to GPU to do its job.

  13. Skyfire... by aapold · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've used skyfire on windows mobile for some time (and still do when I don't unload it for Android). It handles most flash flawlessly.... but not on the phone.

    What skyfire does, as near as I understand it, is route all traffic to skyfire servers, which then convert the whole shebang, in real time, to what they then send to your phone. I've played flash games, seen web video, etc, all sans any trouble at all. It wasn't the most user-friendly browser initially but it has improved dramatically recently. It still won't zoom as easily as opera, for example....

    However, you should be aware of the middle man, and in using it you are implicitly trusting them with everything you do through them, and some might have a problem with that.

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  14. Re:lol by Kenja · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And brain dead easy cross platform business software development is TOTALY useless!

    In the market targeted by Flash Builder (aka Flex) HTML5 will simply not work. We're talking about large businesses that dont want to migrate from IE6.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  15. Re:What could go wrong? by wvmarle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That depends on whether they're really "transcoding". Most Flash these days is H264 anyway, so it might just be doing something to bypass Flash and give the device access to the video stream.

    Sounds very reasonable, and also immediately explains why it "doesn't support all video" as the summary indicates.