[XPERIA X10 Themes and Apps] I7redd:
Hey all.

Sony Ericsson have stated quite clearly.. "No Flash on X10". Despite being quite categorical, there is much more to the story... so sit back with a coffee, and allow me to explain;

{disclaimer: i've only had an Android smartphone (Nexus One) since about June, so my experience had been exclusively using Froyo until now}

As far as i'm aware, Flash-Lite ran on certain HTC devices with Android Eclair (2.1) but this was done thru the device's default browser using webkit's plugin permission.

Flash 10.1 on the other hand is designed to run on Froyo (2.2) using a more direct Google plugin to the browser. (possibly an API not reliant on webkit as default, thus allowing other browsers to gain plugin access)

Anyway.. Sony Ericsson, for whatever reason, hasn't included either of these methods in this Eclair release. Conspiracy theorists may point to the coming PSP-phone as one reason to omit Flash.. ie. free multiplayer web-games.

So anyway, that's the bad news! No browser-based Flash unless it gets hacked into X10 by someone, or the bootloader get cracked, etc etc.

Ok, now the good news;

Hardware performance isn't a factor, as X10's Arm7 CPU IS supported by Adobe Flash + Air when running Froyo, as it clearly states X10's compatibility on their developer page.

Even better news for flash aficionados;

Lucky for us, Adobe made an early version of Air (ie. Flash outside the browser) for Android which runs just fine on Eclair. Although it's no longer under development (hasn't been since June) it's therefore unsupported by Adobe, and missing the odd feature such as GPU acceleration.

However, my early tests show it runs pretty well, comparing it to my Nexus One at least.

There are some limitations such as only running newer Actionscript3, (and no multi-touch, ha-ha ;O) ..but i can still see a great opportunity promoting and supporting Air on the X10. More so since every Air app or game i've seen so far only runs on Froyo.

As i see it, there's now a distinct niche supporting Air for Eclair userbase, so i hope some of you will consider helping me to exploit it. I'm here to help however i can, like porting as much stuff as possible to run on our Eclair devices, and ask anyone who's interested to offer support such as testing, designing, coding, or whatever. (PM or post here if interested to help out) I also propose a unique identifier; 'EPX'. The meaning will become obvious later. ;)

To kick things off, i've attached a splash image, the Air Runtime for Eclair, and a sample game to test it. Here are the details about the game;

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- Called "Code Bummer" made by Jesse Freeman, Dan Wolfe, Sean McCracken. (renamed "Hobo" with new icon, and recompiled to run on Eclair)

- Source code; http://github.com/jessefreeman/codebummer (a very clean example of a flash game for Android!)

- Description; http://www.appbrain.com/app/code-bummer/air.com.gamecook.CodeBummer (members will notice it says "Your device has Android 2.1. However this app is for Android version 2.2 and higher")

- Performance Tip: I find that after starting the game, the responsiveness is a bit slow, so i press back button (out of the game) then reload back into the game, and performance is much more playable.

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Enjoy!

:)

[UPDATE]

Anyone interested in developing Air for Eclair apps or games (that will also work on the latest Air for Froyo runtime) should stick to ONLY using the June 3rd SDK here...

(AIR25_win_sdk_20100603.zip)

http://www.mediafire.com/?m19cetvay9xqx38

Or the June 3rd CS5 Air Extension here...

(AIRforAndroid_FlashCS5_060310.zxp)

http://www.mediafire.com/?22hewf5kg98u3sd

Both of ^these are for Windows developers only.

We are also looking for the existing Linux and Mac SDK's dated the 3rd of June. If you have one of these, then please let us know, so that we may share it with everyone who needs it.

Cheers!