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Flash Player 10.2 available for Android OS

Enhances performance and support for Honeycomb tablets

Flash Player 10.2 available for Android OS
In Steve Jobs’s opinion, Adobe’s Flash technology isn’t fit for purpose when it comes to his mobile hardware, yet that hasn’t stopped the maker of the plug-in developing it for competing platforms.

After a series of delays, Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 finally landed on Android last June to striking demand, providing owners of an Android 2.2 or above handset with a fuller web browsing experience.

And whilst the proprietary player didn’t arrive completely without fault or bug, at least having the option to run Flash-based animations, games, and sites on a portable gizmo was warmly welcomed.

Comes in tablet form

Now, Adobe has released Flash Player 10.2 for Google’s mobile OS as a standalone download available via the Android Marketplace. The company promises this will enhance the performance on phones and, which supports tablets for the first time.

According to Adobe, it's been working closely with Google "to ensure tight integration and optimisation between Flash Player 10.2 and new OS and browser capabilities."

This means that Motorola’s recently released Xoom can access and view Flash content in much the same way it appears on desktop, though customers should be aware Flash Player 10.2 for Android 3.0 Honeycomb is a beta edition.

GA release imminent

For example, the tablet-flavoured version doesn’t yet support hardware acceleration (something Adobe intends to address over the next few weeks) and, in Technologizer’s opinion after testing, "works some of the time but not always, and not always well."

Hopefully, the final or general availability release will iron out the remaining Flash Player kinks for Android tablet users and perhaps make Apple’s CEO reconsider his viewpoint.

Nah, we didn’t think so either.

You can check out Flash 10.2 on the Android Market here.

With a degree in German up his sleeve Richard squares up to the following three questions every morning: FIFA or Pro Evo? XBox 360 or PS3? McNulty or Bunk?