Adobe Flash Player

Developer(s)	Adobe Systems (formerly by Macromedia)
Initial release	1996; 17 years ago)
Stable release	Microsoft Windows: 11.7.700.202 (14 May 2013; 3 days ago)) OS X: 11.7.700.202 (14 May 2013; 3 days ago)) Google Chrome with PPAPI-based Flash Player: 11.7.700.202 (14 May 2013; 3 days ago)) Linux (except for Google Chrome): 11.2.202.285 (14 May 2013; 3 days ago)) Android: 4.0: 11.1.115.58 2.x/3.x: 11.1.111.54 (14 May 2013; 3 days ago)) Solaris: 11.2.202.223 (28 March 2012; 13 months ago))
Preview release	None
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Android, and Pocket PC
Platform	Web browsers and ActiveX-based software
Available in	Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Korean, and Turkish.[1]
Type	Run-time environment, Media player, and Browser extension
License	Freeware
Website	www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

The Adobe Flash Player is freeware software for viewing multimedia, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming video and audio, content created on the Adobe Flash platform. Flash Player can run from a web browser (as a browser plug-in) or on supported mobile devices, but there also exist versions running directly on an operating system intended both for regular users and content developers, denoted with the Projector (or Standalone) and Debugger name suffixes, respectively.^[2] Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash Professional authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other Macromedia and third party tools. Flash Player was created by Macromedia and now developed and distributed by Adobe Systems after its acquisition.

Flash Player supports vector and raster graphics, 3D graphics, an embedded scripting language called ActionScript executed in ActionScript Virtual Machine, and streaming of video and audio. ActionScript is based on ECMAScript, and supports object-oriented code, and may be compared to JavaScript. Flash Player has a wide user base, with over 90% penetration on internet connected personal computers,^[3][4][5] and is a common format for games, animations, and GUIs embedded into web pages. Adobe Systems, the developer of Adobe Flash Player, states that more than 400 million of total more than 1 billion connected desktops update to the new version of Flash Player within six weeks of release.^[6]

Flash Player can be downloaded for free and its plug-in version is available for recent versions of web browsers (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari) on selected platforms. Google Chrome distribution comes bundled with the sandboxed Adobe Flash plug-in and will continue to support the plug-in in Windows 8 Metro mode.^[7][8][9] Each version of Adobe Flash Player is backwards-compatible.

Contents 1 Architecture 1.1 Runtime 1.2 Data formats 1.3 Multimedia formats 1.4 Streaming Protocols 1.5 Performance 1.5.1 Hardware Acceleration 1.5.2 Compilation 2 Development toolset 2.1 Application development 2.2 Game development 2.3 Open source 3 Availability 3.1 Desktop platforms 3.2 Mobile platforms 4 Criticism 4.1 Usability 4.2 Privacy 4.3 Security 4.4 Apple controversy 5 Release history 6 See also 7 References and notes 8 External links

Architecture

Runtime

Adobe Flash Player is a runtime that executes and displays content from a provided SWF file, although it has no in-built features to modify the SWF file at runtime. It can execute software written in the ActionScript programming language which enables the runtime manipulation of text, data, vector graphics, raster graphics, sound and video. The player can also access certain connected hardware devices, including web cameras and microphones, after permission for the same has been granted by the user.

Flash Player is used internally by the Adobe Integrated Runtime (Adobe AIR), in order to provide a cross-platform runtime environment for desktop applications and mobile applications. Adobe AIR supports installable applications on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and some mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android. Flash applications must specifically be built for the Adobe AIR runtime in order to utilize additional features provided, such as file system integration, native client extensions, native window/screen integration, taskbar/dock integration, and hardware integration with connected Accelerometer and GPS devices.^[10]

Data formats

Flash Player includes native support for many different data formats, some of which can only be accessed through the ActionScript scripting interface.

• XML: Flash Player has included native support for XML parsing and generation since version 8. XML data is held in memory as an XML Document Object Model, and can be manipulated using ActionScript. ActionScript 3 also supports ECMAScript for XML (E4X), which allows XML data to be manipulated more easily.

• JSON: Flash Player 11 includes native support for importing and exporting data in the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format, which allows interoperability with web services and JavaScript programs.

• AMF: Flash Player allows cookies to be stored on users computers, in the form of Local Shared Objects, the Flash equivalent to browser cookies.^[11] Flash Player can also natively read and write files in the Action Message Format, the default data format for Local Shared Objects. Since the AMF format specification is published, data can be transferred to and from Flash applications using AMF datasets instead of JSON or XML, reducing the need for parsing and validating such data.

• SWF: The specification for the SWF file format was published by Adobe, enabling the development of the SWX Format project, which utilized the SWF file format and AMF as a means for Flash applications to exchange data with server side applications.^[12][13] The SWX system stores data as standard SWF bytecode which is automatically interpreted by Flash Player.^[14] Another open-source project, SWXml allows Flash applications to load XML files as native ActionScript objects without any client-side XML parsing, by converting XML files to SWF/AMF on the server.^[15][16]

Multimedia formats

Flash Player is primarily a graphics and multimedia platform, and has supported raster graphics and vector graphics since its earliest version. It supports the following different multimedia formats which it can natively decode and playback.

• MP3: Support for decoding and playback of streaming MPEG-2 Audio Layer III (MP3) audio was introduced in Flash Player 4. MP3 files can be accessed and played back from a server via HTTP, or embedded inside an SWF file, which is also a streaming format.

• FLV: Support for decoding and playing back video and audio inside Flash Video (FLV and F4V) files, a format developed by Adobe Systems and Macromedia. Flash Video is only a container format and supports multiple different video codecs, such as Sorenson Spark, VP6 and more recently H.264.^[17] Flash Player uses hardware acceleration to display video where present, using technologies such as DirectX Video Acceleration and OpenGL to do so. Flash Video is used by YouTube,^[18] Hulu,^[19] Yahoo! Video, BBC Online^[20] and other news providers. FLV files can be played back from a server using HTTP progressive download, and can also be embedded inside an SWF file. Flash Video can also be streamed via RTMP using the Adobe Flash Media Server or other such server-side software.

• PNG: Support for decoding and rendering Portable Network Graphics (PNG) images, in both its 24-bit (opaque) and 32-bit (semi-transparent) variants. Flash Player 11 can also encode a PNG bitmap via ActionScript.

• JPEG: Support for decoding and rendering compressed JPEG images. Flash Player 10 added support for the JPEG-XR advanced image compression standard developed by Microsoft Corporation, which results in better compression and quality than JPEG. JPEG-XR enables lossy and lossless compression with or without alpha channel transparency. Flash Player 11 can also encode a JPEG or JPEG-XR bitmap via ActionScript.

• GIF: Support for decoding and rendering compressed Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) images, in its single-frame variants only. Loading a multi-frame GIF will display only the first image frame.

Streaming Protocols

• HTTP: Support for communicating with web servers using HTTP requests and POST data.^[21] However, only websites that explicitly allow Flash to connect to them can be accessed via HTTP or Sockets, in order to prevent Flash being used as a tool for Cross-site request forgery,^[22] Cross-site scripting, DNS rebinding^[23] and Denial-of-service attacks. Websites must host a certain XML file known as a "cross domain policy",^[23] allowing or denying Flash content from specific websites to connect to them. Certain websites, such as Digg, Flikr, Photobucket already host a cross domain policy that permits Flash content to access their website via HTTP.^[24]

• RTMP: Support for live audio and video streaming using the Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) developed by Macromedia. RTMP supports a non-encrypted version over the TCP or an encrypted version over a secure SSL connection. RTMPT can also be encapsulated within HTTP requests to traverse firewalls that only allow HTTP traffics.

• TCP: Support for TCP socket communication to communicate with any type of server, using stream sockets. Sockets can only be utilized using ActionScript, and can transfer plain text, XML or binary data (ActionScript 3.0 and later).^[25][26] In order to prevent security issues, web servers that permit Flash content to communicate with them using sockets must host an XML-based cross domain policy file, served on Port 843.^[27] Sockets enable AS3 programs to interface with any kind of server software, such as MySQL.^[28]

Performance

Hardware Acceleration

Current versions of Flash Player are optimized to use hardware acceleration for video playback and 3D graphics rendering on many devices, including desktop computers. Performance is similar to HTML5 video playback.^[29][30] Also, Flash Player has been used on multiple mobile devices as a primary user interface renderer.^[31]

Compilation

Although code written in ActionScript 3 executes up to 10 times faster than the previous ActionScript 2,^[32] the Adobe ActionScript 3 compiler is a non-optimizing compiler, and produces inefficient bytecode in the resulting SWF, when compared to toolkits such as Adobe Alchemy (now available as part of the Flash C++ Compiler).^{[33][34][35][36][37]}

The Flash C++ Compiler, a toolkit that targets C++ code to run within the Flash Player, uses the LLVM compiler to produce bytecode that runs up to 10 times faster than code the ActionScript 3 compiler produces, only because the LLVM compiler uses more aggressive optimization.^[35][36][37]

Adobe has released ActionScript Compiler 2 (ASC2) in Flex 4.7 and onwards, which improves compilation times and optimizes the generated bytecode and supports method inlining, improving its performance at runtime.^[38]

As of 2012, the Haxe multiplatform language can build programs for Flash Player that perform faster than the same application built with the Adobe Flex SDK compiler.^[39]

Development toolset

Application development

Adobe has provided a free SDK in order to build Flash applications, now known as the Apache Flex SDK. The Flex SDK allows developers to use any text editor such as Notepad++ or FlashDevelop (an IDE) to edit ActionScript source code (.as files), and then build a corresponding Flash application application (.swf) or AIR application application and installer (.air file) from the same.

Adobe AIR applications can be built either with the Apache Flex Framework, or without. The framework is an integrated collection of stylable Graphical User Interface, data manipulation and networking components, and applications built upon it are known as "Flex" applications. Applications built without the framework depend entirely on the developer's own skills and artistic abilities, and are commonly known as "pure ActionScript" projects.

In both methods, developers can access the full Flash Player set of functionalities, including text, vector graphics, bitmap graphics, video, audio, camera and microphone support, among others. Adobe AIR also includes additional features such as file system integration, native extensions, native desktop integration, and hardware integration with connected devices.

Adobe provides three ways of developing applications:

• Adobe Flash Builder (formerly Adobe Flex Builder)
• Adobe Flash Professional
• Flash Runtime C++ Compiler (compiles C++ code to run in Flash Player)

Third-party development environments are also available:

• FlashDevelop, an open-source Flash ActionScript IDE, which includes a debugger for AIR applications
• FDT by PowerFlasher Solutions, a commercial ActionScript IDE
• CodeDrive, an extension to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 for ActionScript 3 development and debugging

Game development

Adobe developed the Flash Runtime C++ Compiler (also known as "FlasCC"), that cross-compiles C/C++ code to run within the Flash Player, using LLVM and GCC as compiler backends, and high-performance memory-access opcodes in the Flash Player (known as "Domain Memory") to work with in-memory data quickly.^[40] FlasCC is targeted toward the game development industry, and includes tools for building, testing, and debugging C/C++ projects in Flash Player.

FlasCC also uses the GPU-based 3D rendering acceleration present in Flash Player 11 (known as "Stage3D"), and when used in combination with Domain Memory, form the Premium Features for Flash Player (also known as "XC APIs").^[41] The Premium Features must be licensed for use and publishers must pay royalties to Adobe for use of the same.^[41] Adobe also ported OpenGL for use within Flash Player Stage3D and released it as an open-source project in 2012.^[42]

Open source

The documentation for the SWF file format is provided by Adobe free of cost on their website,.^[43] after they relaxed the requirement of accepting a non-disclosure agreement to view the same in 2008.^[44]

Adobe has not been willing to make complete source code of the Flash Player available for free software development. Free and open source alternatives to the Adobe Flash Player such as Gnash have been built, but are still incomplete and therefore not a viable alternative. The Lightspark Player is another such project, and has made more progress.^[45]

The source code for ActionScript Virtual Machine 2 (AVM2) which implements ActionScript 3 was donated as open-source to Mozilla Foundation on November 7, 2006, to begin work on the Tamarin virtual machine that will finally implement the ECMAScript 4 language standard with the help of the Mozilla community.^[46] It was released under the terms of a MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license and includes the specification for the ActionScript bytecode format. Tamarin Project is jointly managed by Mozilla and Adobe Systems.^[47]

The Adobe Flex SDK which compiles SWF files from source code was released as an open-source project and was donated to the Apache Software Foundation in 2011, and rebranded as Apache Flex.^[48]

Adobe created the Open Screen Project which removes licensing fees and opens data protocols for Flash.

The Flash community has created many open-source projects that target Flash Player, such as FlashDevelop (an alternative IDE to Flash Builder), MTASC (compiler), and Haxe (multiplatform language).^[49]

Some CPU emulators have been created for Flash Player, including Chip8,^[50] Commodore 64,^[51] ZX Spectrum^[52] and the Nintendo Entertainment System.^[53]

Availability

Desktop platforms

The latest version of Flash Player, is available for many major desktop platforms including Windows (XP and newer) and Mac OS X (10.6 and later).^[54][55] The latest version is also available on Linux but only on Google Chrome as Adobe no longer releases updates for the non-PPAPI plugin on Linux.^[56]

Adobe released an alpha version of Flash Player 10 for x86-64 Linux on November 17, 2008. Adobe released a beta version of Flash Player 11 on July 13, 2011, which has 64-bit editions for all supported platforms.^[57] Flash Player 11 was released to web on October 3, 2011.

Adobe Flash Player 11 is available in three flavors: "ActiveX", "Plug-in" and "Projector". The "ActiveX" version is an ActiveX control for use in Internet Explorer and any other Windows applications that supports ActiveX technology. The "plug-in" version is available for Netscape-compatible browsers on Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and Linux. The "projector" version is a standalone player that can open SWF files directly.^[58]

In February 2012, Adobe announced it would discontinue development of Flash Player on Linux for all browsers except Google Chrome.^[59][60]

Mobile platforms

In 2011, Flash Player had emerged as the de facto standard for online video publishing on the desktop, with adaptive bitrate video streaming, DRM, and fullscreen support.^[18][19] On mobile devices however, after Apple refused to allow the Flash Player within the inbuilt iOS web browser, Adobe changed strategy enabling Flash content to be delivered as native mobile applications using the Adobe Integrated Runtime.

Up until 2012, Flash Player 11 was available for the Android (ARM Cortex-A8 and above),^[54][61] although in June 2012, Google announced that Android 4.1 (codenamed Jelly Bean) will not support Flash by default. Starting in August 2012, it is not possible to install Flash Player onto Android devices, and only devices with Flash already installed are updated.^[62]

Flash Player is certified to be supported on a select range of mobile and tablet devices, from Acer, Dell, HTC, Lenovo, Logitech, LG, Motorola, Research In Motion, Samsung, Sharp, SoftBank, Sony (and Sony Ericsson), and Toshiba.^[63][64][65] As of 2012, Adobe has stopped browser-based Flash Player development for mobile browsers in favor of HTML5,^[66][67] however Adobe continues to support Flash content on mobile devices with the Adobe Integrated Runtime, which allows developers to publish content that runs as native applications on certain supported mobile phone platforms.

Version 9 is the most recent version currently available for the Linux/ARM-based Nokia 770/N800/N810 Internet Tablets running Maemo OS2008, classic Mac OS and Windows 95/NT.^[68][69] Version 10 can be run under Windows 98/Me using KernelEx. HP offers Version 6 of the player for HP-UX.^[70] Other versions of the player have been available at some point for OS/2, Symbian OS, Palm OS, BeOS and IRIX.^[71] The Kodak Easyshare One includes Flash Player.^[72]

Adobe said it will optimize Flash for use on ARM architecture (ARMv6 and ARMv7 architectures used in the ARM11 family and the Cortex-A series of processors) and release it in the second half of 2009. The company also stated it wants to enable Flash on NVIDIA Tegra, Texas Instruments OMAP 3 and Samsung ARMs.^[73][74] Beginning 2009, it was announced that Adobe would be bringing Flash to TV sets via Intel Media Processor CE 3100 before mid-2009.^[75] Later on, ARM Holdings said it welcomes the move of Flash, because "it will transform mobile applications and it removes the claim that the desktop controls the Internet."^[76] However, as of May 2009, the expected ARM/Linux netbook devices had poor support for Web video and fragmented software base.^[77]

Among other devices, LeapFrog Enterprises provides Flash Player with their Leapster Multimedia Learning System and extended the Flash Player with touch-screen support.^[78] Sony has integrated Flash Player 6 into the PlayStation Portable's web browser via firmware version 2.70 and Flash Player 9 into the PlayStation 3's web browser in firmware version 2.50.^[79] Nintendo has integrated Flash Lite 3.1, equivalent to Flash 8, in the Internet Channel on the Wii.

The following table documents Flash Player and Adobe AIR support on mobile operating systems:

Operating System	Prerequisites	Usage	Latest Adobe Flash Player
Android	Android 2.2+, ARM Cortex-A8+	Standalone Applications & Internet Browser[80]	Flash Player 11.1, AIR 3.1[61][81][82]
Android	Android 2.1, available on some rare Android Devices like the Motorola Flipout	Internet Browser	Flash Lite 3.0
Apple iOS	None	Standalone Applications	Flash Player 11.1, AIR 3.1[54][81]
BlackBerry Tablet OS	None	Standalone Applications & Internet Browser	Flash Player 11.1, AIR 3.1[81][83]
Maemo		Internet Browser	Flash Player 9.4[84]
PS3	Firmware 2.50, NetFront 2.81	Internet Browser	Flash Player 9.1 (update 3)
PSP	Firmware 2.70	Internet Browser	Flash Player 6)[85]
Symbian OS		Internet Browser	Flash Lite 4.0[86]
Wii	Opera	Internet Channel	Flash Lite 3.1[87]
Pocket PC	Pocket PC 2003[88]	Internet Browser	Flash Player 7 (stand-alone apps v6)[89][90]
Windows Mobile	Windows Mobile 5[88]	Internet Browser	Flash Player 7[89]

Criticism

Usability

In some browsers, previous Flash versions have had to be uninstalled before an updated version could be installed.^[91][92] However, as of version 11.2 for Windows, there are now automatic updater options.^[93] Linux is partially supported, as Adobe is cooperating with Google to implement it via Chrome web browser on all Linux platforms.^[94]

Privacy

Flash Player supports persistent local storage of data (also referred to as Local Shared Objects), which can be used similarly to HTTP cookies or Web Storage in web applications. Local storage in Flash Player allows websites to store non-executable data on a user's computer, such as authentication information, game high scores or saved games, server-based session identifiers, site preferences, saved work, or temporary files. Flash Player will only allow content originating from exactly the same website domain to access data saved in local storage.^[95]

Because local storage can be used to save information on a computer that is later retrieved by the same site, a site can use it to gather user statistics, similar to how HTTP cookies and Web Storage can be used. With such technologies, the possibility of building a profile based on user statistics is considered by some a potential privacy concern. Users can disable or restrict use of local storage in Flash Player through a "Settings Manager" page.^[96][97] These settings can be accessed from the Adobe website or by right-clicking on Flash-based content and selecting "Global Settings".

Local storage can be disabled entirely or on a site-by-site basis. Disabling local storage will block any content from saving local user information using Flash Player, but this may disable or reduce the functionality of some websites, such as saved preferences or high scores and saved progress in games.

Flash Player 10.1 and upward honor the privacy mode settings in the latest versions of the Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari web browsers, such that no local storage data is saved when the browser's privacy mode is in use.^[98]

Security

Flash Player 10.3 introduced a Local Settings Manager that can be accessed from the Microsoft Windows Control Panel or the Mac OS X System Preferences panel. This panel superseded the previous Global Online Settings Manager.^[96] The Privacy Settings panel allows users to specify whether websites must ask their permission before using the web camera or microphone.^[99] This was apparently part of a fix for vulnerabilities that enabled the use of Flash for spying via web camera.^[100][101]

Steve Jobs criticized the security of Flash Player, noting that "Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009".^[102] Adobe responded by pointing out that "the Symantec Global Internet Threat Report for 2009 found that Flash Player had the second lowest number of vulnerabilities of all Internet technologies listed (which included both web plug-ins and browsers)."^[103][104]

Adobe security bulletins and advisories announce security updates, but Adobe Flash Player release notes do not disclose the security issues addressed when a release closes security holes, making it difficult to evaluate the urgency of a particular update. A version test page allows the user to check if the latest version is installed, and uninstallers may be used to ensure that old-version plugins have been uninstalled from all installed browsers.

Apple controversy

In April 2010, Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple Inc. published an open letter explaining why Apple wouldn't allow Flash on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. In the letter he blamed the "openness", the stability, the security and the performance of the Flash Player as reasons for refusing to support it. He also claimed that when one of Apple's Macintosh computers crashes, "more often than not" the cause can be attributed to Flash. Additionally, he described Flash as "buggy".^[105] Adobe's CEO Shantanu Narayen responded by saying, "If Flash [is] the number one reason that Macs crash, which I'm not aware of, it has as much to do with the Apple operating system."^[106]

Steve Jobs also claimed that a large percentage of the video on the internet is supported on iOS, since many popular video sharing websites such as YouTube have published video content in an HTML5 compatible format, enabling videos to playback in mobile web browsers even without Flash Player.^[107]

Various members of the industry have claimed that Steve Jobs rejected Flash on the iPhone for business reasons, rather than the technical reasons he mentions in his letter.^[108][109]

“	Allowing Flash—which is a development platform of its own—would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it. Flash has evolved from being a mere animation player into a multimedia platform capable of running applications of its own. That means Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store.	”
—"Why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone," Wired Magazine, (2008)[110]

Release history

• Macromedia Flash Player 2 (1997)
  • Mostly vectors and motion, some bitmaps, limited audio
  • Support of stereo sound, enhanced bitmap integration, buttons, the Library, and the capability to tween color changes.
• Macromedia Flash Player 3 (1998)
  • Added alpha transparency, licensed MP3 compression
  • Brought improvements to animation, playback, and publishing, as well as the introduction of simple script commands for interactivity.
• Macromedia Flash Player 4 (May 1999)
  • Saw the introduction of streaming MP3s and the Motion Tween. Initially, the Flash Player plug-in was not bundled with popular web browsers and users had to visit Macromedia website to download it; As of 2000, however, the Flash Player was already being distributed with all AOL, Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers. Two years later it shipped with all releases of Windows XP. The install-base of the Flash Player reached 92 percent of all Internet users.
• Macromedia Flash Player 5 (August 2000)
  • A major leap forward in capability, with the evolution of Flash's scripting capabilities as released as ActionScript.
  • Saw the ability to customize the authoring environment's interface.
  • Macromedia Generator was the first initiative from Macromedia to separate design from content in Flash files. Generator 2.0 was released in April 2001 and featured real-time server-side generation of Flash content in its Enterprise Edition. Generator was discontinued in 2002 in favor of new technologies such as Flash Remoting, which allows for seamless transmission of data between the server and the client, and ColdFusion Server.
  • In October 2000, usability guru Jakob Nielsen wrote a polemic article regarding usability of Flash content entitled "Flash: 99% Bad". (Macromedia later hired Nielsen to help them improve Flash usability.)

• 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^[111]
  • Support for video, application components, shared libraries, and accessibility.
  • Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX, also released in 2002, allowed video to be streamed to Flash Player 6 (otherwise the video could be embedded into the Flash movie).
• 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
  • Ability to create charts, graphs and additional text effects with the new support for extensions (sold separately), high fidelity import of PDF and Adobe Illustrator 10 files, mobile and device development and a forms-based development environment. ActionScript 2.0 was also introduced, giving developers a formal object-oriented approach to ActionScript. V2 Components replaced Flash MX's components, being rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of ActionScript 2.0 and object-oriented principles.
  • In 2004, the "Flash Platform" was introduced. This expanded Flash to more than the Flash authoring tool. Flex 1.0 and Breeze 1.0 were released, both of which utilized the Flash Player as a delivery method but relied on tools other than the Flash authoring program to create Flash applications and presentations. Flash Lite 1.1 was also released, enabling mobile phones to play Flash content.
• Macromedia Flash Player 8 (version 8.0.22.0, codenamed Maelstrom) (August 2005)
  • Support for runtime loading of GIF and PNG images
  • New video codec (On2 VP6)
  • Improved runtime performance and runtime bitmap caching
  • Live filters and blendmodes
  • File upload and download capabilities
  • New text-rendering engine, the Saffron Type System
  • ExternalAPI subsystem introduced to replace fscommand
  • On December 3, 2005, Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia and its product portfolio (including Flash).^[112]
• Adobe Flash Player 9 (version 9.0.15.0, codenamed Zaphod and previously named Flash Player 8.5) (June 2006)
  • Introduction of ActionScript Virtual Machine 2 (AVM2). AVM1 retained for compatibility.
  • ActionScript 3 (a superset of ECMAScript 3) via AVM2.
  • E4X, which is a new approach to parsing XML.
  • Support for binary sockets.
  • Support for regular expressions and namespaces.
  • AVM2 donated to Mozilla Foundation as open-source virtual machine named Tamarin.
• Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 1 (version 9.0.28.0, codenamed Marvin) (November 2006)^[113]
  • Support for full-screen mode.^[114]
• 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)^[115][116]
  • H.264
  • AAC (HE-AAC, AAC Main Profile, and AAC-LC)
  • New Flash Video file format F4V based on the ISO base media file format (MPEG-4 Part 12)
  • Support for container formats based on the ISO base media file format^[116]
• Adobe Flash Player 10 (version 10.0.12.36, codenamed Astro) (October 2008)
  • New Features
    • 3D object transformations
    • Custom filters via Pixel Bender
    • Advanced text support
    • Speex audio codec
    • Real Time Media Flow Protocol (RTMFP)
    • Dynamic sound generation
    • Vector data type
  • Enhanced Features
    • Larger bitmap support
    • Graphics drawing API
    • Context menu
    • Hardware acceleration
    • Anti-aliasing engine (Saffron 3.1)
    • Read/write clipboard access
    • WMODE
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 (version 10.1.53.64, codenamed Argo) (June 2010)^[117]
  • Reuse of bitmap data copies for better memory management
  • Improved garbage collector
  • Hardware-based H.264 video decoding
  • HTTP Dynamic Streaming
  • Peer-assisted networking and multicast
  • Support for browser privacy modes
  • Multi-touch APIs
  • For Macs/OSX 10.4 ppc or later
    • Using Cocoa UI for Macs
    • Use of double-buffered OpenGL context for fullscreen
    • Use of Core Animation
• Adobe Flash Player 10.2 (version 10.2.152.26, codenamed Spicy) (February 2011)
  • Stage Video, a full hardware-accelerated video pipeline
  • Internet Explorer 9 hardware-accelerated rendering support
  • Custom native mouse cursors
  • Multiple monitor full-screen support
  • Enhanced subpixel rendering for text
• Adobe Flash Player 10.3 (version 10.3.181.14, codenamed Wasabi) (May 2011)^[118]
  • Media measurement (video analytics for websites; desktop only)
  • Acoustic Echo Cancellation (acoustic echo cancellation, noise suppression, voice activity detection, automatic compensation for microphone input levels; desktop only)
  • Integration with browser privacy controls for managing local storage (ClearSiteData NPAPI)
  • Native control panel
  • Auto-update notification for Mac OS
• Adobe Flash Player 11 (version 11.0.1.152, codenamed Serrano) (October 2011)^[119]
  • Desktop only
    • Stage 3D accelerated graphics rendering^[120]
      • Desktop: Windows (DirectX 9), Mac OS X (Intel processor only) and Linux (OpenGL 1.3), SwiftShader fallback
      • Mobile: Android and iOS (OpenGL ES 2)
    • H.264/AVC software encoding for cameras
    • Native 64-bit
    • Asynchronous Bitmap Decoding
    • TLS secure sockets
  • Desktop and mobile
    • Stage Video hardware acceleration
    • Native extension libraries^[121]
      • Desktop: Windows (.dll), OS X (.framework)
      • Mobile: Android (.jar, .so), iOS (.a)
    • JPEG XR decoding
    • G.711 audio compression for telephony
    • Protected HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS)
    • Unlimited bitmap size
    • LZMA SWF compression
  • Mobile only
    • H.264/AAC playback
    • Front-facing camera
    • Background audio playback
    • Device speaker control
    • 16 and 32-bit color depth
• Adobe Flash Player 11.1 (version 11.1.102.55, codenamed Anza) (November 2011)^[122]
  • Last version of the web browser plug-in for mobile devices (made for Android 2.2 to 4.0.3)
  • iOS 5 native extensions for AIR
  • StageText: Native text input UI for Android
  • Security enhancements
• Adobe Flash Player 11.2 (codenamed Brannan) (March 2012)^[123]
  • The Windows version offers automatic updater options.^[93]
  • Dropped support of the browser plug-in for mobile devices (Android). Android app developers are encouraged to use Adobe Air and Android web developers should switch to HTML5.
  • Extended support for Flash player 11.2 on Linux and Solaris as it is the last version to be supported .
• Adobe Flash Player 11.3
  • Desktop and mobile
    • Fullscreen interactive mode (keyboard input during fullscreen)
    • Native bitmap encoding and compression (PNG, JPEG, JPEG-XR)
    • Draw bitmaps with quality (low, medium, high, best)
    • Texture streaming for Stage3D
    • Dropped support for Linux and Solaris.
  • Mobile-only
    • Auto-orientation on specific devices
    • USB debugging for AIR on iOS
• Adobe Flash Player 11.4
  • Flash Player only
    • ActionScript workers
    • SandboxBridge support
    • Licensing support: Flash Player Premium Features for Gaming
  • Flash Player and AIR
    • Stage3D "constrained" profile for increased GPU reach
    • LZMA support for ByteArray
    • StageVideo attachCamera/Camera improvements
    • Compressed texture with alpha support for Stage3D
    • DXT encoding
  • AIR only
    • Deprecated Carbon APIs for AIR
    • Direct AIR deployment using ADT
    • Push notifications for iOS
    • Ambient AudioPlaybackMode
    • Exception support in Native Extensions for iOS
• Adobe Flash Player 11.5 ^[124]
  • Shared ByteArray
  • Invoke Event enhancement (for openurl)
  • Packaging multiple libraries in an ANE (iOS)
  • Debug stack trace in release builds of Flash Player
  • Statically link DRM (Desktop only)
• Adobe Flash Player 11.6 (codenamed Folsom) ^[125]
  • Lossless video export from standalone and authplay.dll
  • Support for flash.display.graphics.readGraphicsData() that returns a Vector of IGraphicsData
  • Improve permissions UI related to full screen keyboard access
  • Prevent ActiveX Abuse in Office Documents
  • Support file access in cloud on Windows
  • Enhance multi-SWF support
  • Migration certification for ANEs
  • RectangleTexture
  • File API update so AIR apps conform to Apple data storage guidelines
  • Separate sampler state for Stage3D
  • Set device specific Retina Display resolution (iOS)
• Adobe Flash Player 11.7 (codenamed Geary) ^[126]
  • SharedObject.preventBackup property
  • forceCPURenderModeForDevices
  • Remote hosting of SWF files in case of multiple SWFs
  • Support for uploading 16-bit texture formats
  • GameInput updates
  • Android - Create captive runtime apps

See also

• Adobe Shockwave
• Microsoft Silverlight
• Adobe Integrated Runtime
• Apache Flex

References and notes

External links

• Adobe Flash Player
• Find Flash Player version