The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash 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 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,[2][3][4] and is a common format for games, animations, and GUIs embedded into web pages.
Flash Player is freely available as a plugin for recent versions of web browsers (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari) on selected platforms. Google Chrome integrated the player into the distribution. Each version of the plugin is backwards-compatible.
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. The runtime 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
Although widely expected, as it happened, there was no iPhone 5 in 2011 after all, but the company did announce the iPhone 4S.
However,
the new iPhone 5 is still on the cards - we're expecting it to debut in
the middle of this year. So we've gathered together all the latest
iPhone 5 rumours and rounded them up below.
The 4S is the phone
that appeared when the whole world was looking forward to the iPhone 5
anyway, so make up your own mind whether to make the jump to Apple's
latest now or save those pennies for the iPhone 5 release.
iPhone 5 form factor
Unlike the iPhone 4S, the new iPhone
will be a completely new design from what has gone before, so that
means an entirely new casing as we saw with the iPhone 3G and, later, the iPhone 4.
Interestingly,
someone who claimed to have seen a larger-screened iPhone 5 prototype
said in November 2011 that Steve Jobs canned the new handset and opted
for the iPhone 4S because of the larger screen size of the new device. According to Business Insider, it was feared that a new size would create a two-tier iPhone ecosystem.
Beatweek also claimed in November 2011 that the 5-inch was scrapped "because Apple wouldn't be able to do it properly" this year. However, the Daily Mail
(make of that what you will) then suggested that a four-inch version
was likely and that Sony has already shipped top secret demo screens to
Apple.
However,
the new iPhone 5 is still on the cards - we're expecting it to debut in
the middle of this year. So we've gathered together all the latest
iPhone 5 rumours and rounded them up below.
The 4S is the phone
that appeared when the whole world was looking forward to the iPhone 5
anyway, so make up your own mind whether to make the jump to Apple's
latest now or save those pennies for the iPhone 5 release.
Given
the pattern of Apple's iPhone launches, we're expecting the next-gen
iPhone 5 to debut in mid to late 2012. We reckon it's most likely to be
shown off at Apple's Worldwide Developer Event (WWDC), which usually
takes place in early June.
Rumours that we reported on 18 October claim an iPhone 5 release date of Summer 2012. Analyst Ashok Kumar claimed that the absent iPhone 5 was meant to be the big announcement at the recent event where the iPhone 4S was launched.
We also reported in February
that the new iPhone would be launched in October, falling into line
with the same release schedule from last year, and Macotakara 'sources'
confirming the Cupertino brand would be honouring the same upgrade cycle
from now on.
iPhone 5 specs
Based on the roadmap of mobile chip design
specialist ARM (of which Apple is a licensee), we'll see a quad-core
processor debut in the new iPhone 5 - probably called the Apple A6. We
know that we'll see other quad core handsets debut in 2012, so it's not
too much of a stretch to say that the iPhone 5 will be the same.
Game on!
iPhone 5 screen
Various sources claim the
iPhone 5 will feature a larger, 4-inch screen. Digitimes quotes the
source as saying that Apple is expanding the screen size "to support the
tablet PC market as the vendor only has a 9.7-inch iPad in the
market."
On 23 May 2011, we reported on rumours that the iPhone 5 could feature a curved glass screen.
These rumours also came from Digitimes, which said that Apple has
purchased between 200 and 300 special glass cutting machines because
they're too costly for the manufacturers to invest in.
In March 2012, new reports suggested that the new iPhone 5 would come sporting a larger 4.6-inch retina display.
