[dcscott]

CNN / Wired claiming that the delay in launch of the PB is attributable to FLASH issues. Seems to fit with the reports from the live events of "choppy" FLASH performance.

No BlackBerry PlayBook? Blame Flash - CNN.com

[mapsonburt]

Hmmm... perhaps this is right. The RIM rep I saw today with the Playbook told me he wasn't "allowed" to show off youtube (which is flash based). He had a 'pre-prod' device.

[kritikal]

From the comments

Do a Google search on Brian Chen who wrote this article. He writes for MacWorld. GEEEEE I wonder if he's biased?

lol

[quellerie]

CNN / Wired claiming that the delay in launch of the PB is attributable to FLASH issues. Seems to fit with the reports from the live events of "choppy" FLASH performance.

No BlackBerry PlayBook? Blame Flash - CNN.com

Apple marketing is hard at work I see

I read one report of poor flash response from the LA PlayBook event. Can someone else who has played with the PB let us know their feelings about flash performance?

I have read so many hands on reviews, yet only a small percentage have complained about flash. I'm wondering if this really is Apple's PR machine going into gear ...The suspicious side of me thinks this is pure BS.

[Sonic77]

He seems to think the Playbook runs android flash !

Terrible article but will hurt.

Starting to think companies would have been better off investing in apple stock instead of tablets.

[greatwiseone]

I read it yesterday from Wired.com and the article's not very well written. The article clearly indicates that he hasn't done any research on QNX and what RIM is doing with the playbook. Really too bad that CNN decided to just copy and paste it...

[drethos]

Lol I don't believe anything from the Communist news network.

[MrWheelMan]

Lol I don't believe anything from the Communist news network.

What does Fox Network have to do with this?

[Cozmik]

Hands on with 2 separate demo PlayBooks and never had any issues on the Flash sites I went to.

[sf49ers]

Adobe AIR is not running in a VM on top of the QNX operating system unlike the Flash Player which is a VM. In fact, on Android devices it runs through two VM's. First the Adobe Flash VM, then the Android Dvalik VM, then to the Linux OS. Adobe AIR on the Playbook plugs directly into abstraction objects in the OS and allows direct access to the GPU to do the rendering instead of the CPU unlike on OSX/iOS and Linux.

Even traditional Linux, Mac OSX had problems with Flash due lack of direct GPU access or either due to the lack of efficient underlying stack. RIM is so confident about Adobe tools because QNX had deep integrated with Adobe and they had tweaked at each available opportunity to boost the performance and stability. QNX has been using Adobe as their main UI for the past 7 years and one can guess how the flash performance would be on the device.

Comparing Flash, HTML5 Performance

[peter9477]

Seems to fit with the reports from the live events of "choppy" FLASH performance.

I guarantee these reports are limited to cases where someone was watching a flash video in the browser and had a crappy WiFi connection. (Probably all WiFi connections used with it so far have been crappy since they're always at a convention or show, sharing it with dozens of others.)

Flash in the form of native apps, or non-streaming stuff in the browser, will be flawless... unless you try to run 3 ray-tracing demos, Quake, a video, and NFS all at the same time in which case you may see the frame rate drop slightly. ;-)

Chen is apparently another incarnation of that twit Shaw Wu who tried to pass off a bunch of bogus battery claims as real reporting back in January. We're about to see how far off the mark he was, too...

[jongomes]

I tried the playbook today and personally tried to push the flash player. I played a youtube video and pinch to zoom several times while the video was playing and it didnt skip a beat.

[omgitsalive]

Really, reading some of the comments on that site made my stomache turn...

Pb comes without email and apparently its a drama that you have to use a gmail app, type in webmail.company.com/owa in a browser or check your mail via smartphone

But when the numerous forms of missing functionality and connectivity of an ipad is mentioned its no problem to BUY an app or extension?

If people have enough money to spend on Steve Jobs then the world really needs another crisis...

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Edit: excuse the partially offtopic reply

[Sirhill]

This report is false. I have spent an crazy amount of time with the PB in recent weeks and can for one tell everyone here that Flash has not been an issue once. I have played flash games, watched youtube videos (including through the HDMI source) and have not seen an instance where flash was choppy of not functioning. As for the report from the LA show that wifi network had about 10-15 PB's running on it so that is to be expected. This is just a chance to make a dig at the device from uninformed people. Once they get there hands on this device and see that this is far from the truth they will stand corrected even if they never make that public knowledge.

[theruined]

This report is false. I have spent an crazy amount of time with the PB in recent weeks and can for one tell everyone here that Flash has not been an issue once. I have played flash games, watched youtube videos (including through the HDMI source) and have not seen an instance where flash was choppy of not functioning. As for the report from the LA show that wifi network had about 10-15 PB's running on it so that is to be expected. This is just a chance to make a dig at the device from uninformed people. Once they get there hands on this device and see that this is far from the truth they will stand corrected even if they never make that public knowledge.

From what I saw yesterday - I can say the same thing...probably played with the damed thing for 2 hours by myself and it was quite smooth, I had one issue where I had to refresh the page due to a flash video not loading and I attribute that to wifi...

Screen supply shortage? I don't think RIM would follow Apple on that one cause I think they chose something better...

[jenks5150]

haha even if it were the Apple marketing team spreading rumours about poor flash performance...

poor flash is better than no flash at all

But yeah, CNN and Fox...what an absolute joke.

[dutchtender]

it's already been verified by one of your very own members here who went to a launch event. he said the flash was choppy. Of course rimm could be using a "build" from December.

[Jake Storm]

Questioning flash on the PlayBook?
These guys are really grasping at straws.
Next thing you know, the big fail will be that the PlayBook doesn't come in white

[Intosh]

As I expected and already said, the media is trying to kill this device.

Surely, there will be people who will accuse me of being a "conspiracy theorist". That's the perfect mindset to be easily fooled by the media.

[BlackStormRising]

Wired - the TMZ of the tech world. Key phrases "some speculate" and "probably contributing". Solid reporting.

[UrbanGlowCam]

I was also at the event and was the one that felt the flash ran a bit choppy at times. I am trying to be as unbias as possible. I absolutely love the Playbook. The fact of the matter is, flash is a resource hog. I have no doubt RIM will improve on this though. Websites often ran flash fine but similar to what is said with Android, it did not run PERFECTLY. Many will disagree with me and say their Android device will run flash perfectly......pfft sorry it doesn't. It's very difficult to run flash perfectly without some great hardware. Or maybe your opinion differs from mine and I'm asking a lot. The issue is definitely there. It's one reason Apple is not touching it along with other political reasons.

I will say a big part contributing to this issue was the wifi network being really bogged down from SEVERAL devices connected.

So for the gist of it....as someone who played with the device for a long time and tested several websites

- WI-FI connection provided was very slow
- Playbook is still in beta device and has some time before release
- Will receive several future updates to OS which will improve on this
- I was told it was running Flash 10.1 and rumors are 10.2 will be coming

Also, I managed to run several websites just fine. Even if the flash animations occasionally ran choppy, the browser retained its fluid motion. It didn't bog down the whole experience. I hope that helped....

[UrbanGlowCam]

Let me add to this. I can't stress enough how great this device is. I was really impressed. Not only was I impressed, but I feel like it has the potential to do much more. This is really just the beginning of this new platform. Take everything the media says with a grain of salt. While some of them have very real concerns, others can be very ignorant and will make conclusions before trying it.

If you're worried even after seeing the countless videos appearing and hearing reviews, give a shot at using the device before blindly purchasing it. You won't be disappointed. In the end it's your opinion and your uses and opinions will be different from another.

I personally like software to have a very fluid motion. While I've never owned an Apple product I give them mad props for the polish their software has. Fortunately, the Playbook nears this level of polish and appears to be more powerful in its own way.

[rjshahan]

the ***** is commenting on the readiness of the device based on the bundle from CES. That is approximately 4 months before launch.

that is like saying this device sucks because the wooden design prototype doesn't power on.

[quellerie]

Fortunately, the Playbook nears this level of polish and appears to be more powerful in its own way.

I have to say I'm concerned to hear you use terms like "nears this level of polish" and "more powerful in its own way. You are a strong fan of RIM and, reading between the lines, you're saying the device is great but not quite there yet. Flash clearly wasn't ready for prime time. You mention they still have time - but when you saw this device they had about 2 weeks to launch.

IMHO the PB has to be at least as polished an experience as the iPad. Plus flash should not stutter. This is being marketed as "flash loving" and the critics will eat it alive if they see what you describe in their review units.

Ive been counting the days to launch since the announcement. I truly hope your flash experiences were WiFi and build-related and not an integral problem with flash on the models at release.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[peter9477]

I will say a big part contributing to this issue was the wifi network being really bogged down from SEVERAL devices connected.

I'd like to hear you justify why you don't think crappy WiFi was the only thing contributing to this issue.