Sony released PS3 firmware version 2.50 last night and one of the key features was the web browser being updated to include Flash 9 support, required by many gaming and video websites. I was recently introduced to Hulu.com and was happy to try out the new PS3 browser version. I watched an episode of Sons of Anarchy (highly recommended, by the way) with no problems. I didn’t get a chance to try out any of the popular Flash game sites yet, but the general buzz on the net is that it’s a slightly positive mixed bag. Some sites are still complaining that they need Flash 9 support even though the browser supposedly supports it.
While the PS3 upgraded to Adobe’s Flash 9, turns out Adobe went one better…
My curiosity was piqued as to what exactly made Flash 9 so different than previous versions so I went straight to the horses mouth, Adobe.com, where I literally did an honest-to-God real-life forehead smack. Adobe released Flash 10 today. The same “official” day that Sony released their Flash 9 support (because technically it was the 15th in Japan when they released it, even though I was able to download it before bed last night.) Wow, congratulations Sony for your perfect timing in staying exactly one whole version behind the curve.
In all honesty, yes, I know it will be quite some time before many sites are leveraging the Flash 10 specific enhancements, but the GPU acceleration support combined with the 3D support added to Flash 10 gives me the impression that Flash 10 gaming will take a significant leap over what’s possibly in Flash 9 and also that we’ll also likely not see it anytime soon on the PS3. I’d love to see GPU acceleration added to the PS3 browser, but it just doesn’t sound likely to me anytime soon.
What do you guys think, if you use the PS3 web browse, is having a current version of Flash important to you? Do you not use the PS3 browser because it doesn’t support features of sites you’d be likely to visit? Would you rather just see Sony license something like Opera or (yes, I know the multitude of reasons this won’t happen) Firefox? Sound off in the comments section…
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as interesting as flash 10 support would be for the ps3, if people are looking to that specifically for flash gaming…on the ps3, makes me wonder what they are using their ps3 for.
You would think that they would have asked the people from Flash if there where any updates coming soon.
But I guess that since there will not be many sites upgrading to this, this will not hurt Sony’s PS3…..much.
lol one step forward 2 steps back. O well still loving the update
It will probably be a while before things actually need flash 10. At least were getting something, Sony could of just said that they won’t update it. Also, I can tell you that flash 10 is better, when I tried the beta a while back on my linux pc, I noticed it was faster on that old computer, but it was a beta and made some sites crash FireFox.
I use the PS3 browser sparingly — mostly for youtube videos to be shown on my TV for an audience. The thing that I don’t like about the browser is when it runs out of memory and stops loading pages.
I’ll have to try hulu soon, though.
In constrast to the image, however, Flash 10 has been simultaneously released for linux. We’ll see if it crashes firefox as often as previous versions have — which is plenty.
@dankster: Yes, I was VERY happy to see Adobe release Ubuntu 7/8 versions of Flash 10 simultaneously instead of some half-assed buggy attempt long after release… so for that… props to Adobe.
Flash 10 doesn’t support Chrome.
I like my instantaneous page loads.
Unfortunately I haven’t had any success with multiple video sites that require Flash 9 to be view. Hulu videos started to load, then I chose full screen and now all videos fail to load. CBS video player also fails to load any content. I just had a friend try with his new PS3 and hulu just locked up the whole unit. While this upgrade to flash9 is welcomed, it looks like it doesn’t really works with flash9 content. Quite a shame. Sean, what type of PS3 do you own that makes this work?
I like the idea of having the ability to watch online video via my ps3 because it stays connected to my tv. I am having some issues though; I cant get a lot of the plugins to load even after getting the update. I am trying to watch NCIS from CBS’s website, but it won’t start the video. Is it running out of memory or something?
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