Every day I am checking Macromedia for a new version of their Flash 6 player (which should have been out by now). Its worse than waiting for the gifts on christmas eve.
The reason for this eagerness for a new version of their Flash player? When I was in San Francisco earlier this spring (in the beginning of April) I was allowed a video interview with Jeremy Allarie for Flashmagazine.com. Allaire and I sat down and talked about what is going on these days with the release of Macromedia MX. (Of course, only after I had signed an NDA, agreeing not to say a word about what I would get to know before the 29th of April).
Now the news is out, and every day that goes the news worthiness of the interview diminishes. And all because we can not see ourselves making available broadband content based on the Flash MX video streaming capabilities now.
A streaming bug in the current Flash 6 player causes the player not to cut downloads unless the user actually shut down their browser, just leaving the page with the content will not stop the download. The implications when it happens with enough users is easy to see: For the user its an inconvenience that their bandwidth is hogged up without any apparent reason. But for Flashmagazine it would be devastating, many thousands of users starting feeds that they would just continue to run, even without having any interest in seeing the content – would jam the server and run the costs for hosting through the roof. (Actually, more like to outer space, since Flashmagazine.com already have a pretty hefty bandwidth bill).
So Macromedia, please make the new Flash 6 player available soon!
(I wrote about the streaming bug on the 20th of April)
Mike Chambers just noted (see the comments of this post) that the player will be available this week sometime. He referes to the security note about the streaming bug. He is right, it does state that the player will be available by the end of this week. (It states 7-10 business days from the date (19th of april), and that translates to within friday the 3rd of may).
jarle,
we want this fixed as much as you do, but also want to ensure that we completly fix the issue. have you seen:
http://www.macromedia.com/v1/handlers/index.cfm?ID=22796&Method=Full&Title=Macromedia%20Flash%20Player%206%20Streaming%20Issue&Cache=False
which among other things states that the player will be avaliable this week.
mike chambers
[email protected]
try this link http://www.macromedia.com/v1/handlers/index.cfm?ID=22796&Method=Full&Title=Macromedia%20Flash%20Player%206%20Streaming%20Issue&Cache=False