Saturday, October 18, 2008

Flash content in mobile devices or how to soothe the pain in maemo

Everybody is very happy with the support of the full web in mobile devices, but any regular user knows/suffers the fact of trying to enjoy rich web sites from a mobile device. Even with a powerful mobile device like the Nokia N810, making use of WiFi connectivity powered by a good ADSL/Cable network connection behind, certain web sites are a hell to enjoy.

The user, although having a full-web browser, ends up using a simpler mobile version for the browser not to drain battery power (for instance, due to the Javascript engine making intensive use of the CPU in Facebook or in Google Reader). The Google Reader site is a good example of how the mobile version is good enough for us to do what we want with almost no cost in computational terms.

I have always loved visiting Spanish sports online-newspapers like As or Marca from the N810, but always making an exercise of injecting patience to my state of mind before accessing: they are filled with Flash content (mainly with advertising purposes) that makes loading the main page as painful as a kick on your butt.

Some days ago, I specifically searched for some sort of Flash blocker, taking into account that such an add-on exists in Firefox and that maemo's microb is based on the Firefox engine. I discovered the Browser Extras repository and then found a Flashblocker port for MicroB.

If you want to know how good it was installing this add-on, you need to read the full post in the OMAG blog.

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