Flash Player 6 for Pocket PC Now Available

Macromedia, Inc. has just released Flash Player 6 for Pocket PC 2002, which allows handhelds to view Macromedia Flash MX content, including video and application components.

For the first time, developers can create standalone Macromedia Flash applications that can play full-screen outside of the browser.

The ActiveX plug-in is free and available today. The stand-alone player is currently available only to developers who have paid $500 to license it.

With the introduction of this version, Macromedia Flash Player 4 & 5 for Pocket PC will no longer be available. Flash Player 6 plays all previous content. It supports only color devices running Microsoft Pocket PC 2002.

Development Tools

Also available today is the Macromedia Flash Player 6 developer kit for Pocket PC 2002. The kit includes a content development kit, an interface design policy kit, and a set of optimized user interface components for the Pocket PC. This developer kit is free.

Larger Plan

This is part of Macromedia's plan to free Flash from the Web browser. It also announced Macromedia Central, an application for the desktop that will play Flash content outside of a browser. The company hopes applications of all types will be written in Flash. Macromedia Central won't be available until this summer, but development tools are expected next month.

These announcements took place at the FlashForward developer conference in San Francisco