Saturday, May 01, 2010

Hardware Accelerated Adobe Flash Plugin for OSX

After using OSX for one and a half years now, there is one thing that I notice. The Macbook tends to get very hot while watching Flash videos (YouTube and Vimeo are two popular sites that use Flash technology) and while visiting Flash heavy sites (Fashion sites, I am looking at you!). Apparently, it is Apple's reluctance to provide low level APIs to the GPU that causes this problem. The current version of Flash decodes video using the CPU. This method is taxes the CPU heavily, and thus making the Macbook able to fry some eggs while I watch Susan Boyle proving Simon Crowell wrong over and over and over again...

The good news is, Apple has provided just that API along with the OS X 10.6.3 update some weeks ago,. Adobe took advantage of that update, and has provided a beta of Flash Player 10.1 Gala for public testing.

Once I know of this, I immediately downloaded this version, installed it, and use my (still favourite) Firefox for a spin in YouTube. Well, I have a positive feeling about this. CPU usage dropped, and my thighs aren't charred while watching the videos. While Adobe said that it won't be go out as part of the Flash Player 10.1 release, I eagerly await the final, refined release. Until then, I will continue to use this beta version.

CJ
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3 comments:

  1. day-dreamerMay 01, 2010

    Wah, you really use your MacBook on your lap? Be careful... it may cause impotency? LOL.

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  2. changyang1230May 01, 2010

    Does this have anything to do with Flash being the top reason for app crashes in Mac, as Jobs claimed the other day?

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  3. vseehuaMay 01, 2010

    @day-dreamer: hahaha... the warm part is not near the private parts anyway :P
    @changyang: Not really sure about his claims. But most of the browser crashes occurred while visiting Flash heavy sites. I find Firefox to be much more stable after I started using FlashBlock

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