Linux is an operating system that's used mainly by hardcore geeks who think in binary and don't mind spending hours compiling their own device drivers. Oh wait, sorry, the year is 2008, not 1998. Scratch that, today, Linux is the operating system that came pre-installed on my easy-to-use Asus Eee PC and my flashy little Nokia N800 Internet tablet.
Both of those devices, by the way, are excellent candidates for my dream video blogging machine. The N800 more so than the Eee PC.
Both the Eee PC (at least the 4GB model I have) and the N800 have internal web cams and WiFi. They're both tiny enough to carry around easily (far more so than a full-size laptop like my MacBook Pro), and, in the case of the N800, the camera actually swivels around so you can shoot your subject while looking at the screen.
And they both support Flash Player 9.
So, budding video bloggers, grab your N800s, connect to Seesmic, and start vlogging away, live, from anywhere with a WiFi Internet connection.
Not so fast. They're a slight niggle. The web cam on neither the N800 nor the Eee PC works with the Flash 9 Player for Linux. (And, reportedly, the same holds true for the newer N810.) In fact, according to reports on the Net, you would be hard-pressed to find a web cam that does work well with Flash Player 9 on Linux.
The problem is that Flash Player 9 on Linux supports an outdated interface (Video4Linux 1) for connecting to web cams; leaving the built-in web cam in many newer devices, including Nokia N800 and the Asus Eee PC, unsupported. What Adobe must do is add Video4Linux 2 support to Flash Player on Linux.
As video blogging becomes mainstream, I can't help but feel that Adobe is about to miss another chance in the mobile arena by not implementing proper web cam support in the Flash Player for devices like the N800 that run Linux.
If I was Nokia, I would be talking to Adobe right now about what we can do to realize web cam support for Flash Player 9 on Linux as soon as possible and start pushing the N800 and N810 as the perfect live video blogging tools.
If I was Loic Le Meur, I would be emailing Adobe about how important this feature would be for my popular Flex-based RIA, Seesmic. I would probably also be on the phone to Nokia too to have Seesmic included as a standard application link in the N800 series OS.
And, finally, if I was calling the shots at Adobe, I would be redoubling my efforts to get proper web cam support into the Linux version of the Flash Player as part of my mobile strategy. I would make it a priority to support and encourage the use of Flash-and-WiFi-enabled Linux devices with web cams, coupled with Flash applications like Yahoo! Live and Seesmic, as low-cost live video blogging and real-time web news-gathering and reporting tools.
Devices like the Nokia N800, N810, and Asus Eee PC are already on the market and in the hands of content creators. With an update to Flash Player 9 on Linux that implements proper web cam support, we have the chance to give them a whole new use case and make the Flash the de-facto standard platform for mobile video blogging.
The Nokia N800 + Flash Player = Perfect Video Blogging tool, or “Adobe should make implementing proper web cam support in the Linux Flash Player part of its mobile strategy” article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
Not to diminish the need for Flash to support this, but I’ve had my n800 for a couple weeks now, and the reality is, there is NO real solution for video recording, Flash or otherwise, on this device. There is one very beta app at garage.maemo.org, but the installer is corrupt at the moment, so I can’t even install that. There are a couple of other apps that have started development, but no files available yet. Do you have one that actually works?
Even if the app does become useable, the n800’s camera is pretty awful quality. I love the device, but the camera is more of a novelty than anything else. If the photo quality is any indication of what the video quality will be, I don’t think it would be a serious video blogging tool.
OK, actually I guess the previous version (2.7) of the OS2007 camera app did have video, but the 2.9 version doesn’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsmmJg_YunA
The new OS2008 version 0.5.2 is also supposed to do video. But at any rate, I can’t get any of them to install, all say corrupted. But the youtube video there shows you the quality you’d be looking at.
I’ve been eyeballing teh N800/n810 for quite awhile now for doing some Flash demos. Can you run a SWF on it easily w/o having to launch it from a browser? I’d like to publish my SWF from my Mac, copy it to the n8xx and then run it for testing. Possible?
yeah, the swfs will open right in the browser. the couple I tried it with seemed to get cropped really strange, so it might be better to wrap them in a simple html doc. or some other tweaking to publish settings might work.
Also, as far as the video camera app, a reboot of the device let me install the latest OS2008 videocamera app. Works, but the quality is useless.
I wish the N800 was available in Japan! But nooo, the Japanese cellphone market is soo different!
Hi Keith,
I haven’t really used the camera much on the N800 at all because all I really wanted to do with it was to use it under Flash. I’m sure Nokia will be improving the quality in later versions and there’s a lot to be said for practicality vs. quality with web journalism. A device like the N800 (perhaps a newer version with a better camera), coupled with Flash, could really revolutionize mobile video blogging.
We are only going to see more Linux-based inexpensive mobile devices in the future that have web cams and getting Flash and AIR to support web cams properly under Linux needs to be a priority.
do you ever read ebooks on your n800, i’m really close to buying one but checked out the screen res over the weekend and was not yet totaly sold… it is a hot gadget though… definately pure hacker heaven…
Dammit, you’ve started tech-lust :( But this time it’s justifiable – it runs Flash!
The only question is do I get the N800 or N810? :)
Hope you’re having fun in the ‘dam..
“If I was Nokia, I would be talking to Adobe right now about what we can do to realize web cam support for Flash Player 9 on Linux as soon as possible and start pushing the N800 and N810 as the perfect live video blogging tools.”
Well, a Nokia guy who worked on the Internet Tablet team once told me how frustratingly difficult they found working with Adobe. I asked him about Flash 8 support then (couple of years ago or so) and he said they were all ready for it, but Adobe’s mobile team were dragging their feet.
Now where have I heard that before…?
Hey man,
Good point. I was planning on installing my webcam on my (relatively) new laptop, but now I won’t even bother.
Ok, while typing this, I just checked the kernel config, and it seems V4L1 (the one with DEPRECATED on the right) can be compiled into the kernel as well. This means I might get the thing running. However, how many people spend time compiling their own kernels?
BTW, if I was calling the shots @ Adobe, I’d get ALL versions of my products ready before yapping about fancy releases.
So what if AIR was released? Can I run it on my Gnome desktop? Didn’t think so… :-(
i think the play is going to be to get the linux version of Air running on this baby. I’ve got an 810. Its still not as cool as an iphone but the flash 9 bit rocks.
Linux version of AIR?
Oh you mean the pre-alpha thing!
(yeah, I feel left out. it’s that obvious? :P)
If I were you, I’d send Tinc (http://www.kaourantin.net/) a line and see what he thinks…
[...] He reckons it is perfect for recording vlogs on the go with its small size, built in camera and microphone and support of Flash 9 in the browser making it a cinch to set up and operate. Or at least it would be perfect, if Flash 9 for Linux supported the built in camera on the N800. He thinks it is a shame that N800 users cannot take advantage of services such as Seesmic at present. What are your thoughts? Jump over to join the discussion. [...]
Yeah, it’s surprising that the n800 has such a crappy camera, given that other Nokia devices have such awesome cameras, up to 5mp and Zeiss lenses. If the camera was decent, I’d be really bummed about not being able to use it in Flash.
I just came a cross a project that aims to make all v4l cameras available in Flash: The Flashcam Project.
Thanks for the link, Andreas. Looks like a very worthwhile project :)
Aral do you still sport your n800 :)
Has anyone attempted to install the flask project? I will update tomorrow with my findings.
hehe , I have wrote a program for this purpose!
The web cam on the n800 can work with the Flash 9 Player.
you can see it on my blog: http://smile2you1986.spaces.live.com/
While I didn’t stick with Linux on my Eee PC for very long due to reasons like this and a preference towards Windows Live Writer, I actually gave up on using the Eee for any video blogging I’ve been doing.
I was sent a Flip Video camera to review and use for those purposes exactly and I’ve gotta say, I prefer it over my Eee big time. Have you had a chance to try one?
thanks
but i think nokia mobiles is nothing except N95
tiger, wish to share your solution as something that could be installed?
Oddly enough, I was looking around *again* to see if anyone had figured out supporting the camera in Flash on OS2008 and came across this.
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been on the same page with you about this for a while! ;) – Phreadz awaits :)
Also just imagine what could be done by a Flash app and the cameras on a Series60 device! :)
Oh yeah baby. Pocket social multimedia. ;)
Yeah, its surprising that the n800 has such a crappy camera, given that other Nokia devices have such awesome cameras, up to 5mp and Zeiss lenses. If the camera was decent, Id be really bummed about not being able to use it in Flash.
Hi Keith,
I haven’t really used the camera much on the N800 at all because all I really wanted to do with it was to use it under Flash. I’m sure Nokia will be improving the quality in later versions and there’s a lot to be said for practicality vs. quality with web journalism. A device like the N800 (perhaps a newer version with a better camera), coupled with Flash, could really revolutionize mobile video blogging.
We are only going to see more Linux-based inexpensive mobile devices in the future that have web cams and getting Flash and AIR to support web cams properly under Linux needs to be a priority.
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
Sorry, my workload today doesn’t permit doublechecking all the words, but if you’re asking “Webcams for Linux?” then check Mike Melanson:
http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2008/07/paparazzi_v2_1.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2006/06/penguin_eyes_1.html
If it’s closer to “Webcams for Nokia Internet Tablet?” then the OS comes with Adobe Flash Player built in — pretty much the first desktop ports for a pocket device that I can recall. But Nokia’s in Open Screen Project, so make sure Bill Perry knows your wishlist too, thanks.
jd/adobe
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
[...] some history. The Nokia N800 and nearly every recent phone by Nokia, Sony, etc., could have done what Apple did [...]
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