Google, apparently, is breathing new life to the dying Flash by announcing Flash support on Android 2.2, a.k.a. Froyo, expected to be released at Google IO 2010 this month. Adobe is surely relying on Google after Apple dumped Flash, and more sites are providing HTML5 versions to ensure iPad/iPhone compatibility.

However, if you can't wait for Google IO 2010, get SkyFire browser for Android now and this will give you a preview of what it will be like to have Flash running on your mobile phone.

I installed it on my Nexus One and gave it a spin. Basically looks like any other Android browser except for two major features that I think will make you use it as your main browser.
First, the User-Agent can be selected for each page. You basically have three options: Android, Desktop and iPhone. Some websites provide different look-and-feel depending on the browser's User-Agent. Even between Android and iPhone - whilst both use the same Webkit engine, they're different still.

The other feature is Flash video support. I tried it with http://youtube.com/tedxtalks and searched for TEDxManila. Skyfire will detect the presence of a Flash video and automatically pop-up a small window showing the video. Tapping on it will load and play the video. Pretty neat, huh?

Whilst this is not the full Flash support, it pretty much gives us the option to watch Flash videos. Fortunately, however, these video streaming sites are rapidly re-designing their services to support HTML5 and H.264 codecs - rendering this feature obsolete real soon. Example, YouTube is best viewed with the built-in YouTube app on Android (and iPhone)!

Non-video Flash elements are not supported, unfortunately. So this still does not provide the "Full Web" experience, according to Adobe.

Personally, I'd rather not use it - heck, the browser can display Flash-based ads! Argh!) (Rommel Feria)