Flash Player Replacement Strategy (MTML5?)

[Mobis]

CHROME

Saying goodbye to Flash in Chrome

 

Anthony Laforge

Product Manager, Google ChromePublished Jul 25, 2017

 

Today, Adobe announced its plans to stop supporting Flash at the end of 2020.

For 20 years, Flash has helped shape the way that you play games, watch videos and run applications on the web. But over the last few years, Flash has become less common. Three years ago, 80 percent of desktop Chrome users visited a site with Flash each day. Today usage is only 17 percent and continues to decline.

This trend reveals that sites are migrating to open web technologies, which are faster and more power-efficient than Flash. They’re also more secure, so you can be safer while shopping, banking, or reading sensitive documents. They also work on both mobile and desktop, so you can visit your favorite site anywhere.

These open web technologies became the default experience for Chrome late last year when sites started needing to ask your permission to ru...

If you regularly visit a site that uses Flash today, you may be wondering how this affects you. If the site migrates to open web standards, you shouldn’t notice much difference except that you'll no longer see prompts to run Flash on that site. If the site continues to use Flash, and you give the site permission to run Flash, it will work through the end of 2020.

It’s taken a lot of close work with Adobe, other browsers, and major publishers to make sure the web is ready to be Flash-free. We’re supportive of Adobe’s announcement today, and we look forward to working with everyone to make the web even better.

Can the Arlo website upgrade please.

[StephenB]

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@talkanderson wrote:

That's  Dec 2020 (not 2021).

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Correct - thx for pointing out the typo.  I've corrected my earlier post.

[JIMJAN]

Just invested in some Google Nest Indoor camera's and guess what, full support for online viewing with Google Chrome using HTML5.  I love Arlo, I still have (5) Arlo Pro 2's, but I got tired of waiting.  Nest is also about to change their NestAware subscription model to make it much more in line with other similar services (ETA early, 2020).  Hopefully Arlo will get over to HTML5 soon so I don't have to cut over completely.  Nest is about $50 more per camera but for me being able to view my camera's anywhere from a browser without having to deal with Flash was worth it.  All in all, everything else is basically a wash feature-wise for online, software, and hardware from what I can tell so far.  The other reason I went with Nest for these additional cameras, I didn't need NestAware (motion detection, zones, geofencing, etc.) so I don't have to pay for any online subscription to still get the basic functionality I need for these cameras. 

[Mobis]

Would be interesting to see how much they charge for cloud service.

[JIMJAN]

For those of you interested in  the new NestAware cloud service plans check out this link...

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9546397?hl=en

[YYZGoBirds]

Is anyone aware of Arlo's plans with Adobe Flash (support) on Chrome?

ie, there appears to be none.

When Adobe abandons Flash ... what's next?

[StephenB]

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@YYZGoBirds wrote:

Is anyone aware of Arlo's plans with Adobe Flash (support) on Chrome?

They've announced that they plan to switch to html5 before flash support disappears in the browsers (end of 2020).

[Mobis]

Not that I have been told in a PM or anything, I reckon the guys from Arlo are well in advance being ready for chromes shutdown.

[myersw]

If Netgear support for routers is an example, I would not hold my breath and sit back and say I know they got this. Router firmware support is horrible. Same bugs release after release and then they sometimes figure out how to introduce a new bug. 

[danwriter]

Netgear is long gone from this conversation.

https://www.securitysales.com/automation/smart-home/arlo-spin-off-netgear-completed/

[viper111]

Hi guys,

the end of flash is coming!

I don't understand that ARLO doesn't let us do an beta test on what they have?

But they may have nothing! Other companies do that too, they test themselves and afterwards

the users test it.  

[electrikleo]

In reply to your statement that your CEO has addressed the issue regarding Flash I'd beg to differ - all he has said is thanks for your patience - simply not good enough. It's February 2020 and I can't use my cameras to view Live content. This simply isn't good enough - Flash has been on the way out for years and yet all the CEO can say is be patient. I'm seeing a lawyer about this as your product does not do what it says it will. This is consumer abuse and fraudulent advertising and marketing. See you in court!

[viper111]

Wow, court?

Good luck!

Well with one you are right, the use of flash start to go down in 2014. That is the year when HTML 5 was recommended by W3C. So it was clear that flash will go away. 

[Binary100100]

I've been telling my friends and family to stay away from Arlo until they release their HTML5 upgrades and work out any bugs. I'm sure they are scrambling (probably just a team of two) trying to make the necessary changes. Based on my experiences when things are rushed then they are usually full of issues. Not trying to sound paranoid here but with all of these camera and IoT hacks that you keep hearing about I really don't think that anybody wants Arlo to become the subject of a security flaw because their HTML5 upgrade was rushed out. IF by chance they don't have a solution by the time Flash is depreciated then they're stocks will tank because what good is having cameras if you can't view them? So they have to get something out there and I don't blame them for taking their time. But again, I won't be recommending Arlo to anyone until the upgrade is released and several months pass without any security flaws being exploited.

What is really hurting Arlo is the fact that they knew back in 2015 (correct me if I'm wrong) that they would need to switch to HTML5 eventually. So why wait until the last minute? That should have been their highest priority since they split from Netgear back towards the beginning of 2019. So an entire year later and we don't seem to be anywhere closer today than we did a year ago. Their lack of urgency for this matter is my largest concern for the company and I certainly won't be recommending them to anyone because of this not to mention their horrible lack of support.

[danwriter]

"What is really hurting Arlo is the fact that they knew back in 2015 (correct me if I'm wrong) that they would need to switch to HTML5 eventually. So why wait until the last minute? That should have been their highest priority since they split from Netgear back towards the beginning of 2019."

That might be sufficient grounds to negate the mediation clause in their user agreement: knowing the product would be deficient, they also precluded the ability of wronged customers to be made whole through litigation. Time to bring some class-action lawyers in. 

[retiredat44]

This app in the ms store is not free.. can't even try before buying, this stinks.. they should have put a waring on the arlo box,, warning! use flash!

[viper111]

this is not from arlo!

It is developed by ‪Halfbit Pty Ltd‬

[Strykerwez]

I feel your pain.

you need to go into your browser settings and manually turn on flash.

I’m sitting here at a mate’s place atm - took me about 15mins to Google the solution for Opera, Firefox and Chrome browsers.

I guess it doesn’t help that the support forum here is dated back to an out of date solution from last year - but hey.  The product works.  It’d be nice if Netgear would build a solution into the Arlo site though.

The  average consumer is not going to be able to work this out.

[Strykerwez]

I stand corrected from my response earlier then.

did not know there was a 4K issue

[StephenB]

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@Strykerwez wrote:

did not know there was a 4K issue

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4K works for me with Edge, but not with other browsers.  Even with Edge it requires that the PC have GPU hardware acceleration that supports HEVC video @ 4K resolution. 

There are substantial licensing costs for HEVC software decoders, so browser vendors have chosen not to include them (which makes sense, given the number of downloads, and the fact that the browsers are free).

[MimiCT]

First Issue:  I see many find their cameras will not connect.  I had this issue and I disconnected the base station, reconnected it, reconnected the cameras and everything is working great again.  Disconnecting the base station and then syncing the cameras put everything back in order.  I have base station VMB 4000.

Second issue:  How is Arlo going to address the discontinuing of the Flash Player on December 2020? 

This is what I see from Adobe:  "If you regularly visit a site that uses Flash today, you may be wondering how this affects you. If the site migrates to open web standards, you shouldn’t notice much difference except that you'll no longer see prompts to run Flash on that site. If the site continues to use Flash, and you give the site permission to run Flash, it will work through the end of 2020".

[StephenB]

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@MimiCT wrote:

Second issue:  How is Arlo going to address the discontinuing of the Flash Player on December 2020? 

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They've said they will switch to html5 before Flash is deprecated in the browsers.

[auwingrider]

when is Arlo going to fix this the system is junk this way. what a huge waste of money. 

[ARLO_MD]

Any update?

[frankstallone]

Your website still uses flash to view and play videos.  It's virtually unusable in Chrome and any other modern browsers.  How do you guys expect your customers, especially Enterprises and Business level clients to deal with this garbage and dysfunctional site?

Do you actually have any plans to upgrade your site?  If this is not resolved soon I am selling all my cameras and equipment and moving to another vendors.  This crap is completely unacceptable.

[DaveXB]

There is now only 7 months left before your product will not work in Chrome or Firefox. As far as I know you don't even have a version 1.0 or even a Beta anything released to begin a transition away from Flash. I spent a small fortune on your system and it seems I paid a premium price for an already obsolete product with no future.