Download Flash Player for Pocket PC link

I was recently trying to download the Flash player for Pocket PC (for an Ipaq 5550 running Windows Mobile 2003) and had a terribly hard time finding the link to download it.

Here, for the restless (or frustrated) among you, is a direct link to the correct download page for the Flash 6 Player for Pocket PC.

And here's the rest of the story:

The download page for the Flash player for Pocket PC sends you to a page on HP's site, which redirects you to yet another page, on which there is no information whatsoever on the Flash player. Searching for variants of "Flash Player" on the HP site does not reveal a useful link either.

I was finally able to find the link in a newsgroup post after lots of Googling around. It appears that others have also been having problems (Aug 2003), , Oct 2003, Jan 2004.

On a related note, setting the PocketPC up to connect to our WiFi network was confusing too, thanks to the very poor usability of the "Connections" function.

All in all, connecting your Pocket PC to the Internet and browsing a flash site or using a Flash application should not take hours of sweat and tears. I hope that Macromedia will update its website to allow easier access to the Flash Player for Pocket PC and that Microsoft will improve the usability of its Connections feature in Windows Mobile 2003.

The possibilities for pervasive computing through Flash on devices is endless but we do need to improve end user access to the player.

Comments