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Adobe Flash foils MacBook Air battery life

Uninstall Flash, get two more hours' runtime

Why isn't Apple integrating Adobe's Flash plug-in into the version of Mac OS X pre-loaded on the new MacBook Airs? Maybe not for the resulting battery life boost, but it's as good a reason as any.

There certainly is an increase. Website Ars Technica tried out the 13.3in Air with Flash enabled - it's easy enough to download the plug-in - and with the Adobe software absent.

The result? "The best time I recorded with Flash installed was just four hours," says writer Chris Foresman. "After deleting Flash, however, the MacBook Air ran for 6:02."

He adds: "With a handful of websites loaded in Safari, Flash-based ads kept the CPU running far more than seemed necessary." ®

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