Android gets 'flashy', 'social' holiday treats

The final major update of Adobe's Flash Player for mobile devices, version 11.1, has appeared for Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

Needless to say, there's no Flash 11.1 update for iOS mobile devices – Adobe's interactive multimedia platform is not welcome on Apple's phones and fondleslabs.

Flash Player 11.1 for ICS was released to world+dog last Thursday – and blogged about on Friday – and its companion AIR 3.1 hit the streets on Monday.

As if to buck up those Android devs who'll miss future Flash follow-ups – if, indeed, there are any – Google has released an Android 4.0.3 update along with updated SDK tools, which include the ability to sync "social stream data" – status updates, check-ins, and the like – with friends' contact info and photos.

In addition to the social sweetners, Android 4.0.3 includes "incremental improvements in graphics, database, spell-checking, Bluetooth, and more." Some of that "more" involves better camera control, the ability to change the color of calendar items, and text-to-speech error-reporting.

Google says that it will be rolling out Android 4.0.3 to production phones and tablets in coming weeks, so if you're an Android dev, they say, "we strongly encourage you to test your applications on Android 4.0.3 as soon as possible."

For a deep dive into the Android 4.0.3 API changes – the new API level is 15 – check out Google's Android API Differences Report. ®