When people start to list the reasons Android is better than
iOS, one of the first things that typically comes up is Android’s ability to
run Adobe’s Flash. While a lot of the web is moving to HTML5 for delivery of
right multimedia content, Flash still powers a lot of web content, and if
you’re not running flash on your phone, you’re not getting everything you can
out of the web. The iPhone doesn’t do Flash, so score one for Team Android.
This past week, Adobe announced that the company was issuing
a critical update for the ultra-popular application, as a vulnerability was
discovered in Flash. This vulnerability could allow ne’er-do-wells to crash
apps on a user’s computer, or even allow the computer to be hijacked.
While the majority of the people affected will be using Windows
machines, the Android version of Flash is still considered vulnerable, and has
therefore gotten a security update.
To update your copy of Flash, open up Google Play, tap on
the menu button and then choose “My Apps”. You’ll see a list of apps you can
update, including Adobe Flash, if you have it on your Android device.
Click on it, and then tap the “Update” button to start the
update process. Tap “Accept & download” and your copy of Flash will be
bumped up to the newer, secured version.
Of course, this is as good a time as any to mention that
it’s worth checking regularly to see if there are any updates for your apps,
using the same update process…even if you don’t hear about a critical update,
there are often helpful updates available that add features (or game levels),
fix bugs and, yes, plug potential security holes.