KevinLynch
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Gone in a flash: Adobe's Chief Technology Officer joining Apple
Adobe's Chief Technology Officer is leaving the company to join Apple. Adobe announced the news in an SEC filing earlier today. Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch tendered his resignation at the company yesterday, Adobe confirmed to AllThingsD: "Kevin Lynch, Adobe CTO, is leaving the company effective March 22 to take a position at Apple," an Adobe spokesperson told AllThingsD. "We will not be replacing the CTO position; responsibility for technology development lies with our business unit heads under the leadership of Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Bryan Lamkin, who has recently returned to Adobe, will assume responsibilities for cross company research and technology initiatives as well as Corporate Development. We wish Kevin well in this new chapter of his career." Apple confirmed the hire to AllThingsD, noting that Lynch will be the Vice President of Technology at the company, reporting to Bob Mansfield, where he'll work with coordinating the hardware and software teams. Lynch was one of Adobe's biggest evangelists for Flash, which Apple notoriously blocked from working on iOS.
Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch steps down, reportedly leaving for Apple (updated)
CNBC has reported that Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch is stepping down. According to All Things D, the executive submitted his resignation just yesterday, with plans to "pursue other opportunities." An Adobe spokesperson, however, confirmed to All Things D that Lynch will be leaving the company at the end of the week, and will be taking a position at Apple. The announcement, made this afternoon, comes alongside the company's earnings report and 8-K filing. Interestingly, Lynch hasn't been Apple's biggest supporter, speaking out against the company at 2010's Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. We've reached out to both companies for comment -- we'll keep you posted as we find out more. Update: Apple has since said that Lynch will be joining the company as a VP of Technology. He'll be reporting to the group's Senior VP, Bob Mansfield. Update 2: Adobe has provided us with a statement that confirms Kevin Lynch's departure as of March 22, and has added that his position won't be filled by a successor. You'll find the complete statement after the break.
Adobe CTO defends Flash against battery life criticism
In response to Ars Technica's recent finding that running Adobe's Flash Player on the new MacBook Air cut battery life by up to a third, Adobe's CTO, Kevin Lynch, has come out in in defense of his company's plugin during an interview with Fast Company. "It's a false argument to make," he claims. "When you're displaying content, any technology will use more power to display, versus not displaying content. If you used HTML5, for example, to display advertisements, that would use as much or more processing power than what Flash uses." That's a nice theory, but that's not what Ars Technica's battery life results show. Given that multiple advertising services now fall back on HTML5 or a static ad in order to serve ads to devices which either don't have Flash installed or don't support it, it's unlikely that Ars Technica's testers were "missing out" on much content. Note that Ars Technica's tests didn't involve video playback at all, only some light web browsing; the only differentiating factor in their battery life results was whether website ads were running via Flash Player or not. The argument isn't sounding so "false" anymore. Lynch also bemoaned Apple's stance on Flash, claiming the company is "inciting" and "condoning" attacks on the plugin. "We don't think it's good for the web to have aspects closed off -- a blockade of certain types of expression. There's a decade of content out there that you just can't view on Apple's device, and I think that's not only hurtful to Adobe, but hurtful to everyone that created that content." My translation: "Apple shouldn't be the gatekeeper of the Web's video content. Adobe should." [via iPodnn]
BlackBerry PlayBook demoed courtesy of RIM's Mike Lazaridis and Adobe's Kevin Lynch
RIM has now uploaded the full video of its PlayBook's brief stint in the limelight during Adobe MAX yesterday, where Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch and none other than Mr. BlackBerry himself, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, take the "professional tablet" through its very first public test drive on the keynote stage. The duo run through an MRI scan viewing app -- presumably in an attempt to woo the lucrative medical market -- along with the PlayBook's Air-based video player and browser-embedded Flash player, both of which seem to work pretty well. We also get a quick look at the tablet's multitasking cards, where we see that apps continue to function even from within their card views; it looks pretty nice, but at a glance, it doesn't do any tricks webOS wasn't pulling off a year ago. Interestingly, the edited video has a number of cuts -- some seem like harmless attempts to cut out boring parts, but there are a couple suspicious ones where we suspect something unsavory happened on the PlayBook or it ran just a little slower than RIM would've liked (of course, with the PlayBook's release still months out, they've got plenty of time to tighten that up while they wait for developers to submit their wares in exchange for a free PlayBook of their own). At the end, Lazaridis expertly skirts Lynch's question of when exactly the device will be released... and he didn't even need a seasoned PR rep standing next to him to deflect it! Follow the break for the full demo.
Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch: the full interview
If you've seen the most recent Engadget Show, then you know that Kevin Lynch is one interesting dude. In fact, we had such a lengthy conversation with him that we couldn't fit the whole thing into our allotted time! Still, we thought what he had to say was pretty darn interesting, so we wanted to share the entire clip here. If you've got about 37 minutes and a hankering for Flash talk... today is your lucky day.
The Engadget Show - 009: Kevin Lynch, editor Q&A, AT&T GNOC tour, Sprint EVO 4G
Greetings people of Earth. The Engadget Show is back in a big way with this latest episode! First, Josh sits down with Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch to tackle a handful of thorny questions, from Flash vs. HTML5, to the smartphone revolution and his company's relationship with Apple. Then Josh, Paul, and Nilay welcome editors Chris Ziegler and Laura June for a special editor's Q&A, answering all your burning questions about news, culture, and what it's like to write for Engadget. We've also got a tour of AT&T's Global Network Operations Center (GNOC), which is essentially a war-room for networks that has to be seen to be believed. All that, and music from minusbaby and visuals from noteNdo. Okay that's enough reading... time to watch! Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel Special guests: Kevin Lynch, Chris Ziegler, Laura June Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm Executive Producer: Joshua Fruhlinger Edited by: Glenn Gapultos Music by: minusbaby Visuals by: noteNdo Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 009 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 009 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically. %Gallery-93618%
The Engadget Show Live! with Adobe's Kevin Lynch, HTC EVO 4G, and Editor Q&A
Keep your eyes tuned to this post -- because at 5:00 PM ET, we'll be starting The Engadget Show live, with Adobe's Chief Technical Officer Kevin Lynch and special guests, Engadget Editors Laura June and Chris Ziegler. Josh, Nilay, and Paul are back of course, plus we'll have music from minusbaby and visuals from notendo and much, much, more! You seriously don't want to miss it! In the spirit of awesome, we've enabled tweeting directly to the live stream! To be a part of The Engadget Show broadcast, just include the hashtag "#engadgetshow" and watch for your tweet on the ticker at the bottom of the screen. One thing to note, The Engadget Show is a family program, so any single instance of swearing or trolling will force us to turn off the ticker... and it won't come back on. So, keep it clean and have fun!
The Engadget Show returns, this Saturday, May 22nd with Sprint's Evo 4G, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, and an Engadget editors Q&A!
Guess what humans? It's that time again -- the Engadget Show returns this Saturday, May 22nd at 5pm... and it's shaping up to be a killer! First up, we'll have an exclusive interview with Adobe's CTO Kevin Lynch (taped at the Google I/O conference), which is sure to be both informative and wildly entertaining. What's more, Josh, Paul, and Nilay will be putting the new HTC Evo 4G through its paces live onstage, then they'll be joined by our very own Chris Ziegler and Laura June for a hard-hitting round of Q&A with the audience. That's right, it's your chance to ask the Engadget editors anything, live and in-person, plus much more (see instructions in the bullet points below). And as usual, we'll have some rocking 8-bit music from minusbaby and visuals from notendo and plenty of those good 'ol Engadget Show shenanigans. You like giveaways? Well then, this is your lucky week (if you attend). Many of you will be walking away with shiny new Voyager Pro headsets, courtesy of Plantronics and we've got tons of Engadget t-shirts to hand out! Oh, and did we mention we're also giving away a brand new iPad (courtesy of The Little App Factory and bundled with all of their software titles)? Well we are, alongside a handful of other goodies. The Engadget Show is sponsored by Sprint, and will take place at the Times Center, part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues (see map after the break). Tickets are -- as always -- free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served... so get there early! Here's all the info you need: There is no admission fee -- tickets are completely free The event is all ages Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 2:30PM on Saturday, doors will open for seating at 4:30PM, and the show begins at 5PM You cannot collect tickets for friends or family -- anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we're full, we're full The venue is located at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City (map after the break) The show length is around an hour If you have a question for the editor Q&A, email your question to showquestions [at] engadget [dot] com, or hand the question in to us at the venue by 3:30PM. You must hand in the query on an index card or piece of paper when you pick up your tickets. If you're a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we'll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com. Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
Adobe decries Apple's 'walled garden,' yet pledges 'best tools' for HTML5
Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch says Flash works just fine on the Apple iPhone, thank you very much -- and he thinks that's exactly why Apple keeps on denying it access. Speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, he explained his belief that by eliminating Flash, Cupertino is forcing developers to build apps natively for iPhone OS rather than one of Adobe's cross-platform solutions, and thus creating a "walled garden" of applications that users must flock to an iDevice to be able to use. Lynch compared Apple's control over development formats to 19th century railroad lines that competed for customers by using differently sized rails, and pledged that Adobe would not be part of such a competition. "It's not HTML vs. Flash -- they've been co-existing for over a decade," he said, adding, "We're going to try and make the best tools in the world for HTML5." So, what do you think about that, Steve?
Adobe CTO says Flash 10.1 for Android in June -- will Froyo follow suit?
Let's take a break from Apple and Adobe's back-and-forth, shall we? Instead, we'll let the latter company talk about its work with Google, specifically the Android platform. Flash-based CTO Kevin Lynch said today in a post, "We look forward to delivering Flash Player 10.1 for Android smartphones as a public preview at Google I/O in May, and then a general release in June." Good news, indeed, but with all this talk of Froyo having native Flash support, and this month's conference serving as the largest gathering of Android developers, we can't imagine a better platform (pun intended) for Andy Rubin and company to unveil its fragmentation-curbing Froyo update. Might Flash 10.1's May preview / June release schedule line up with the OS, as well? Just some fat-free food for thought. [Thanks, Steven]
