FlashPlayer10
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Adobe says iPhone / iPad adoption and 'alternative technologies' (cough, HTML5) could harm its business
Adobe might continue to crow about Flash and its importance on both the desktop and mobile devices, but there's no lying to investors, and the company is pretty blunt about the threat of the iPhone and iPad in the end-of-quarter Form 10-Q it just filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission: it flatly says that "to the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed." Now, Adobe has to make doom-and-gloom statements in its SEC filings -- it also says that slowing PC sales or a failure to keep up with desktop OS development could harm its business -- but the timing is crazy here, since just yesterday Apple changed the iPhone OS 4 SDK agreement to block devs from using the upcoming Flash CS5 iPhone cross-compiler to build iPhone apps. What's more, Apple's also using HTML5 for its new iAd platform, which could potentially undo Flash's stranglehold on online advertising as well. Yeah, we'd say all that plus the recent push for HTML5 video across the web -- and from Microsoft -- could harm Adobe's business just a little. Better hope that final version of Flash Player 10.1 is everything we'd hoped and dreamed of, because Adobe's going to have to make a real stand here.
Adobe releases Flash Player 10.1 Release Candidate
There's still a ways to go before a final, proper release, but Adobe has now upgraded its once beta Flash Player 10.1 to Release Candidate status, and introduced a host of fixes and improvements in the process. From the looks of it, there's nothing too radical in terms of changes from previous betas, but the RC does promise improved stability and performance, and fixes for a range of video playback problems with different graphics cards (which may or may not also involve driver updates). Hit up the PDF link below for the complete release notes, and grab the RC yourself for Windows, Mac or Linux straight from Adobe Labs.
Nokia also joins Adobe initiative, Flash 10 for (almost) all
We're not quite sure if you're seeing what's happening here, but Apple and RIM are working themselves right into the time-out corner. We already heard earlier today that Palm would be joining Adobe's Open Screen Project -- which, by the way, guarantees Flash 10 support on the Pre -- and now we're told that Nokia is following suit. What it all boils down to is this: Google, Microsoft, Palm, and Nokia are all expected to release platforms or handsets in the coming year or two which will support Flash 10, all while Apple's iPhone attempts to limp by with... YouTube support. Granted, we have heard that the suits at Cupertino are in talks to make it happen, but we've yet to hear as much at MWC. Also of note, it seems that a similar deal including RIM is also pretty far off, so BlackBerry users should probably order their daily dose of patience as well.[Via Macworld]
Adobe releases Flash Player 10, ships CS4
It's been in beta for a while, but now Adobe's ubiquitous media plugin (warning: LOUD) has turned 10 officially for the Mac. The 5.5 MB download (available in separate versions for Intel and PPC) gains a host of new and improved features, including custom After Effects-style filters, advanced text support, 3D effects, better hardware acceleration and streaming support, vamped-up APIs, and file upload/download improvements. Flash 10 requires a 500 MHz G3 or better on the Mac, and runs on Tiger or Leopard: OS X 10.3 Panther users are out of luck. Download now from Adobe if you dare. Authoring content that takes full advantage of Flash Player 10 means using Flash CS4, which -- what a coincidence! -- is shipping as of today, along with the rest of the CS4 suite. Flash's ubiquity in the marketplace (99% of Internet users have some version of it installed, says Adobe) does give it a wide advantage over media alternatives like QuickTime and Silverlight, but one of the ongoing challenges for Flash is version upsell; getting people to move to the new build sometimes has to wait until a popular service requires it. For Mac users, the lure of upgrading includes a move away from the traditionally lackluster performance of Flash on the Intel hardware -- I know many MacBook users who can tell when a Flash ad is playing in a hidden Safari tab just by the sound of the cooling fans ramping up -- so with any luck, version 10 will address the challenges in that area while simultaneously adding all these cool new features. Thanks Richard
