Shantanu Narayen, Adobe Systems CEO, is now saying this his company’s qualms with Apple over Flash, the software used in websites, is now over. In an interview at the the D9: All Things Digital conference, Narayen was asked about the argument Adobe had with Apple last year over the software otherwise known as Flash. Flash, which has been the most popular video format on the Web and is also used for animation and advertising is made by Adobe. Apple last year criticized Flash and Apple CEO Steve Jobs banned Flash from all iOS devices.

Recently, Narayen said the following regarding the issue it had with Apple: “Yes, the argument is over from our point of view. ” He added, “We are so excited about opportunities we have. We’re focused on that.” An Apple spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment. Jobs had endorsed an emerging standard on the Web called HTML5, which is developed by a consortium that Apple is a part of along with Google.

Narayen mentioned that Adobe now “welcomes the evolution of HTML and are actively contributing to it.” He didn’t comment much and ended up downplaying how much Flash contributes in revenue to Adobe calling it just a “small part” of the company. Narayen added: “At the end of the day, where Adobe makes its money is through our application tools, as well as our solutions, (and) being able to make that content and measure that content and manage that content.”

We are curious to see what comes out of this combined effort of the two most popular video formats on the Web. What do you think?

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Flash has been one of the few downsides of Apple ever since the release of the first iPhone, which shipped almost 4 years ago. While many users have grown accustomed to their iOS devices not being able to display Flash content, it’s unfortunate that Apple and Adobe haven’t been able to reach some sort of compromise before now. Finally, Adobe as come up with a solution to the Flash dilemma once and for all with their latest version of Flash. Recently, at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas, Adobe recently previewed the latest version of Flash that incorporated HTTP live streaming. With this new version of Flash, the iOS devices will finally be able to display Flash video without the need to install any additional software on the devices.

Over the years, Apple has been holding their ground in the opposition to approving Flash for the iOS. Jobs continually cited concerns over Flash’s poor overall performance and being detrimental to battery life. At one point, Steve Jobs even went as far as posting an open letter on the company website defending their position regarding Flash on iOS devices entitled, Thoughts on Flash. Adobe’s latest version however, is designed mainly to help content publishers stream protected video to more types of mobile devices including Apple’s iPad 2. The new streaming technology is built into Adobe’s Media Server and will allow a much wider variety of devices access to Flash video content. The solution is designed to be transparent to the end user and will not require any additional software to be downloaded as well.

According to Adobe, “HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) is an MPEG2 transport stream (container) userd by devices such as Apple’s iPad 2. By adding support for HLS within the FLash Media Server, Adobe is reducing the publishing complexity for broadcasters who need to reach browsers supporting HLS through HTML5 (such as Safari) or devices where Adobe Flash isn’t installed.” For the average user, the details of te plan to get Flash video to more devices is a bit technical, however, in the not too distant future, Flash required warnings will become a thing of the past. if your device doesn’t have Flash installed on it, no problem, the server will send you the video in a format that your device is capable of playing. As of right now, it isn’t exactly clear how long it will take Adobe to implement this across the board, but at least a solution to the Flash problem is finally on the way. You can check out a sneak peak video of it below:

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The new version of Flash is reported to be released on March 18th. Thanks to BBCrackman from My Droid World, you can download a leaked copy of version 10.2 now. Just as promised, it includes support for Honeycomb, meaning you can watch your favorite Flash videos on your XOOM. Users who have tested the version of Flash have noticed their experience wasn’t without its flaws with video quality not being top-notch, some controls being hard to utilize, and Hulu still not working.

On the upside, many were able to download, install, and use the APK onto their Xooms even without running the latest 3.0.1 firmware update. After upgrading to the Android 3.0.1 system update, the performance was drastically improved and video quality was much better and games didn’t stutter once. Just as a reminder to everyone, Flash 10.2 also brings enhanced performance for multi-core smartphones such as the Atrix 4G and LG Optimus 2X, as well as automatic soft keyboard support and deeper integration with the Android browser rendering engine.

Download Adobe Flash 10.2.155.67 :

• Download Adobe Flash 10.2.155.67 [Mirror 1] [Mirror 2]

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[Source: My Droid World]

Adobe has released a new version of Photoshop Express for iOS, v1.5, which promises support for the iPhone 4′s Retina Display, multitasking in iOS 4.2, and in-app photo taking using the iPhone and iPod touch’s camera. The free download [iTunes link] comes in iPhone and iPad versions, and supports basic editing – including crop, straighten, rotate and flip – together with effects and filters.

What’s New in Version 1.5:

• Requires iOS 4.2
• Adds support for background upload completion and iOS 4 multitasking
• Supports Retina Display for crisp, sharp screen and photos
• Faster, more streamlined photo capture and editing workflow

Thanks to the multitasking support it’s now possible to queue uploads to Photoshop.com and Facebook while using the iOS device for something else.

Top editing features:

• Basics: Crop, Straighten, Rotate, and Flip
• Color: Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black and White, and Contrast
• Filters: Sketch, Soft Focus, and Sharpen
• Effects: Vibrant, Pop, Border, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, and Soft Black and White
• Borders: Rectangle, Rounded, Oval, Soft Edge, Vignette, Rough Edge, Halftone, and Film Emulsion

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Just in time for the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), RIM is showing off the BlackBerry PlayBook again, this time with a deeper dive into the web browser. You can check out the video below to watch Matthew from the web browser group at RIM really put the PlayBook’s browser to use. In the video he views content in both HTML5 and Adobe Flash, logs into Facebook (the full Facebook), and even plays flash games on the web. Overall, it’s looking to be a really compelling experience.

Multimedia, games, and social networking were all shown in the video and they seemed to be pretty fluid. If RIM can keep this up then the PlayBook will definitely have a chance to compete in the tablet market. It all depends how the other tablets will stand and rest assured there will be plenty of tablets at CES 2011.

Blackberry Playbook Web Fidelity Video Demonstration:

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It is no secret that Apple’s latest line of MacBook Airs are shipping without Adobe’s Flash Player due to battery and performance concerns and Adobe’s CEO has shed light as to why these issues may occur.

According to Engadget, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen noted that the key to conserving battery life lies in hardware acceleration, and reported that the company currently has a version of Flash Player optimized for the new MacBook Air in testing.

He said it’s really all about optimizing for silicon:

“When we have access to hardware acceleration, we’ve proven that Flash has equal or better performance on every platform.” You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that sentence a cop-out, but that’s actually not the case — the chief executive says they’ve presently got a Macbook Air in the labs and have an optimized beta of Flash for the device presently in testing.

Apple revised its policies earlier this year to allow for hardware-accelerated decoding of H.264 video by third-party developers on select graphics cards, including the NVIDIA GeForce 320M that is included in the new MacBook Air. Following a period of beta testing, Adobe recently released an updated version of Flash Player 10.1 to officially bring hardware acceleration to a number of Mac models.

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[Source: Engadget]

Research In Motion (RIM) is currently trying to build some early pre-release hype for its PlayBook tablet, which won’t be out until Spring. This isn’t stopping the maker of the BlackBerry from throwing down though. They produced a new video in which they say shows the PlayBook beating the iPad at web browsing. There isn’t any way to know if the video is rigged and it is worth noting that it isn’t entirely fair to compare a 2011 PlayBook to an iPad which was release in 2010. It does show that RIM is trying to compete in the tablet market, in which Apple has a big head-start on.

The PlayBook is not supposed to be available until March of 2011, almost a year after the iPad started shipping. The company is eager to make their tablet the “iPad killer.” They have already strongly suggested that the PlayBook will be priced lower than the base $499 iPad. The next phase of their plan seems to be the supposed performance improvements of the PlayBook. In this video, Matthew from RIM’s web browser group put a PlayBook against an iPad running iOS 3.2.2, loading various pages over WiFi. In addition to the Acid3 standards-based rendering test and a Javascript performance test, the engineer loads the UEFA soccer league’s website, and CBS.com, which was clearly chosen because it is a Flash-based website that makes the iPad look sub-par. The PlayBook’s OS is based on Adobe’s Flash and Air technologies, so it’s understandable that they would want to put emphasis on that.

Doing a head-to-head comparison is difficult between the two devices. RIM’s PlayBook has a physically smaller display at seven inches compared to the iPad’s 9.6-inch screen as well as being a lower resolution (1024×600 compared to iPad’s 1024×768). The PlayBook’s 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 processor also has a leg up on the iPad’s single-core A4 chip. Speculation says that a new model iPad is expected by the time the PlayBook is ready to ship, which should have at least 512MB of RAM like the iPhone 4, if not a dual-core chip.

It seems to be an effective way to market their new upcoming product but it is unlikely to sway anyone who is already planning on buying an iPad. Things might also change if the faster iPad 2 comes out in spring, near the time of the PlayBook’s release. What do you think of the whole ordeal? Let us know in the comments below! As usual, stay tuned for more news and info on the topic by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feed.

[Source Engadget]

It seems that Apple finally simmered down the heat against Adobe’s Flash which until now had very restricting rules for Flash on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Apple recently took a step back in hopes of quieting down the masses who claim that Apple’s harsh restrictions for developers are “anti-competitive.” In a nutshell, Apple said that it will allow for scenarios in which Adobe’s Flash video software will work on Apple’s products.

In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.

With regulators, media, and cynical consumers constantly breathing down Apple’s back because of the company’s anti-Flash posturing, it doesn’t come as a shocker. It was a bit expected for Apple to relax its uptight no-Flash policy, while still propping up its “security concerns” as a fail-safe for ensuring that Flash doesn’t see runaway, rampant growth on the iOS platform.To read the full post from Apple, click here.

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