Tag: adobe

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Software and Apps

Adobe Flash Player 10.2 Beta Download Available Now

Adobe has announced the release of a beta version of their new Flash Player version 10.2. The update is available for all the major desktop platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux. One of the interesting new additions to the latest release is the “Stage Video” player that, according to a company release, renders high performance video playback that consumes “just over zero percent” of CPU usage.

This is possible due to GPU acceleration techniques incorporated in the new release that offloads the video playback to the GPU. This means the entire process of H.264 decoding, color conversion and scaling are managed by the GPU thereby requiring little to no CPU usage. Apart from this, other new features in the latest release include performance improvement over IE 9 and persistent full-screen display during multitasking.

You can download the new Adobe Flash Player 10.2 beta software by clicking here.

Categories
Software and Apps

Convert Flash To HTML5 With New Conversion Tool

At the developer conference organized by Adobe this week, the company has demoed one very interesting new tool – a Flash-To-HTML5 converter tool that will let developers easily port their Adobe Flash applications to HTML5 for incorporation on platforms like iOS that do not support Flash. This may look like a move that might haunt the company in the long run since it basically gives a reprieve for companies like Apple that have been otherwise facing flak for not allowing an ubiquitous multimedia platform like Adobe.

But as Adobe writer John Nack points out, his company is in the business of building tools that will make the life of developers easier. Consequently, building such tools are much needed today when there is much fragmentation.

Here is a video demo of the upcoming tool. The tool is surely going to get a lot of developers excited.

Categories
Mobile Software and Apps

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 For Blackberry, Windows Phone, Symbian & MeeGo Announced

Apple may hate it and make it sound like this is the worst thing to have happened to the smartphone platform. But that hasn’t stopped Adobe Flash Player from becoming one of the most popular applications on the Android platform with close to 50,000 users having rated it 4.5 out of 5.

Following this success, Adobe Flash Player seems to be headed to the rest of the smartphone platforms. At the Adobe MAX developer conference, the company has announced that the popular multimedia player will be available for Blackberry OS, WebOS 2.0, LiMo, MeeGo, Symbian OS and future versions of Windows Phone moving forward. There is simply no word on when this support will be made available. But at least, this is one battle that Apple has to fight alone. Adobe Flash, it appears, is not making way for HTML5 anytime soon.

Categories
Software and Apps

Adobe InMarket App Distribution Service Announced

Adobe’s AIR based applications are compatible on a number of different application marketplaces. But the sheer number of them has meant that developers will have a tough time updating each of these different app stores every time they make a change or announce an update.

Now Adobe has made it easy for developers by launching a new app distribution service called InMarket. With InMarket, developers now have only one place to go to while submitting an application. Adobe will take care of handling the app distribution across these various application stores. Developers will get the usual 70/30 cut on revenues and there will be no apparent change in the way these applications are downloaded from the users’ point of view.

Adobe InMarket

A pretty brilliant way to consolidate the marketplace while making money at the same time. Intel’s AppUp is said to be the first app store that will accomodate this new distribution service. Adobe is noted to start supporting close to 10 stores by the second half of 2011 and this will include app stores for mobile, desktop, tablet and television.

Categories
Mobile

Downloads Of Adobe Flash On Android Cross 1 Million

Skip this piece if you are an iPhone user lest you love to have heartburns. According to reports, Adobe Flash 10.1 that was launched in August of this year on the Android platform has already crossed the 1 million download mark. As you should be already aware, the Adobe Flash Player 10.1 works only over the latest Android 2.2 platform and is thus an impressive number.

Despite the cynicism that existed before this launch, Adobe has done reasonably well with not too many issues being reported. One major gripe is the way Adobe Flash drains battery life which the company is expected to solve in the upcoming versions. But another issue that Android 2.2 users have reported is the non-rendering of Flash content from some websites. According to Anup Murarka from Adobe, the issue is more so with these individual websites that read the platform as mobile and consequently render non-Flash content. ZDNet reports,

“The issue is that Disney and other sites are reading a mobile device and delivering a site that doesn’t include video. Murarka said that the Flash unit has a swat team that goes around to help make the sites read correctly. It takes time.”

Categories
Gadgets iPad

Simple iPad Hack To Download Paid Apps For Free Discovered

An Italian website has published details about a relatively simple exploit that has been discovered on the iPad that will make it extremely easy for iPad users to access paid iPad applications for free. The exploit involves accessing the .plist file on the iPad and changing the status of a command from “purchasable” to “viewable“. The paid apps like the New Yorker are noted to change their ‘Buy‘ buttons to ‘Download‘ once this is done enabling easy access.  This can be done by anyone with basic computer skills.

Not all paid apps can be accessed this way though. Only applications that make use of Adobe’s Digital Content Viewer – that includes the Wired and The New Yorker apps – are vulnerable to this hack. Adobe issued a statement last week soon after the hack was discovered noting that they are working on this issue,

“We have confirmed that it is possible for experienced users with detailed instructions to access some digital publications on the iPad that have not been purchased. We are working on a fix and expect to deliver a new version of our Digital Content Viewer to publishers on Friday, October 8”

Interestingly, the hack appears to be working still; a week after Adobe’s self-imposed deadlines. It is not clear what is taking Adobe such a long time for the fix though.

Categories
Mobile Software and Apps

Check Out The Best Adobe AIR Apps For Android At AppBrain

Last week Adobe released their AIR application for the Android platform that will make it possible for developers to easily port their applications from other platforms to Android. Since its release, we already a pretty good number of AIR based applications released on the Android marketplace. If you are eager to check out these applications, AppBrain has now published a new section that outlines the various AIR based app for Android. Clearly, the first few apps are not too useful and you may not be launching them more than once. But the new section has also showcased quite a few interesting apps like SkyTunes that makes it easy for users to stream music from their PC to their phone.

You can check out the complete list on AppBrain here. Expect the number of apps showcased to grow considerably moving forward.

Categories
Mobile

Adobe AIR For Android Released

Adobe has announced that their AIR application for Android is now available for download on the Android Marketplace. You may already know this, but it is worth noting that AIR is basically a cross-platform interface that lets developers build feature rich applications based on other platforms like HTML, AJAX, Flash and Flex. The latest release is just a runtime that you can install on your FroYo-running Android machine making it ready for other cross-platform applications.

The release of this new app will open up the possibilities for developers to build hundreds of new applications for the Android platform that will make use of the AIR integration. This basically simplifies the job of the developer since they may now develop one code base that can be viewed across several platforms. Want to check out a demo of such an application? Find it embedded below.

Categories
Gadgets

Adobe Plenoptic Lens Can Help Refocusing On Blurred Images

Adobe has developed a new plenoptic lens and a software that goes with it that makes blurred sections of photographs a thing of the past. The technology comes with just one additional piece of plenoptic lens to a camera setup. Plenoptic lenses are made of an array of micro-lenses that help to capture an image from multiple perspectives. This eventually means that you can pick on the area to focus and other areas to blur after the original picture is captured. The plenoptic lens is noted to be fit in between the original lens and the camera sensor.

The technology is currently only in its prototype stages and commercial use of the same appears to be some time away. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a video demo on what is on offer, check out this embed below.

Categories
Mobile

New Flash Player For Motorola Droid X & HTC Incredible Now Available For Download

Adobe has released a new version of its Flash Player that is at present only available for Motorola Droid X and HTC Droid Incredible handsets. The new Flash Player 10.1.92.10 – as the name suggests – is apparently only a minor stablility update to the earlier Flash Player 10.1. Nevertheless, if you like being up-to-date on the software front, you should probably hit the Android Marketplace and get the update. There is automatic software update available right now and users will have to manually search and install the update. Also, Droid X users need to note that you will need to be updated to the latest Android 2.2 OS version.

Adobe has not officially released the changelog as of now. So do not expect to see any major improvements in performance with the new update.