Flash Is Now A Platform, AIR Gets An Upgrade, And Adobe Puts A Catalyst In Gumbo

Flash Is Now A Platform, AIR Gets An Upgrade, And Adobe Puts A Catalyst In Gumbo

Realizing that Flash is a better name than Flex for a platform, Adobe is now referring to everything it does related to Flash (including the Flash Player, Adobe AIR, Flex developer tools, and Flash media servers) as the Flash Platform. That’s what I’ve been calling it anyway, so I’m glad they finally caught up.

Beyond the marketing shift, Adobe will be making some more significant announcements at its MAX developer conference this week. Here’s a summary:

1. Release of Adobe AIR 1.5. The Adobe AIR client now has better performance and memory handling, but most importantly it supports Flash Player 10 and Webkit (which is what the mobile browsers in both the iPhone and Android are based on). Flash Player 10 means more 3-d graphics. This version of AIR will also include an encrypted database that should appeal to developers of enterprise apps.

2. Flash Catalyst and Gumbo. Adobe is reaching out beyond its core base of developers with a new set of tools. Catalyst (previously known as Thermo), streamlines the hand-off between graphic designers and developers. It creates a two-way bridge between files created in Adobe’s Creative Suite products such as Photoshop as Illustrator, and Web apps built in Flash or AIR.
Adobe will be making some announcements at its MAX developer conference this week. Catalyst basically converts everything back and forth. In a similar vein, Gumbo (aka, Flex Builder 4) will try to appeal beyond core Java developers to script kiddies of all stripes and sizes. It will be available as a preview release

3. Mobile Flash. Flash will be demoed on Windows Mobile.

4. A 64-bit Flash Player For Linux. A preview will become available at Adobe Labs.

5. Dynamic streaming comes to Flash media server. The server software can now deliver Flash video at different quality, depending one the bandwidth and device of the viewer.

Adobe To Demo Flash On Windows Mobile. Still “Working” On The iPhone.

 Adobe's Flash Player is on 98 percent of all desktop computers, but it is still struggling to make the jump to mobile phones. If you want Flash on a mobile device, right now you have to settle for a compromised version: Flash Lite. But Adobe is committed to bring the full Flash Player experience to mobile phones, as evidenced by its Open Screen Project. On Monday, at its Adobe MAX developer conference, it will demonstrate Flash Player 10 running on a Windows Mobile phone. (However, Flash won't actually ship on Windows Mobile until late next year). Product manager Michele Turner tells me:

We will be showing the first delivery of Flash on mobile phones, on other platforms. You will see it on Windows Mobile.

Adobe 'Working' On Flash For iPhone, But 'Really Up To Apple'

Dan Frommer | November 17, 2008 10:35 AM

What's up with Adobe's (ADBE) long-running campaign to get its Flash video/animation software on Apple's (AAPL) iPhone? It could still happen, someday... maybe.

"We are working on Flash on the iPhone, but it is really up to Apple," Adobe product manager Michele Turner told TechCrunch. Which sounds lot like the last two times we heard about Flash on the iPhone:

Sept. 30: "My team is working on Flash on the iPhone, but it's a closed platform," said Adobe senior director of engineering Paul Betlem.

June 17: "We have a version that’s working on the emulation. This is still on the computer and you know, we have to continue to move it from a test environment onto the device and continue to make it work," said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.

What's the problem? Presumably, Adobe should be able to figure out the technical challenges required to get Flash videos and animations playing smoothly on the iPhone. It won't be easy -- Flash video isn't even that great on a brand new Mac. But it shouldn't be impossible. After all, Apple's built-in Quicktime software does a fine job playing video on the phone...

Web Flash Publishing - WIX, Sprout, Weebly

Wix

Website:	wix.com
Location:	Ny, New York, United States
Founded:	September, 2006
Funding:	$8.5M

Wix has developed a WebTop publishing platform; allowing users to create any kind of web content (web sites, widgets, blogs, myspace layouts) and publish that content anywhere they want.

Wix is the only publishing offering that… Learn More

Sprout

Website:	sproutbuilder.com
Location:	Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Founded:	August 19, 2005
Funding:	$8.3M

Sprout is an online WYSIWYG editor for Flash that as of March 2008 has been released in a public beta. Designers can use Sprout to create, publish and track Flash widgets, websites and… Learn More

Weebly

Website:	weebly.com
Location:	San Francisco, California, United States
Funding:	$650k

Weebly is an AJAX website creator that allows you to create pages with template skins and content widgets. Users can easily drag-and-drop content widgets like pictures, text, video and Google Maps in WYSIWYG-fashion. They also have a new blogging… Learn More

Information provided by CrunchBase

Installing tEarn into Dreamweaver Templates, Adobe

Dreamweaver, from Adobe, uses templates for controlling the common parts of a website, such as the header, sidebar, and footer. 

To create a template for a new website, here is a tutorial.

About Dreamweaver Templates

To install the tEarn tag into one or more templates, note the following:

How to Modify & Update a Dreamweaver Template?

So you have made the template and the pages using it. How do you modify the common elements of your template pages? All you need to do is make your changes to the dreamweaver template and save it. All pages are automatically updated on request. Simple!

Tip: Use Server Side Includes in your Dreamweaver Template

We highly recommend the use of Server Side Includes (SSI) with dreamweaver templates for large websites. Include files save you the trouble of updating and uploading numerous pages having the same content. For example in your dreamweaver web site if you navigation links are in an include file you can change your navigation at any time and will have to upload only that single include file. Read our free tutorial on SSI.

Copy Tag from tEarn

1. Create a tEarn Account
2. Setup your Publisher Profile. Reference the FAQ for advanced settings.
3. Copy your Tag to the Clipboard. See step 3 on the page.

Paste into Dreamweaver

Whether you choose the SSI or template method, here are the steps to insert the code.

1. Open your master template. (If you have more than one, repeat these steps for each template)
2. Make sure the template is in the CODE mode for pasting HTML code.
3. Place your data cursor on any fixed part of the master template. This includes the header, sidebar, or footer. Since the tEarn code has no visible footprint, the code can be inserted in any part of the template, including the HEAD part of the template.
4. Paste your Tag from the Clipboard and Save

Test the code by clicking any link that exits your blog. Monitor your results at http://tEarn.com/.

STATS: HDTV RESOLUTION EXPLAINED

HDTV RESOLUTION EXPLAINED

By David Katzmaier
(September 12, 2006)

Resolution is the main reason why HDTV looks so much better than standard television. On a high-def TV displaying a high-def source, a million or more pixels combine to create images that appear sharper and more realistic than TV ever has before. Resolution isn't the be-all and end-all of picture quality, however, and its numerous, well, numbers, can be incredibly intimidating at first. In this article we'll try to demystify HDTV resolution and help you cut through the hype that surrounds all of those numbers.

YouTube Tests Higher Resolution Videos

Following the announcement from November, YouTube started to test higher quality videos. If you append &fmt=6 to the URL of a YouTube video, you should get better quality videos. Note that this only works for a small number of videos.

Here's an example of video that's available both in the regular version (320x240) and in a higher quality encoding (448x336). The audio is now encoded at a sample rate of 44100 Hz, up from 22050 Hz. As you can see in the screenshots below, the right image is clearer and more detailed.


While this increase of resolution might seem minor, for the example above YouTube's re-encoded FLV file is more than twice bigger than the old one (from 9 MB to 22 MB), so it will load much slower.

If you append &fmt=18, YouTube downloads the video as a MP4 (H264 with AAC audio), encoded at 480x360. Here's the same video encoded as MP4.

Broadband Video Commercial Measurement Guidelines

For a complete copy of the guidelines, please click here.

Guideline Overview

Guideline	Recommendation
Ad Counting	Client/Browser-initiated
Buffering & Caching	Measurement Standard = Opportunity to see
Measurable Activity	Includes, but is not limited to: Delivery of a beacon, defined as any piece of content designated as a tracking asset Deliver of a 302 Redirect or html/javascript Delivery of broadband ad content
Reporting	Include disaggregated detail for placement, or range of ad types
Filtration	Strongest possible combination of both specific identification and activity-based filtration
Auditing	Counting methods Processes/controls

Panel Size:

The recommended minimum video panel size should be 300x225, which will allow Broadband Video Commercials to fit into the IAB’s 300x250 standard ad unit (with room for a 25 pixel tall control bar). In terms of other sizes, we recommend either a 4:3 aspect ratio (400x300) or 16:9 aspect ratio (720x480), which follows NCTA guidelines.

Rich Media Guidelines

The Guideline:

For a complete copy of the guidelines, please click this link. 

[PDF] 

A Digital Video Primer: Understanding and Using High-Definition Video

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML configured to act as a home theater center and stream HD or SD video from a DVD, CD, hard. drive, or tuner card. A computer equipped with Microsoft’s Media ...

NEWS: Adobe to Publish Flash File Format Specs

Adobe to Publish Flash File Format Specs

from ReadWriteWeb by Josh Catone

Adobe is today announcing the "Open Screen Project" which will seek to create a consistent runtime environment for rich media across a myriad of devices. In other words, Flash on the web, mobile, desktop, television, and other consumer electronic devices. As part of this initiative, Adobe will be releasing the file format specifications for Flash (.swf and .flv/f4v) and removing all licensing restrictions involved with the Flash format. In the future, the project will be expanded to include AIR...

Adobe Open Screen Project opens door for even more Flash

from VentureBeat by Anthony Ha

Just in case you think Adobe’s Flash Player (which powers YouTube and an enormous number of other sites) isn’t ubiquitous enough, Adobe is pushing for even greater adoption from developers and designers. Through an initiative the company is calling the Open Screen Project, Adobe will lift a number of restrictions on Flash in the hopes creating even greater usage, especially on web-enabled devices.

Adobe’s goal, says Standards and Open Source Director Dave McAllister, is to create a consistent runtime environment for applications running on computers, televisions, mobile devices and consumer electronics. Right now, if companies want to build apps that run on multiple devices, they need multiple development teams — one for the regular web version, one for the mobile version and so on. As more and more devices get connected to the web, the situation will just get more complicated. But if Adobe succeeds, developers can just create one app that’s compatible across the board — and, naturally, those applications will run on Flash (or AIR, Adobe’s player for hybrid web-desktop applications).

“This is the first true step into making sure that the extended web of desktops and devices is also an open web,” McAllister says.

One component of the Open Screen Project is financial. Right now, the Flash Player is distributed for free online, but Adobe charges licensing fees for the mobile version. As of the next release of Flash and AIR, those licensing fees will be eliminated. (To be clear, this doesn’t cover Flash Player 10, which is already in private testing mode, but the version of Flash that comes out afterwards.) Of course, that means one of Adobe’s revenue streams will disappear. But if it leads to greater Flash usage, McAllister thinks Adobe can more than make up for that on the developer side by charging for tools.

Adobe will be be making some technical changes too, like removing restrictions on SWF and FLV/F4V, publishing the application programming interface (API) layers for Flash’s porting layer and publishing the Adobe Flash Cast and AMF protocols. ..

Adobe Finally Takes On Apple, Google In Mobile

from Silicon Alley Insider by Hank Williams

Today Adobe announced a new hugely important strategic initiative regarding the Flash Player called the Open Screen Project. The upshot: It's finally ready to start competing with Google and Apple for mobile platform developers...

This is a direct shot across the bow of both Apple (AAPL) with the iPhone and Google (GOOG) with Android. Adobe has far more 3rd-party developers than Apple does with Mac OS/iPhone or Google does with Android, and if they can make it totally seamless to develop for desktop or mobile, it will radically change the dynamics of the business. Presumably Adobe will be able to port this next version of Flash to the iPhone as well, though the politics of that will be interesting given Steve Jobs' antipathy for Flash.

From a business perspective, Adobe seems to have everyone onboard that matters including Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Qualcomm, Samsung, Intel, and lots of others. Now that Flash is free and presumably easy to embed, it instantly becomes the mobile and embedded software platform to beat.

Apple, movie studios realize people want new releases when they’re new

from VentureBeat by MG Siegler

When Apple revealed that it had signed up all of the major movie studios to distribute films via the iTunes store in January, lost in the fine print was the fact that most new releases would still have a waiting period before they were available online. This was simply because Hollywood was afraid of cannibalizing DVD sales. It’s the same reason why movies don’t come to HBO until a few weeks or months after their DVD release. That is about to change..

.Adobe’s Open Screen Project: Write Once, Flash Everywhere

from TechCrunch by Erick Schonfeld

Adobe is making a big play to make Flash the de facto viewing environment not only for Web apps on your PC, but also on your mobile phone, your TV, and any other screen you can think of. It is announcing the Open Screen Project to make it easier to develop applications across devices—using Flash, of course. David Wadhwani, general manager of Adobe’s platform business (which includes Flash/Flex, AIR, and Cold Fusion), says:

We believe it is time for an industry-wide movement for a consistent way to develop across the Web for PCs, mobile devices, and TVs.

To help the project along, Adobe is:

1. Opening up the runtime to its Flash player for the first time so that anybody can create their own customized player. Specifically, it is going to open up the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications. In the past, developers had to sign agreements not to create derivative Flash players because Adobe wanted to avoid the fragmentation that Java experienced during its early years. But now it feels that Flash is a strong enough standard to withstand the introduction of some new evolutionary branches.

2. Removing licensing fees for Flash on mobile devices. While Flash is free on PCs, cell phone makers and other device manufacturers must pay a royalty fee. This was a $52 million business for Adobe last year. (Versions of Flash are on 500 million mobile devices already, and that is expected to grow to one billion over the next 12 months). That business (which represents only 2 percent of Adobes overall revenues) is going away. Starting with the next major release of Flash (and AIR) for devices in 2009, it will be free to device manufacturers. That should help Flash spread even more.

3. Publishing the APIs for porting Flash to other devices. This currently also incurs a royalty fee. By opening it up, there is no reason why every device shouldn’t come with Flash pre-installed.

4. Publishing Adobe protocols for pushing content to devices like Flash Cast and AMF. Adobe will also work with wireless carriers on protocols for over-the-air software updating. (This is actually a hard problem because most software downloaded to a mobile phone gets stored in read-only-memory, where it pretty much stays until the device is replaced. Getting mobile software to update as easily as desktop software is the key to making sure mobile apps keep up with the times.

On the application creation side, Adobe increasingly will be adopting a widget approach. There is not much difference between a widget that runs as a module on a Web page and a mobile app that runs on a small screen. Wadhwani explains:

These things can expand up. Developers are looking to optimize for these small screen sizes. Instead of squashing it down from a desktop experience, it is easier to start small and build up.

The same approach can be used for apps on other devices as well, such as set-top boxes...

Adobe Plans to Give Away Flash for Mobile Devices

from NYT > Technology

Adobe said it will license its video-enabling Flash software for free for mobile devices to help developers make mobile Internet experiences more closely resemble the experience on computers.

Adobe Opens Up Flash

from PC World: Latest Technology News

Adobe Systems is opening up access to its Flash technology via the Open Screen Project, an industry initiative...

Ed: On a slow news day, Adobe dominates the conversations.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Adobe, Apple, Salesforce Fight for Innovators

Wow! What a month. 

Realignment of Advertising

View	NEWS: Yahoo Reveals Details of Its New Ad Sales Sy

View	NEWS: AOL Ad Project, 'Platform A,' Plots Plan B

View	STATS: March Searches, Clicks, CPC, and Demand

View	NEWS: Newspapers Past, Present, and Future

Microsoft bids to buy Yahoo. Yahoo and AOL challenges Google in the new market that integrates CPC and CPM advertising. Google shows mixed success - moving to integrate DoubleClick with their dominant share of the CPC market. Legacy newspapers worry about job security.

The Future of Innovation

View	NEWS: Google Developers, start your engines

View	NEWS: Yahoo opens up to semantic web and developer

View	NEWS: Microsoft Embracing Data Portability?

View	NEWS: Evolving the OpenID Foundation Board

View	NEWS: Progress report on the OpenSocial Web

What is the real battle? It's the control of innovation through developers. 

• Open standards like Open Social, Open ID, and the Semantic Web make data available to developers. 
  

Amazon opens product information - what's available, what's popular, what customers want. Salesforce opens data about customer relations. Facebook opens data on members, friends, and interests. Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo can open the profiles for millions of email users. Substantial privacy issues aside, this trend paves the way for the glue that simplifies life.

• Free hosting and services allow more developers to participate. 
  

Apple wants iPhone developers. Microsoft needs to retain legacy developers. Facebook, Google, Myspace, Yahoo, Amazon, Adobe ... each wants the mindshare to be the leader among developers. Each has the cash flow to delay monetization. The winner controls the innovation that fuels growth for years to come. 

Conclusion

It's a great time to be a developer - and investor.

NEWS: Clips on Sharing Video, Music, Multimedia

Ed: Apple is music portal. Youtube dominates video uploads. Adobe and Apple control the plug-ins for video, music delivery. Why would multi-media be shared outside of social networks like Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, ...?

Social Net Imeem Buys Struggling Music Service Snocap

As had been rumored for a while, music-based social networking service Imeem has finally bought the assets of trouble digital music services firm Snocap. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. This deal brings in content identification technology and a digital registry for Imeem, besides the team. This will help Imeem offer commerce services to labels and artists. Imeem had previously been working with Snocap.

Snocap was founded by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, and had received about $10 million in funding from had raised at least $25 million from investors including Morgenthaler Ventures, WaldenVC, and Court Square Ventures. The company laid off 60 percent of staff last October. It had changed tracks a few times: started a music ID/registry for P2P distribution, and when the industry didn't take off, moved to a widget-based model to sell music through social networking sites and blogs. Meanwhile, Fanning has moved on, as he usually does after stirring the pot, and has launched Rupture, a virtual social community for online gamers.

Snocap COO Ali Aydar is joining Imeem as its VP of operations, while CEO Rusty Rueff is moving on. Release. 

MeeVee: Someone Please Buy Mee

MeeVee, the struggling online video guide, is looking for a buyer. The well-capitalized site announced in a release that it would do better by "combining with an established player", and it's inviting interested parties to shoot them an email (seriously). It also says it's currently in discussions with other parties. The Burlingame, CA-based site lost its CEO last month, and last summer it laid off 20 percent of its workforce—it appears it may have laid off even more, as the release says it's down to just seven full time employees. Since its founding in 2000, the company has raised nearly $24 million from investors including Bay Area Equity Fund, Defta Partners, FCPR Israel Discovery Fund, Labrador Ventures, Rothschild Ventures, and WaldenVC. Release.

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Record Labels Seek $9 Million From Baidu, $7.5 Million From Sohu For Piracy Charges

Now that the Beijing Intermediate People's Court has accepted the copyright infringement suits brought by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the major record labels, the amounts of their recent lawsuits against Chinese websites can now been made public: Universal Music Group, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG and Warner are seeking $9 million against Chinese search giant Baidu and $7.5 million against web portal Sohu and its Sogou multimedia search site. The suits were filed in February. The Beijing court said it would allow the suits to go through last week. More details in the IFPI release.

Related

• Baidu, Sohu And Yahoo China Face New Wave Of Music Lawsuits

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Qik adds RSS feeds

Cool, now you can get my videos that I shoot on my cell phone directly into your iTunes or other RSS readers. Here’s the RSS feeds. Also, the feeds over on http://www.fastcompany.tv have been upgraded to support the same.

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iTunes Gains Popularity As Online Music Brand, MySpace Wanes  

TechWeb via Yahoo! News - Apr 04 1:50 PM

Study reports MySpace has declined, alongside CD sales, while iTunes has gained strength as the dominant destination for digital music sales.

MySpace CEO on Music Plan  

AdWeek - Apr 06 7:10 PM

NEW YORK To MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, the sprawling social network provides the ideal platform to help the struggling music industry to find its footing in the digital world.

Alltel Wireless and Pandora Team Up to Bring Music Discovery to Customers  

Marketwire via Yahoo! Finance - Mar 19 6:00 AM

Today, Pandora Media, the premier provider of personalized radio service online, and Alltel Wireless, America's largest network, launched an innovative marketing campaign where Pandora users in specific Alltel Wireless markets will be invited to submit their favorite hometown bands on Pandora's website.

MySpace Unveils Music Service, 
Partners With Record Labels

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO and ETHAN SMITH
April 4, 2008; Page B1

MySpace and the music industry unveiled Thursday an online music service to challenge Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, even as the digital retailer announced it has become the top music seller in the country after less than five years in the business.

MySpace has formed partnerships with three major record labels --Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp. and Sony BMG Music Entertainment -- to offer the social-networking giant's members a range of new music-listening and merchandising features. MySpace Music will offer free, ad-supported audio "streaming" and sell digital downloads that will play on a variety of music devices, as well as concert tickets, merchandise, and ring tones and other content for mobile phones...

Digital Sales Will Account for 40% of Music Purchases by 2012

Digital sales of music represented 10% of the total worldwide music market in 2007, up from 6% in 2006, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). By 2012, digital music sales will represent an impressive 40% of all music purchased worldwide, the high-tech market research firm says. Factors contributing to this growth include the global expansion of broadband, continued demand for single-track downloads, and expanding music catalogues. Another key driver is the potential for market growth in full-track downloads to mobile handsets in markets other than Japan, which currently is the primary market for this type of digital music format.

Digital piracy continues to represent the primary challenge to online music service providers. Other obstacles still include the lack of interoperability between services and devices due to differing digital rights management (DRM) technologies, and weak consumer demand for subscription-based services. Another potential market inhibitor is the fact that content owners, cellular service providers and handset manufacturers are increasing the amount of marketing and promotion for mobile music.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Sales for online digital music reached $3.05 billion in 2007, up 48% from 2006.
• Revenue for worldwide full track mobile downloads will reach approximately $4.2 billion by 2012.
• The majority of respondents who accessed online video (72.3%) in 2007 did not pay for the video they saw from the Internet.

Adobe Launches Media Player, Adobe TV

Adobe has launched Adobe Media Player 1.0 and a Adobe TV.

Adobe Media Player is a cross-platform Adobe AIR application that offers content discovery and interaction. Companies that are offering content for the player include CBS, MTV Networks, Universal Music Group, PBS, CondéNet, and Scripps Networks.

Adobe Media Player offers playback of streamed, downloaded or locally-stored video in Adobe Flash and can be viewed in 1080p, 720p or 480i resolutions. iTunes style the player allows users to subscribe to television shows and other content and automatically receive new episodes when they are available.

Adobe TV is available at tv.adobe.com or as a network in Adobe Media Player and offers “expert instruction and original series programming” about Adobe products. Adobe TV offers four channels targeted at Photographers, Designers, Video Professionals, and Developers. Content comes from “Adobe evangelists, leading trainers, subject matter experts, and luminaries.” Over 200 videos are available for the launch.

Yahoo's Flickr Expands Into Online Video

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo Inc. will begin showing homemade videos on its online photo-sharing site, Flickr, in a long-anticipated move that may be too late to lure most people away from the Internet's dominant video channel, Google Inc.'s YouTube.