Adobe cuts 600 jobs
Looks like the economic crunch has come to Adobe, too. In releasing its preliminary fourth quarter earnings, the software company said it plans to lay off 600 full-time positions, or about 8 percent of its workforce.
The cuts are driven by poor sales for Creative Suite… Continue Reading
EffectiveUI launches 360-degree video apps for training and games
Get ready for a new version of virtual reality.
Users soundly rejected so-called 360 degree technology in the 1980s when it first appeared in the form of data gloves and head-mounted displays. But now the technology has taken a big leap forward and two companies are… Continue Reading
Flash Player 10 brings new effects to developers
Flash Player 10, the latest version of Adobe’s nearly ubiquitous platform for web video and applications, is now available to the general public. The new features — most of them were already part of the test version released in May — include easier-to-use 3D effects… Continue Reading
So much for that tech stock rebound: Apple, Yahoo, Google killed again
The stock market took a plunge again today. While it wasn’t quite as bad as Monday’s free-fall, the Dow fell 348.22 points (3.22 percent), the Nasdaq fell 92.68 points (4.48 percent) and the S&P 500 fell 46.78 points (4.03 percent). Not good.
Some of the major… Continue Reading
That is the sound of inevitability: Flash confirmed for the iPhone (again)
Updated
It finally looks like Adobe’s Flash platform, which powers YouTube and many other media-rich websites, has really, truly been confirmed for the iPhone. Kind of.
Adobe has been releasing hints about this in dribs and drabs for most of this year. During an earnings call in… Continue Reading
Long gestation period: Microsoft’s first iPhone app coming next year
TellMe, a voice-recognition software company is at work on an application for Apple’s iPhone. This in and of itself may not be surprising, except that TellMe is owned by Apple nemesis Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft, at least by extension, is developing on the iPhone.
But we’ve actually… Continue Reading
Roundup: Green chemicals get started, gaming is ubiquitous, MySpace Music slowed again, and more
Genomatica creates renewable chemical from sugar water — While most chemicals are petroleum-based, several startups are trying to create new alternatives. One of the first to succeed is Genomatica, which says it has a cheap process to make 1,4-butanediol, a component chemical of many common materials,… Continue Reading
Adobe AIR for Linux evolves
The Linux version of Adobe AIR, a platform for developing and running Internet applications that run on your desktop, is now available in beta testing mode. That means Adobe is getting closer to a full launch of AIR on the Linux operating system, and also… Continue Reading
The big question: which big player has the right mobile web development strategy?
The spectrum of mobile web strategies is coming into focus at the CTIA this week in San Francisco. After listening to some of the big players talk about their strategies, the divisions between the companies are becoming clear and the question is: Which approach will… Continue Reading
Adobe announces newest version of eBook technology
Adobe has revealed its plans for the latest version of its server software for distributing eBooks, which will be released on September 22 and called Adobe Content Server 4. The most important improvements are the new support for the EPUB format, as well as a… Continue Reading
Apple and Brits argue semantics as iPhone ad is banned
When I saw the an iPhone advertisement was getting banned in the UK, I assumed it was the one showing ridiculously fast web browsing speeds that no iPhone user had ever seen. I had to laugh when I saw that the actual ad causing controversy… Continue Reading
Demandbase launches lead generation platform with Adobe funding
Here’s an interesting new use of Adobe’s AIR platform for creating hybrid web/desktop applications. With a free AIR app called Demandbase Stream, users can watch in real-time as other businesses visit their websites, then use that info to pursue a sale. The data scrolls across… Continue Reading
Adobe to Sony: You complete my media player
When Adobe launched the Adobe Media Player (AMP) back in April we were skeptical that users would flock to use a stand-alone video player when so many browser-based options are available. We’re still skeptical, but at least it’s getting better content.
Adobe is launching version 1.1… Continue Reading
Roundup: Nvidia takes a dive, Long Tail debate thrives, Google keeps source code
These graphics don’t compute: Nvidia stock fell 19 percent in after-hours trading today after the company disclosed some big problems with its second-quarter performance. The company said it will take a charge of $150 million to $200 million for high failure rates in certain models… Continue Reading
New deal makes “invisible” Flash content visible to search
Adobe, Google and Yahoo are about to make it easier to build rich multimedia websites in the Flash file format (SWF) without sacrificing any “Google juice” (and, um, whatever the Yahoo equivalent is). Both search engines have been developing ways to fully index Flash content… Continue Reading
IPhone rumors: Could Adobe lose out on its slice of the Apple pie?
Adobe Flash, the popular platform for web applications and media, may finally be coming to the iPhone. “May” is the operative word here — it sounds like development is still in the early stages, and Apple might not even be interested.
While Flash-related speculation hasn’t even… Continue Reading
Roundup: Leading China video site still down, Apple on United, and more
It’s been more than a week, and top Chinese video site 56.com is still “down for maintenance” — This is the longest outage to happen to any of the top three Chinese video sites, all of which have received significant investment from international investors — 56.com’s… Continue Reading
Adobe muscles into online office market with Acrobat.com
With the launch of a new site called Acrobat.com, Adobe says it’s ready to compete against online office products like Google Docs and Microsoft Office Live. For now, the site brings together three of Adobe’s office services — Buzzword for creating and sharing documents, ConnectNow… Continue Reading
Adobe and Qualcomm BREW up a mobile partnership
Adobe has taken another step in its plan for domination of the mobile world — it just announced a partnership that should make it easier to create applications for the Adobe Flash runtime in Qualcomm’s BREW mobile software platform.
This partnership is presumably part of Adobe’s… Continue Reading
Developers can twist, turn and spin content on Flash Player 10
Adobe has just released the latest version of its popular Flash Player in testing mode, and it includes a bunch of features that allow developers to do new, beautiful and weird things with Flash content. These improvements should also help Adobe continue fending off competition… Continue Reading