Sony Electronics holds a virtual trade show
Sony Electronics staged a virtual trade show today for fans of professional broadcasting equipment. The company said thousands of people registered for the event, which was staged by InXpo in Chicago.
The event marks the first time that Sony Electronics has endorsed the virtual trade show concept, which has been pushed by a variety of startups in the past couple of years as a way to cut travel and hotel expenses.
Alec Shapiro, senior vice president of… Continue Reading
Adobe AIR brings web/desktop apps to Linux
Adobe AIR, a platform for creating applications that transcend the barrier between the web and your desktop, is now fully compatible with Linux operating systems. Since AIR applications already work on Windows and Mac computers, this means developers can now build a single application that will run on pretty much every major operating system.
By working on your desktop, AIR applications can be more powerful and convenient than apps trapped in your web browser. I know… Continue Reading
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 4, which includes core Adobe products like Acrobat and Photoshop, which was released in October. This shouldn’t be a huge shock — with the economy in the tank, and copies… 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 launching it anew.
EffectiveUI and Intelligence Gaming are launching an immersive, 360-degree video technology that makes you feel like you’re really inside a video environment. You can look at your environment… 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 and additional text options that could expand Flash’s international reach.
The new player incorporates the Adobe Pixel Bender toolkit, which adds a bunch of motion filters and effects. Flash Player 10… 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 tech stocks, which took massive hits on Monday, only to partially recover on Tuesday, fell one again. Two in particular, Apple and Yahoo hit new lows today, while Google didn’t… 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 March, chief executive Shantanu Narayen confirmed that his company wants to develop an iPhone version of Flash — but when a number of bloggers (like me) jumped on the news,… 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 known that would probably be the case for a while now. Back in March, the software giant indicated its interest in getting its popular office suite applications, Microsoft Office, on… 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, from sugar and water, potentially disrupting a $4 billion industry. More on Genomatica’s process here.
Gaming becoming ubiquitous — A national survey showed that almost all teens play games.
MySpace Music may get… 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 to its goal of making AIR a platform for truly ubiquitous “build once, run anywhere” applications.
AIR keeps pushing ahead and making itself more attractive to developers, while competing platforms like… 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 succeed?
Yahoo
Yahoo showed its cards at the keynote speech Wednesday by Marco Boerries, head of Yahoo Mobile. Yahoo has some major mobile applications. OneSearch handles search. OneConnect ties the phone to… 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 pay-as-you-go pricing model that charges based on the number of downloads.
As a consumer, I remain unenthusiastic about eBooks, but Adobe trotted out some encouraging statistics on this front, saying that… 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 basically amounts to a semantics argument.
“You’ll never know which part of the Internet you’ll need, which is why all the parts of the Internet are on the iPhone,” a voiceover… 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 the bottom of their screens like the CNN news ticker, and when you see something interesting, you can look up relevant contacts via the Demandbase Central Platform.
With Stream, chief executive… 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 of its player tomorrow complete with a redesign and now featuring content from Sony Pictures. The content isn’t new but rather blasts from the past including movies like Men In… 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 of its graphics-processing units and its chip sets. It blamed heat problems on weak materials used to attach the chips to their packages in notebook computers. The company is also… 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 without requiring any extra effort from a website owner.
Previously, search engines indexed the “static” text and links on a site, falling far short of capturing all the content.
“It’s like reading… 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 approached the level of constant rumors and counter-rumors about the release of the iPhone 3G, there’s still been plenty of grumbling. After all, the lack of Flash support is disappointing… 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 include Sequoia Capital, Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, and we hear, Intel Capital. Chinese speakers, see 56.com’s message, above for the official explanation. The other two sites, Tudou.com and Youku.com, have also… 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 for web conferencing and an “organizer” with 5 gigabytes for file sharing.
Despite the presence of other big players, Adobe could make some real headway in this field. After all, the… Continue Reading