Mar 25

Video: Adobe’s ‘Content-Aware Fill’ Is Photoshop Magic

Posted in: adobe, Miscellaneous, photography, photoshop, Today's Chili, videos

Adobe this week demonstrated a new trick called “Content-Aware Fill” in a future version of Photoshop, an effect that uses a complex mathematical algorithm to automagically fill in areas when users remove undesired content. In short: Mindblowing. Check it out yourself in the video above. If you’re short on time, skip to the 2:50 mark for the most impressive stuff.

Sneak peek of Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop [Adobe]

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Mar 18

NPR and WSJ building ‘Flash-free’ pages for iPad, Apple quietly delays select iPad accessories

Posted in: adobe, Apple, apple ipad, AppleIpad, delay, flash, ipad, keyboard, peripheral, slate, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili, web

For awhile, we couldn’t decide what we were more angry at: the fact that select devices wouldn’t support Flash, or that Flash was simply too demanding on select devices. We still can’t say with any degree of certainty which side of the fence we’re on, but there’s no question that Apple’s refusal to play nice with Adobe on the iPhone, iPod touch and forthcoming iPad limits the abilities of those devices significantly. Curiously enough, it seems that Apple’s importance in the mobile (and media delivery) realm is coercing select portals to develop Flash-free websites for those who drop by on an iDevice. Both the National Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal are furiously working on iPad-friendly websites, which will be devoid of Flash for at least the first few pages down. What’s interesting is that we get the impression that this will soon become the rule rather than the exception, and it could be exactly what’s needed to launch HTML5 into stardom and put these Flash or no Flash debates behind us.

In related news, we’re also seeing that a couple of iPad accessories won’t actually be ready to ship when the device itself cuts loose on April 3rd. Yesterday, the iPad Keyboard Dock was listed with a “May” ship date, though today it has moved up to a marginally more palatable “Late April.” The iPad 10W USB Power Adapter also carries a “May” date, while the iPad Case is slated for “Mid April” and that elusive camera connection kit is still nowhere to be found. But hey, at least you’ll get your (overpriced) iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter and iPad dock by the first weekend of next month, right?

NPR and WSJ building ‘Flash-free’ pages for iPad, Apple quietly delays select iPad accessories originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ArsTechnica  |  sourceAll Things D, Apple Store  | Email this | Comments

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Mar 10

HTML5 vs. Flash comparison finds a few surprises, settles few debates

Posted in: adobe, Apple, Chrome, flash, Google, Mac, Today's Chili, Windows

Think we’d all be better off if HTML5 could somehow instantly replace Flash overnight? Not necessarily, according to a set of comparisons from Jan Ozer of the Streaming Learning Center website, which found that while HTML5 did come out ahead in many respects, it wasn’t exactly a clear winner. The tests weren’t completely scientific, but they did find that HTML5 clearly performed better than Flash 10 or 10.1 in Safari on a Mac, although the differences were less clear cut in Google Chrome or Firefox. On the other hand, Flash more than held its own on Windows, and Flash Player 10.1 was actually 58% more efficient than HTML5 in Google Chrome on the Windows system tested. As you may have deduced, one of the big factors accounting for that discrepancy is that Flash is able to take advantage of GPU hardware acceleration in Windows, while Adobe is effectively cut out of the loop on Mac — something it has complained about quite publicly. According to Ozer, the differences between HTML5 and Flash playback on a Mac could be virtually eliminated if Flash could make use of GPU acceleration. Hit up the link below for all the numbers.

Update: Mike Chambers has performed some additional tests that he says shows that “does not perform consistently worse on Mac than on Windows.” Check out the complete results here.

HTML5 vs. Flash comparison finds a few surprises, settles few debates originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ReadWriteWeb  |  sourceStreaming Learning Center  | Email this | Comments

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Mar 08

HP Slate makes an appearance to show off Flash, stays for a rock concert

Posted in: ad, adobe, ads, commercial, flash, HP, slate, Today's Chili

It shouldn’t be any surprise that the HP Slate supports Flash, since it runs Windows 7, but we’ve seen so little of the device since Steve Ballmer first waved it around at CES that we’re still totally intrigued by this video from Adobe showing it in action. Yep, there it is, playing video, running casual Flash games, and using AIR applications. We also get a quick shot of the on-screen keyboard, which looks like a mildly tweaked version of the standard Windows 7 keyboard. We can’t say until we use it, but it certainly doesn’t look like it’ll be fun to type on. Interestingly, Flash is said to be hardware-accelerated on the Slate, which suggests something other than a bone-stock Atom setup in there — we’d guess it’s an Atom plus a Broadcom Crystal HD Accelerator, but there’s a chance it’s something else entirely. HP’s also posted up a new marketing video, which bears a striking resemblance to last night’s iPad commercial — until the end, which frankly makes no sense. Check ’em both after the break.

[Thanks, Rick]

Continue reading HP Slate makes an appearance to show off Flash, stays for a rock concert

HP Slate makes an appearance to show off Flash, stays for a rock concert originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 01

Conde Nast stakes out ‘leadership position’ on iPad

Posted in: adobe, Apple, content, ipad, itunes, tablet, Today's Chili

This isn’t the 80s anymore. It’s not good enough to just pump out lusty hardware like the Walkman in order to drive generous profit streams. In the modern age of consumer electronics, it takes content and an entire ecosystem of software and services to keep customers locked in and buying your gear. That’s why we’re paying close attention to content deals for the suddenly hot tablet category of devices. Conde Nast has been teasing custom content for next generation tablets for months, lead by mock-ups of its Wired magazine property. So it’s no surprise to hear Charles H. Townsend, president and CEO of Conde Nast say he wants to “take a leadership position,” on Apple’s iPad. According to the New York Times, the company will announce plans today (via an internal company memo) for its first custom iPad digital pubs: the April issue of GQ (there’s already an iPhone app for that), followed by the June issues of Wired and Vanity Fair, and then The New Yorker and Glamour sometime in the summer. This first cut represents a broad swath of demographics as Conde Nast trials Apple’s newest platform in order to see what works. We should also expect a variety of prices and advertising models during the initial experimentation period. Also noteworthy is Conde Nast’s two-track development approach: the iPad version of Wired will be developed with Adobe (as we heard) but the others will be developed internally — all the digital mags will be available via iTunes although Wired will also be made available in “non-iTunes formats.” Assuming it finds a model that works, then Conde Nast plans to digitize other magazines in the fall.

Conde Nast stakes out ‘leadership position’ on iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 26

Flash 10.1 snubbing non-ARMv7 Android devices, too? (update: yes)

Posted in: adobe, Android, flash, Today's Chili

The same Adobe employee who mentioned on Adobe’s official forums that Flash 10.1 would be blowing right past Windows Mobile 6.5 made another notable comment, too: on Android, they’ll be conveniently overlooking devices that aren’t based on an ARMv7 core like a Snapdragon or OMAP3 — in other words, pretty much every device of consequence except the Nexus One, HTC Desire, Acer Liquid, Motorola Droid / Milestone, and Sony Ericsson X10. At this point, we’re starting to get a little suspicious — this is the same company that proudly demoed the Hero’s custom-rolled Flash support last year, after all, and there’ll be no shortage of devices using Qualcomm’s MSM7x27 line of chipsets in 2010 — so we’re holding out for some additional verification on this. Granted, forum mod Jochem van Dieten refers to the commenter specifically as an Adobe employee and he’s got a Plaxo profile identifying him as a product manager, but this is pretty wild news if accurate. We’ll update you as we know more.

Update: Indeed, PC Magazine points out that Adobe’s current verbiage is that Flash 10.1 is going to require Cortex A8 “or better.” So much for the “open” in Open Screen Project, eh?

Flash 10.1 snubbing non-ARMv7 Android devices, too? (update: yes) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  |  sourceAdobe Forums  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 25

Adobe taking a pass on Flash 10.1 for WinMo 6.5, will go straight to 7

Posted in: adobe, flash, Today's Chili, Windows Mobile, windows mobile 6.5, windows phone 7, windows phone 7 series, WindowsMobile, WindowsMobile6.5, WindowsPhone7, WindowsPhone7Series, winmo

An Adobe employee over in the company’s official forums dropped a bomb earlier this month that they’ve now decided to pass on releasing Flash 10.1 for Windows Mobile 6.5, instead moving straight to 7. The official explanation is that “WinMo6.5 does not support some of the critical APIs that we need,” but frankly, this sounds like a load of crap — since the project was announced last year, there’s no way it took them this long to figure out that an official cut for 6.5 wouldn’t be technically possible. If we had to guess, the real justification also explains why Adobe has been so quiet on the matter: 6.5’s now viewed as a dead-end platform since 7 represents a clean break for Microsoft, and the company feels like it can’t be bothered to invest the necessary time, energy, and money to see the project through. In all likelihood, Adobe was briefed on 7 prior to its official announcement at MWC, and that’s when the decision was made. Of course, that’s all pure speculation on our part — but regardless, don’t get your hopes up, HD2 owners (unless you get an upgrade, that is).

Adobe taking a pass on Flash 10.1 for WinMo 6.5, will go straight to 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WMPoweruser, PocketNow  |  sourceAdobe Forums  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 24

Flash 10.1 beta 3 released, adds support for Intel GMA 500 and Broadcom Crystal HD chips (Update: 1080p Flash on a netbook!)

Posted in: adobe, flash, hands-on, netbook, Today's Chili

Rejoice, owners of netbooks with Intel GMA 500 graphics: Flash Player 10.1 Beta 3 is here, complete with hardware video acceleration for your machines. That should make Hulu and YouTube HD usable on machines like the Sony VAIO P and VAIO X, the Nokia Booklet 3G, and the previous-generation Dell Mini 10. The new build also bring support for the Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator found in Pine Trail Atom machines like the newest Dell Mini 10 and HP Mini 210 — support we found sorely lacking when we reviewed the Dell. We just tried it out on our review HP Mini 210 and it managed 720p YouTube just fine, although 1080p was a no-go — we’re waiting on some updated Broadcom drivers though, so don’t take that as gospel quite yet. We’ll have much more on that in our full Mini 210 review; for now you should all get downloading and let us know how it’s going in comments.

Update: Success! We updated the Broadcom drivers on our Dell Mini 10 and downloaded the fresh Flash 10.1 Beta 3, and as you can see in the video below 1080p YouTube HD content plays smoothly. It’s almost everything we’ve ever dreamed of for our netbooks. We are still having issues with the HP Mini 210 which uses the older BCM70012 Crystal HD card, but will have an update on that in our full review soon.

Continue reading Flash 10.1 beta 3 released, adds support for Intel GMA 500 and Broadcom Crystal HD chips (Update: 1080p Flash on a netbook!)

Flash 10.1 beta 3 released, adds support for Intel GMA 500 and Broadcom Crystal HD chips (Update: 1080p Flash on a netbook!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 18

Steve Jobs: Flash Video Would Make the iPad Battery Life 1.5 Hours

Posted in: adobe, Apple, flash, ipad, steve jobs, Today's Chili, top

According to Steve Jobs, running Flash video on the iPad would cut its battery life from 10 hours to a measly 1.5. At least, that was his pitch to Wall Street Journal execs recently. But could it possibly be true?

Well, yes and no. Jobs is picking and choosing here between hypothetical versions of Flash. If the iPad version of Flash were to have hardware acceleration, which Flash 10.1 offered up for desktops (though not OS X), that wouldn’t be remotely the case. If Flash on the iPad were to support hardware video decoding where available, it wouldn’t require nearly as much CPU. You’d lose battery life, sure, the same way you lose battery life watching any type of video on any system, but nothing near as dramatic as 85%.

Of course, that hardware acceleration isn’t currently possible on Macs, because Adobe doesn’t have access to the appropriate APIs. So Jobs can easily on a imaginary version of Flash that doesn’t have hardware acceleration and come up with an imaginary battery life impact.

Jobs’s bigger fib might be his description of ditching Flash as “trivial.” It’s not. While HTML5 is good, it’s not great—yet. And even when it becomes great, it’ll take major sites years to make the switch—however long it takes for the majority of internet users to stop using outmoded browsers. And that won’t be for a very long time. Certainly longer than the first few generations of the iPad.

So. Would Flash make the iPad’s battery life only 1.5 hours? Maybe, maybe not. But the bigger question is: will we ever get the chance to find out for ourselves? [Gawker]

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Feb 17

Adobe Responds to Accusations of Being Lazy

Posted in: adobe, Apple, flash, Miscellaneous, Today's Chili, videos

Adobe’s been getting a lot of flack recently after Steve Jobs reportedly called the software company lazy during an employee meeting (according to a second-hand account first reported by Wired.com) because of its slow progress with improving Flash. Adobe’s CTO Kevin Lynch defended the Flash platform in the video interview above with Wall Street Journal writer Kara Swisher.

Flash lit up as a controversial topic recently after Apple’s tablet demonstration revealed the iPad would not support the Flash plug-in, just like the iPhone doesn’t. Many websites use the Flash platform to stream video or display animations, so the lack of Flash results in missing out on a chunk of the internet on the iPhone and, soon, the upcoming iPad.

Flash opponents, however, have sided with Apple for leaving out Flash, citing rumors that Flash is the biggest source of browser crashes in Mac OS X. Also, they argue that Apple can continue to ignore Flash if more web developers create alternatives to viewing content via a native iPhone app or an HTML5-based website — which many, including YouTube, are doing.

Lynch’s 8-minute interview can be summed up as such (paraphrased): We’re not lazy; we’re actually quite busy. And we’ve been working hard to improve the platform for Macs and smartphones, and we’ll continue to do so.

Say what you will about Flash, but that’s a better response than pulling the porn card to make a point.

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