Hasta La Gadget!

In an open letter three months ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs challenged Adobe to ship its Flash software on any mobile device and prove it worked well.

Adobe, now, has an answer. The company has released Flash Player 10.1 to its mobile partners and the technology should be in the hands of Android phone users with the upcoming Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ update to the operating system.

Flash Player 10.1 will be available as a “final production release” for smart phones and tablets, once users are able to upgrade to Android 2.2, says Adobe.

Among the devices that will get Froyo and Flash Player 10.1 are the Dell Streak, Google Nexus One, HTC Evo, HTC Desire, HTC Incredible, Motorola Droid, Motorola Milestone and Samsung Galaxy S. Google hasn’t said yet exactly when Android 2.2 will be available to users, though it is expected in the next few weeks.

Adobe says Flash Player 10.1 will also be available in devices using BlackBerry, webOS, future versions of Windows Phone, MeeGo and Symbian operating systems.

If major Android phones get Flash capability it will be a push back against Apple’s efforts to turn public opinion against Flash on mobile devices.

With the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, Apple declared war against mobile Flash. Apple is supporting HTML5 and its efforts have influenced the online video landscape significantly. Many major websites are starting to use HTML5, and video players such as Brightcove are serving up HTML5 videos for devices not compliant with Flash. Separately, Apple has worked with companies like YouTube to produce iPhone-compatible versions of their sites.

“We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it,” wrote Jobs in a note posted on the Apple website in April. “Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?”

But many developers are not convinced. Adobe’s Flash standard is still widely used on the internet, for everything from animated banner ads and splash screens to infographics, educational content and games. Much of that content has been unavailable on mobile devices: The previous version of Adobe’s mobile Flash player, Flash Lite, supported only basic Flash content, such as video.

Gadget Lab’s first look at a Flash Player 10.1 beta showed that Flash on the mobile phone can be fun, unlocking sites that otherwise would be inaccessible. But it’s not a flawless experience. On a Nexus One, Flash content — especially video — took time to load, which was frustrating. And it sucks bandwidth.

Still, for Adobe, it’s a big step toward making Flash a contender in mobile multimedia.

See Also:

• Adobe Gives Up on Flash for iPhone, iPad
• Steve Jobs Claims Flash Will Kill the Mobile Web
• Adobe CEO, Ex-Adobe Engineers Weigh In on Jobs’ Flash Attack
• First Look: Flash Arrives on New Android OS

Photo: Flash Player 10.1 on a Nexus One phone (Keith Axline/Wired.com)

When Adobe said Flash gives you the full web experience, it meant it. Part and parcel of the web, as we all know, is the good old hacking community, which has been “actively exploiting” a vulnerability in Flash Player 10.0.45.2 (and earlier versions) and Adobe Acrobat and Reader 9.x to overtake people’s machines and do hacky stuff with them. This so-called flaw also causes crashes, but that’s probably not what’s worrying you right now. Adobe says the 10.1 Release Candidate for Flash Player looks to be unaffected, while versions 8.x of Acrobat and Reader are confirmed safe. To remedy the trouble, the company advises moving to the RC for Flash, and deleting authplay.dll to keep your Acrobat from performing undesirable gymnastics. Oh boy, Steve‘s gonna have a field day with this one.

Adobe’s Flash and Acrobat have ‘critical’ vulnerability, may allow remote hijacking originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 17:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The LumoPro LP160 might be the ultimate Strobist flash. Cheap, powerful and able to talk to pretty much any camera, it offers a great alternative to the $500 top-end flashes from Nikon and Canon for those who want a big light without paying for all the fancy automatic functions.

Strobists, or enthusiasts of off-camera flash, use small strobes and they use them in manual mode. LumoPro is a brand of Strobist gear made by camera retailer Moishe Applebaum (of Midwest Photo Exchange in Columbus, Ohio) in consultaion with the granddaddy of Strobism, photographer David Hobby. The kit is meant to be cheap, simple and good, and the new LP160 looks like it fits right in.

The details: The LP160 has a guide number of 140 (feet, ISO 100) which matches the Nikon SB900 or the Canon 580 EX II. It has a metal foot for mounting on hot-shoes and lighting stands and can swivel (270º) and tilt (180º up and 7º down). Power output is adjustable down to 1/64, and is done via pushbutton instead of the mechanical switches on the LP120 it replaces. Zooming, too, is motorized and done by a button.

The real magic comes in with the four different triggering methods. There is the regular hot-shoe trigger, a PC-socket for old-school cable masochists, a 3.5mm jack socket for those who don’t hate themselves and finally, a rather neat slave trigger. Slaves trip a flash when they see another flash, so you can pop your light using the small built-in flash on a digicam. This one will even ignore the pre-flashes from digital compacts. Nice.

How much is this flashgun? $200 $160. That’s a jump from the v1.0 LP120, which cost $130, but you get a lot more. And if you have been waiting on a back ordered LP120? Good news. Your ordered will be replaced with the new unit, at no extra cost.

LP160 Quad-sync Manual Flash [LumoPro. Thanks, Moishe!]

LumoPro LP160: Quad Sync v.2.0 [Strobist]

See Also:

• Cheap, Manual Flashgun: Built by Strobists, for Strobists
• First Look: Strobist 'Open Source' Flashgun
• Strobist Designs Real Open Source Remote Trigger
• Universal Translator: Marry Any Flash to Any Camera

So, despite all that hubbub about Flash, Adobe managed to still deliver iPad magazine publishing tools to Wired after all… and it’s not stopping there. Adobe’s “digital viewer software” is the crux, which Adobe says it built in Apple’s Objective C and will continue to maintain for the iPad while considering other platforms like the iPhone. Meanwhile, anything built matching this vaguely defined spec (Adobe’s keeping a lot of details close to its chest right now) will be able to publish to this iPad reader software, along with any Flash 10.1 or AIR 2-compliant devices. HTML 5 will also come in to play somehow. Adobe will be releasing the publishing tech to Adobe Labs later this year, but you’ll have to have Adobe InDesign CS5 to take advantage of it. Of course, none of this really solves the debate over 3rd party development tools for building iPad and iPhone apps, but it seems to sidestep it pretty handily.

Adobe’s Digital Publishing Platform behind Wired app, uses CS5 tools and will be available to all originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems like the only question really left about the Nokia N8, albeit the most important one, is just how it’ll interface with the user and what the experience of living with it will be like. The Nokia Conversations team is now aiming to answer just that with the first of three video walkthroughs taking us on a tour of the new device and its Symbian^3 operating environment. We now know you can have up to three homescreens with six widgets apiece, and — gasp — wallpapers are available right off the bat. Threaded messaging is also implemented in the new OS, as well as a soft QWERTY keyboard and a set of emoticons… yes, emoticons. Notably, the entire demo is done with the phone held in landscape, suggesting that might be the preferred method of use, while transitions between menus look as quick and pleasurable as you might expect from a promo video. See the whole thing after the break.

Continue reading Nokia N8 video overview: Symbian^3 homescreens, messaging, email, and Flash-capable browser on show

Nokia N8 video overview: Symbian^3 homescreens, messaging, email, and Flash-capable browser on show originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 09:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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