Hasta La Gadget!

This week Adobe released version 5 of its Creative Suite software compilation. CEO Shantanu Narayen has naturally hit the interview trail to promote his company’s wares, but the biggest news from him is actually a delay of sorts. We’d previously heard that Android, WebOS and BlackBerry versions of Flash 10.1 would be available in the first half of 2010, but Adobe’s chief now places delivery to those platforms in the second half of the year. At least consolation may be found in his teasing of new Flash-enabled tablets — most likely to be running Android or Chrome OS — which we’re told to expect to see within the same time frame. As to the question of Apple’s holdout from Flash nirvana, Narayen describes it as a business rather than technology decision, which “hurts consumers” and will ultimately be judged by people voting “for the experience that they want through their wallet.” Can’t really argue with that. Skip past the break for the full interview.

Update: The blog of Adobe’s Lee Brimelow gives us a likely reason for the delay: Flash Player 10.1 for Android has just entered private beta, as has AIR 2.0, with public betas on the way. Devs can sign up to be notified about both right here.

Continue reading Adobe CEO: Flash coming to Android, WebOS and BlackBerry ‘smartphones and tablets’ in 2H 2010

Adobe CEO: Flash coming to Android, WebOS and BlackBerry ‘smartphones and tablets’ in 2H 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Apr 2010 06:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So Opera Mini for iPhone has proved to be kind of a big deal, and that HTML-laden beacon of hope is putting a twinkle in some other developers’ eyes. Take Skyfire, for instance. CEO Jeff Glueck posted this week a congratulations to the Opera team for its inclusion in the iTunes app store — a surprise to many, us included. He also explained that “this will certainly accelerate our strategy on iDevices,” and seeing as its only product is a mobile browser with Flash and Silverlight, Jeff certainly has our attention here. That said, we’re not exactly getting our hopes up, especially since the App Store’s rules have always forbidden any app from running a code interpreter and we don’t see how SkyFire can bypass that aspect of Flash and Silverlight entirely, even though it uses a server-side rendering model similar to Opera Mini’s. We’ll see what happens.

Skyfire boss on possible iPhone port: ‘stay tuned for news’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plenty ink has already been spilled about the new restrictions in clause 3.3.1 of the new iPhone SDK terms of use. The new wording disallows developers to use third party, cross platform development tools (like Flash CS5) to build their apps, and plenty of folks (like Adobe) are angered by it. Now it seems Steve Jobs has chimed in as well. Developer Greg Slepak reached out to Steve, citing the large outpouring of negativity on the topic, including a post by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, who Greg calls Apple’s “biggest fan.” Steve apparently responded, citing a newer post by Gruber that explains Apple’s theoretical reasoning for locking down the platform like this. Steve called the post “very insightful.” When Greg replied, raising some very legitimate defense that highly popular, important apps like Mozilla Firefox are built with cross platform frameworks, Steve Jobs had a slightly less terse response:

We’ve been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.

On Greg’s blog he breaks down some of Gruber’s claims and makes a pretty compelling case for third party toolkits — important examples of which can be found all over the Mac and Windows landscape. We get the feeling his impassioned pleas, and the oft-bandied threat of developer migration, will fall on deaf ears at Apple as always, but at least he helps shape this debate somewhat, which will no doubt rage on for months and years to come. Check out the full conversation between Greg and Steve, including Greg’s final response, after the break.

Continue reading Steve Jobs responds directly to developer over new iPhone SDK rules, cites blog for explanation

Steve Jobs responds directly to developer over new iPhone SDK rules, cites blog for explanation originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The introduction of multitasking in iPhone OS 4 was great news for app developers and consumers, but Apple left unmentioned one policy tweak that could significantly change the App Store game.

As Wired.com reported Thursday, Apple previewed its next-generation iPhone operating system and released a beta to developers, which included a new developer’s agreement stipulating that iPhone apps must be originally programmed using Apple-approved languages (such as Objective-C).

The official iPhone OS 4 won’t be available until summer, so the exact implications of the policy change have yet to be seen. However, the consensus among several developers and tech observers is that the biggest and most obvious loser is Adobe, who has been touting a new tool called Packager for iPhone, which would enable Flash developers to easily port their apps into iPhone-native. This solution, which is set for an April 12 release as part of Adobe CS5, would partly address the lack of native Flash support for the iPhone and the iPad.

Adobe’s reaction to the news on Thursday wasn’t substantive (”We are aware of the new SDK language and are looking into it”), but Lee Brimelow, Adobe’s Flash evangelist, had some more colorful words today.

“Adobe and Apple has had a long relationship and each has helped the other get where they are today,” Brimelow wrote in his blog. “The fact that Apple would make such a hostile and despicable move like this clearly shows the difference between our two companies. All we want is to provide creative professionals an avenue to deploy their work to as many devices as possible. We are not looking to kill anything or anyone.”

Brimelow ended his post with, “Go screw yourself Apple.”

Meanwhile, Adobe has issued a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that “our business could be harmed” as “new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies,” as Bloomberg first reported.

The clause from the iPhone developer’s agreement in question is 3.3.1, which reads:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

Apple did not return a phone call requesting comment on the new developer agreement.

Update 5:55 p.m. PT: Kevin Lynch, Adobe’s chief technology officer, has posted his level-headed response to the revised iPhone developer agreement:

“It is up to Apple whether they choose to allow or disallow applications as their rules shift over time,” Lynch wrote. “Secondly, multiscreen is growing beyond Apple’s devices. This year we will see a wide range of excellent smartphones, tablets, smartbooks, televisions and more coming to market and we are continuing to work with partners across this whole range to enable your content and applications to be viewed, interacted with and purchased.”

See Also:

• Apple Video Shows iPad Flash Support, But Don’t Believe It …
• Ten Things Missing From the iPad
• HTML5 for iPad Won’t Kill Flash, But Could Change Apps
• Why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone
• Google Fires at Apple, Integrates Flash Into Chrome Browser …
• Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Mantra is ‘Bullshit,’ Adobe Is Lazy …

Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com

Well, this is just a huge surprise. In response to our not entirely glowing review of the JooJoo, Adobe’s PR team has gotten in touch to inform us that Fusion Garage “has no direct relationship with Adobe.” Citing the young startup’s non-participation in the Open Screen Project and use of “a public beta release [of Flash] designed only for desktop use,” Adobe is drawing a thick line between itself and the JooJoo, and urges us to instead look at the alternatives from its partners like HP, Dell and Lenovo. Mind you, not one of those companies is (as yet) selling a competing tablet, and it’s not like there’s some magical formula that will make 720p Flash video run smoothly on a bare Atom CPU (remember, Ion GPU acceleration is not yet available for the Linux-based JooJoo), but who are we to stand in the way of a carefully worded damage limitation statement? Click past the break for the entire thing.

Continue reading Adobe distances itself from JooJoo, cites lack of ‘direct relationship’

Adobe distances itself from JooJoo, cites lack of ‘direct relationship’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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