Google’s backing of its own open source video codec at the expense of H.264 has many open advocates cheering. But with H.264 widely supported already, the result will actually be more use of the proprietary Flash player for delivery of Web video, not less. Read more »
In a short private session with Research In Motion, I finally got a hands-on look at the BlackBerry PlayBook. It’s better than I expected: elegant, intuitive and speedy when running multiple apps. I finally found out why Flash runs well on the PlayBook. Hint: think cars. Read more »
Adobe took another big step toward improving the Flash video playback experience with the release of its Flash player 10.2 today. The new player reduces to CPU load of HD video playback to as little as zero percent by using technology already used by Google TV. Read more »
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said his company’s battle with Apple comes as a war is brewing to bring new applications to consumer electronics devices. That war is being fought to capture developer interest and ensure that the best applications are being built on different platforms. Read more »
Last week, the Skyfire mobile browser brought Flash to iOS, albeit imperfectly. Crushing demand on its servers caused Skyfire to pull the app from the iTunes store, but not before it sold well. Very well — Skyfire managed to make almost $1 million during its first weekend. Read more »
In light of the news that having Flash on your system could drastically affect battery life for notebooks, here’s a video showing you how to remove it from OS X if it’s already installed. It takes a little more digging than you might think. Read more »
Steve Jobs has repeatedly insisted that Flash is a resource-hog. A review of the 11-inch MacBook Air conducted by Ars Technica shows he’s quite right. The new Air shows a drop in battery life with Flash installed, at a cost of around two hours of use. Read more »
You can now get the much-hyped Skyfire browser for your iPhone, which brings the ability to watch Flash content. You won’t get that for free, though, as the price is $2.99 at launch, which is described as an “early adopter price.” So is it worth it? Read more »
We have further confirmation that Microsoft is giving up on its Silverlight rich Internet application platform. Bob Muglia, Microsoft’s president in charge of server and tools, told ZDNet the company is “shifting away” from Silverlight as a cross-platform development framework, and pushing HTML5 instead. Read more »
A majority of web video is now HTML5-ready, showing that web standards — and Apple — are winning the day when it comes to how video is delivered online. Video viewable in an HTML5 video player now accounts for 54 percent of all video online. Read more »
Adobe announced today a new version of Adobe AIR 2.5 that will include expanded capabilities on Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS; Windows, Mac and Linux as well as support for TVs. Adobe is also launching a new store for AIR apps called InMarket. Read more »
In 12 months, Apple’s notebook lineup will be so different, we’ll barely recognize it. Physically, the computers may look the same, but the teaser that is the MacBook Air makes very clear the changes we can expect to see rolled out across the entire MacBook line. Read more »
Adobe just released a new HTML5 video widget for Dreamweaver users and other web developers. The widget aims to make it easier to play video without using Flash, but it still reverts to the format for users that don’t have browsers with HTML5 video support installed. Read more »
It’s been a good month for Adobe and its mobile efforts, first with Apple’s relaxing of its Flash developer tool ban and now the release today of AIR for Android, which opens the door for AIR applications on Android devices. Read more »
It’s been a good month for Adobe and its mobile efforts, first with Apple’s relaxing of its Flash developer tool ban and now the release today of AIR for Android, which opens the door for AIR applications on Android devices. Read more »
Research in Motion finally unveiled its much-rumored BlackBerry tablet yesterday, and it looks a lot more impressive at first glance than the company’s most recent handset, the Palm Pre-like Torch. But is this a game-changing device, or will it stumble out of the starting gate? Read more »
While Apple and Adobe bicker over whether HTML5 or Flash is the best platform for delivery of video, games and other interactive applications, Silverlight gets nary a mention — even from its own team. And Microsoft itself is moving to HTML5 for many of its products. Read more »
Adobe announced the latest version of its Flash Media Server today, with new features aimed at making it the streaming server of choice for enterprise webcasts. The addition of IP multicast and P2P functionality will open up a whole new market for Adobe in the enterprise. Read more »
After posting Kevin Tofel’s demo of the struggles he had with Flash-based video on his Nexus One mobile handset, we’ve received a ton of comments, including response videos from readers who showed their own experiences with Flash on Android mobile handsets. Here are just a few. Read more »
Flash has been touted as one of the advantages for Android mobile devices. But how does Flash video perform on handsets running Google’s mobile OS? To find out we asked Kevin Tofel to test Flash video on his Nexus One — and the results are not good. Read more »
Today on the Net: analyst say bankruptcy might be imminent for Blockbuster, Adobe’s CEO says he doesn’t need Apple or the iPad to survive and Gene Munster says rumors of a $99 iTV could mean Apple could soon introduce out a connected TV. Read more »
Today on the Net: the Knocking Live streaming video app has been updated especially for the iPhone 4, Adobe had added GPU decoding for H.264 in the Mac version of its Flash Player plugin and Sony Bravia TVs now have access to German video portal sevenload. Read more »
Flash has stood out as an exception in the web development world otherwise dominated by open source, but Flash’s banishment by Apple suggests that this exceptional position may not last much longer. The reason is explained by an economic theory called the “hold up” problem. Read more »
An ongoing digital strategy by the European Union (EU) could force Apple into allowing Adobe’s Flash to run on the iPhone. The incomplete plans outlined by the EU, known as the Digital Agenda, aim to redefine how antitrust rules are practiced. Read more »
The release of Apple’s iPhone 4 upped the ante with the launch of its FaceTime app for mobile video chatting. And while Andoid phones don’t have a competing app yet, that could soon change, as Adobe Flash Platform evangelist Mark Doherty shows in a video demo. Read more »
Several significant events set the tone for the digital media ecosystem during in the second quarter. First among these was the release of the iPad, the impact of which went far beyond device uptake; among other things it does not support Adobe Flash, which has impacted the entire chain of web-based video production from content sites re-encoding video to new tools being developed for HTML5-based advertising.
Another principal event in the quarter was the announcement of Google TV, a software platform built on Android 2.1, Google Chrome and Flash 10.1 that will be incorporated into a variety of companion devices including TV sets, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. The platform offers significant advancements in merging TV and the web experience (although TiVo says it has done just that for years). Sony and Logitech have both announced plans to launch Google TV products in fall 2010.
Also in the second quarter, both YouTube and Hulu refreshed their sites, reflecting the market’s growing maturity. But while YouTube spent the quarter on the defensive in its ongoing legal battle with Viacom over copyright infringement, Hulu was on the offensive, introducing new services and preparing a paid subscription service launch. A paid service would bring new revenue streams to the video site, and would put Hulu in more direction competion with Netflix, which is increasingly shifting toward its streaming video service, away from its former mainstay of DVDs by mail. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Give me flash video. I don’t want games or flashy website intros, just flash-based videos. I fear Apple is too proud to ever back-peddle on this and that may force me to seriously look into Google TV. Read more »
HTML5 isn’t yet fully ratified, but browser vendors are nonetheless starting to implement some of its features. This presents a huge opportunity for forward-thinking web app developers, which in turn will spell good news for ever-growing number people who uses web ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As one of the first major video publishers to create an HTML5 video player and push its own open-source video codec, Google has been a big backer of HTML5. Despite this, YouTube remains committed to its use of Adobe Flash for delivery of its video. Read more »
Brightcove is introducing more support in its white-label video management platform for delivering video to Android mobile devices with the launch of a new software development kit for native Android apps as well as mobile templates designed for use with Adobe Flash Player 10.1. Read more »
Adobe is pushing out its new Flash Player 10.1 for mobile devices, which was designed to create a common experience for video and interactive applications between the desktop, smartphones and tablet devices while also adding features and increasing performance for interactivity on small screens. Read more »
Not long ago, digital rights management and copy protection seemed to be on their last legs. But DRM is poised to make a major comeback, and copy restrictions could soon be a bigger of TV viewing than ever. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The IAB is taking a cold, hard look at the market for advertising on the iPad and other tablet devices, launching a new “Tablet Task Force” and issuing a report on the future of “tabvertising.” But lack of Flash on the iPad shouldn’t be an issue. Read more »
Adobe has launched a “digital publishing platform” that it says will allow other magazine publishers to produce flashy interactive iPad apps just like Conde Nast did with Wired magazine. But is that really what publishers need as they try to move into a multi-platform digital world? Read more »
If you’re losing sleep over the lack of Flash, or if you’re just curious about what Flash on an iDevice would even look like, there’s a couple ways to try it out, one of which is available right now as an app that doesn’t require jailbreaking. Read more »
Today on the Net: Time Warner and NBC Universal say they won’t retool their video libraries for the iPad, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee is calling for NBC to divest its stake in Hulu, and ActiveVideo takes Verizon to court for patent infringement Read more »
Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Epix and Nickelodeon are just a few of the video publishers that have created Flash-enabled websites that are optimized for viewing on Google Android devices, according to an Adobe Mobile Showcase page that has since been taken down. Read more »
Google unveiled Google TV at its I/O conference on May 20, promising to revolutionize the TV ecosystem by giving people “the power to experience what they love on TV and on the web on a single screen,” while turning the living room “into a new platform for innovation.”
It’s a promise made by others (including no-less formidable innovators such as Microsoft and Apple) but never delivered on. Much has changed since Microsoft failed with Web TV, however, and even since Apple introduced (and has since largely ignored) its Apple TV. The amount of premium video content available on the Internet has grown exponentially, while faster broadband connections have made delivering high-quality video over IP networks feasible. In this research note, we look at why the time is ripe for Google’s offering to succeed, what it si, and its potential impacts on the TV ecosystem, including users, hardware providers, app stores, content providers, distributors, and competitors (including Apple, Microsoft, and independent IP video platforms). Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google has let Android 2.2, dubbed Froyo, out of the bag and today shared a lot of information about it. I watched the keynote while playing with a Google Nexus One phone running Froyo, and have captured the key points about Android 2.2 for your convenience. Read more »
In the latest volley in the war over making Flash on mobile devices, Adobe has teamed up with Google to make Flash-based video and applications on mobile devices. At Google I/O, Adobe announced that it will make Flash Player 10.1 available on phones running Android 2.2. Read more »
