Chrome has been making strides over the past few months to increase its footprint on Windows computers across the world. Adobe Flash has been heading in the opposite direction as increasing pressure from tech giants such as Apple and Google have put them on the losing end of “what not to put on your website if you want it to work well now and in the future.” With security as a primary concern regarding Flash and its vulnerabilities with hidden malicious code, the roll out of a sandbox for Adobe Flash Player on Chrome is something that will benefit them to a small extent and should add fuel to the growing…

One point I was curious about among the tidbits regarding the release of Windows Phone 7 is what kind of support Flash will receive. Adobe and Google have been hiding in dark corners together, murmuring about how best to deal with Apple’s threat to both of their business models, but where does Microsoft stand on all that? Turns out Windows Phone 7 contains absolutely no Flash support whatsoever. Microsoft’s Andy Lees, president of the mobile communications division spoke out about Flash on WP7, and insisted it wasn’t a “religious thing”. “It’s not a religious thing; we support standard H.264…

Hot on the heels of not releasing a successful mobile version of Flash, Adobe is turning it’s attention back to Flash for desktop computers. A preview release of a 64bit version of Flash Player, codenamed “Square” is now available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Adobe advises caution when installing the app which has several known issues, including video playback problems with Hulu.com, Audi.co.uk and NBC.com. The release also adds support for hardware accelerated rendering in the recently released IE9 beta, improving performance by up to 35%. The release notes state that the features being…

The big news announcement of the day is that MPEG LA, license holder for a number of high profile video standards has declared all h.264 video will be royalty free, so long as the video is provided to the end user for free. The technical implications of this are lengthy, dull and tedious. The short version? You can now watch porn on any device you want without any additional plugins (cough.. Flash). With an upsurge in mobile devices, the web has been calling out for a standard movie format to call its own without having to rely on third party codecs or plugins. With no open source formats available, each…

The dream for many of having Flash run on their iPad or iPhone just got a little bit more real thanks to the invention of Frash, a version of Flash that runs on jailbroken iOS devices. This renewed hope doesn’t come from the unending stream of non-Apple devices comfortably running Flash with no impact on performance or battery life. No no. The tool comes courtesy of Comex, the same group responsible for the JailbreakMe.com tool released earlier this month. Cnet has a pretty good rundown of how Frash performs, but I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by stating that Frash crashes frequently, does not…

You’re one of the five people in the civilized world who own a Zune, right? Well, good news – you may soon be able to sync it with iTunes. Seriously. This is a thing. In an attempt to save the world and all its inhabitants, three Mortal Kombatants have been chosen the European Union has drafted up a document it’s calling the Digital Agenda, the function of which is to serve the cause of interoperability, openness, and innovation in the tech world. I, for one, am precisely the opposite of not all for that. Behold, an excerpt: Since not all pervasive technologies are based on standards the benefits of interoperability…

Alright, alright, calm down – no, Big Steve still gets all frowny when you mention Adobe. But assuming you have a jailbroken iPad (I would), Flash can finally be yours with Frash. From the folks that brought you the Spirit jailbreak, and running on a compatibility layer, Frash is… well, it’s Flash, with an R. Finally, that half of the internet you weren’t able to see while lazing on the couch doing that… iPad… thing… whatever people do with iPads. Tapping things? – is suddenly again rendered visible. Time to take back Robot Unicorn Attack. The release isn’t stable yet, so if you aren’t a developer,…

Fresh in from the historical inevitability department comes news of a failed Adobe Flash demo — and an all-new video clip showing what the proprietary multimedia standard can do on an Android phone. Last week’s FlashCamp Seattle saw Flash Platform evangelist Ryan Stewart demo Flash Player 10.1 on a Nexus One phone during his opening keynote. It didn’t go well, wrote blogger, Jeff Croft. Here’s what happened: On his Mac, Ryan pulled up a site called Eco Zoo. It is, seemingly, a pretty intense example of Flash development — full of 3D rendering, rich interactions, and cute little characters….

Adobe and Google, sitting in a tree.. Since Apple’s CEO publicly and thoughtfully destroyed Flash’s chances of ever making it to the iPhone or iPad, Adobe has been looking for a kindred spirit who will champion the need for Flash on a mobile device. A while back we saw a demonstration of Adobe’s 10.1 Flash mobile player running on a Nexus One, but today the plot thickens considerably. Most people now understand that the barriers to Flash on smartphones are at least genuine, legitimate concerns, but what about a tablet device? Who else but Google could Adobe turn to? If the enemy of my enemy is my friend,…

I’ve been using Adobe software for nearly as long as I’ve been using Apple computers, so I fancy myself as ideally positioned to comment on the Apple/Adobe brouhaha that reached new heights last week with Steve Jobs’ open letter about Flash. The thing is, I don’t really want to. To take sides in this debate will only label me as a fanboy or apologist one way or another. These are two companies whose primary goal is to make money – neither acts out of generosity or benevolence. The truth is I love Apple hardware and I use Adobe’s Creative Suite more frequently than any other software. No matter what you…