Adobe Lunches Open Screen Project

• Author: ezpod
• Filed under: Event News & Updates, Software Tools

  Related Tags: AIR, API, CNET, FLV, PDF, RIA, Ryan Stewart, Slashdot, SWF, TechCrunch, Washington Post

• Date: May 4,2008

Adobe and a number of industry leaders have announced a new initiative called the “Open Screen Project” that completely changes the game for RIA developers, and sets the stage for RIAs on mobile devices. The Open Screen Project removes restrictions on the SWF and FLV specifications - now anyone can create their own player or tools to create SWF content, similar to how PDF is. Adobe is also publishing the device porting layer APIs for Flash Player, so that anyone can create their own Flash Player for platforms that aren’t currently supported, especially useful for mobile devices.

Mobile development will also get a boost by the removal of license fees for distributing the Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices. Handset manufacturers will not need to pay Adobe to install the Flash Player on their devices. Adobe hopes that this will result in 1 billion phones having the mobile version of Flash (currently FlashLite) installed on them.

There’s a lot of coverage of this online this morning. Slashdot has the story, which always has interesting views from the open source community. CNET, Ryan Stewart and the Washington Post have it from a news angle. TechCrunch has the story as well, with some very supportive comments from readers.

[ riapedia.com]

Microsoft add Adobe’s Flash Lite

• Author: ezpod
• Filed under: Event News & Updates, Mobile Phones & Devices, Tutorials & Tips

  Related Tags: , Adobe Reader LE, PDF

• Date: Apr 17,2008

Eager to become a major player in the wireless market, Adobe Systems took another step in that direction Monday when it announced that Microsoft’s Windows mobile phones will use Adobe’s Flash Lite and Adobe Reader LE document software.

Having Microsoft use the Reader and Flash Lite systems will let users of Windows mobile software view Adobe’s popular PDF documents as well as videos and animation. It also gives a boost to Adobe’s plans to make Flash Lite as widely used on mobile devices as its Flash software is in personal computers.

[By Steve Johnson Mercury New]