Posts tagged Adobe
Flash player 10 coming to Android in October
Jun 23rd
One of the many glaring omissions still not featured on the iPhone is support for Flash. Rumors keep circulating that Flash will be coming to the iPhone, but that has failed to happen and unless something big changes this isn’t the year of flash for iPhone fans.
Adobe has announced it will be released the beta version of Flash Player 10 for smartphones in October.
During a recent earnings call, Adobe CEO Shantanu Naraye revealed to investors that a beta version of Flash Player 10 for mobiles will be released in October of this year.
The new Flash player will support Android, Nokia Symbian, Palm Web OS, and Windows Mobile powered devices, notice that OS for iPhone is missing, and is expected to be unveiled at the Adobe MAX conference for developers that is scheduled to take place in October.
“We are bringing Flash Player 10 to smartphone class devices to enable the latest web browsing experience. Multiple partners have already received early version of this release and we expect to release a beta version for developers at our Max conference in October. Google’s Android, Nokia’s Symbian OS, Windows Mobile and the new Palm Web OS will be the first devices to support web browsing with the new Flash player…”
Earlier this year Adobe was planning to bring Flash 10 to the Android platform by the end of 2009. Now Adobe is almost there, as October is not so far.
Adobe BrowserLab – Test your site on different browsers.
Jun 3rd
If you are a web developer, then you are quite aware of the fact that there comes a stage after the web application is developed completely, that you are required to test and determine how the web application performs on different browsers, to make sure that the web application is consistent across all the browsers. To test the performance of websites, you might go for multiple virtual machines, consider going for more than one computer or install multiple operating systems. All the above mentioned options have one thing in common: they all require a lot of time.
Another option is to go for online services like BrowserShots, which generates screenshots for a web page in more than 80 versions of the most common browser used in Windows, Linux, BSD and Mac. As you can imagine this service also requires time.
This brings us to Adobe BrowserLab. Adobe BrowserLab is a recently launched service that provides the much needed advantage of generating and displaying screenshots almost instantaneously. However there is a downside to it; it supports a limited number of browsers. The supported browsers include:
- Firefox 2.0 (XP, OS X)
- Firefox 3.0 (XP, OS X)
- IE6 (XP)
- IE7 (XP)
- Safari 3.0 (OS X)
The service comes equipped with an eye catching Onion Skin View; this view superimposes web page screenshots over one another, thus making it easier for you to identify the differences in web page rendering. Dreamweaver CS4 is intergrated with this service, but you do not need to purhase Dreamweaver to just use this service. Adobe’s Lea Hickman said:
Cross-browser testing has been one of the biggest challenges for Web designers because it is such an arduous and time-intensive task. Now with Adobe BrowserLab, designers have a simple solution that enables comprehensive browser compatibility testing in just a matter of minutes, leaving Web designers with more time to be creative and deliver the high-impact sites customers are demanding.
BrowserLab is currently free to use, however ultimately it will be sold for a price not known yet. Scott Fegette, Adobe product manager said:
BrowserLab will move to be a paid service down the line, though we have not announced the timing.Currently the focus is on getting the preview out to users and making sure we’re providing the best possible user experience.
The thing which I am currenty stuck at is that “Is Adobe BrowserLab the ultimate solution to Cross Browser testing?” Considering the fact that it supports only a limited number of browsers. What is your opinion? Provide us with your input. Thanx in advance.
Adobe moves towards building web development tools, releases Catalyst
Jun 1st
Adobe is quite well known for releasing designer tools. While Microsoft is more on the developer side. However when Bill Buxton who happens to be an excellent interface designer exhibited his magnificence in Microsoft Expression Blend at MIX09 conference which was held in March this year, that sent alarming signal to Adobe which said to them “Wake up”.
In response to that wake-up Adobe has released a web development tool which goes by the name Catalyst. Besides that, Adobe also highlighted the fact that Flex Builder has been renamed to Flash Builder 4. Flash Builder 4 IDE would be sold for a price that is yet to be announced. Currently it is available as a beta downlaod, of course free of cost.
Adobe is making claims that this development tool is expected to steal the limelight from Microsoft Expression Blend and is sure to attract designers. Even though Blend supports the importing of the file types of the most popular design tools: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, Catalyst provides support at the native level. Once the designer has completed building the final interface, this work can be handed over to the developer to put life into it and make it useful, by implementing logic in Flash Builder.
David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe said:
People are now expecting the same richness and ease of use in their workplace applications that they have in their daily Web experiences, but companies today are faced with strained development resources and less time to create intuitive applications.The new Adobe Flash Platform tools help solve this challenge by reducing time to market for generating compelling applications and content. Using Adobe Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst, developers and designers can now work together more productively to create rich experiences that employees, customers and partners expect.
To get hold of these latest tools, please visit Adobe Labs.
GeeMail – a desktop client for Gmail
Mar 29th
Well by reading the title of the post, you probably would have thought that I had committed a spelling mistake. Well that is not the case. Adobe AIR has released a desktop client for Gmail named “GeeMail“.
GeeMail is a desktop client of cross platform nature released by Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). What it does is basically it allows you to have a seperate desktop client for your gmail account.
Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is a cross-platform runtime environment for building rich Internet applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, or Ajax, that can be deployed as a desktop application.
Here are the features that GeeMail provides:
- Cross Platform : You can run GeeMail not only in Windows, but in MAC and Linux as well.
- No configuration required: Every bit of setting and configuration is done for you. You just need to sit back and use it.
- Offline Support: You are offline, and still want to view your inbox, compose an email, you can do that, GeeMail is network aware, it will send the composed message for you as soon as you get connected to the Internet.
- Gmail User Interface: You dont require any time to get acquainted with its interface since it is similar to the Gmail interface.
You can download it here. The download is very small in size. Just download it, Unzip it and instantiate the installation process.
Once installed, initiate the application and you will see a login screen much similar to gmail login page.
Enter your credentials. After validating your credentails GeeMail will open your “Inbox“. It will take a few moments to fetch your mail contents and then will show it to you.
Its that simple to use. Go ahead and use it.
Flash 10, still not supported in iPhone!
Feb 16th
Apple iPhone 3G combines three products in one – revolutionary phone, widescreen iPod, and breakthrough Internet device.
Adobe Flash Player is a cross-platform browser plug-in that delivers breakthrough Web experiences to over 98% of Internet users. There are many questions arising among tech-gurus, one of them is why flash 10 is still not there on iPHONE. Adobe announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress that it will make the full version of its Flash Player available for all devices by next year.
The full Flash Player 10 will be available on smartphones, Windows Mobile, Google’s Android, Nokia S60/Symbian, and the new Palm operating systems.
Adobe has worked for years on a lightweight manifestation of its Flash technology for mobile phones. Adobe executives said that about 40 percent of all phones that are shipped today use this version of its technology.
But, as Flash Lite doesn’t support for the same functionality as what is available on the Flash 10 version of the technology, mobile users are missing out.
Anup Murarka, director of Technology Strategy and Partner Development for Adobe said about the iPhone:
“We would love to see it on the iPhone, too… But it’s Apple’s decision on when and how they support any new technology. So we will continue to work on it.”
Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen has commented at the World Economic Forum in Davos,Switzerland, earlier this month that the company has had technical difficulties finding a working version of Flash for the iPhone.
Narayen told Bloomberg Television:
“It’s a hard technical challenge, and that’s part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating, the ball is in our court.”
Flash 10 incorporation in iPhone will be a great success for Adobe because it is not supported yet.
