Today, Adobe is launching a new tool called Adobe Edge which will allow creative professionals to design animated Web content using Web standards like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. Not Flash.
Aimed to coexist with Adobe Flash, not replace it, the Web design software is Adobe's big bet on how it will continue to solidify its position as a top player in the infrastructure of the modern Web, especially as the Web goes increasingly mobile. In this new mobile context, the Web has become a more hostile environment for Flash, which has no place on Apple mobile devices, and likely never will.
Adobe is shutting down two of its app stores dedicated to mobile and desktop application distribution, Adobe InMarket and the Adobe AIR Marketplace. The decision, the company says, was based on developer feedback. Adobe says it will now focus its efforts on helping developers publish their apps on multiple platforms, including official app stores like Apple's iTunes, Google's Android Market, BlackBerry App World, Intel's AppUp, Samsung Apps and Toshiba App Place.
Today, Adobe revealed three new Photoshop Touch applications designed for the iPad: Adobe Color Lava, Adobe Eazel and Adobe Nav. The apps work with Adobe's Photoshop CS5 desktop software, which will be updated to version 5.5 in order to support the new functionality. The update is due out in a matter of weeks.
What's interesting about these applications - not Photoshop replacements themselves - is how they integrate the tablet with the PC, offloading specific tasks to the touchscreen interface. In Color Lava, for example, artists use their fingers to mix colors on the iPad, creating custom swatches and themes which can then be ported back to Photoshop. Adobe Nav, meanwhile, offers a different way to navigate desktop Photoshop's interface. Only in Eazel are actual paintings created - but paintings which take advantage of the touch technology to offer new techniques in blending paint.
In addition, third-party developers will soon be able to integrate similar functionality into their apps, thanks to Adobe's new toolkit, the Photoshop Touch SDK.
It's been just over two months since Skyfire submitted its mobile browser to the App Store and today the app has been approved. The big to-do, of course, is that Skyfire brings Flash video to the iPhone and iPad by translating it into HTML5 video in real time.
When the company submitted the app in early September, they called it a "test of whether Jobs' 'thoughts on Flash' ban is actually political rather than technical". Today, it looks like the ban has fallen on the side of reason.
There has been a lot of talk about the perceived conflicts between Adobe Flash and HTML5 lately, but during it's annual developer conference MAX today, Adobe announced a new product for building interactive HTML5 content and highlighted some of the advantages of developing in HTML5. Adobe Edge, as the new tool is called, will allow developers to easily create interactive HTML5 experiences. Adobe also announced a new open JavaScript framework for animations that it will contribute back to the jQuery project, as well as a new collaboration with Google that will bring better layout and typographical fidelity to WebKit-based browsers.
Adobe AIR, a cross-platform runtime environment developed by Adobe Systems, Inc., is coming to the TV screen, the company announced today at its developer conference Adobe MAX 2010. With the launch of Adobe AIR 2.5, the software, already supported on various smartphone, tablet and desktop platforms, is being extended to televisions with the first AIR-enabled TV shipping in Q1 2011.
Today at the Adobe MAX 2010 developer conference, Adobe Systems, Inc. announced the launch of a new service called "InMarket," which (thankfully), is not yet another "app store" but rather an app distribution service.
With InMarket, developers can submit their applications in order to reach the millions of customers who use app stores to find and download new applications for their devices.
The Adobe AIR for Android runtime is now available in the Android Market, news which is sure to excite a number of Flash developers. With the new application, developers can build mobile applications for Android users without having to learn new languages. Instead, they can continue using familiar programs like Flash Builder, Flash Professional CS5 or an ActionScript development tool.
For end users, the availability of AIR means, simply put, new apps to try. Searching for "Adobe AIR" in the Market will now reveal a selection of apps that are built with AIR.
Even though Apple still refuses to allow Flash on the iOS platform, there is now a way to play at least some popular Flash-based games on the iPad. Apple just approved iSwifter (iTunes link), a free app that bypasses Apple's Flash embargo by simply streaming the games to your iPad, similar to what OnLive does with PC games. Games run on a central server and the iPad app basically works like a remote desktop client and relays the user's input back to the server.
Last April, Apple changed its developers terms of service to restrict the use of third-party development tools in creating apps for iOS, the operating system behind the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad. The restrictions essentially banned the use of Adobe's Packager for iPhone, which allowed the creation of apps using Adobe Flash. Yesterday, Apple relaxed those restrictions and today Adobe is calling Apple's move "Great News for Developers".
Is the move too little, too late, or will Adobe developers come running back to make apps for Apple's mobile devices? Was it the last straw or is the draw of Apple's dominant mobile platform too strong to resist?
