flash

Adobe's upcoming Apollo runtime engine (hands-on look at Apollo) will be an important platform for Web and software developers, since it lets programmers create applications that work equally well online and off, and also across computing platforms. At the moment, Apollo requires developers to use Adobe's tools. It's a platform primarily for applications written in Flash or Flex, both Adobe products. But that's going to change.

Renamed AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), the product previously known as Apollo will change from being a runtime for Adobe products to being a runtime for any Web application, even one … Read more

Like a mini-version of SimCity, the Flash-based Web game Electrocity lets you develop your own metropolis from the ground up. Rather than existing solely as a entertaining Web diversion, however, Electrocity has a hidden agenda.

The sponsor of the game, Genesis Energy, is an energy provider and retailer in New Zealand. Electrocity was developed to increase public awareness about energy usage, its cost, and its effect on the environment.

Electrocity is a fairly simple, turn-based strategy game. You get 150 turns to create your masterpiece, but the challenge is to allocate resources wisely as you build. One-hundred and fifty turns … Read more

While YouTube continues to be one of the most popular and widely recognized Web video sites, there's a rather large smattering of niche video services out there. Sclipo (formerly known as Visuarios) serves up a bevy of instructional videos in nine different categories. The service won "Best Start-up" last week at the StartUp 2.0 awards in Bilbao, Spain.

Like other video-hosting sites, Sclipo users can rate, comment on, and share the videos with others. What makes it so interesting is its revenue-sharing model. "Masters," or users who provide skills videos, will get a portion … Read more

Adobe Systems on Monday released an early version of LiveCycle Enterprise Suite, a revamped version of its document management and work-flow server.

LiveCycle Enterprise Suite, which is expected to be available for deployment in July, integrates with Adobe's Flex development environment so developers can create Flash-based user interfaces. Until now, LiveCycle served up and routed forms in the PDF format.

Now customers can choose between either friend front end as the server can serve up data and forms to both, said Jeff Whatcott, the vice president of product marketing and strategy for enterprise solutions at Adobe.

LiveCycle is the … Read more

Real Networks has announced a new version of their RealPlayer today that will be available as a PC-only public Beta in June. The player allows users to download and organize nearly all embedded internet video content (Flash, WMV, QuickTime) including content from popular video sites like YouTube, Comedy Central, and of course, CNET. The player was demonstrated for me and actually looks pretty impressive. The new video download feature integrates fairly elegantly into your Web browser (yes, it works on Firefox). It works by temporarily displaying a small, fairly unobtrusive download tab in the right top corner of any video … Read more

You probably already know that the merchandising mania for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has gone just a teeny bit over-the-top. Well, the tech tie-ins don't stop with skull-and-crossbones TVs: Pocket Lint claims to have found evidence of Pirates USB drives made by A-Data. Apparently, they'll come pre-loaded with wallpapers and other movie media goodies, and will be available in up to an 8GB capacity. Now that's some legit buried treasure.

However, there's no product page or pricing information yet. But considering the other sorts of Pirates tie-ins that we've already seen, … Read more

The Webware 100 is going strong, and if you're still in the voting mood, Digg has unveiled their list of 10 finalists for their API visualization contest, which can be voted on by--you guessed it--digging. Like Digg Expose, which I wrote about earlier this week (and is coincidentally a nominee), each of the finalists has found some really neat ways to play with Digg user data.

One of the most interesting aspects of this contest is the use of Adobe Apollo. Four of the 10 finalists' offerings are served up as Apollo apps, which is fairly impressive considering how … Read more

I'm a sucker for data visualizations. I waxed poetic about Swivel, the site that's attempting to make data charts accessible and useful, and the things that are coming out of Digg's labs from Stamen Design continue to innovate and change the way users can interact with social sites.

This afternoon I've been glued to "Diggspose" , a mashup made in Adobe Flash that combines Snap.com's preview shots of Web pages with popular and upcoming stories on Digg.com. The result is a moving picture show of story thumbnails you can click on and … Read more

This week in the Rafe & Tom Real Deal podcast: Silverlight. Real Deal fans sent some interesting and technical questions about the platform ahead of time, which Tom had good answers for. Check out the podcast here:

>>> Listen now <<<

Next Tuesday, we'll be discussing live streaming, and of course, we'll live-stream the recording session, at 3 p.m. Pacific Time next Tuesday. More details to come.

If you want to join the discussion ahead of time, head on over to the Real Deal forums or post a question here.