Molehill

Adobe fights back with Flash 11

Long gone are the days when Adobe Systems could take its Flash Player's position on the Web for granted.

But Adobe, to counter a strong combination of opposition and alternatives to the browser plug-in, plans to ship Flash Player 11 in two weeks. The debut at its Max developer conference early next month is geared to send a message to programmers: Flash is still relevant, and Adobe is still investing in it.

Flash 11's highlight, an interface called Molehill for hardware-accelerated 3D and 2D graphics, won't change the minds of those who would like to see Flash … Read more

Adobe's 3D-capable Flash 11 nears final release

Adobe Systems issued a release candidate for Flash Player 11 yesterday, an update that brings major new features to its widely used but competitively threatened browser plug-in.

Flash brings cross-platform advantages to programmers, letting them write software without having to worry so much about browser compatibility matters. But a wide variety of new Web standards--some now developed with Adobe help--are injecting new life into a plug-in-free version of the Web. At the same time, Flash is banned outright from iOS devices and only has a small foothold on Android devices.

Adobe is working to keep Flash relevant, though, in part … Read more

Adobe continues the Flash fight with 10.3 beta

Revving the Flash Player development engine as fast as possible, Adobe Systems has issued a beta of version 10.3 that lets programmers use a variety of new audio tools.

Those audio possibilities could be very useful for those writing Net-based voice communication software. Features include canceling noise and echoes, detecting when a person has started or stopped speaking, and correcting microphone volume levels to even out speech loudness, Flash product manager Thibault Imbert said in a blog post late yesterday.

More broadly, though, the software embodies Adobe's push to keep Flash competitive. The browser plug-in is, if not … Read more

Battle lines drawn for 3D on the Web

The Web is the next vanguard for 3D graphics, but programmers who want to embrace the new dimension next year will have to place a bet on one of two competing technologies: Flash or WebGL.

For years, Adobe Systems' Flash software has been the way to bring graphical games like Crush the Castle, Bloons, Desktop Tower Defense, or Stunt Bike Pro to the Web.

But at the same time, Web standards advocates have toiled to build such technology into the Web itself and not rely on the proprietary and sometimes insecure Flash Player plug-in. That work following in Adobe's … Read more