Mmmmm, Flash. As part of the Open Screen Project, Adobe is actively working with developers and manufacturers to make feature-rich Flash content accessible on mobile devices. In its latest achievement tied to this morning’s announcement, Adobe demos Flash support on the brand-spanking new HTC Hero — the first Android device to support Flash (officially). In short, it’s smooth, sexy and usable. Adobe’s Adrian Ludwig shows off the Hero’s Android Web browser and its ability to gobble up Flash-based video, Flash objects on web pages and even Flash-based games. There is one line in particular from the demo video that grabbed our attention though: “This is one of the first devices out there that has really great flash capabilities.” Ouch. No love for S60 handsets? Maemo tablets? Fair enough. Hit the read link to check out the demo and prepare to drool over the Hero even more than you already did this morning.

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Adobe is bringing Flash and HD content into your living rooms via set-top boxes, Blu-Ray players and other Internet-capable equipment. If you’re thinking it’s going to be a small or niche market participating in this program, think again — content providers already on board include Atlantic Records, Comcast, Disney Interactive, Intel, Netflix and even The New York Times amongst many others. The Adobe Flash Platform for Digital Home is available right now for OEMs and will be hitting System on Chip vendors in the latter half of 2009 ensuring all of your favorite Flash-based web content, videos, applications and services will become accessible to screens beyond just the computer. Of course, we have all been expecting this since Adobe first began moving forward with the Open Screen Project but we’re pretty excited about this coming digital technology and the fact that so many big industry players are involved. Hit the jump for additional details and information.

Flash Platform News

Flash Platform for the Digital Home
A new Flash runtime optimized for Internet connected televisions, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and other digital home devices.  Brings HD videos, interactive applications and services, new user interfaces and other rich web content to digital living room devices.

Partners
Major System on Chips (SoC) vendors, OEMs, cable operators and content providers are announcing support for the optimized Flash runtime including Broadcom, Intel, Comcast, Disney Interactive, Netflix, New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors, Sigma Designs, STMicroelectronics, Atlantic Records etc.

Availability
The optimized Flash runtime is available immediately to silicon vendors and OEMs.  SoC platforms, televisions and other devices are expected to be available with support for the new runtime in the second half of ’09.

Data points:

• Close to 420 million televisions, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and other connected digital home devices are expected to ship with the next 3 years.  (Source: Strategy Analytics: Digital Media Devices Global Market Report December 2009)
• Adobe Flash Player content reaches over 98% of Internet-enabled desktops.  According to data from independent research firm comScore (Feb ‘09), approximately 80% of online videos worldwide are viewed using Adobe Flash technology, making Flash the #1 platform for video on the web.
• Flash Player 10 was installed on more than 55% of computers worldwide in just the first two months of its release, and is expected to surpass 80% in Q2 ‘09, far outpacing the installation rate of past versions. (Source: Third-party survey by Millward Brown that determines these stats, the survey methodology, breakdown by version, etc at http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/ )
• The mobile Flash runtime has shipped and delivered Flash technology based content on close to 40% of all new mobile phones and devices in 2008.  More than 1 billion mobile phones and devices have shipped with Flash by the end of Q1 ‘09.  (Source: Strategy Analytics Forecast, Jan 2009)  Flash Player 10 for smartphones is on track for OEM avail in second half of ‘09.  First platforms to be supported: Symbian, WiMo, Android and Palm webOS

Flash Platform for the Digital Home – Partner Quotes

Comcast: “Comcast is constantly working to deliver richer user interfaces and services to our customers,” said Labeeb Ismail, vice president, Technology at Comcast. “As an active participant of the Open Screen Project, we are working closely with Adobe to integrate the optimized Flash runtime with tru2way technology, enabling a new range of engaging, interactive services to consumers.”

Disney: “Disney and Adobe share the vision of extending HD video and rich, engaging experiences across multiple screens,” said Bud Albers, CTO and senior vice president at Disney Interactive Media Group. “Adobe Flash technology plays an important role in delivering the latest Disney content via the web, mobile phones and other consumer electronics. As a leading innovator for media and entertainment, we are excited about the opportunities of Flash based applications and services coming to televisions.”

Intel: “Intel and Adobe have a long history of collaboration and have worked together to optimize Flash technology for the digital home on the Intel® Media Processor CE 3100, the first in a new family of purpose-built Intel System-on-Chips (SoCs) for CE devices,” said William O. Leszinske Jr., general manager of Intel’s Digital Home Group. “As an active participant of the Open Screen Project, we recognize the value of extending rich, Flash based Internet content and applications to a broad range of devices in your pocket, on your lap, at the office and now in your living room. We are excited to integrate the optimized Flash runtime into digital home platforms featuring Intel’s SoC, such as advanced set-top boxes, high-definition digital televisions, Blu-ray Disc players and other connected AV devices.”

Netflix: “As the world’s leading online movie rental service, Netflix always seeks new ways for subscribers to find and enjoy the movies they’ll love,” said Bill Holmes, vice president of Business Development at Netflix. “Adobe’s Flash Platform for the Digital Home offers great promise as Netflix continues its expansion directly to the television with our consumer electronics partners.”

New York Times: “The New York Times is pleased to work with Adobe on the Open Screen Project,” said Michael Zimbalist, vice president of Research and Development Operations at The New York Times Company. “The extension of Flash technology to digital home devices is an important step in delivering applications consistently across screens and will help the Times Company better deliver our high quality news, information and multimedia to the digital living room.”

Sigma Designs: “Sigma Designs has long recognized that IPTV is the future, and has been a constant innovator of SoC solutions for IP-connected set top boxes and Blu-ray players,” said Ken Lowe, vice president for Business Development and Strategic Marketing at Sigma Designs. “Consumers clearly want to access Flash based HD videos and other rich web content on their televisions. We are working closely with Adobe to integrate the optimized Flash runtime into our SoC solutions to enable a better, more interactive user experience on connected digital home devices.”

Adobe Dynamic Media Organization (DMO) News

Strobe:  New software framework, code-named Strobe, which aids in the development of an open industry standard for media players and accelerates the creation and delivery of high-quality video and interactive experiences for web audiences. Strobe will offer production-ready software components for media players, reducing the time content publishers spend creating their own playback technologies.

Preview of Adobe Story:  Collaborative online scriptwriting for use in film, broadcast, and rich media. Adobe Story captures metadata in the script, the earliest part of the production chain, and will enable users to collaborate on scripts and expand their ideas.  A public beta is expected to be avail on Adobe Labs in late ‘09.

Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.1:  Free update for existing customers. Includes compatibility with RED R3D content for users of laptops and lower-powered systems, and support for an updated RED plug-in.

Moving forward with the Open Screen Project, Adobe has recently released a beta version of an image management app for your phone with Photoshop.com Mobile. While it is still in beta and available on a few devices (those which support Flash Lite 3), it has a lot of potential for picture sharing and editing. For now, options are limited and the application essentially performs one key function: Loading pictures onto Photoshop.com for viewing online or on your phone. Unfortunately, there aren’t any photo editing options via your mobile phone for the time being. Quite frankly, that would prove to be difficult anyway if you’re familiar with even the most basic editing options using a computer. Still, a nice benefit to Photoshop.com Mobile is having tons of pictures at your fingertips without worrying about storage space on your phone. Hit the jump for a quick run through the app and service.

When you open the application, the home screen is very clean and simple. You have the option to view photos on your phone, your Photoshop.com library and the albums you’ve created for your pics. There isn’t much else here, but like we said, it’s still in beta and it looks like Adobe is keeping things clean, simple and easy to use – never a bad thing.

Opening up your library or phone photos shows your pictures arranged as thumbnails. From here, your options are pretty limited. While you can’t send pics to an email address or another phone from here, you can upload pictures to your Photoshop.com library where they can be shared with your friends and family. For now, it’s only an album for your phone and doesn’t do much else.

Here we see the options screen. Short of adjusting your settings, getting help (which you likely won’t need) or checking for upgrades, there isn’t much to be done. The interface is minimal and simple, but we do wish there were more options available such as the ability to create albums from the device or being able to send and receive pictures.

When you go into options from any screen and click on settings, this is the screen you get. Not a whole lot here but the option to sign in or out and to auto-upload photos that you take to your Photoshop.com account. So, if you’re trigger happy and take tons of photos, it would be wise to turn auto-upload on (if you don’t mind sharing) so that you don’t have to go back and manually do so later. Turn your camera on, take a snapshot and the picture is automatically uploaded onto your account. You can even configure the website to share your photos instantly with a handful of other sites such as Facebook. In other words, if you have auto-upload turned on you can literally snap a pic and have it show up on your Facebook page in about a minute. Pretty cool! If you have a phone without memory expansion, this will certainly help so you don’t have to store many photos on your phone and eat up memory. There is, however, a 2GB storage limit with a basic Photoshop.com account. We wish it were a little more, but it is certainly plenty for a free account.

Even if you aren’t tech savvy, there is pretty much no way you can screw things up or get confused within this application. We found the Help screen to be of little use to us given the simplicity of the application. The way Adobe set things up is pretty simple and very intuitive; within five minutes of playing with it we were already comfortable using the app to its full potential.

For such a simple application, you might be wondering, what’s the point? Doesn’t Photobucket Mobile and Mobile Flickr already do the same thing? Well, they sort of do but with Photoshop.com Mobile, you can edit, clean, and touch up your pics right on Photoshop.com and as soon as you save your changes, they are effective immediately on both your phone and the Internet. Anyone who knows about sync knows that this is a feat in itself. Photoshop.com Mobile allows you to make edits and take or upload pics via mobile or online and have it automatically synced between device and computer. While it’s convenient to be able to upload pics to your account with your computer or your mobile phone and have access to it at all times using either device, we were expecting a little more. Again, the ability to edit images on your phone will be very difficult once you get down to details, but adjusting lighting, contrast, sharpness, and the ability to crop should be simple enough and we feel that it should have been included on the mobile app. As we mentioned of course, Photoshop.com Mobile is still in its infancy so expect some big things to come down the road a bit. Still, if you use mobile Photobucket or Flickr and you want the ability to have your phone and online account synced at all times, Photoshop.com Mobile is the way to go – the clean and intuitive interface makes sharing and storing your photos very simple and easy.

Adobe, ARM, and Qualcomm, among a host of several other players in the telecommunications and entertainment industry, are teaming up to develop and launch the Open Screen Project. If you aren’t familiar with the OSP, we’ll brief you on what it is and what it means for both developers and consumers. It is going to change the future of rich Internet content and media and how it will be delivered to consumers. With the OSP, users will be able to see and share videos, pictures, and other content across all devices and platforms from set-top boxes, computers,to mobile devices. The project is spearheaded by Adobe, but it will certainly be no small feat. Several big players will be joining the software giant, notably ARM, Qualcomm, Cisco, Intel, NTT DoCoMo, Verizon Wireless, and all the major mobile device manufacturers. Major content providers such as MTV Networks, BBC, and NBC Universal will also be supporting the project. For more information and a video explaining the Open Screen Project, hit the jump.

This week, Adobe will be announcing the project and its future at the Max Developers Conference. They will be teaming up with ARM to optimize Flash 10 for devices beyond desktops and notebooks, such as mobile phones. The focus is to enable a runtime environment that will break down barriers that have plagued developers in the past. Adobe’s aim, with Flash and Adobe Air, is to create a development environment that will allow the publishing of content across multiple devices and browsers. In addition to Adobe and ARM’s joint effort in doing this, Qualcomm will be releasing the BREW 1.0 SDK and will integrate Flash technology. Those familiar with BREW will see just how large a role Qualcomm will play as BREW is their current solution for developing and delivering rich content through wireless data.

The Max Developers Conference will also feature a demonstration of Flash 10 on an ARM smartphone! Currently, ARM supplies processors and hardware for almost 90% of mobile phones on the market. Many consumers have complained that several applications and websites are incompatible with their phones, and that will all soon change. ARM is also working to make sure that Flash optimization will include battery-life performance, as it is going to be one of the primary concerns of most consumers.

The Open Screen Project has launched May 1, 2008 with the likelihood that BREW and Flash 10 devices will be available in the second half of 2009. In addition to the launch of the OSP, software and applications will be developed enabling users to share their videos, pictures, and music, such as Photoshop Mobile (which we will be providing an in-depth review of very soon). Ultimately, the goal of the Open Screen Project, with the collaboration between Adobe, ARM, Qualcomm and the several companies supporting the project, is to deliver an interactive and universal user experience across all devices. With the tremendous amount of support for the Open Screen Project, and the teaming of major software and hardware companies, expect the future of rich media to change dramatically.

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