Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) and HTC have announced the Hero mobile phone.  The HTC Hero is the first Google Android powered phone to support Adobe Flash.

“As the first Android device with Flash, the new HTC Hero represents a key milestone for Android and the Flash Platform. With close to 80 percent of all videos online delivered with Adobe Flash technology, consumers want to access rich Web content on-the-go.” stated Adobe Platform Business Unit VP and General Manager David Wadhwani. “The collaboration with HTC offers people a more complete Flash based Web browsing experience today and presents an important step towards full Web browsing with Flash Player 10 on mobile phones in the future.”

Other features include 512MB/288MB ROM/RAM, 3.2″ TFT-LCD, 320×480 pixel resolution, 900/2100MHz HSPA, Quad-band GSM, GPS, 802.11b/g WiFi, trackball, G-sensor, compass, 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, microSD, and 3.5mm audio jack.  The Hero will be available on T-Mobile and Orange in Europe this July, Asia later this summer, and North American quite a bit later.

[via Engadget/HTC PR]

One year ago, Adobe announced a new service called Acrobat.com.  This service was intended to rival Google Docs, Zoho, and Microsoft Office Online.  Adobe has been working diligently at advancing the online document collaboration service and they have announced that they are no longer in Beta.

Adobe also announced that they now have business subscriptions and have designed advanced tools for building PDFs, presentations, documents, spreadsheets, etc.  Acrobat.com relies heavily on Adobe Flash for the service.

Below is a list of the services within Acrobat.com
Buzzword: Works very similar to Microsoft Word and Google Docs.  Adobe bought out Buzzword in 2007.
Spreadsheets: Spreadsheets was released earlier today and allows multiple people to create spreadsheets.
Presentations: This service was released in late May and allows users to collaborate on presentations that work similarly to Microsoft PowerPoint.
Create PDF/Share: A service that allows users to create and share PDF documents.
ConnectNow: Virtual meeting service and allows users to share access to desktops.

The Basic service costs $14 per month and the Plus service runs for $39 per month.  The Plus service has no limit on the number of people that can collaborate on a document.  Acrobat.com currently has about 5 million accounts on the service.

[via Mashable]

Adobe Flash is the most commonly used video streaming services on the web.  The only problem with it is that, streaming video takes up many CPU cycles.  Intel Atom processors are generally used in netbooks and they cannot handle too many CPU cycles.  That is a netbook’s greatest flaw.

To correct this issue, Nvidia and Broadcom plans to push for smoother playback of HD Flash video so that much lower CPUs are used.  The Flash upgrade won’t happen until at least the first half of 2010.

[via Gizmodo]

Earlier this week Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) announced Strobe, an “open framework” made for their Flash player.  Strobe will become available starting in the third quarter.  Strobe will make it easy to modify for companies to modify the Adobe Flash technology using plug-ins and other architecture.  This is especially useful for those who prefer not to host videos on YouTube.

Jennifer Taylor, the Director of Product Management for Flash distribution at Adobe explained that ActionScript is very flexible, but “everybody’s sort of had to recreate that from scratch, and as a result it’s taken people longer than they’ve wanted to to to get their video players up to get their video online.”  This is where Strobe comes in.

Some of Adobe’s partners on Strobe include Adap.tv, Blip.tv, Akamai, Grab Media, Level3, Limelight Networks, ScanScout, and Yume.  The Strobe framework will be free.  Adobe is making it free simply to accelerate the adoption of Flash video.

Ayy Poindexter.  That’s a nice-looking tie, it looks really good.  I had a tie like that in The Perfect Storm.  Did you see that movie?  Say hello to your mother for me.  No word on where or how to get your hands on this Adobe Photoshop tie.  If we get any word, check back on this blog post.  If you have any clues, comment away.

[via BBG]

Adobe announced at the GSMA Mobile world Congress conference that Flash Player 10 will be available on phones that run on Windows Mobile, Google Android, Nokia S60/Symbian, and Palm’s mobile OS.  Unfortunately Flash Player 10 will not be available for the iPhone.

While some people see this as a blow to Apple, I think its just reassurance for iPhone application developers.  If you start providing Flash, then why even create games and charge for them when you can play free Flash games online.  Adobe has been working for several years for a solution to provide Flash technology for mobile devices.  About 40% of mobile phone users are working with Flash Lite, but it isn’t as good as the desktop version of Flash 10.

“We would love to see it on the iPhone, too,” stated Anup Murarka, Director of Technology Strategy and Partner Development for Adobe. “But it’s Apple’s decision on when and how they support any new technology. So we will continue to work on it.”

Adobe AIR is platform for building rich Internet applications through the use of Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, AJAX, etc.  Thus far, Adobe has hit about 100 million Adobe AIR installations.  Today Adobe announced that they have launched a new user interface for their application download marketplace.  They have launched the new user interface with improved feedback features, a new web interface, and links for purchasing applications.

Adobe AIR has created feedback support for applications.  Users can rate/review/comment/flag applications.  Those Adobe AIR interested in applications can also subscribe to feeds from the Marketplace and share links to friends for recommend apps.  The Adobe AIR marketplace has web interface for developers to manage profiles, applications, analytics, ratings, reviews etc.

Lastly, developers can add a link to their personal website for purchasing applications.  The Adobe AIR marketplace does not support online transactions for purchasing applications directly.

Some of the most popular apps include AOL Top 100 Videos, Google Analytics, Adobe Media Player, Agile Agenda, Kuler desktop, Acrobat.com for My, De MonsterDebugger, uvLayer, Klok, Desktube, Mockups for Desktop, TweetDeck, eBay Desktop, twhirl, and SlideRock Player.

[via Adobe AIR blog]

Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) and the National Football League (NFL) have entered an agreement to live-stream football games that take place on Sunday and Thursday nights. The video will be served on NFL.com and NBCSports.com. The name of the service is Sunday Night Football Extra.

The streaming video will also offer PiP, game highlights, alternative cameras, live stats, and live blogging. This service was available earlier tonight during the NY Giants and Washington Redskins game.

John Madden, Andrea Kremer, and Al Michaels are a part of the video and audio stream of the games. The NFL will be using Adobe Flex, Photoshop, and Flash to live stream the games.

“This is an exciting new way for fans to watch NFL games,” stated Hans Schroeder, NFL VP of digital media. “The online broadcast will provide a new level of interactivity, with fans getting to chose how they experience NFL games. Adobe’s Flash technology will deliver an immersive, interactive and high-quality product for NFL fans across the
country.”

The press release is available here.

 
I once read an article in Business 2.0.  The article asked the reader which software company do you think touches our everyday lives the most.  The answer was Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE).  Adobe software is used for the magazines we read, the videos we watch, and the advertisements we see on the subways. 

Carl Icahn was able to get several board positions on Yahoo!’s Board.  Yahoo! also has what they wanted, avoidance of a proxy fight against Carl Icahn on August 1st.  But Microsoft is left without a Yahoo! acquisition and now has an unsigned $44 billion acquisition check.  Who should Microsoft buy instead?  Adobe Systems makes the most sense. 

Microsoft can afford to buyout Adobe Systems because their market cap is roughly the same as Yahoo!’s.  Yahoo! is riding at about a $30 billion market cap and Adobe is about $22.23 billion.  Adobe is constantly ranked as an outstanding place to work by Fortune magazine too.  If you go to any user-generated video sharing website in the world today including YouTube, Adobe Flash software is most likely used.  Yahoo! makes about double of Adobe’s revenues, but Yahoo! is constantly losing marketshare to search engine leader Google.

Integrating Adobe and Microsoft software would be pretty seamless too.  Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat/Reader are interdependent.  MS Paint definetely could use help from Photoshop.  Adobe Dreamweaver is clearly better than Microsoft Frontpage.  Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash are competing against each other but clearly Silverlight hasn’t made a dent on Flash’s marketshare.  Windows Movie Maker could use the features that After Effects and Premiere has.  The list goes on.

The only problem I see with a combined Adobe and Microsoft is that there would be a definete corporate culture clash.  Microsoft is seen as a process-driven software bully and Adobe is seen as a freeflow creative environment.  If I was Steve Ballmer and I had a big budget for a major acquisition, then I would definetely set my sights on the company that makes the best photo and video editing software.

In your opinion, who would you buy if you were Microsoft and had $44 billion to spend?  Leave it in the comments.

Veoh is a video sharing website based in San Diego, Calif.  Michael Eisner, former Disney chairman is on the Board of Veoh.  Eisner was one of the investors in Veoh’s $12.5 million in second round funding in April 2006.  Eisner also participated in the $25 million Series C round of funding in August 2007 as well.  And today Veoh raised $30 million in funding from Intel Capital, Adobe Systems, Shelter Capital Partners, Spark Capital, Goldman Sachs, The Tornate Company, Time Warner, and several other investors.

Veoh has two viewing options for their site.  The first option is to allow users to stream videos from the web, but they provide full episodes of television shows giving them the leg-up on YouTube.  The second option is to watch high quality videos using VeohTV through p2p technology.  Like YouTube, Veoh compresses video using Adobe Flash.

Veoh claims that they receive 28 million unique visitors who spend 100 minutes per month on their site on average.  Veoh isn’t that far behind DailyMotion and Metacafe in terms of traffic.

Information Source:
[1] TechCrunch: Veoh Raises Another $30 Million From Intel Capital, Adobe, and Gordon Crawford by Erick Schonfeld

“They have a whole market that they are missing out on, and they need to make sure that the market is aware there is a Photoshop solution for them. As that market grows and becomes more sophisticated, hopefully it will generate money,” stated Ron Glaz, an analyst at IDC, a market intelligence firm.

Adobe Systems Inc. has made another dramatic move. After making at least 9 versions of their popular software, Photoshop, the San Jose, Calif.-based company decided to make their well-known software available to the web for free. This effort poses a threat to some of the other popular online photo editing companies such as Picnik, Picasa, and SnipShot.

This is not the first time that Adobe has made a huge contribution to the web. A few years ago, Adobe acquired Macromedia, the makers of Flash. Today Adobe Flash is the foundation for all online video sharing web sites like YouTube and DailyMotion.

With Photoshop Express, users can crop/rotate/tweak/resize/edit photos. Adobe is also providing users 2GB of space to host their photos for free. After editing photos, Adobe Photoshop Express users can build galleries in a grid or 3D format.

Photoshop Express is available at: http://www.photoshop.com/express/

Information Source:
[1] TechCrunch: Adobe Unveils Webtop Version of Photoshop. Picnik Is Not Scared by Erick Schonfeld

In the technology company sector, its rare to see high-profile executives step down when a company is doing very well.  Steve Jobs was fired from Apple (temporarily) and Terry Semel was fired from Yahoo! because of pressure from shareholders and the media.  However in the case of Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE), Shatanu Narayen is battering up at the CEO plate while the company is continuously growing. 

“Shantanu’s extensive knowledge of our products and platforms, customer experience and exceptional operational leadership make him the ideal choice to lead Adobe as CEO,” stated former CEO of Adobe, Bruce Chizen. “For me personally, the time is right for a transfer of leadership and I look forward to supporting Shantanu as he takes on his new responsibilities.”

Chizen and Narayen together were responsible for the acquisition of Macromedia in 2005 for $3.4 billion.  Today Adobe Flash is the preferred technology for streaming video, especially demonstrated by YouTube.

Narayen will begin CEO duties on December 1, 2007.  Chizen will serve on the Board of Directors until the end of fiscal 2008.

Information Source:
[1] Adobe press release

Image Credit: Adobe Executive Profile

“Adobe is driving the next generation of video delivery by accelerating the fusion of TV and the Internet. With more control over playback, interactivity and branding, the move to Flash Player compatible video will help the BBC to engage audiences by delivering a seamless, instant-on Web video experience.”
-Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) will be utilizing Adobe Systems Inc.’s Flash software for its iPlayer streaming media service. The iPlayer will allow BBC viewers to download Beeb programs for up to 7 days. Then users will be able to watch the shows for about 30 days before the programs automatically deletes itself.

Ashley Highfield is best known for his contributions to the BBC’s digital strategy growth and the iPlayer. He was recently recognized as Silicon.com’s #5 in the Top 50 Agenda Setters after the Facebook founder and the Google, Apple, and Cisco CEOs.

The BBC iPlayer is available in the U.K. only and is currently compatible with just PCs, not Macs.  But the iPlayer should be available for the Mac by the end of the year.

Information Source:
[1] Adobe press release: BBC Enters a Strategic Relationship with Adobe to Enhance Accessibility of BBC iPlayer and bbc.co.uk

[Note: The combination of the Adobe logo and Virtual Ubiquity logo is not an official logo.  I put them together.]

“We were inspired by the way today’s youth spend their lives working and playing together online, and how this is influencing the way we all think about collaboration,” stated Rick Treitman, chief executive at Virtual Ubiquity. Through the acquisition, Adobe will also gain ownership of Buzzword, an online word processor product. Buzzword will be integrated into Air (Adobe Integrated Runtime) platform.

Buzzword was created using Adobe Flex and runs on Adobe Flash. When Buzzword gets integrated into Air, then the application will be available online and offline. “This inspiration resulted in an online word processor for the ‘Facebook generation’ that focuses on working together online without sacrificing quality,” added Treitman.

The acquisition financial details were undisclosed. Before acquisition, Adobe was an investor for Virtual Ubiquity.

“The infusion of capital from Adobe and other investors further validates the promise of our technology,” stated Kymberlee Weil, the President and a co-founder of introNetworks. “We’ll continue to expand our platform using the Adobe development environment and look forward to further increasing the value of our intellectual property portfolio.”

The amount of capital that Weil is referring to is the $2.7 million given by Adobe Systems Inc. Not only is Adobe an investor, but they are also a client.

The concept behind introNetworks’ enterprise software is to provide a solution to the problem of attendees lack of communication abilities before and after events.  It sounds like it is essentially a more classy and customizable version of evite.

Some of introNetworks clients include Starcom MediaVest Group, The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), Intel, The United Way, Dow Jones, Autodesk, Monster.com, and The Harvard Business School (HBS).  introNetworks is based in Santa Barbara, Calif.

“introNetworks is utilizing fundamental Adobe technologies in interesting ways, providing richer, more interactive experiences in online communities,” stated John Leckrone, the director of Venture Development at Adobe. “We’re pleased to be working with introNetworks as they continue to expand and evolve their technology platform.”

The company was also co-founded by Mark Sylvester and presented at the DEMO@15! conference.