GameSpasm

Video sharing site Vimeo says it’s going to be the latest video company using the new HTML5 format as its path onto mobile devices. The site plans to release a “Universal Player” later today that will detect your smartphone browser and determine what video format it will support. So it might play in HTML5 on an iPhone or iPad, but play in Flash on an Android phone.

Right now, if you tried to play Swingly’s embedded video on a mobile device, it wouldn’t work, because the video uses Flash technology. Adobe is rolling Flash out to smartphones, but it’s a slow process, and Apple is blocking Flash on the iPhone and iPad. As mobile viewing becomes more important, the current embedding format will seem more and more broken.

Vimeo already offers a mobile-friendly website featuring videos that can play on iPhones and Android devices. But Vimeo’s content, like YouTube’s, isn’t limited to the site itself. It’s also distributed through embedding, allowing Vimeo videos to play anywhere else on the Web — for example allowing me to include Swingly’s demo video in my article about the question-and-answer startup’s launch.

YouTube is experimenting with a new embedding format that will play videos in either Flash or HTML5 depending on browser capabilities.

Vimeo, which is owned by media company IAC, also announced a new Watch Later feature, which allows users to bookmark videos for future viewing. Watch Later sounds most interesting when used across devices, so that someone could start watching a video on their computer, then continue it on their television in the Vimeo channel in the Roku set-top box, and finally finish it on Vimeo’s mobile website.

Tags: Flash, HTML5, ipad, iPhone, Universal player

Companies: Iac, Vimeo

Tags: flash, HTML5, ipad, iPhone, MediaBeat, MobileBeat, Universal player, VentureBeat

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Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen doesn’t seem too broken up about Apple’s refusal to support its Flash technology on the iPhone and iPad. Speaking to the Telegraph, Narayen delves into why he’s moved on from that drama, as well as how the company has brought Flash to other, more open, mobile platforms.

“We believe in open systems. We believe in the power of the Internet and in customers making choices and I think a lot of the controversy was about their decision at that point,” Narayen said. “They’ve made their choice. We’ve made ours and we’ve moved on.”

Instead of lamenting where he can’t implement Flash, Narayen seems more interested in the companies that actually want it on their platforms: “It’s a business decision. With the energy and innovation that our company has, we’d rather focus on people who want to deliver the best experience with Flash and there are so many of them.”

Adobe has already released Flash 10.1 for Google Android users (on phones that support Android 2.2, the version codenamed FroYo), and it’s working on versions for Palm WebOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, and more. It’s working closely with pretty much every platform and handset maker that’s offering Flash, including Motorola, HTC, Google, and Palm/HP.

It’s been months since Apple CEO Steve Jobs penned his infamous open letter, “Thoughts on Flash”, in which he elaborated on why he doesn’t want Adobe’s Flash software on the iPhone or iPad. He later went on to say that the letter was a result of Adobe picking a fight with Apple.

The lack of Flash doesn’t seem to be hurting sales of the iPad, which surpassed 3 million units sold at the end of June.

Tags: Android, Blackberry, Flash, ipad, iPhone, webOS, Windows Phone 7

Companies: Adobe, Apple, Google

People: Shantanu Narayen

Tags: android, BlackBerry, flash, ipad, iPhone, MobileBeat, VentureBeat, webos, windows-phone-7

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Online games platform company Heyzap is announcing today that its platform will support games that are written in HTML5, which is making a bid to be the lingua franca of the internet.

Until now, Heyzap has created an index and social games platform for more than 35,000 games that are written in Adobe’s Flash software. But Flash has its limitations and a new challenger in HTML5, which is being supported in a wide variety of devices from Apple’s iPhone to Google’s Android operating system.

Jude Gomilla, co-founder of San Francisco-based Heyzap, said the company wants to expand its reach to other platforms. Now, developers who use Heyzap’s platform can create HTML5 games that can run in places where Flash games can’t, such as Apple’s products and a variety of mobile phones.

“We see great potential for social games on HTML5,” Gomilla said. “The ecosystem is growing.”

Heyzap also supports Javascript with its platform. That means that games using Heyzap’s platform can work on just about any browser. Heyzap’s games are played on 270,000 web sites around the web. The company has raised more than $3 million, and its investors include Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, and angel investors Naval Ravikant and Joshua Schacter. Heyzap has 14 employees. Rivals include Mochi Media.

Tags: Flash, HTML5, ipad, iPhone

Companies: Adobe, Apple, Google, Heyzap

People: Jude Gomilla

Tags: flash, gamesbeat, HTML5, ipad, iPhone, VentureBeat

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One of the biggest debates in the mobile industry has been over platforms and standards — particularly the contest between Adobe’s Flash technology, the new version of the basic Web standard HTML5, and the lure of native applications like those sold in Apple’s App Store.

We’ll be debating these issues during a panel called “The Future of Flash and HTML” at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat 2010 conference, which runs from July 12 to 13 in San Francisco.

The format issue can seem a bit arcane, but it will shape which companies dominate the mobile landscape. Apple has said it doesn’t plan to support Flash websites on the iPhone and iPad, and suggested that it will block Flash apps from being exported to the iPhone, too. Apple’s Steve Jobs wrote an essay arguing that Flash is an outdated technology, and while the company’s main platform is the App Store, Apple is also promoting websites built in HTML5.

Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch responded that Apple is playing “a legal game” and compared Jobs to a 19th century railroad tycoon. He also downplayed the idea that the debate is between HTML5 and Flash, arguing that both technologies have their place, and that Adobe will build tools supporting both.

Meanwhile, startups (and larger companies, too) need to figure out where to focus their mobile development energy.

To help attendees figure out where things are going, we’ll have Anup Murarka, director of partner development and technology strategy in Adobe’s business unit, speaking on the panel. We’ll also have Abraham Elias, president and chief executive of Sencha, a Sequoia Capital-backed startup that has declared that native applications are dead, thanks to its platform for HTML5 mobile websites. Rounding things out we’ll have Josh Larson, president and chief operating officer of Flash gaming company Mochi Media, which recently launched a mobile website to tie into Flash’s arrival on Google’s Android phones (a Flash website on Android is pictured above). I’ll be the moderator.

For all conference details, including speaker and agenda updates, check out the MobileBeat 2010 website, then register here. Hurry — the conference starts Monday.

Tags: Flash, HTML5

Companies: Adobe, Mochi Media, Sencha

Tags: flash, HTML5, MobileBeat, VentureBeat

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After months of back-and-forth debate about whether Adobe’s Flash technology is a good fit for smartphones, Adobe is launching a full version of Flash for mobile devices, starting with Google’s Android operating system.

Adobe released a test version of Flash to the public about a month ago, but this is the real launch of the finished product. Flash 10.1 should now be available for download on phones using the latest version of Android, 2.2, which is known as FroYo. And the company says it has shipped Flash to its other device partners, so that Flash should soon be available on BlackBerry, Palm webOS, Windows Phone 7, LiMo, MeeGo, and Symbian phones — basically, all the major smartphones except for Apple’s.

The desktop version of Flash 10.1 should also be available today.

Developers and designers use Flash to build a wide range of online content, but its biggest presence is in powering Web games and videos. Flash came under attack recently from Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, who blocked Flash from iPhones and iPads, calling it an outdated technology. Adobe has fired back, saying Flash works just fine on the iPhone and that Apple is playing “legal games,” but until Flash 10.1 it was really a battle of words, not products — the full version of Flash (as opposed to a stripped down version, called Flash Lite, that Adobe hardly mentions anymore) didn’t actually work on mobile phones.

I was given a review copy of a Nexus One to test out Flash, but I couldn’t get it to work properly before last month’s test release. It turned out I was given a review phone without Flash, so once everything was set up properly, things seemed to work smoothly. The mobile-optimized gaming and video sites that Adobe highlighted provided a better experience than random Flash websites, but even on sites that weren’t designed for smartphones, it was nice to no longer get error messages because Flash wasn’t supported. That seems to be the impression of analysts who tested Flash as well. (I didn’t keep the phone long enough to assess the effect on battery life.)

In its announcement, Adobe included a bunch of positive quotes from analysts, content partners, and device partners, but perhaps it’s best to end on a comment from Google — a company that is moving its video supersite YouTube from Flash to HTML5, and which has been more vocal in evangelizing for HTML5, but which has also sniped at Apple for its lack of Flash support. Here’s the statement from Andy Rubin, one of the inventors of Android and now vice president of engineering at Google:

We are excited that Android is the first mobile platform to support the full Flash Player. Now mobile users can browse the full web on their smartphones, and Android developers can use industry-leading tools to create immersive experiences on the web.

Don’t miss MobileBeat 2010, VentureBeat’s conference on the future of mobile. The theme: “The year of the superphone and who will profit.” Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Register now. Tickets are going quickly. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here.

Tags: Android, Flash

Companies: Adobe, Apple, Google

Tags: android, flash, MobileBeat, VentureBeat

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If you were worried that we’d never see a true successor to the Palm Pre after Palm’s announced acquisition by HP, especially after an HP executive made it seem like WebOS is its main concern, you can now rest a bit easier.

During an AT&T webinar for mobile developers on Thursday, Palm Developer Advocate Josh Marinacci confirmed that the company is indeed working on new devices, as well as a new version of WebOS, according to PreCentral. “You’re going to find the next year very exciting,” Marinacci said.

That Palm is continuing to develop WebOS isn’t exactly news; it’s clear that HP sees many uses for the mobile OS in netbooks, tablets, and potentially other devices. But the future of Palm’s hardware — which includes the Palm Pre and Pixi, as well as the upgraded “Plus” variations of both phones on Verizon — was far less certain.

When it was first announced, the Pre was hyped up as a potential iPhone killer. But in a turn of fitting irony, Apple squashed much of the Pre’s launch momentum by announcing the iPhone 3G S shortly after the Pre hit stores. While Palm’s hardware floundered, Android hardware found its second wind last fall with the release of the Motorola Droid — which, along with the Nexus One, sparked the massive influx of powerful Android phones we’re seeing this year. Come next year, Palm will also have to contend with an even more powerful iPhone, as well as the fall launch of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.

The company is also facing brain drain that will make the development of new hardware, as well as a new version of WebOS, even more difficult. In April, Palm lost Michael Abbot — its senior vice president of software and services — to Twitter, and offered stay packages to other key employees to keep them from straying. More recently, WebOS user interface designer Matias Duarte left Palm to work on Android at Google.

Marinacci also spoke briefly about the many delays getting Adobe’s Flash 10.1 mobile version ported to WebOS. In short, Palm simply can’t explain the delay. Perhaps once Android 2.2, which comes with Flash 10.1, finally is made available to more phones, Adobe will be able to concentrate its efforts better on WebOS.

Don’t miss MobileBeat 2010, VentureBeat’s conference on the future of mobile. The theme: “The year of the superphone and who will profit.” Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Register now. Tickets are going quickly. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here.

Tags: Android, Flash, iPhone, Palm Pixi, Palm Pre, tablet, webOS

Companies: Hp, Palm

People: Josh Marinacci

Tags: android, flash, iPhone, MobileBeat, Palm Pixi, Palm pre, tablet, VentureBeat, webos

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Ten years ago, Quark was the tool of choice for producing Wired magazine and many other high-production-value publications. Since then, Adobe’s less expensive, aggressively competitive InDesign has stolen a lot of Quark’s customers.

Now, Quark is making a move to win back glossy-publication developers trying to move onto digital platforms without hiring lots more staff. This morning, the company announced a three-way partnership with Ray Kurzweil’s K-NFB Reading Technology and digital distributors Baker & Taylor. Quark Express is being beefed up to enable non-engineers to add animation, interaction, and video into their content, in the same way Wired used InDesign to create its hotshot demo of iPad publishing.

I got a long demo yesterday, but the videos below do a better job of showing what’s new. Quark Express can be used to add motion and embed slideshows and video clips to content already produced for print. K-NFB’s Blio software enables the multimedia content to play on a wide range of laptops, netbooks, smartphones, and forthcoming tablets. Yes, it works on Apple gadgets.

Baker & Taylor are where new media meets old-school distribution. The Charlotte, North Carolina company is unheard of in San Francisco, but they’ve been in business for 180 years. Baker & Taylor distributes digital wares to retailers like Target, device manufacturers, libraries, academic institutions and corporate customers — tens of thousands of companies and organizations.

The video below shows what Quark and Blio can do technically.

Tags: Flash, ipad

Companies: Bakery & Taylor, K-NFB, Quark

Tags: Business and Technology, flash, ipad, MediaBeat, VentureBeat

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We've been flipping through the ol' Joystiq archives, trying to find precedent to post about an update to a Flash-based game, but, well, we came up empty-handed. No matter -- we wouldn't be able to sleep tonight knowing that we'd kept the news of Super Mario Crossover's upcoming additions to ourselves. On June 25 the game will be updated, adding some new features and new equipment for each hero, and introducing Ryu Hayabusa as a playable character.

Check out all the new features and abilities coming in the update in the video posted after the break -- or, if you've yet to experience the magic of Crossover, you can see what all the fuss is about over at Newgrounds.

Continue reading Super Mario Crossover update coming June 25

Super Mario Crossover update coming June 25 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Browser-based, flash, PC, super-mario-crossover

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Despite Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ endless disdain for Flash, and his refusal to allow the software on the iPhone and iPad, Adobe expects that Flash will be on 250 million smartphones by the end of 2012, according to Reuters.

In October, Adobe announced that it will be bringing the full Flash experience to most smartphones with Flash 10.1 in 2010 — except for the iPhone, of course. Google’s Android mobile OS will be the first to receive it with the release of its version 2.2 “FroYo” update, and it will be available later this year for Blackberry, Web OS, Nokia, and Window Phone 7 smartphones.

“Maybe we don’t get to the iPhone or iPad,” Adobe’s director of technology strategy Anup Murarka told Reuters. “If anything, we’re seeing continued growth in the install base and the usage of Flash and we see that continuing to grow,” he added.

Analysts predict that more than 200,000 smartphones will be sold in 2010, with around 10 percent running Flash. Adobe’s prediction of Flash being on 250 million phones is telling — it means that it also expects Flash to be supported on 53 percent of the 300 million smartphones predicted to be sold in 2012, according to Reuters.

Don’t miss MobileBeat 2010, VentureBeat’s conference on the future of mobile. The theme: “The year of the superphone and who will profit.” Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Register now. Tickets are going quickly. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here.

Tags: Android, Blackberry, Flash, Web OS, Windows Phone 7

Companies: Adobe

Tags: android, BlackBerry, flash, MobileBeat, VentureBeat, Web OS, windows-phone-7

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Steve Jobs’ ban of Adobe’s Flash technology for videos, animations and interfaces from his iPhone and iPad computers is the most widely controversial decision the Apple founder has made. In an attempt to prove that Flash isn’t necessary, Apple has posted a set of 7 demo pages that show off the power of HTML5, the emerging new standard for Web content that will run, theoretically, in any browser on any device.

The demos require you to use Apple’s Safari browser.  This seems counter to the core premise that other browsers — Chrome, Firefox, Opera — are able to display HTML5 content. But if you’re willing to install Safari on a PC, you can see most of the technical tricks on display in these pages. Some features only work on a Mac.

• Video — HTML5 lets you resize the video while it’s still playing, rather than needing to redraw a new window. You can also tilt the viewing angle, and apply a “mask” that, in the demo, shows the video playing inside the letters TRON (the video is a trailer for upcoming movie Tron Legacy.)
• Typography — HTML5 can change the size, color, and font of text in a browser window. It can adjust the transparency of text, the angle at which it’s written, and adjust both vertical (leading) and horizontal (tracking) alignment of letters. Apple’s demo also adds a shadow that can be turned on and off.
• Gallery — Apple’s demo manipulates a set of photos on the fly. They fly into position onscreen in five different formations from a straightforward grid to a corny 3D wheel.
• Audio — You probably won’t be surprised to learn that HTML5 pages can included embedded audio clips with player buttons to control them.
• 360 Degrees — This one’s impressive. You can rotate a photo of three iPhones to view them from any angle. Yes, it’s been done before, but what counts is that it runs smoothly, rather than sputtering as you spin it.
• VR — Apple presumes you know that VR stands for virtual reality. It’s like the 360 Degree demo, with more flexibility. You can move around inside the photo of an Apple Store.

If Jobs gets his way, Web developers will abandon Flash and use these HTML-based tricks instead. He’s got one big hurdle in the way: How to get everyone on the Internet to upgrade their browser. Flash, remember, became ubiquitous because Web surfers needed to install it to watch YouTube. What Apple needs is a compelling website for which people will install a new browser to avoid being left out of the fun. Just as Adobe’s Flash was popularized by a video startup, the killer site for HTML5 almost certainly won’t come from Apple.

Tags: Flash, HTML5

Companies: Adobe, Apple

Tags: Business and Technology, flash, HTML5, MediaBeat, VentureBeat

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