Open Screen update: RTMP specification to be published soon
This is incredibly exciting news and something the community has been asking for since we published the specs for the SWF file format, FLV/F4V, AMF, and the Mobile Content Delivery Protocol. In the first half of this year, Adobe will publish the specification for RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol).
Kevin Lynch, Adobe’s CTO, said:
With the RTMP specification, developers and companies will be able to provide users with optimized audio, video and data streaming, no matter what kind of device the user is on or where the content is coming from. Our ongoing commitment to openness is accelerating adoption of the Flash Platform by developers and resulting in a new generation of Web applications, content and video experiences that run reliably across operating systems and devices.
The RTMP specification is expected to be posted on the Adobe Developer Connection (www.adobe.com/devnet/rtmp ) in the first half of 2009.
One Google search produces 7 grams of CO2. Reading this site produces 0 grams.
According to this BBC News article, the Internet’s carbon footprint is bigger than the footprint of the airlines. A typical Google search produces about 7 grams of CO2 according to the article. Google was quick to reply that one Google search produces as little as 0.2 grams.
Reading an article on this website produces 0 (zero) grams of CO2. :-) (Not counting your power usage) Hetzner, the German hosting company I use, uses 100 percent carbon dioxide-free and environmentally friendly hydro-generated energy.
Adobe, Intel and Broadcom bringing Flash and AIR to a TV, set-top box or Blu-ray player near you.
One of my predictions for 2009 is that we’ll finally see the convergence of desktop, mobile and devices. Back in May we announced the Open Screen Project in which Adobe partners up with (currently) 20 hardware manufacturers, content providers, networks, … to bring Flash and AIR everywhere.
Yesterday, Intel announced that it has ported and optimized the Flash player for its Media Processor CE 3100. Today, Broadcom joins the party by announcing that it is also adding the Flash player to its system-on-a-chip (SoC) platform.
These new chips are built to deliver rich Web content and Flash based applications to Blu-ray players, set-top boxes or even directly to TVs and thus eliminating the set-top box.
Both partners are expected to ship the platforms as early as the first half of this year but if you happen to be in Las Vegas this week for CES, make sure you stop by their booths. Both Intel and Broadcom are demoing their new chips this week!
Start playing with Adobe Stratus (client to client communication)
Want to build a video chat application, multi-player games or voice-over-ip applications for the Flash Player or AIR without worrying about setting up a server infrastructure? Stratus (which we showcased at MAX) is your new best friend.
Stratus is a beta hosted rendezvous service that helps establish communication between Flash Player or AIR clients. Once two clients are connected to Stratus, they can send data directly client to client. The APIs in Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR 1.5 allow for point-to-point communication between a small number of subscribers. Publishers have to send data to all subscribing clients, so the number of subscribers is limited to the available bandwidth on the publisher end.
The Stratus technology page is now live on Adobe Labs at www.adobe.com/go/stratus. Developers can use their Adobe ID to sign up for a unique developer key that is required to connect to the Stratus Service. While it is in beta, the Stratus service is free for developers to use.
To help you get started, we’ve also provided a sample video phone application. The working sample is live on the Adobe Labs site and we’ve provided the source code and a developer center article to help you build your own applications.
For more info about Stratus and answers to Frequently Asked Questions go to: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Stratus:FAQ
President Barack Obama and how the world watched the elections
First of all, let me say: “Thank you America”! The whole world thought it was time for a change and I am really glad that you agreed!
I’m sure you’ll agree that this election has been historical in many ways. It’s also been an election that really used multimedia and the internet to the max with Obama being clearly in the lead. The internet gave the candidates a whole new “channel” to work with. Posting live updates on Facebook and Twitter and posting commercials on YouTube. Never before could a presidential candidate reach so many people.
On election day, the whole world was watching. Not just on traditional TV but even more so on the web. CNN already said that they had 27 million unique visitors on their site on election day. That’s 27 million people using a Flash application to get the latest results and/or watch the live coverage with the newly launched CNN Flash video player. Even though I know very well what the Flash Player is capable off, I also know that high traffic events like this one are not easy to stream but the new Flash video player didn’t even flinch once. Same thing for the MSNBC Flash video player and the Fox News AIR based video player. Just about all the big networks and newspapers picked Flash as their preferred technology to publish the results and they all did a really nice job.
To use some of the words of Obama’s victory speech: “If there’s anyone out there that still doubts that Flash is the best way to deliver data on the web in an engaging way, who still questions if Flash can deliver video to large worldwide audiences, today is your answer.” ;-)
Flash on the iPhone confirmed? We said nothing new!
I am currently in Brighton, UK for Flash On The Beach. During yesterday’s “Town Hall meeting”, a panel of Adobeans (including myself) was ready to answer any questions that would come up. As you can see here on the left, the room was packed.
One of the questions everyone asks all the time is when we will see the Flash Player running on the iPhone. Paul Betlem, Sr. Director of Engineering, answered the question by repeating what we’ve been saying for a few months now. When I returned to my hotel last night, I was amazed to see how many people picked up on his answer and how many people see it as the confirmation of Flash on the iPhone. Even Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen, already publicly stated that:
…we are working on it. We have a version that’s working on the emulation. This is still on the computer and you know, we have to continue to move it from a test environment onto the device and continue to make it work. So we are pleased with the internal progress that we’ve made to date.
So to avoid any further misconceptions, here’s the statement that Paul’s answer was based upon:
Adobe is committed to bringing Flash Player to the iPhone. While the development work has begun, we can’t share more details at this point. It is important to note that we do need to work with Apple beyond what is available through the SDK, its emulation environment and the current license around it to bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone. We think Flash availability on the iPhone benefits the millions of joint Apple and Adobe customers, and we want to work with Apple to bring these capabilities to the device.
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