Adobe and Intel are hosting an event later today in San Francisco around AIR development and distribution. Obviously not all of you live close to the bay area, but the event will be broadcasted live via Connect. You can follow it on http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/applab.

I heard through the grapevine that we may even launch a few new things on Adobe Labs after the event… So join the Connect session and keep an eye on Labs ;-)

I know this event is in the middle of the night for us here in Europe but it will be worth it.

Agenda: ( Time in PST. Check this link for the time in your location. )
5:30 PM – Flash Platform Services Overview (Adobe)
6:00 PM – Intel AppUp Center Business Model and Opportunity (Intel)
7:00 PM – Technical Deep Dive (Adobe)
8:30 PM – Staffed Open Lab (Adobe and Intel)

E-Readers, 3D TV and internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. That pretty much sums up CES 2010.

E-Readers
I have a Kindle and I absolutely love it. But I love it because it is so easy to use and even easier to buy books straight from the device. The same goes for the Nook, which directly taps in to the Barnes & Noble store. At CES, there were dozens of companies introducing their E-Reader… But I wonder if they can survive. None of them are connected to a certain store, which is both positive and negative. Like I said, I really like the fact that my Kindle makes it so easy to buy new books straight from the device. I don’t have to be near a computer to do so. All these other E-Readers don’t have that advantage.

The Entourage Edge E-Reader did jump out though. With its two screens (one e-ink and one color LCD) it definitely stands out.

3D TV
This was all over the place… All the big manufacturers were showing their versions of 3D TVs both with and without the awkward glasses. The ones I saw that didn’t need glasses failed to impress me though. I found it very hard to find the sweet spot to get the best picture and it wasn’t anywhere near the picture you get with the glasses. Panasonic showed a 3D version of the Avatar trailer on one of their new TVs. While you did need to put on the 3D glasses, the image quality was really amazing. I can see this technology working for movies but I’m not sure about “regular” TV shows and I’m not even sure this would work with sports. DirecTV is teaming up with Panasonic to offer a 24/7 3D pay per view channel focused on movies, documentaries, music and sports.

Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes
These were everywhere… And I can really see this working. I wouldn’t mind having a news widget on my TV that pops up whenever there is breaking news. Or how about a Twitter widget that shows relevant Tweets of whatever you are watching? How about a weather widget that pops up when you switch on your TV/set-top box? Or maybe even live stock quotes while watching your favorite TV shows? Or how about making it even easier to watch YouTube or Hulu videos on your TV? This is exactly what interactive TV platforms have been promising for years. Sadly, the interactive TV platforms have failed to bring this type of interactivity and/or information to my TV. I believe this is partly due to the fact that these platforms are closed. With Internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players, you as a developer would be able to build your own widgets or applications and distribute them via the application stores or catalogs available on those devices. By allowing you to build those applications with web technology like HTML, JavaScript and yes even Flash, it’s a lot easier to build these types of apps and we may finally see interactive TV taking off!

Personal highlights
Boxee Box
I’ve been a user and fan of Boxee for quite some time and was really excited to see the Boxee Box in real life. It’s amazingly small and the new interface has made a giant leap forward. I’ve used a DLink MediaLounge and Apple TV before but they don’t even come close to what Boxee has to offer. The hardware specs look amazing and it even runs Flash Player 10.1 with hardware acceleration so it has no problem playing HD Flash Video. I’m not sure about the Boxee Box form factor though. While it may look great as a standalone device, it certainly would not do well in a rack setup.

Sony Dash
The Sony Dash is basically a Sony branded Chumby. The screen is a lot bigger though and it certainly is more polished than the Chumby but the idea is exactly the same. It even runs all the Chumby apps. I’d love to see this running Flash Player 10.1 in the future though.

Intel Infoscape HD wall
This was very impressive. These 2 meter tall multi-touch high resolution screens were displaying hundreds of Tweets, photos and other information with 3D graphics. According to Engadget, “The entire installation was powered by a single Core i7-based machine with Intel’s own graphics, and it was seen rendering 576 links of live information.”

At Intel’s Developer Forum Engadget recorded a demo of an Intel (an Open Screen Project partner) based set-top box running a Flash based user interface and Flash based applications. The heart of this set-top box is Intel’s CE 3100 Media Processor which according to Engadget “combines an 800MHz Pentium M core with a proprietary video processing core all on one chip. That’s about as much power as a 1.2GHz Atom…“.

The video demonstrates the Flash UI on top of a Linux operating system. It shows how you can add Flash based applications on top of a video signal coming from the tuner and run full screen Flash based applications. The future is bright for the Flash Platform! Flash on!

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!