ARena

OK – so the last customer round-up was in August 2007 – how time flies. Of course, what I could do is round up all the customers from the last 16 months. Or I could spread them out – which is exactly what I’m going to do.

I’ve actually managed to find 4 excellent LiveCycle case studies that all begin with A! How’s that for a new start…

Argentina National Social Security Administration (ANSES) - Argentina’s first public agency to initiate a long-term project to more fully automate work processes, reduce reliance on printed materials—which amounts to more than 150 million pages annually - and improve citizen services. To help achieve its goals, the agency deployed Adobe LiveCycle ES solutions in its Systems and Telecommunication Management department to automate forms processes—including support for digital signatures. ANSES has approximately 100 internal paper-based forms, all of which are to be converted to digital forms over a period of two years.
According to Pablo Fontdevila, System and telecommunication manager at ANSES: “Our (ANSES) processes are now almost immediate and are more secure than ever. Calculations on forms are automated, helping to accelerate completion of forms and reduce errors. Also, the digital signatures help ensure that documents are not altered during transmission.”

Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) – Not nice, but important - In Australia, there are approximately 12,600 new cases of bowel cancer and 4,700 deaths from the disease each year. If bowel cancer is detected before it has spread beyond the bowel, the chance of surviving at least five years after diagnosis is 90%. The risk of developing bowel cancer rises sharply and progressively after the age of 50.
The Australian DoHA has implemented an Adobe LiveCycle and PDF-based “SmartForms” to streamline the collecting of and collaborating on information from individuals participating in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.
The solution has some (almost) unbelievable results: estimated return on investment (ROI) of up to 923% over a three-year period and recouped investment in LiveCycle ES solutions in only one month!!

Antwerp Port Authority - More than 16,000 seagoing ships and 65,000 barges call at the port of Antwerp annually. In response to the European Directive on Invoicing (EC/115/2001) that requires member states to implement electronic invoicing as part of local value-added tax (VAT) legislation, the Port Authority deployed an advanced e-invoice system, leveraging Adobe LiveCycle ES software and GlobalSign DocumentSign digital certificates.

Allgaier Automotive GmbH - Allgaier has been using an Adobe LiveCycle solution to simplify user rights and role management when sharing documents. The new platform helps deliver on some long-promised capabilities of Internet and web technologies: evolving communication from push to pull technology. No longer are e-mails sent with large attachments; instead, data can be made available from a central location, enabling recipients to access data when the need arises and be notified automatically when new data is available.

If you want to know more, email me here

Posted by Timothy Brook at 10:24 PM | Permalink

Saturday 14th Feb is not just Valentine's Day, it also sees the start of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. The largest cycling event in America, the is a Tour de France-style cycling road race that challenges the world’s top professional cycling teams to compete along a demanding, recently expanded, 750-mile course from Sacramento to Escondido from February 14-22, 2009.

Race fans can follow the tour, and the progress of their favorite riders and teams, with the race trackers built on using Flex, AIR, Flash Player, Flash video and LiveCycle technologies.

You can read the press release (and see some video) here.

You can follow the race here.

An you can see what Duane Nickul has to say about it here.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 9:56 PM | Permalink

Posted by Timothy Brook at 7:04 PM | Permalink

Right - getting back into the swing of this blogging thing - two posts in one day!

Adobe announced on Monday the immediate availability of LiveCycle Developer Express via Amazon Web Services.  You can see the whole release here, but what this actually means is that enterprise developers can prototype, develop and test LiveCycle ES applications in a virtual, self-contained development environment without needing to install or configure LiveCycle.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 12:00 AM | Permalink

News from the Zend/PHP conference....

Zend Technologies yesterday announced a collaboration with Adobe to bring together the flexibility, productivity and enterprise reliability of Zend’s PHP technologies with the user experience benefits of Adobe Flex. The two companies will deliver technologies, content and services to make it easy for enterprise developers to build rich Internet applications (RIAs) using Flex on the client and PHP on the server. These RIAs are easier to use, speed real-time decision-making and increase employee productivity.

For more info, see here.  If you would like to talk to Abobe about this announcement email me here, if you would like to talk to Zend, then email Brad here

Posted by Timothy Brook at 7:54 PM | Permalink

Evening sports-fans...

Now anyone would think reading the last few entries to this blog that I am big on watching sport!  Anyone who knows me would know that's not really true - although I did just watch the final of the US Open, live, on-line, via Flash.

Anyway, little news round-up from the last few days....

Today, Adobe announced that DIRECTV is powering its next-generation NFL Sunday Ticket SUPERCAST service for SuperFan customers on the Web with Adobe Flash technology and Adobe AIR software. DIRECTTV customers can stream live NFL games, DIRECTV’s Red Zone Channel and up-to-the-minute scores and statistics in the browser using the free Adobe Flash Player. In addition, DIRECTV is also providing SUPERCAST as a downloadable AIR application. You can read all about it here.

(American) Football fans without access to DIRECTV aren’t left out in the cold however.  Late last week, Adobe announced a partnership with The National Football League (NFL) to deliver live online video streaming of NBC Sunday Night Football games on NFL.com and NBCSports.com using Adobe Flash technology. Again, read all about it here.

Of course, as a Brit I have not the slightest comprehension about American Football, so I'll finish off with a bit more general technology! In just 6-months since its release, we announced today that there have been more than 25 million installations of applications deployed on Adobe AIR. I'm sure you all have your favourites.  Mine is a dead-heat between Tweetdeck and Keeley!

Anyway, to read more about all the other great AIR applications available, read the press release here, or check some of them out here.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 12:42 AM | Permalink

A number of blogs have been posted that might be of interest to you,
including:
John O'Donovan from the BBC and Adobe's Ryan Stewart

Ryan makes some very interesting points, including:
* The majority of online video for the Olympics was delivered in Flash.
* For Beijing the BBC streamed nearly 40 million videos with up to 5.5 million Olympic videos watched each day at an average of around 3
million. In total there were 6.5 million hours of video delivered using Flash by the BBC.
* In the first 10 days CCTV's website streamed Olympic coverage to 100 million people...So in China we'll have 2,900 hours of Olympic content backed up and ready to watch with Flash Video.

You can find more information about the CCTV solution from the Adobe press release, but if you would like further information, please contact me.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 7:10 PM | Permalink

It's been a while since my last blog post - but I am going to try and get the blogging frequency turned up a little moving forward! As a kick-start I thought I'd give an update on press releases over the last few months.

First up, the Olympics (what else!). Adobe has teamed up with CCTV International Networks Co., Ltd (the company that owns the mainland China and Macau online video media rights to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games) to deliver over 5000 hours of video content (3,800 hours of Olympic game video and 1,200 self-made video) from the games.  You can read the press release here, but essentially the 5000 hours of Flash video content will be delivered to millions of sports fans in mainland China and Macau through the "Olympic Network TV Station", CCTV.com’s next-generation online experience based on Adobe Flash and Flex technology.

Still on the subject of Flash video, back at the beginning of July, Adobe announced that we are working with Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the SWF format.  The press release is here, but essentially this announcement will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers and rich Web content producers won’t need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable — they can now be confident it can be found by users around the globe.

Just in case you haven't had enough video news, one more piece to wrap up.  In mid June (I know, I've been absent from blogging for some time!) Adobe provided an update on the uptake of the Adobe Media Player.  The press release is available here and the player is available here - unfortunately it is only available in the USA at the moment, but I know the team is working hard to change this!

On a more enterprisey note, in mid-June Adobe announced the a significant update to the LiveCycle Enterprise Suite (ES). Major additions to the suite include LiveCycle Content Services ES - based on the Alfresco Open Source CMS - and LiveCycle PDF Generator 3D ES. You can read the press release here.

Finally, MAX time is approaching fast. MAX USA is in San Francisco (Nov 16 - 19), and MAX EMEA is in Milan (Dec 1 - 4). Press release is here and MAX info is here.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 9:46 PM | Permalink

A couple of big news items from the Acrobat team here at Adobe.

First up, we announced today the forthcoming introduction of Acrobat 9.  You can read the press release here, but a few highlights include:

• Deep support for Adobe Flash technology within PDFs - enabling the inclusion of Flash video and .swf files in PDF documents
• Tighter real-time collaboration capabilities
• PDF Portfolios, the ability to assemble multiple media types, such as documents, video, audio, and even 3D objects, into one, compressed PDF file.
  

Next up, The Acrobat team at Adobe have also announced the public beta of Acrobat.com. Acrobat.com is a "a suite of hosted services available as free public beta that puts communication, productivity, and collaboration tools close at hand within a Web browse."

You can read the press release here, but again a few highlights include:

• Adobe Buzzword, a Web-based word processor that makes it easy to co-author and share documents for comment and review, creating high-quality print results
• Adobe ConnectNow, a personal Web conferencing service that includes desktop sharing, video and voice conferencing and integrated chat
• Centralized online file sharing with access controls and online PDF conversion
• Developer APIs for real-time collaboration, file sharing and conversion

However, like all these things, it's much better to use it than read it - so go to acrobat.com, sign-up and check it out.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 8:33 PM | Permalink

Great news that Kevin Lynch has been named Adobe Chief Technology Officer. As Shantanu says in the press release “Kevin has made a tremendous impact expanding our technology vision during his time at Adobe...Kevin’s insights and passion for rich Internet applications, and what they signify for the future of software across operating systems and devices, will help enable the next generation of innovation for our customers.”
You can read the whole press release here: http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200802/020508KevinLynchCTO.html
Congratulations to Kevin.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A little late I know, but here's a round-up of the Adobe releases from December 2007

Flash news:

First up some news about developments in the Flash world. At the beginning of December we announced Flash Media Server 3 which "offers streaming media and real-time communication capabilities to the broadest possible audience. With industry standard H.264 video capabilities and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio support, Adobe Flash Media Server 3 provides content owners with increased protection for streaming high quality video and allows for the delivery of interactive media applications that work consistently across multiple browsers and operating systems." Read the details here.

To tie in with this announcement, Adobe also announced that the latest version of Flash Player 9 (available to download here) now includes H.264 standard video support. Essentially that means that your PC can be a HiDef media player. As Kevin says: "The inclusion of industry standard H.264 support in Adobe Flash Player, Adobe AIR, the Adobe Creative Suite® product line and Adobe Flash Media Server 3 brings new HD capabilities to millions of Flash developers and a new generation of viewers who are turning to the Web as the place to find their favorite shows and video content." Read the full release here.

RIA news:

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) has announced that they plan to adopt Flex and LiveCycle Data Services for its new Mission Support System.  Read the release here. According to NATO: "Adobe Flex is accepted worldwide and provides us with a new opportunity to automate the flight preparation process and save valuable time. It goes without saying that it is crucial for the NATO crew to have access to relevant information. The visual electronic maps present all the information in an intuitive manner which makes the MSS very user-friendly."

Still on the RIA theme, Adobe has also announced plans to open source elements of LiveCycle Data Services. Essentially we have released the source code for remoting and messaging technologies under a new open source product named BlazeDS. Read the release here, or access the code here. For more information on Adobe's approach to Open Source, go here.

Corporate news:

Adobe announced Q4 (and FY07) financial results on December 17th - for the first time breaking the $3b per annum revenue milestone.  Read the release here.  For completeness, we also announced the Adobe Board of Directors has approved a 30 million share increase to the stock repurchase program announced in April 2007. Read about that here.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 11:22 AM | Permalink

A few years ago I don't think anyone would have described Adobe as a company that took full advantage of the open source community. But that is all changing with the announcement today that Adobe plans to release the source code for the Flex SDK to open source under the Mozilla Public License (MPL). You can read the full press release here.

As James puts it: "Open source co-creation is a powerful way to build a strong development community. Adobe's decision to open source the Flex SDK is a radical move which should attract a new class of developer to the platform."

This is the fourth open/standard announcement by Adobe since the end of last year, first we contributed the source code for the ActionScript Virtual Machine to the Mozilla Foundation under the Tamarin project; then we announced the use of the open source WebKit engine in the “Apollo” project; and third we released the full PDF 1.7 specification for ISO standardization.

As the blogsphere starts commenting on this announcement I'll pull together the links. As always, if you would like more information, drop me an email.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 10:33 AM | Permalink

Adobe's second BIG PARTNER announcement in just over a week.  Last week was the news that Adobe and salesforce.com were working together on the Flex toolkit for Apex. This week comes the announcement that Adobe and SAP are collaborating on a new product, the SAP® Enterprise Learning environment.

From the press release: "SAP Enterprise Learning environment will help enable organizations to more easily conduct, measure and track virtual classes while allowing employees to collaborate in real-time with instructors and other learners. SAP and Adobe also announced that they have entered into a global reseller agreement that allows SAP to market and sell Acrobat Connect Professional as a standalone solution for enterprise-class Web-conferencing and collaborative communication."

Read the release here (or here if you want to see it on the SAP site!).

Posted by Timothy Brook at 3:15 PM | Permalink

Little bit late on the Customer Round-up for March, but I've pulled together a Public Sector focused round-up this month.

Kane County Circuit Court - The Kane County Circuit Court Clerk understands first-hand the importance of delivering fast, efficient services to citizens. As the fifth largest county in Illinois, Kane County court staff manages over 150,000 cases annually, ranging from simple traffic violations to serious felonies. At the same time, the Circuit Court Clerk's office is responsible for handling citizen requests for orders of protection, which typically involve domestic violence cases.

Kane County were looking to improve the quality of services that victims of domestic violence receive when they came to the county for help. Historically it could take up to six hours to process an order of protection - and the office wanted to dramatically reduce that time.

To improve and streamline the processes, Kane County is using a web-based solution, powered by Adobe LiveCycle and Flex solutions to transform how orders of protection are accessed, completed, submitted, reviewed, and approved. The more integrated, automated processes translate into enhanced citizen services that can be delivered faster, more conveniently, and more cost effectively than ever.

The automated process built around Adobe LiveCycle software is dramatically faster than the previous manual process. Within approximately sixty seconds of having a judge sign the document, an order of protection arrives at the sheriff's office for input into the national wanted persons database. Overall, Kane County have seen seen as much as a five-fold improvement in the time it takes to complete, submit, and process orders of protection.

Berlin -The procurement process for hiring construction sector workers to work on federal projects in Germany is especially time-consuming and costly due to the complicated application procedure. The process begins with a job announcement in a publication such as the federal job site listing. Companies submit written bids along with the necessary job application forms. To send these documents, the respective office charges the bidder administrative, copying, and shipping costs, fees usually amounting to at least €20. The bidder then fills out the documents by hand and sends the entire bid in a sealed envelope to the respective administrative office. Confidentiality is of great importance as the offers are only opened and read after the submission deadline.

In an attempt to improve this extremely time consuming process, the state of Berlin began advertising its jobs electronically in 2004, and at the same time began a project to make the whole process on-line whilst ensuring the process adhered to the strict confidentially and other German federal laws.

The state of Berlin used an Adobe LiveCycle and PDF based solution to reduced government and industry costs for completing and processing project bids; simplified bid completion and selection processes; increased transparency of bid selection; minimized errors on bids by reducing manual processes; and accelerated bid review by integrating electronic forms with backend systems

Court of Cremona - The Italian legal system has traditionally managed case documents using paper-based processes that can drain resources, slow court proceedings, and impede collaboration across legal teams. As a result, legal staff—including magistrates, lawyers, court clerks, and administrators—often find themselves working in challenging conditions. To improve processes, the Court of Cremona wanted to adopt an information system that could help ensure “conditions of parity” between all parties involved in proceedings, a requirement stipulated in the Italian Constitution.To accomplish this goal, the court set out to implement a cost-effective, easy-to-use system that would dramatically reduce the amount of paper used during proceedings. Ideally, the solution could be deployed and maintained by government staff.

In 2003, the Court of Cremona began running technology tests and pilot schemes using PDF files to share digital documents among parties working on preliminary hearings. The approach is integrated into a system called DIGIT and has so far saved more than €356,000 since automating the management of case documents; eliminated the need to copy, route, and manage millions of pages of case proceedings annually; improved information sharing and availability across legal teams and court staff; and addressed government requirements stipulating reliable, secure access to case documents for all parties involved in hearings

Posted by Timothy Brook at 3:57 PM | Permalink

‘Once the most hated technology online, Flash has become one of the most loved.’

Coverage has appeared today in The Guardian about the changing perceptions of Flash - from 99% Bad in the late 1990's (Skip intro anyone?) to "the new publishing tool of the (21st) century".

Posted by Timothy Brook at 11:09 AM | Permalink

On January 29, Adobe announced that it intends to release the full PDF 1.7 specification to the Association for Information and Image Management International (AIIM) for the purpose of publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

According to Kevin Lynch - Chief Software Architect at Adobe: “Today’s announcement is the next logical step in the evolution of PDF from de facto standard to a formal, de jure standard. By releasing the full PDF specification for ISO standardization, we are reinforcing our commitment to openness. As governments and organizations increasingly request open formats, maintenance of the PDF specification by an external and participatory organization will help continue to drive innovation and expand the rich PDF ecosystem that has evolved over the past 15 years.”

Seems to me that this move means we can put to rest the "is it/isn't it" arguement around PDF's openness?

The press release and FAQ can be found here and here, and if you would like to know more please email me and I will direct the requests to the most suitable people in Adobe!

Also, here are a selection of articles and news following the announcement:

Duane Nickuls (Adobe) - http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2007/01/pdf-specification-released-to-aiimiso.html

Cote (RedMonk) -http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2007/01/29/one-last-thing-pdf-as-an-open-standard/

CNet - http://news.com.com/Adobe+to+send+PDF+to+standards+group/2100-1012_3-6154067.html?tag=nefd.pulse

InfoWorld - http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/29/HNadobepdfspec_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/29/HNadobepdfspec_1.html

Silicon.com - http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39165491,00.htm

ZDNet -http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39285663,00.htm

eWeek - http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2088277,00.asp

Mercury News - http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/16572272.htm

Personal Computer World - http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-computer-world/news/2173696/adobe-offers-pdf-open-standard

CRN - http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/dailyarchives.jhtml;jsessionid=ANQ3Y3AJJPLP0QSNDLPCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleId=197001260

VNUNet - http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2173723/adobe-submits-pdf-open-standard

Posted by Timothy Brook at 1:38 PM | Permalink

OK, so I'm pretty behind with keeping ARena up to date, but then who isn't behind with their blogging?

I've been out and about a recently. I was at the Flash on the Beach event in Brighton and the JavaPolis event in Antwerp recently.  Both very interesting events for different reasons.

I was only at these events for one day, so i didn't get to see too much, but a couple of highlights are:

Flash on The Beach - The Adobe speakers at this event demo'd some great Apollo and Flex applications Whilst this isn't from FOTB, it does show how Apollo will be integrating Flash, Flex, HTML and PDF technologies!

JavaPolis - It was great to see thousands of Java developers getting excited about what Flex can do to help them create rich and "engaging" applications using both Java and Flex technologies. Now I'm no developer - which I guess is why I work marketing, but after James Ward from Adobe demonstrated how Flex can integrate with Hibernate and Spring I thought I really ought to give Flex a go. That's a little project for me over Christmas - depending on what else Santa brings I guess!

Anyway, as a pre-Christmas treat, here is an update on some of the latest news from Adobe...

Adobe Releases Beta Version of Photoshop CS3 - I don't normally blog about the "creative" products from Adobe (let me know if you want me to), but this is pretty big news.  Adobe has posted the beta of our next version of Photoshop (mac and windows) to allow customers to test drive the product and to more easier see how the next version of Photoshop will perform on the latest hardware platforms, particularly the MacTel platform!

Adobe Reports Record Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2006 Revenue - Adobe reported Q4FY06 revenues of $682.2million and FY06 revenues of £2.575billion - a 31% increase year-on-year. Lifted from the press release, Bruce Chizen, Adobe chief executive officer, said, “Fiscal 2006 was another year of solid financial performance for Adobe. We generated record revenue, and for the fourth consecutive year, achieved double digit revenue growth. At the same time, we successfully integrated Macromedia, leveraging our combined assets to provide platform-level solutions that redefine the way people engage with ideas and information.”

We had some great customer wins across the business and across the world - I'll provide more detailed write-ups in the new year.

Adobe Delivers Acrobat Connect Product Line for Instantaneous Web Conferencing - I know I'm (obviously) totally partisan when talking about Adobe products, but Connect is great. Every time I use it I'm totally blown away by the "richness" of the experience - and it always provokes a "WOW" reaction from people using it for the first time.

Adobe Announces Availability of Adobe Reader 8 - "enables trusted information exchange between enterprises, government agencies, constituents and consumers who view, print, search, digitally sign and collaborate with PDF files. Adobe Reader 8 also features a new “Start Meeting” button that launches Adobe Acrobat Connect session". It has got a great new UI also!

So, something for everyone hopefully!

Posted by Timothy Brook at 2:07 PM | Permalink

I know a number of analysts like to work from a Linux desktop, so for them - and anyone else interested in Linux - I thought I'd point you to the news that the beta of Flash Player 9 for Linux is now live. The download can be found here and the FAQ can be found here.

A bunch of Adobe folks have blogged about this here, here and here!!

Posted by Timothy Brook at 12:06 PM | Permalink

A few very interesting announcement from Adobe over the last couple of week.  I'll cover them in reverse order - most recent first.

First up, I have just swapped mobiles to the new Samsung D900 - the first European handset that uses Flash to drive the menus and the UI.  It also has a cool "uGo" wallpaper that changes when the phone is in different cities - very cool!! So with this in mind it's great to see that we will be extending the Flash Lite technology with the announced yesterday that Adobe is acquiring some "vector graphics technology" developed by a French company called Actimagine. The reason behind the acquisition is to extend the reach of Adobe's mobile technologies to high-volume, mass market devices.

Second up, Adobe is currently taking part in the SIBOS conference in Sydney at the moment and it's great to see us making some significant announcements with significant players in the verticals in which we are active.  The SIBOS announcement - made with Intel and Tradocs - aims to streamline and automate the international flow of trade documents and give supply-chain partners the "ability to drive compliant workflows for inter-corporate information exchange and routing of trade documents to banks through the SWIFT Trade Services Utility platform utilizing PDF".

Last, but not least, comes this announcement making the launch of Adobe Contribute 4.I've been using the beta of Contribute 4 to author this blog for the last few months.  I'm about to upgrade to the full release version.  I love it for blogging - very easy and intuitive to use.

As always, if you want more information on any of the above, drop me an email.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 2:48 PM | Permalink

Posted by Timothy Brook at 12:32 PM | Permalink

This is a very important announcement for Adobe, in part because it is the first combined launch of Adobe and former Macromedia products. By integrating Acrobat 8 and Acrobat Connect, Adobe is helping customers to communicate and collaborate with confidence, both on-demand and in real-time.

I've been running the beta of Acrobat 8 Professional for a few weeks and it's very cool some great new features and a great UI.

Rather than blogging the details, you can see the press releases here, and for more information on the Acrobat family you can look here.

Also Breeze - sorry Connect - has to be the most simple to use and "low impact" web conferencing tool (that I have used anyway). I know analysts normally hate being invited to briefings via web conference - trying to download web conferencing client software either through a corporate firewall or whilst sitting in an airport departure lounge is never going to lead to a good experience.  Acrobat Connect uses the Flash Player client - which is already on 98% of PC's (Mac's etc, etc) connected to the internet -so nothing to download - just type a URL into the browser and you're "good to go"!!

Adobe UK marked the announcement with a media and channel launch in London's Regent's Park. This was the first public outing for the Acrobat Domes (pictures soon). For more information on the Adobe Acrobat 8 UK tour, click here.

If you want more info on Acrobat, Acrobat Connect or the UK Acrobat Tour, drop me an email.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 11:54 AM | Permalink

Adobe is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Flash technology. Over the last 10 years Flash has become a fundement part of the web.  The Flash Player is installed on over 600million internet-connected PCs (and Macs!).

According to the PR folks:

"Thanks to Flash, Web sites are now engaging, interactive, accessible experiences for a variety of industries including entertainment, consumer goods, government and education. First introduced in 1996, Flash originated as a revolutionary vector based animation tool providing an efficient method for creating moving graphics for Web sites. At the time, Web sites were static, and had primitive means of engaging a viewer with basic mouse clicks and hyperlinks.  Today, Flash is a complete multimedia development environment used to create everything from rich Internet applications to mobile device content"

In other words, Flash allows developers and web designers to offer really, really cool applications, video and user experiences.

How did we get here? Here's a snapshot of the last 10 years...

1996: FutureSplash is born; Macromedia acquires FutureWave

1997: FutureSplash ships as Macromedia Flash 1.0; Flash 2.0 (and Flash Player) released

1998: Flash ships 100,000th product; Flash 3.0 ships

1999: Flash Player included in Internet Explorer 5.0; Flash Player installs reach 100 million; Flash 4.0 released; www.flashkit.com launches to become the largest online community for Flash developers

2000: Flash Player Penetration reaches 92% of all users; First Flashforward conference- First Flash live community events; Flash 5 and Flash Player 5 Released

2001: Flash goes mobile on Symbian OS

2002: Flash MX, Studio MX, and Flash 6 Player released with support for video

2003: Flash MX 2004 and Flash Player 7 released

2004: FlashLite 1.0 released; Flex 1.0 released; JibJab uses Flash to launch ‘This Land’ animation that takes over the web

2005 - FlashCast goes live in Japan; FlashLite 2.0 released; NTT DoCoMo launches i-cast based on FlashCast server and FlashLite technology; Flash 8 released (and Flash Player 8); Adobe acquires Macromedia

2006: Flash Player 9.0 released; 100 Million Flash Lite enabled units shipped; Verizon announces first US based Flash mobile service; Samsung ships first handset with Flash-based UI in Europe

For more info, please visit anniversary

Posted by Timothy Brook at 10:33 AM | Permalink

Posted by Timothy Brook at 8:41 AM | Permalink

Mike Potter provides some comments and links to a great interview with Kevin Lynch (Adobe's Chief Software Architect) in Knowledge@Wharton.

Kevin covers a lot of ground in the interview - Project Apollo, the Adobe Engagement Platform, Flash, operating systems and the competition. Well worth a read.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 10:40 AM | Permalink

Adobe has just released an updated version (7.0.8) of its free Adobe Reader software for the UNIX and Linux operating systems - a development of particular significance to Acrobat 3D users in the manufacturing and AEC industries.
Adobe Reader 7.0.8 for UNIX and Linux is the first version that enables users on those platforms to view and interact with 3D objects in Adobe PDF files. And when enabled by Acrobat 3D, allows Adobe Reader users on the UNIX and Linux operating systems to view product structure and use commenting, measurement and cross-section tools directly on 3D objects in Adobe PDF files.
Essentially, this means Acrobat 3D users can now enable an even larger set of those in the supply chain -- suppliers, partners, customers, etc. -- to participate in document-based 3D design collaboration by simply using Adobe Reader.
Adobe Reader 7.0.8 is immediately available for Sun Solaris SPARC, IBM AIX, HP-UX, and Linux.
The product can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe's Web site at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html

Posted by Timothy Brook at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adobe launches the Flex 2 product line, including Flash Player 9, enabling enterprise and web developers to create richer, more engaging experiences than ever before. With this release, enterprise and web developers to create richer, more engaging experiences than ever before. Press releases can be found at http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200606/062806Flex2.html and http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200606/062806Flash9.html
Flex 2 allows developers to build and deploy RIAs and data-intensive applications with real time data synchronization and collaboration capabilities. Flash Player 9 provides a more secure, lightweight runtime environment for enterprise-ready RIAs and offers Flex developers up to 10 times faster performance. Category leaders across various industries – including Boeing, Dow Jones Indexes, Samsung and SAP – have been actively using Adobe Flex software and the Flash Player to build next generation Web applications that combine the benefits of desktop software with the reach of the Web to create more valuable user experiences.
Other useful and interesting information around Flex can be found at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex (the developer center for the Flex product line) and http://www.flex.org (a starting point for finding Flex resources online).
If you would like additional information - or to speak to an Adobe specialist about this, please email me at tbrook@adobe.com

Posted by Timothy Brook at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cool story in the San Jose Mercury News about how Adobe Production Studio is used extensively on the latest Madonna tour - interesting the engineer who keeps it all running is European! See the story at http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/14743510.htm

Posted by Timothy Brook at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Great overview by David Wadhwani (VP, Flex Engineering, Adobe) of Adobe's view on Rich Internet Apps (RIA) and the role that Flex 2 will play in this space at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex2_intro.html

Posted by Timothy Brook at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adobe and Google announced yesterday that the two companies have entered into a multi-year distribution agreement to distribute the Google Toolbar with our products. Beginning today, the Google Toolbar will be offered as part of the Shockwave Player installation process, and as part of other products over time. Check out the presss release at http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200606/062106AdobeGoogle.html
Adobe and Google share a vision of enhancing online experiences, and this partnership is a great opportunity for both companies to help consumers get the most out of the internet. This agreement represents another point of cooperation with Google as they currently distribute some of our software through Google Pack, utilize Flash for visualization in Google Finance, and deliver Google Video via the Flash Player on the web today.
If you would like to speak to an Adobe spokesperson for more information about this agreement, drop me an email at tbrook@adobe.com.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recent announcement by Adobe will reinforce our commitment to supporting standards-based programming models for creating and delivering engaging digital experiences.
As you know, Ajax is helping to drive much more engaging and interesting experiences on the Web, and inspiring developers and designers to take a fresh look at the applications and content they are delivering. The popularity of Ajax is a testament to the rich Internet applications (RIA) movement and we are positioning ourselves to support that with tools and frameworks that work with and enhance Ajax.
Today, Adobe released the alpha version of the Spry Framework for Ajax on Adobe Labshttp://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/.
We also announced earlier this week that Adobe has joined the Open Ajax initiativehttp://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/19623.wss.
Spry Framework for Ajax
The Spry Framework for Ajax is a JavaScript library that web designers can use to build additional functionality in their web pages for a richer end-user experience. As an HTML-centric technology, Spry allows web designers to use existing skills to design rich pages with Ajax without having to learn new languages or adopt a full programming model.
Spry is focused on a specific target audience – web designers – and the need that the web design community has for a light-weight framework. Spry is very flexible, and as, such it can be used in conjunction with other Ajax frameworks or the Flash family of products.
With Spry, developers can simply infuse your HTML with dynamic data. Adobe intends to integrate authoring support in future versions of our tools to further improve the experience for web designers and developers.

Posted by Timothy Brook at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)