Adobe

Adobe announced at the Web 2.0 conference on Tuesday that it was donating the scripting language engine from Flash to the Mozilla Foundation, where it will become an open source project called Tamarin as well as being integrated directly into the Firefox Web browser.

Specifically, Adobe is opening up its ActionScript Virtual Machine, which forms the core of Flash Player version 9. The most recent release in June added improved debugging, faster start times, full runtime error reporting, and better performance.

Adobe introduced a beta version of "Soundbooth" on Thursday, intended for the average consumer who may not need the power and capabilities of its professional audio editing product, Audition. Eventually, the application will make its way into the Creative Suite product.

"Adobe Soundbooth is a completely new, highly intuitive audio creation and editing toolset designed to accelerate the integration of sound into video and Flash workflows," Adobe Dynamic Media vice president and general manager Jim Guerard said.

Adobe on Tuesday released a beta version of Digital Editions, a Web application built in Flash that is designed to make reading electronic documents easier. The tool acts like a slimmed down version of Adobe Reader, and can even display PDF files.

Digital Editions, unveiled at Adobe's MAX 2006 conference in Las Vegas, is only 2.5MB in size. It's not intended to replace the bulky Reader, but rather to extend its feature set. It utilizes the same e-book capabilities Adobe built into Reader, and adds Flash to make digital publications interactive.

Adobe on Thursday acquired video software maker Serious Magic, intended to continue its momentum in the streaming video industry. The company produces several applications, including direct-to-disk recording software DVRack as well as video tools Visual Communicator and Vlog It.

After having practically no market share in the streaming video market, Flash has quickly -- and silently -- become the de facto standard for Web video. Sites like YouTube and MySpace have put Adobe at the forefront, and the format continues to gain momentum.

Adobe said Wednesday that it had released a beta of its Flash player for the Linux operating system. According to the company, a final version of the player will be released early next year. In addition, Adobe is in the process of writing 64-bit versions of Flash, although it declined to specify any kind of release timeline.

"Adobe Flash Player 9 for Linux beta supports the same major features and functionality as the Windows and Macintosh versions for playback of Flash content and applications," the company said. There are a few features that do not work, such as the full screen feature, although Adobe is working on that functionality for the final release, it said.

Adobe said Wednesday it had purchased mobile graphics software developed by Actimagine, a move designed to improve the availability of Flash across a wide variety of mobile devices. Thus far, Flash is only available on higher-end phones, but Adobe said the additional technology would help the company produce versions for mass-marketed mobile devices.

In addition to the technology acquisition, Actimagine has also agreed to incorporate Adobe Flash Lite into its current and future offerings. "We look forward to accelerating the existing momentum of Flash and increasing its reach and capabilities in mass market mobile phones," Actimagine CEO Andre Pagnac said.

Adobe on Monday released the fourth beta of its Lightroom application for processing RAW files from digital cameras, unifying its Mac and Windows versions and rebranding the tool under Adobe's Photoshop lineup.

Lightroom Beta 4 integrates technology Adobe acquired from Pixmantec in June. The Danish company's RawShooter workflow management and processing technology has been added to Adobe's RAW engine for Lightroom, bringing features such as a "vibrance" color strength adjustment.

It's no surprise that Symantec and Adobe are wary of Microsoft bundling its own security software and electronic document format in Windows Vista, but the companies had yet to lodge official complaints about the operating system until now.

According to a report in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Adobe has told the European Commission that Microsoft should be barred from building into Vista competing software for reading and creating electronic documents. Adobe developed PDF and is the leading provider of software for the format.

Adobe on Monday introduced version 8 of its ubiquitous Acrobat PDF software as part of a minor update to its Creative Suite. The new release brings with it Web conferencing functionality incorporated from Macromedia Breeze.

In recent years, Adobe has endeavored to turn Acrobat from simple PDF creation software into a complete platform for digital publishing - even adding support for 3D imaging. Now, the company is looking to hook businesses with collaboration features.

Having just integrated Macromedia's Flash Player into its technology portfolio, Adobe today issued a "critical" warning, advising Flash Player users to apply an update to prevent a possible denial of service attack.

The exploit affects what's called Flash remoting - essentially the provision of server-based application services via Flash, as opposed to via HTML, Active Server Pages or some other wrapper. Though an exploit itself has not yet been discovered, Adobe engineers found that a certain form of Flash remoting command sent to ColdFusion servers (another acquired Macromedia technology) triggers an infinite loop process that will not stop itself.

Adobe debuted updates to both its Adobe Photoshop Elements photo editing software and Premiere Elements video editing suite on Tuesday, which it billed as major upgrades to both products. The applications are consumer versions of the more comprehensive professional products offered by Adobe.

The company offers Abobe Photoshop CS2 for the professional photographer, and Premiere Pro for the advanced and professional videographer.

Adobe on Wednesday released the final version of Flash Player 9, which the company says offers ten times better performance through ActionScript 3.0 and a new ActionScript Virtual Machine. The update provides the backbone for Flex 2.0, Adobe's new line of development tools.

The new releases are intended to promote the use of Flash in next-generation Web applications. While AJAX is garnering much of the spotlight, Flash is finding its way into a number of services, including Yahoo! Maps, Google Finance and Goowy Web mail.

In a move to bolster its RAW capabilities, Adobe on Monday acquired the assets of Pixmantec ApS, a Danish software company that develops the RawShooter product for digital photography. RawShooter's workflow management and processing technology will be integrated into Adobe's new Lightroom software, currently in beta.

The RAW format, which provides uncompressed picture data, has become the centerpiece of digital photography, as once high-end cameras reach the consumer market. Adobe will discontinue the RawShooter products once Lightroom is ready for release. However, an upgrade path will be offered to existing Pixmantec customers. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Adobe issued an update to its Lightroom professional photographer workflow software on Tuesday. The third release of the beta includes several features requested by testers, including the addition of a tool that helps users keep track of changes made to photos.

Lightroom is currently only available as a free download for the Macintosh, however Adobe says it plans to offer a Windows version in a future beta. The software could be considered a competitor to Apple's Aperture photo application, which the company released in October of last year.

Microsoft and Adobe appear to be headed for court after talks to include PDF support in Office 2007 broke down, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The dispute has been brewing for the past four months, Microsoft's lead counsel Brad Smith disclosed.

Smith said Adobe threatened to sue in Europe, and that the company was preparing for that eventuality. Adobe wants the feature removed and offered separately, which Microsoft has done. However, it also wants Microsoft to charge for it, which the Redmond company refuses to do.