July 4 - 8:20pm EDT   Adobe this week released Flash Player 10 beta 2, an early preview version of the nearly ubiquitous media plugin for browsers and for Flash/video playback. Version 10 of the player, code named "Astro," brings custom filters and effects, 3D effects, and a new text engine with text layout Components. Most importantly, however, it will bring a huge performance boost for Mac users: "If you have followed GUIMark at all you will notice that this version of the player runs this benchmark substantially better on OSX than any previous Flash Player version. It should be up to 3 times faster. How will this affect you? Well, OSX device text rendering got a huge performance boost. ... [full story]

June 25 - 8:15am EDT   A-DATA technologies has introduced the 'Turbo Series CF 350X', touted as the world's fastest CompactFlash card. Aimed at professional photographers and digital imaging professionals, the card offers peak 52MB/sec read and 47MB/sec write speeds, and comes in both 8GB and 16GB sizes. The card's speedy transfer rates are made possibly by utilizing the dual-channel UDMA 0-5 and MDMA 0-4 modes of high level digital cameras and only ussing original SLC (single level cell) flash memory. Priced at $80 for the 8GB card, and $210 for the 16GB version, both are shipping immediately. [full story]

June 23 - 3:45am EDT   Belgian company Freecaster.tv has announced that it has ported freecaster.tv to a new format that supports both original and 3G iPhones. Bringing a host of high-quality .h264 media footage to the device, iPhone users will now be able to use their fast 3G connections to view a large archive of video while on the move. Since its 2004 launch, freecaster.tv has become an online source for viewing both live and archive action sports, with extensive footage of everything from mountain biking and 'Air Racing' to BMX and surfing. Seen by freeecaster.tv as a step closer to launching a dedicated iPhone application, the recent website rewrite for Flash 9 compatibility is part ... [full story]

June 23 - 1:00am EDT   EasyWMA has released version 2.8 of its audio conversion utility. The update adds support for audio extraction from Adobe Flash video files and includes improved German localization. The $10 utility allows drag-and-drop conversion of WMA, ASF, FLV/WMA audio and Ogg Vorbis files to AIFF, MP3 M4a or WAV formats for use in iTunes. EasyWMA supports batch conversion of wma files and allows users of Olympus voice recorders to transfer audio into iTunes. The update is free to existing users and is available now. [full story]

June 20 - 4:30pm EDT   Sony yesterday announced it added a new accessory for its line of Alpha digital SLR cameras, with the HVL-F58AM external flash unit. The top-of-the-line flash replaces the HVL-F56AM model, and features Sony's Quick Shift Bounce system, a flash head that can pivot 90 degrees on a horizontal axis. The guide number is 58 at 105mm and ISO 100. [full story]

June 17 - 10:00am EDT   An iPhone version of Adobe's ubiquitous Flash plug-in is still early into development, the company has admitted. In an earnings call for Adobe's second financial quarter, CEO Shantanu Narayen has responded to questions on if and when Flash will be ready for the iPhone 3G, which itself is only expected to ship on July 11th. Apple has long blocked the normal desktop version of Flash from the iPhone, insisting that it consumes too much battery power. [full story]

May 28 - 11:10am EDT   Hundreds of thousands of webpages have been affected by a vulnerability in Adobe's Flash Player, says security vendor Symantec. Since at least Monday, approximately 220,000 pages have been been hacked to add redirection scripts, which send Flash users to some 57 servers that attempt to deliver malware, including botnet code and apps that steal World of WarCraft identities and passwords. Only Flash Player versions 9.0.124.0 and 9.0.115.0 appear to be at risk; the attack also seems to be directed primarily at Windows, says Symantec, although problems may yet arise on other operating systems (including Mac OS X) unless Adobe can close the exploit. [full story]

May 25 - 9:10pm EDT   Nokia's E71 today has received a review ahead of its official release date that suggests it may be the cellphone maker's best device yet. BGR notes that the QWERTY keyboard smartphone is more polished and slimmer than the E61i it replaces without sacrificing features; confirming earlier leaks, the device sports 3G for North American HSDPA networks as well as GPS and Wi-Fi. It also brings a large-capacity battery that lasts through more than a whole day despite "heavy" usage, according to informal tests. [full story]

May 20 - 10:20am EDT   Adobe has launched a new online service, Acrobat Connect Pro. The platform is intended as a tool for professional web conferencing and teaching, and is primarily Flash-based, requiring no extra software and making it platform-independent. Hosts can delegate roles such as presenters, and the service supports not just slides and text chat but streaming audio and video, as well as software simulations. [full story]

May 15 - 8:40am EDT   Adobe this morning launched a public beta version of Flash Player 10, the next major update to its web animation plugin. The upgrade, nicknamed Astro, is one of the most visually advanced yet and is the first version of Flash Player to support hardware acceleration from graphics chipsets. Animations can now have pixel shader-based filters that apply in real time and now supports 3D, including for controllable elements. The extra processing work also helps offload drawing tasks from the processor regardless of the actual demand, reducing the overall stress on the system. [full story]

April 30 - 12:45pm EDT   Swedish cellphone maker Sony Ericsson is hoping to encourage new kinds of applications through a new set of APIs, writes IDG News. The company has announced that it intends to allow developers to merge Flash Lite and Java ME into a single Java application, bypassing technical shortcomings. Specifically this refers to an absence of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and secure payment hooks in Flash, and conversely, a lack of interface capabilities in Java. A game, for example, could be written mostly in Java, but use a Flash-based menu. [full story]

April 22 - 4:20pm EDT   In addition to its 605 GPS upgrade, Archos today has also upgraded its TV+ media hub with both preloaded content and a new Internet streaming feature. The French company has signed a deal with Paramount that will see the movie studio offer movies both preloaded on the device's built-in 250GB hard drive as well as available through Archos' media store. For the latter content, users will have the option of downloading videos either to a Mac or Windows PC for sideloading on to the TV+ or directly to the device itself. [full story]

April 15 - 1:00pm EDT   Seagate has begun the first of what may be several lawsuits against makers of flash memory, show filings from the US District Court in San Francisco. It has accused STEC, formerly known as Simple Technology, of violating four patents it owns, connected to the creation of flash memory -- should it win, Seagate could be granted an injunction against STEC products as well as unspecified damages. Seagate CEO Bill Watkins argues that compensation would be well-due, as it has invested heavily in developing technology for SSD drives, and it has tried to persuade other companies to license its patents. [full story]

April 14 - 10:35pm EDT   Kingston Technology today unveiled the DataTraveler BlackBox USB flash drive, a Federal Information Processing Standard-validated USB flash drive in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB sizes. The BlackBox carries FIPS 140-2 certified encryption, which requires the device to pass a Power On Self Test which verifies the encryption architecture is functioning. The DataTraveler BlackBox USB flash drives are currently shipping, starting at $165 and ranging to $425. [full story]

April 10 - 11:05am EDT   Adobe has released an update for its ubiquitous Flash Player, addressing a critical security vulnerability. The v9.0.124.0 patch specifically targets an exploit related to Shockwave (SWF) files; in order to be affected, a user must load a malicious SWF file within Flash Player, which in turn gives hackers the ability to run authorized code on a computer. The vulnerability exists in Flash Player versions 9.0.115.0 and 8.0.39.0, and all prior incarnations. The update is available for all operating systems supported by Flash and browsers including Firefox, Opera and more. [full story]