June 30 - 12:30pm EDT   Bsquare today said it has developed a port of Adobe's Flash plugin for most Android phones. While officially coming first to the HTC Hero early next month, any Android device running Android 1.5 or later on an ARM-based processor should support the extra features. The addition should let those phones with enough performance play Flash videos in the browser rather than in a separate container like Google's YouTube app. It should also render websites much in the same way as desktop versions. [full story]

June 24 - 8:25am EDT   HTC at a press event this morning launched its third-generation Android phone in less than a year. The Hero is designed as a web- and music-focused phone with a touchscreen-dependent design like the Magic but is even more compact. Its key, however, is a new interface known as Sense: like TouchFLO, it offers quicker access to calendars, contacts, the time and the weather as well as a quick launcher for the phone dialer. These are all accessible as Android-standard widgets. [full story]

June 23 - 4:10pm EDT   Adobe during its most recent fiscal results call narrowed the window for its plans to port desktop-grade Flash to mobile devices. Company chief Shantanu Naraye says it now expects a beta version of Flash 10 to arrive at the MAX conference in October and that it should initially be available for Android, Symbian, webOS and Windows Mobile. Web browsers on these devices will support both animations and video without having to leave for a separate app, such as the Flash Lite player on many Symbian or Windows Mobile phones. [full story]

June 16 - 9:35pm EDT   Macvide has updated its Flash SWF and FLV converter tool, releasing FlashVideo Converter 3.0. The main feature of the 3.0 upgrade is a new video engine that supports true 30 frames-per-second movie creations. Version 3.0 also includes bugfixes. The converter works with SWF and FLV Flash videos, supporting MP4, MOV, 3GP and MPEG outputs for easier video editing. It also converts with customizable output dimensions, allowing for transfer to mobile devices. [full story]

June 8 - 12:00pm EDT   Electric Rain has released Swift 3D v6.0, an update to its 3D modeling plug-in for Adobe Flash. The latest version offers Boolean operations with non-destructive union, intersection and subtraction options. Rendering speed is claimed to have been improved by a factor of five, with optimizations for multiple-processor systems. Users can now export to PaperVision3D v2.0 to display 3D objects in Flash. [full story]

June 3 - 5:05pm EDT   Eltima has released v4.0 of its Flash Decompiler Trillix software. The program deconstructs SWF files, allowing conversion into other formats. The update supports converting SWF files into Flex code, and can also process several files simultaneously, or break out content into elements such as images, sounds, videos and fonts. [full story]

June 2 - 9:50am EDT   Adobe and NVIDIA on Tuesday said they would work together to enable GPU acceleration in Flash. The approach will let at least NVIDIA's hardware take on the rendering for both animations and video, including H.264 footage. The efforts should scale from handhelds using NVIDIA's Tegra line up through to full-size desktop cards. [full story]

June 1 - 4:00pm EDT   Adobe has posted the first public beta of Flash Catalyst, a new tool for Flash website and application designers. The software helps convert art from Photoshop and Illustrator into practical interfaces, through the creation of interactive prototypes. No coding is done within Catalyst; instead designs are published in the form of SWF files, which can be shared with developers in order to demonstrate plans. [full story]

May 25 - 9:30am EDT   Nokia's long-in-progress sequel to the N800 series tablet may largely be a more advanced version of the N97 smartphone, a leak on Monday hints. Possibly called the N900, MobileCrunch claims it would have a 3.5-inch touchscreen and a slide out (if non-tilting) QWERTY keyboard but would carry a much sharper 800x480 resolution, a faster TI OMAP processor and 1GB of memory thanks to a 768MB virtual memory cache. It would run the Linux-based Maemo OS instead of Symbian. [full story]

April 28 - 4:50pm EDT   Eltima has released an update to its Flash compression utility, Flash Optimizer for Mac 2.3. The program compresses sounds by converting stereo to mono and lowering bitrates, while video is scaled back by shrinking bitrate and frame size. The current version reduces filesize up to 80 percent, and provides Flash 10 support, various interface improvements, and a new version of Flash'In'App. [full story]

April 21 - 8:55am EDT   At a recession-dampened NAB show, Adobe's demo of Flash for the Digital Home was one of few exhibits to draw large crowds on Monday. The company set up a mock living room, complete with an easy chair to demonstrate the ground-breaking technology, which could finally bring IPTV into the mainstream. [full story]

April 20 - 10:25am EDT   Adobe has devised a new version of its Flash animation standard which should allow TVs and other electronics to stream content directly, according to an announcement. Called the Flash Platform for the Digital Home, the technology is now being licensed to OEMs and should ship in products scheduled for the second half of 2009. Some companies which have agreed to support the platform include Broadcom, Comcast, Disney, Intel, Netflix, Atlantic Records and the New York Times. [full story]

March 30 - 5:30pm EDT   VideoFlash Converter 2.4 ($40) allows the conversion of QuickTime compatible video files to either the Adobe Flash SWF or FLV format. The most popular formats are supported, including AVI, MOV, MPG, DivX and more. Version 2.4 includes a new Preview Pane that is displayed while flash movies are loaded from the web and a new rangebar style. [Download - 16.2MB] [full story]

March 25 - 7:30pm EDT   Telestream on Wednesday released Wirecast 3.5, an update to its live video production software that can be used to create real-time or on-demand streams. Version 3.5 now allows users to stream live video using the popular Adobe Flash platform. New control options provide the ability to turn streams on or off, or automatically recover a lost connection. Users can also turn off the automatic device detection. [full story]

March 24 - 1:55pm EDT   Relative fledgling company mintpass has revealed that it intends to launch its mintpad mini tablet outside of its native Korea, potentially including the US. The device centers on a nearly 2.9-inch touchscreen and is unique outside of Apple devices in focusing as much on its Internet features as on media playback. Likely using a Wi-Fi connection, it can not only browse the web with full Adobe Flash but also has a heavy community component with blogging and IM among its features. Streaming Internet video is equally an option. [full story]