Facing serious challenges to its dominance in the RIA (rich Internet application) space, Adobe Systems will refresh its bread-and-butter Flash Player technology Thursday with capabilities that could provide an edge on the RIA battleground.
Adobe officials argued that improvements in its new Flash Player 10 such as custom filters and effects are merely in response to customer demands. But the company nonetheless has seen its market niche -- rich graphical presentations via a browser plugin -- become more crowded lately. Microsoft's highly touted Silverlight technology is drawing attention from companies such as NBC while Sun plans to leverage the prevalence of its Java technology to promote its budding JavaFX RIA platform.
Analysts see Flash Player 10 as an answer to what else is going on in the marketplace.
"Everything in this space is a response," to keep up with the competition, said Jeffrey Hammond, senior analyst at Forrester. Flash, though, remains a leader with capabilities in drawing surface and canvas, he said.
"I think that Adobe continues to basically build on the Flash franchise and try to defend it," said Gartner analyst Ray Valdes. "It’s a competitive response in some ways."
The beta release of Flash Player 10, codenamed "Astro," is available Thursday at Adobe Labs, with the general-release product scheduled to ship later this year.
"Flash Player is the most ubiquitous runtime," allowing for "stunning" user experiences, said Tom Barclay, Adobe senior product marketing manager for Flash Player. Repeating Adobe's mantra about the Flash Player's broad adoption, Barclay said Flash Player works on major OSes and is installed on more than 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops.
Customer filters and effects capabilities in version 10 enable users to create fills, blend modes, and effects using the new Adobe Pixel Bender language and toolkit that is accompanying the beta release of Flash Player 10. Pixel Builder had been codenamed "Hydra" and provides pixel-shading.
"[Users] want to be able to create any kind of special effect they want," Barclay said.
Pixel Bender can complement Adobe's Flex development platform for building applications to run in the Flash Player. "It just expands the palette of available functions," for the Flex developer, said Barclay.
Also enabled in Flash Player 10 are capabilities to transition from one part of an application to another and apply effects to images. Effects can be parameterized and animated at runtime.
3D functionality is highlighted in Flash Player 10. 2D objects that developers are used to working with in Flash Player, such as a 2D image, drawing, or video, can be transformed into 3D. 2D objects can be rotated onscreen. This capability is exposed via ActionScript APIs. 3D capabilities, Valdes said, are the main differentiator over Silverlight.
GPU compositing in Flash Player 10 accelerates compositing calculations of raster images, such bitmaps and video overlays faster than if performed in software on the CPU.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts
1 Recommendation
