It's been in beta for a while, but now Adobe's ubiquitous media plugin (warning: LOUD) has turned 10 officially for the Mac. The 5.5 MB download (available in separate versions for Intel and PPC) gains a host of new and improved features, including custom After Effects-style filters, advanced text support, 3D effects, better hardware acceleration and streaming support, vamped-up APIs, and file upload/download improvements.

Flash 10 requires a 500 MHz G3 or better on the Mac, and runs on Tiger or Leopard: OS X 10.3 Panther users are out of luck. Download now from Adobe if you dare. Authoring content that takes full advantage of Flash Player 10 means using Flash CS4, which -- what a coincidence! -- is shipping as of today, along with the rest of the CS4 suite.

Flash's ubiquity in the marketplace (99% of Internet users have some version of it installed, says Adobe) does give it a wide advantage over media alternatives like QuickTime and Silverlight, but one of the ongoing challenges for Flash is version upsell; getting people to move to the new build sometimes has to wait until a popular service requires it. For Mac users, the lure of upgrading includes a move away from the traditionally lackluster performance of Flash on the Intel hardware -- I know many MacBook users who can tell when a Flash ad is playing in a hidden Safari tab just by the sound of the cooling fans ramping up -- so with any luck, version 10 will address the challenges in that area while simultaneously adding all these cool new features.

Thanks Richard

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Adobe has confirmed that it's developing a version of Flash for the iPhone, and it's "a certainty" that it will be included in MobileSafari, according to Paul Boutin of Valleywag. Color me skeptical.

Paul Betlem (this story is replete with Pauls, it appears) from Adobe stopped short of saying it will be included on the iPhone, but instead said the ball was in Apple's court. If Apple approves, Adobe will have the player available shortly.

We knew Adobe was working hard on a version of Flash Player for the iPhone and iPod touch. The "closed system" of MobileSafari was making it difficult for them to build a plug-in for a browser that doesn't officially support plug-ins. Having Apple's buy-in on the project is an absolute requirement.

It remains to be seen how lean Flash Player will get in order to provide good video playback (for example) without draining the battery in 30 seconds flat. Will Adobe favor performance over economy? Or vice versa?

[Via Valleywag.]

Just when you thought you just bought (or just finished paying for) Adobe Creative Suite 3, get ready to take out another mortgage for Adobe CS4, which will be publicly unveiled on September 23. AppleInsider conjectures the software will drop in October.

Adobe will be delivering several webcasts that day to showcase the new software to the public. You can register here to participate in the webcasts.

Improvements to Photoshop and Flash are expected to headline the event. Adobe did not release any details about how the software will be bundled, nor any pricing information. Full versions of Adobe CS3 can cost as much as $2,500 for new users, and $160 for those who want to upgrade.

Adobe released preview editions of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth in late May.

[Via MacFreaks and cnet.]

Macally is promising a new product for your iPhone or iPod (coming soon!) that combines an emergency battery pack, data cable, and flash drive all in one.

Called PowerLink, the device will power your iPhone or iPod if the built-in battery dies, though Macally doesn't specify for how long. You can also connect one end to your iPhone/iPod, and the other to your computer, and the device will work like a short, rigid data cable. Thirdly, PowerLink contains a 2GB everyday flash drive.

While not the most attractive thing in the world, it is functional, and could get you out of a jam on a back-country road with a dead iPhone battery. Sure, there are plenty of other battery pack options for iPhone and iPod, but none with with all the extras.

Macally hasn't announced a release date yet, but the product will be available for $50.

[Via Productdose.]

The slowness of Flash has long been a complaint on the fairer platform and it finally looks like somebody at Adobe was paying attention. Adobe Labs has released a beta for Flash Player 10 and among the changes is a major speed boost. Indeed commenting on his personal site, one Adobe Flash engineer has gone so far as to say that "this version of the player runs... [the GUIMark] benchmark substantially better on OSX than any previous Flash Player version. It should be up to 3 times faster" (more details here).

Adobe Flash Player 10 beta 2 is a free download from Adobe Labs. However, they warn that previous version should be uninstalled before updating.

[via MacNN]

Quark Inc. announced QuarkXPress 8 at the Drupa printing exhibition in Düsseldorf today, the latest version of the high-end design tool for Mac and Windows. Many of the changes to QuarkXPress are in the areas of user interface and workflow, which were criticized by many users after the long-delayed release of QuarkXPress 7.

Some of the interface enhancements include:

• A picture content tool for moving, rotating, and scaling images in real-time
• New Bézier Pen Tools
• An enhanced measurements palette with new controls for modifying drop-shadows
• Drag-and-drop from the desktop, Adobe Bridge, iPhoto, MIcrosoft Word, and the hundreds of other applications that support drag-and-drop
• Instant access to master pages and exports to PDF, SWF, HTML and EPS

QuarkXPress 8 offers improved typographical controls for designers, including hanging characters with multiple presets. There's also built-in support for Flash content creation, which formerly required the purchase of Quark Interactive Designer

Quark also noted that designers who purchase QuarkXPress 7 at regular price between today and August 1, 2008 and those who purchased QuarkXPress 7 or an upgrade between May 1 and today will receive the upgrade for free. The package is expected to ship within 60 days, and no final pricing has been announced.

Thanks to Ling for the tip!

Update: Jay Nelson has a huge writeup of QXP8's features at Planet Quark.

If you were one of those people who were excited that Adobe was going to apparently fight to get Flash on the iPhone, get ready to be unexcited: Adobe has decided that despite what they thought earlier, they're not actually going to be able to get Flash on there using only the SDK from Apple. Nope, Adobe has admitted that they need Apple's help to get it working (not a big surprise there), and since Apple isn't really keen to help at all, odds are it's just not going to happen.

Adobe then announced that they didn't need your iPhone anyway, Apple, and that they hate you, Apple, and that you never let them have any fun, and that they wish you'd just die! And that they'd never been born! Then they ran to pout in the corner for a good 20 minutes, only to be seen a little while later playing with their trains like nothing had happened.

[Via Engadget]

The rumors are apparently true, after a fashion -- despite reports of Jobs' opposition to the idea, Adobe has told the Wall Street Journal that after reviewing the iPhone's SDK, their CEO says they can bring Flash to the device all by themselves. It'll be super interesting to see if Adobe tries to make an end run around Apple to get their platform on the iPhone via the SDK, or if Apple cooperates to let them do it (Flash, for all of its foibles, is definitely a big part of the current internet).

But at this point it seems like Adobe is dead set on getting Flash on the iPhone whether Apple consents or not. We'll watch this one as it develops obviously -- by the time the rest of the SDK-driven apps come around in June, browsing Flash sites might be the last thing on everyone's minds.

[Via Engadget]

Back in early February, we reported that sources had given GearLive (of jiggly-icon fame) the nod about Flash coming to the iPhone 'very, very soon'. Unfortunately, anyone hoping to get Flash on their iPhone (or iPod touch) anytime soon is likely to be left waiting, as Steve Jobs yesterday pulled a broadside on Adobe Flash, saying it simply wasn't suited for the iPhone. Ouch.

Of course, some folks are likely to be more than disappointed with this announcement (not least Adobe and perhaps GearLive). Others, myself included, are simply relieved that our iPhones will remain clear of Flash's clutches [call me bitter, but I've seen enough 'Unresponsive Script' errors for my liking]. Either way, with Flash now brushed aside by Steve-O, it's all-eyes on Apple's Campus Event tomorrow, which starts at 10am PST, as the veil of secrecy (hopefully) rises on Apple's plans for third-party applications.

iTransmogrify is a bookmarklet for iPhone Safari which will allow you to view certain Flash content by, well, transmogrifying it. Actually, what it does is just replace the embedded flash player with a link to natively supported formats (i.e. QuickTime formats). So if you're looking at a page with an embedded Youtube video in Safari you can use the bookmarklet to view the video if Youtube has already converted it behind the scenes. It will also allow you to listen to embedded Flash MP3 content in the same way.

You can get the iTransmogrify bookmarklet from joemaller.com and the source is available on a Google code page.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

The plugin formerly known as 'Moviestar' -- Adobe's H.264-capable version of the Flash player -- is now officially released for the Mac (along with Windows and Linux) and downloadable from Adobe's site. Sure, it can play back HD and fullscreen video, but will it reduce the performance hit that Mac users take whenever a Flash movie pops into a browser window? Let you know as soon as we try it.

As our buddy David noted, if you've been running an early beta version of Flash 9 you may want to run Adobe's uninstaller before upgrading.

In terms of the wider online video market, the adoption of the H.264 codec solidifies the QuickTime/Flash axis of power in a big way. Content owners with libraries of QuickTime movies in H.264 now can republish for Flash without reencoding, and YouTube's effort to convert clips for iPhone use now can be leveraged to provide higher-quality Flash playback as well. Big day for Adobe, good day for video fans and producers.

[via Ars]

Videochatting has finally come to Adium-- kind of. They report on their blog that a company called MeBeam has been working on a cross-platform Flash solution, and they've hooked up Adium to use that service. On their site, MeBeam seems a little aloof about what Adium is (they haven't actually ever used it), but they seem excited to have Adium users flying through their servers.

To get it up and running, you'll need to download the plugin from Adium's Xtras site, and then of course have a camera (and they recommend a headset) ready to roll. Unfortunately, it seems all the plugin does is break open a link to MeBeam in your web browser, and connect the two users up, so it's definitely not a native solution. However, Adium's Eric Richie confirms in the comments that this is not meant to be an end solution-- it's simply a side project "in the meantime." Adium is still working on native video implementation, and so we can still expect to see native video chat sometime in the future.

Adobe has released an update to Flash Player 9, which fixes an issue with flash uploads in Leopard. If you use Flickr's multi-upload feature or other sites that take advantage of the FileReference.upload() function, it is definitely worth installing this update. Make sure to run the uninstaller (linked in the release notes) before installing the new version.

In addition to fixing the Leopard upload issue, the new release candidate prerelease (say that three times fast!) features, among other things, H.264 video support, HE-ACC audio support, scalable full-screen mode and multi-core support for vector rendering.

Thanks Patrick!

Adobe has released a beta of their Adobe Media Player. This media player is aimed at helping you consume, and find, online video. The app requires the AIR runtime on your Mac, though the install is painless.

Adobe is touting this as a lightweight, cross platform video player though if the performance on my MacBook (2 Ghz Core Duo, 2 gigs of RAM) is any indication this player is pretty much dead on arrival. The transitions are choppy, the response time is laggy, and as such the application is useless on my Mac (your mileage may vary). Let's hope this gets cleared up before this app leaves beta, but until then I'll continue using Miro for my video blog consuming.

You can download a copy of the beta from Adobe Labs, and it is free.

Reader Joe, he of the Ringtonator program we've posted about before, has sent word of a crazy cool hack-- using LEDs and a broken iPod car charger, he's created what he has dubbed the iFlash-- an external flash device for the iPhone's camera.

And it actually works really well. Apparently he used a tact switch, so there's no super coding necessary-- you just hit the button to turn the light on, and then take the picture. But he did hook it up so it's powered by the dock connection, which means all you have to do is keep it in your pocket until you need it, then plug it in and shoot away. Over on his forums, he's posted an entire how-to of the whole thing, from the dissection of the dock connector to the wiring of the LEDs. Pretty slick-- looks like maybe an afternoon's work, and it presents about as good a flash as the iPhone's camera is.

Thanks, Joe!