Apple CEO Steve Jobs ‘ distinct personality makes him to execute the matters he has decided with full force. Take his attitude to Flash for example, once he has publicly expressed his “hatred” to Flash and made it very clear that Apple will not support Adobe software. Now, he proves it with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 SDK. This system modified the developer agreement and completely blocked Flash application on iPhone platform.

It says in the latest iPhone developers license agreement: “application can only use the Apple-approval API, other APIs are not allowed. Applications can only be compiled with Objective-C, C, C + + or JavaScript, only the C, C + + and Objective-C code can be connected directly to official APIs (it is prohibited to invoke official APIs via intermedia program, compatible layer and any compatible tools). ”

This, almost pronounces the sentence of death for Adobe ‘ plan to promote Flash to iPhone. Despite of the fact that Apple may not support Flash, Adobe has announced in 2009 MAX that there will be Packager for iPhone which can be used by Flash developers to create local iPhone applications. This package will be included in the upcoming Flash Pro CS5.

Adobe says, the development of new technology can help developers to create applications for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, so that they can approach Apple indirectly. What a pity, everything is in vain now.

For common users like you and me, we can use the third-party programs to make flash SWF playable on iPhone and other Apple products. Thank God, a kind of complementarity that we can use to enjoy the fabulous Flash on fabulous gadgets.

July 22, 2010, according to the foreign media, when Apple’s iPad tablet PC is considered a new reading experience for consumers by the traditional publishing industry, some companies have already crossed the boundary between paper and digital media and plan to fight for the digital publishing battle.

Virgin Group, as one of the iPad-platform supporters, is planning to release the iPad-exclusive consumer magazine – Maverick in early October this year. It is only applicable to iPhone applications, not yet a Kindle, web and paper version.

Due to the excellent features like supporting HTML5 video, meta color photographs, complex interactive applications and enormous display screen, iPad definitely brings brand-new digital reading experience for mass customers. That is why this product is so popular in numerous consumers. As iPad keeps expanding its market share, the industry is also looking forward to the performance of Google Android and other upcoming tablet PCs.

Richard Branson indicates the advantage of iPad-exclusive magazine Maverick released by Virgin Group lies in the fact that there is no corresponding paper version. Because the traditional publishers they don’t want the extremely low price of electronic version to impact the higher price of paper version. That is also the reason why they can’t reduce the price of digital publications.

On the other hand, the rejection between iPad and Flash will restrict Apple’s growth unless iPad can earn more support from publishers than Android tablet PC, which relatively has bigger market shares.

You may be also interested in the conversion instead of restriction between Flash and iPad. Click here to learn how to convert flash SWF to MP4 for playback on iPad, iPod, iPhone etc.

According to media, Adobe has released the Flash Player 10.1 (beta) for desktop computers seven months ago, also, a Flash Player beta version for Android system was released as well last month. Today, Adobe finally introduces the release of mobile edition Flash Player 10.1 and has promoted it to its global partners.

Despite the sharp criticism given by Apple CEO Steve Jobs regarding the stability, security, and resources use of Flash Player, Adobe debuts the mobile edition Flash Player 10.1 and wants to prove that it is a horrible mistake that Apple banned the Flash Player software in its mobile devices. Flash Player 10.1 is for sure to bring the complete network experience for mobile users, to support the websites that contain thousands of rich contents and applications, including games and animations, etc will also become an indispensable part of mobile experience.

Mobile edition Flash Player 10.1 is open for downloading today, therefore all the smart phones using the latest Android and Android 2.2 Froyo can enjoy the Flash Player 10.1 services. So far, the devices like Dell Streak, Google Nexus One, HTC Evo, HTC Desire, HTC Incredible, MOTOROLA DROID, MOTOROLA Milestone, Samsung Galaxy S, etc already with the perfect support to Android 2.2 and Flash Player 10.1.

Adobe said it will publish Flash Player software to other equipment co-partners as well, such as Blackberry, Palm webOS, Windows Phone 7, MeeGo, LiMo and so on. Users can download online and in the next few months, they can also buy the Flash Player 10.1 preinstalled devices like smartphones, flat plate, etc. At present, Flash Player 10.1 still has a long way to go and has to face the challenges in the next couple of years until it is accepted by more platforms other than Android 2.2. Adobe plans to expand the Flash Player 10.1 product line to more than half of the smartphones in global by 2012.

No chance to go to South Africa in person to watch World Cup matches? No problem! We can play World Cup flash games instead!

Those football flash games interact with players the most and make you feel you are really playing football on the ground with your fierce rivals. The football-themed flash games are small, convenient, free-to-play and with easy access.

So, no matter you are a professional football player or an ashes-class football gamer, I’m sure you have a lot secrets, tricks and experience to share both in the World Cup flash game or on the real playground.

Ok, here we go! The first question is: where can we find the World Cup football flash games? Well, speaking of this, I have some recommendations:

>http://www.swf-games.org/
>http://www.newgrounds.com/

Both are very nice flash game site and the visual effect is excellent. Search “World Cup” or “football” from many existing game categories.

The second question(the key one): how can we share the way we play the game with friends?

Actually this question is big and may involve other sub-questions, so I ‘ll try to explain some typical ones that I think you may encounter:

a. In case you like this particular World Cup flash game and want to save it, DOWNLOAD it!

How to do it: just type the URL of this game you find from above recommended flash game website and save it to your computer folder.

b. What if i want to record the whole process of how I play the game and share it with my friends, CONVERT it!

How to do it: it takes only three steps.

Step 1: Choose the right output format according to where would you like to share the game with friends. It could be internet, iPod, music player, home DVD player and so on.

Step 2: Click “Convert” to enter the capturing screen and play the game right there just like the way you play on the internet.

Step 3: Click “Finish” to start the conversion process of how you play the game in the previous step.

c. When the conversion completes, UPLOAD it to the right destination to share the way you play World Cup flash games with your friends.

Some links of above illustrated programs that will definitely help:

Moyea SWF to Video Converter Pro: http://www.swfkits.com/swf_to_video/

Moyea Free Flash Downloader: >http://www.swfkits.com/flash-downloader/

According to foreign media reports, Adobe company delivered an advertisement and open letter on May, 13th, strongly accused Apple for strangling the competition. Apple previously had made it very clear that the Adobe software applications were totally banned on iPad and iPhone.

Adobe said in the advertisement: “We like Apple. What we don’t like is the person who grabs your freedom to choose. You definitely have the freedom to choose what are you going to create, how to create, and what to experience on the internet.” Adobe also bought a full-page on Washington Post today, gave all the details about this dispute between Adobe and Apple. At the end of the open letter were the signatures of co-founder Geschke Chuck and John Warnock.

In this letter, Adobe declared: “the essence of the problem lies in: who is the real controllor of Internet? We think the answer is the Internet users, rather than any of the powerful company.”

It is reported recently that Apple is developing the Flash-alternative project Gianduia, which was revealed in WWDC(Worldwide Developers Conference) last year.. Apple has said it will support HTML5, JavaScript and CSS, but not Flash.

The insiders think the Adobe open letter is a strong evidence that the divergence between Adobe and Apple is getting worse. Two weeks ago, the CEO of Apple just issued a 29-paragraph-long article to accuse Adobe Flash for “major technology defect”. It is said that Adobe has officially sued to America Anti-Monopoly Government Department and it may investigate this case accordingly. This means the contradiction between the two is intensified thoroughly.

Some useful links for your reference if you want to convert flash SWF to other popular video/audio/picture formats.

http://www.swfkits.com/swf_to_video/
http://www.swfkits.com/swf_to_avi/

According to foreign media reports, Microsoft has urged its Windows XP users to upgrade the pre-loaded Adobe Flash Player 6.0 due to multiple security flaws on Tuesday.

Microsoft has released the #979267 safety proposal to urge its users either upgrade to the latest version of Flash Player or unload the old one due to several security flaws found in the early 6.0 version.

It’s very rare that Microsoft would propose safety advice for third-party products. It does so because the Adobe Flash Player 6.0 is pre-loaded in Microsoft Windows XP and it’s necessary to remind users that Adobe had stopped supporting Flash Player 6.0 since 2006. The latest version of Flash Player is 10.0.42.34.

Microsoft’s purpose is very clear, they hope the users understand that the security flaw only occurs when the old version of flash player and old Windows are used at the same time, because the new Windows are without built-in Flash Player yet.

Microsoft said: “Adobe Flash Player 6.0 is provided at the same time with Windows XP, it contains several security flaws that may execute remote control code when browsing some specially-made webpages. Adobe has fixed those vulnerabilities in the latest Flash Player. Microsoft strongly recommends to upgrade to the latest Flash Player for those who is still using the old version of Windows XP and Adobe Flash Player 6.0.”. Nevertheless, Microsoft indicates that there is no attack found so far related to those security flaws.

This security proposal is released for Adobe Flash Player 6.0 and together with other security vulnerabilities on Tuesday. The service pack this time will affect all the Windows system, but only the Windows 2000 is catalogued to “Critical” level while other subsequent versions of Windows are put to “Low”, so the Flash issue is more important and with higher priority.

According to the foreign media reports, Firefox developer Mozilla said recently that the newly-released Firefox upgraded version with flash auto-detect mechanism has led to 10 million latest flash downloading from Adobe website in a week.

Mozilla released Firefox latest upgraded version 3.5.3 and 3.0.14 last week which perfectly fixed three critical security flaws in the previous version. In addition, in order to prevent attackers using Firefox plugin flaw to attack its users, new versions will initially detect whether the flash player that Firefox using is the latest or not.

Mitchell Baker, chairman of Mozilla, said that in the last week, about 1/3 new version users have downloaded the latest flash player from Adobe after seeing the reminding message. “User response rate is very high, usually the response rate is only 5% when they see software upgrade information.”, Mitchell said.

Mozilla security team personnel Jonathan Nightingale explains that the fact a large number of Firefox users would like to update flash player indicates the importance of network security issues. He said last week the reason why new Firefox has to detect whether the flash player it is using the latest version or not is: first, flash player is very popular; second, 80% Firefox users are still using the old version flash player according to a corresponding survey.

Adobe company also confirmed that the visitors of flash player upgrading webpage in the past week had a rapid growth. Adobe products security and privacy department director Brad Arkin appreciated the latest detecting mechanism very much by saying “For Adobe, it’s definitely a good thing for massive users to have the upgraded flash, it assures their security and we are very happy to see Mozilla sending the flash upgrading message to its users.”

P.S. You may be also interested in another blog about How to Delet Flash SWF Cache under Firefox.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Flash is a very common format used to deliver animations over Internet. Flash brings us a lot fun but at the same time, flash viewers have to concern the security issues as well. The first flash file virus WF/LFM.926 appeared in early 2002 but was fortunately refused by patch tools emergently released from Macromedia company. However, just after two years in November, 26th, 2004, another new virus DJ2005 (Win32.Troj.QQMydj2005) which can be downloaded automatically with the flash file was found. When you are browsing the exquisite flash files, be extremely careful if another website is opened simultaneously or an irrelevant program is downloaded automatically, because that might be the virus! It can modify explorer. exe process and registry, besides, it can also send messages through QQ to cajole other users.

Strategies: first, scan DJ2005 trojans through free online virus check http://scan.kingsoft.com/; second, make sure your virus database is up to date to prevent any new virus; third, make sure your flash player, flash converter or other flash relevant programs are clean and safe, 100% virus free.

Now there are many teaching videos in the form of SWF spreading on the Internet. Quite useful, but how to watch those teaching videos under Linux operating system?

In fact, these SWF format videos are compiled flash bytecode files and can’t be played by regular video players like MPlayer and VLC Media Player, which otherwise is capable of playing other flash-delivered FLV files. Here comes the topic today: the introduction of three flash SWF players under Linux OS.

1. Swfdec

The earliest open-source flash implementation scheme, is able to play the most of flash 7 format videos and contained in almost all release repositories. Both 32 and 64-bit versions are available.

Installation under Fedora 10: su-c ‘yum install swfdec-gnome’

2. Gnash

Gnash is an emerging open-source flash implementation scheme, currently only supports flash 7 format videos. It’s quite active in the recent two year’s release, there are 32 and 64-bit versions.

Installation under Fedora 10: su-c ‘yum install gnash’

3. Adobe Flash Standalone Player for Linux

Adobe Flash Standalone Player was included in the Adobe Flash Debugger and can be downloaded from Adobe’s official website. There is only 32-bit version available but with the best SWF compatibility due to the official version.

Installation under Fedora 10: download and unzip with 7-zip, double-click the generated flashplayer icon to start. If you want to create SWF play association under GNOME, right-click any SWF file, choose “properties”-“open”-“add”, find and select the unzipped flashplayer, click “ok”. Then check the radio in front to make it the default SWF player, click “close” at last to quit settings.

4. Moyea SWF to Video Converter Std/Pro

Moyea SWF to Video Converter Std/Pro is a SWF player as well as a SWF converter which can convert SWF files to all kinds of popular video formats efficiently and swiftly.

Installation: click here to download and install the trial version for free.

5. Windows Media Player

Usually Windows Media Player can’t play SWF files under the default settings, however, if we manually change some settings, theoretically it can play. To be more precise, I’m still testing it and will write another blog about it when it’s done.

Summary

After the personal test using several English grammar SWF videos, Gnash sometimes may have the asynchronization between video and audio, Swfdec performs well, so does the Adobe Flash Standalone Player and Moyea SWF to Video Converter Std/Pro.

Which among the above-mentioned standalone flash players is your favorite? Pick one and enjoy the SWF teaching videos now!

By the way, If you only have a few SWF files, those standalone flash players might be troublesome. In this case, what you need is just a web browser with flash plugin. Drag the SWF file to the address bar and that’s all it takes to enjoy your nice teaching videos.