Adobe has taken the beta label off of its web-based Acrobat.com office suite. And while you can still create and share text documents and presentations for free, you'll need to upgrade to a paid account for up to $39/month or $390/year to unlock advanced features like the ability to create unlimited PDF files, share larger files, or host meetings with up to 20 people. Acrobat.com Premium users also get paid support.

If you don't sign up for a premium account, you'll be limited to creating 5 PDF files per month, web conferences will be limited to 3 users, and you'll be stuck with just 100 file downloads per month. There's also a cheaper plan for $14.99/month or $149/year that falls somewhere between the free and Premium Plus plans.

Adobe is also rolling out an experimental spreadsheet app called Tables as part of Acrobat.com Labs.

I can understand why Adobe would decide to create a subscription-based service in order to make some money off of their product. What I can't understand is why anyone looking for an office suite for personal use would choose to use Acrobat.com instead of alternatives like Zoho Docs, Google Docs, or even a desktop application like Microsoft Office, which might cost more up front, but which doesn't have ongoing subscription costs.

Then again, maybe the goal was never to market Acrobat.com to personal users. The key may be the web conferencing and support features, which could make Acrobat.com an attractive option for small businesses in need of collaboration tools.


[via CNET]

One of the challenges of web design is making sure your site renders properly in the most popular browsers your visitors use. Sometimes, this means installing an extra browser or two (or ten) on your system, to preview your page in each one. It might even mean running multiple operating systems. Well, Adobe BrowserLab aims to fix all that by generating previews of a page as it would look in several different browsers, across multiple operating systems.

You can view the previews side-by-side to get a direct comparison between Firefox 2 and 3 for Mac or Windows XP, IE 6 and 7 for Windows XP, and Safari 3 for Mac. There's also an Onion Skin mode that allows you to overlay one version on another, with adjustable transparency. Sure, there are some perfectly viable browsers that aren't included, but the most popular players are all there. It will be interesting to see if Adobe expands BrowserLab to reflect the increasing adoption of mobile browsers.

The free preview of BrowserLab is available now, but it's limited and there aren't always slots available. You'll find a "check status" link on the download site to let know whether you can get in.

I enjoyed my MSI Wind netbook while I had it, but there was one task that always gave it fits: running Flash-based anything. Games stuttered, YouTube clips were choppy, and the system's tiny fan spun like a tin can in a tornado.

Owners of newer netbooks featuring NVidia's upcoming Tegra system-on-a-chip or Broadcom's Crystal HD will be glad to hear that Adobe is teaming up with NVidia to produce a version of the Flash player tuned for netbooks and MIDs. The goal is to provide full h.264-powered HD video to more mobile devices.

Another result of the partnership: Flash will likely see significant performance gains on other NVidia chipsets as well. At last you'll be able to put your multi-GPU SLI configuration to good use while enjoying your favorite Time Wasters!

[ via ZDNet ]

Adobe has been busily working away on the Flash/Flex platform, announcing late yesterday that three new releases were headed to Adobe Labs.

The Flex SDK has reached version 4, and Flex Builder has been re-branded as Flash Builder. The new version delivers loads of new functionality and focuses on three keys: developer productivity, designer-developer workflow, and data-centric development.

Since Flash Builder just hit labs, that means there's a free download for you. You'll need an Adobe account, but once registered you're free to download the Flash Builder 4 30-day beta (existing Flex 3 licensees will receive a serial number via email to extend the trial), the Eclipse plugin, a component kit for Flash Pro, and an HP QuickTest plugin.

On the workflow front, they have released Flash Catalyst, a tool which allows interfaces designed in Photoshop and Illustrator to be easily converted to SWF. The beta is available for download, and serial numbers are provided to extend your tryout beyond 30 days.

For a look at what's new in the Flex SDK, check out the post from Adobe's Matt Chotin and read up on the differences between version 3 and 4.

When Adobe launched its online office suite at Acrobat.com last year the site was a bit on the anemic side. Sure, it featured the slick Flash-based Buzzword word processor. But it lacked a good spreadsheet or presentations application. There's still no spreadsheet app in sight, but today Adobe added an attractive tool for viewing and editing presentations to Acrobat Labs.

Like Buzzword, Acrobat Presentations is built on Flash. It features the smooth and attractive animations you'd expect from a Flash-based application. But it's also fairly intuitive to use. At the top of the screen are a series of icons which expand into toolbars to give you access to the features you need at any given moment. The left side of the screen shows thumbnails for each slide, while the slide itself hangs out in the center for your viewing, creating, or editing pleasure. Or you can hit the Play Slideshow button in the bottom right corner if you just want to sit back and enjoy the show.

Because the application is built on Flash, the right-click button on your mouse is useless which MS Office addicts might find frustrating at first. But Acrobat Presentations does give you most of the tools you'd expect from a presentation application, plus online collaboration tools. You can share your presentations with other users and let them edit your files.

[via VentureBeat]

Computer World has published an article asking whether or not Adobe could be gearing up to open-source Flash. That's a question I discussed a while back with Adobe's Dave McAllister, and one that he's continually answered with "the Flash player is as open as I can get it right now."

While most of the inner workings of Flash are already open (The Flex SDK, Blaze DS, and ActionScript virtual machine) there continue to be cries for it to be fully open. Among the stumbling blocks preventing that are the proprietary codecs Adobe licenses (h.264 for video, HE-AAC for audio). "We will continue to open source the technologies that power Flash whenever we have the right to do it," McAllister told me.

Flash is by far the most dominant platform for delivering 80% of all web video and countless browser-based games. Computer World hypothesized that Microsoft's support of the OSS Moonlight project - which has brought Silverlight to Linux - may be putting the heat may be on Adobe to counter quickly.

Adobe sees things differently. Microsoft knows they can't close the gap without help, so getting behind a community effort like Moonlight "Open source can be used as a marketing tool and competitive weapon," McAllister explained. "Silverlight doesn't have the ecosystem that Flash does, so Microsoft is looking at different ways to compete," he continued.

Recently, a critical Javascript vulnerability was discovered in Adobe Reader which affected several versions on all platforms. It was the second major exploit this year targeting the application.

Adobe has responded quickly, putting together updates for Windows, Mac, and Linux in less than two weeks. While an immediate "Patch Tuesday" fix a la Microsoft would have been even better, it's good to see Adobe prioritizing security.

That's an important and necessary step. Unwary PDF users will continue to be an attractive target for hackers and Adobe must be increasingly vigilant.

If you took F-Secure's advice and temporarily switched to another PDF reader temporarily, the newly-patched Reader is ready for download if you are. I've not been a fan of Reader in the past - due to its footprint and sluggish startup times - but version 9 is a major improvement over older versions.

More details about the exploit and download links for all platforms are available from the Adobe security bulletin.

A few months back, Adobe announced the availability of a 64-bit version of the Flash plugin on Labs - for Linux only. Now they've released a 64-bit alpha version of Air, and once again it's just for Linux users.

If you're running a 64-bit Linux distribution on your system and can pitch in with bug reports and devote some serious time to testing you can email Adobe with your particulars. While I haven't received word back from Adobe as to why Linux is their testbed of choice, it surely has something to do with the number of Linux users running x64 distributions and their willingness to experiment with pre-release software.

Update: Adobe's Matt Rozen has just emailed me a response. He says "We have seen much stronger interest from the Linux community for a 64-bit version of Adobe Air, so that has been the focus of our efforts."

Windows users will have to wait patiently. There's no news at all yet about Air and the official line on Flash is that 64-bit support won't come until the next major release.

It hasn't been the best couple of weeks for Adobe Reader.

First there was the advice from F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen to stop using Reader and switch to an alternative. Now there's word of a new security flaw that is known to affect versions 8.14 and 9.1 for Linux and could also affect other versions of the program on other operating systems.

The exploit takes advantage of the javascript getAnnots() function in Reader and could, as with its predecessor, allow an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code.

Even the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is on the case. They advise temporarily disabling javascript as an intermediate fix:

"To disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader, open the General Preferences dialog box. From the Edit-Preferences-JavaScript menu, un-check Enable Acrobat JavaScript."

Adobe has acknowledged the problem in a blog post, though it states nothing more than "we know about it, and we'll have an update once we get more information." Security is serious business. Let's hope Adobe jumps to the pump this time and promptly issues a patch.

[via CNet]

I'll say right off that I'm not a big Facebook user to start with, but there's nothing compelling in the newly-released Facebook Desktop client that is going to make me change my mind. If anything, it makes me more sure that I don't need to be spending time on the mammoth social networking site.

The app is built on Adobe Air, making it instantly available to nearly everyone as long as they've got the client installed.

Once I load the application, what I end up looking at is the middle column from Facebook's web site, and it's horrible. Quiz after quiz that I can't block with a Greasemonkey script and images that don't fit properly in the non-adjustable window.

No problem, I'll just resize the window. Wait, what? The arrows appear when I mouse over the side, but I can't expand it. I also can't change the typeface from Times Roman, which I wasn't aware was still a popular choice for apps like this. Heck, there aren't any personalization options of any kind.

It's also a ram hog, sucking down 165Mb after just a few minutes. That's twice as much as TweetDeck and 30Mb more than the Firefox instance I'm using to compose this post. Ouch.

If I was a frequent Facebook user, I can think of plenty of other ways I'd rather access my stream - like with Seesmic desktop, which is also mentioned in the official blog post. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh. After all, this is the first release so at least that means there's plenty of room for improvement, right?

Take it for a spin yourself and share your experience in the comments!

[ via Facebook Blog]

Hypponen doesn't place all the blame on Adobe. Part of the reason for suggesting the switch is the nearly twenty-fold increase in drive-by downloads that target Reader specifically. It's now become the most popular target for this type of attack, a dubious distinction previously held by Microsoft Word.

No, Adobe can't control the number of malicious documents that are created. They can, however, do a much better job of responding to the security holes that tempt evildoers into creating exploits that target their application in the first place.

On this front, Hypponen is clearly critical of Adobe, stating "[they have] a lot to learn from, of all places, Microsoft," when it comes to security. He believes updates just aren't as much of a priority for Adobe, who took their time in issuing a patch for the exploit that came to light in Frebuary and have been slow in responding to vulnerabilities in the past.

By now, many of you have probably made the switch to a non-Adobe web-based or desktop PDF viewer. If you haven't yet, Hypponen suggests visiting pdfreaders.org and downloading an alternative.

[via CNet]

Adobe Flash is the dominant platform for rich media content on the web. If you've watched an online video, viewed an interactive ad, or played music through a web site in the last few years, you've seen Flash in action. While Microsoft is trying to push Silverlight as an alternative, Flash pretty much owns this space -- on computers.

But HDTV and broadband internet are blurring the lines between web video and television. And Adobe wants to help bring the walls down by pushing Flash for TV and set top boxes including Blu-Ray players and cable boxes. Adobe has already partnered with companies including Intel, Broadcom, Comcast, Netflix, and Disney on the project.

In other words, you can imagine a future where you turn on your TV and in addition to video, on-demand programming, and a program guide, you can pull up weather, news, and other information provided through an internet connection, as well as quick and easy access to web video from any site like ABC.com or Netflix that makes content available for the platform.

Of course, if this all happens, it means you're going to need to get a new TV, set top box, or other hardware in order to enable the new features. Or you can just stick an old computer next to your TV and use Flash the old fashioned way.

[via NewTeeVee]

Say what you will about Adobe's licensing fees and whatnot, but at least they're willing to do something to provide a little assistance to developers that have been hit hard by the current economic situation. If you can provide proof that you are currently unemployed, Adobe will provide you a personal use license for Flex Builder at no charge.

Flex Builder Pro 3 is normally $699 to purchase, so this is a pretty generous offer. Yes, Adobe have their own ulterior motives - if you become skilled with Flex, you may land a job somewhere and your employer will need to spring for a license. Who knows, it could lead to some killer new Flex app being developed, and then Adobe wins again because the platform gets a boost.

Whatever the motivation, it's still a nice gesture and could definitely provide jobless developers with a new skill that may just help them find employment again.

[via OS News]

Being "the guy" in charge of open source and standards at a company more known for its closed source products is a job I don't envy. Adobe's Dave McAllister, however, is a man that loves that kind of challenge and that's exactly the role he plays.

Dave's involvement in Open Source pre-dates the creation of the term itself. As a key member of the Silicon Graphics team in the early 1990s, he was involved in key OSS projects like OpenGL. McAllister also co-founded Cassatt and helped develop pioneering cloud computing solutions based on 37 open source projects.

When he was hired on by Adobe in 2006, McAllister went right to work, sitting down for a meeting with his new CTO and asking "When can I Open Source the Flash player?"

That hasn't been fully possible yet, due in no small part to the presence of technologies within Flash that Adobe must license from other vendors - like the h.264 codec. Flash player's foundations - things like the SWF, FLV, RTMP, AMF, and FlashCast specifications - are all published.

The Flex SDK, Blaze DS, and ActionScript virtual machine are also fully open source, and Adobe grants full patent use on all these things, which allows developers to go wild and produce cool things like the Pushbutton Game Engine. "If we can't open source the code," Dave told me, "we will open how it was built."