This morning, Adobe announced the release of two major pieces of software as open source- the OSMF (Open Source Media Framework) and TLF (Text Layout Framework) - under the Mozilla Public License.

TLF is the new text-rendering engine in Air 1.5, where it handles things like the typographical wizardry in TimesReader 2.0. A major goal with TLF was to provide web application developers a set of features more like those provided by desktop publishing suites.

Other sites utilizing TLF include Adobe's own Acrobat.com Presentations and Makebook, a slick web service which allows independent authors to self-publish. It's also powering the Boston Globe's GlobeReader, which is currently available for preview.

Adobe and Akamai have also teamed up to continue work on the Open Video Player initiative, which is aimed at providing a consistent platform for delivering Flash multimedia content. As they put forth on the project web site, "Open Source Media Framework enables developers to easily assemble pluggable components to create high-quality, full-featured playback experiences."

Adobe believes the frameworks will provide reduced development time, allowing traditional media outlets (like the Times and Globe) to focus on monetization - a problem few have yet to solve.

First of all, I've read the Times nearly my whole life. I grew up in a NY-suburban Times household. I have fond memories of my father spreading out the Sunday edition on the floor, sitting on the carpet in his pajamas. He read that paper every day until he died. (No evidence that the Times hastened his death.)

But that's not reason enough to fork over $15 bucks a month for the latest digital format.

The NYTimes web site is persistently in my "most visited" lineup on my computers. I have multiple Times RSS feeds neatly sorted in Google Reader. I subscribe to the Times on my Kindle. Oops ... as of five minutes ago, not so much with the Kindle. I ditched that subscription, and replaced it with TimesReader 2.0.

In doing so, I violated my own dictum (and we all know how much that hurts) that convenience always trumps quality. The Kindle subscription takes the convenience prize, especially when traveling. But oh my -- the quality of that interface would leave Samuel Pepys aghast. Fun fact about Pepys: he had 10 brothers and sisters. He had to fight for his share of the family Kindle.

Dictum death occurs when quality zooms upward, but convenience gets nudged down just a little. That's what happened here. Bad news for Amazon. I'm suddenly willing to dig out my laptop on a plane for a vastly improved reading experience plus updates from just before the machine exited WiFi range. I used to keep the Kindle on my bedside table so I could start reading the OpEd page in the morning before my eyes were fully open. Now I'll haul over a laptop. We'll see how that goes, but at the moment, the tradeoff seems more than worth it for the full-color, wide-angle experience.

Is any of this reason enough to subscribe in any fashion, when I spend all day and half the night in front of computer screens and can get Times content free of charge? I just hope my wife doesn't start asking that question. In the meantime, I am loving this thing. The NYTimes might and might not survive the newspaper crash, but some of the digital solutions it comes up with definitely rock.

TimesReader is a desktop application for reading the New York Times without a web browser. While this may not sound like a service you need, since you can read most Times articles online, the latest version of TimesReader provides a pretty compelling interface for reading the paper. TimesReader 2.0 also happens to be built on Adobe AIR, which mean that unlike earlier versions of the program, it runs well on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.

When you first load TimesReader, you'll see a list of articles from the front page of that day's paper. You can click any article to read the full text and see any pictures. You can also change the date to see any issues from the last week, enter a query in the search box, or flip to a different section of the paper using the sidebar navigation. You can even do the crossword puzzle for each day.

Once you're reading an article you can either go back by hitting the navigation buttons on the top or left of the screen, or you can hit a button to spread out the "pages" of the day's newspaper as if you were flipping through them on your table, helping to re-create the experience of reading the print edition.

There is a bit of a catch though. While you can read all of the articles from selected sections of the paper for free, if you want unlimited access you'll need to pony up $3.45/week for a subscription. Or fire up a web browser and go read the same articles for free on the web.

[via GottaBeMobile]