The Creative Cloud offers access to the latest version of Creative Suite software, Lightroom 4, Muse, Edge, touch applications, and 20GB of cloud storage. Although $50 a month seems steep, it may still be more desirable to some than purchasing the full license for the Creative Suite, which runs between $1,300 and $2,600.

An advantage to using the Creative Cloud is that you will get the latest software updates right away, which may appeal to high-end users that tend to be early adopters. The 20GB of cloud storage plus syncing and sharing options also offer advantages over the traditional software route.

The shift towards the cloud-based platform will help Adobe curb the piracy issues it faces with its top-tier software. Adobe plans to sell a more secure version of the Creative Cloud to business users for $70 per month.

[via Wired]

Flash Player for ICS was released near the end of 2011, Adobe’s final mobile flourish before it turned its attentions to HTML5. The decision to end Flash Player development for mobile devices followed long-standing criticism of the technology, most notably from Apple founder Steve Jobs, though the proliferation of Flash content online meant that for many users it was a necessary evil.

For now, Chrome for Android is only available if you’re on 4.0, meaning it’s a small percentage – around 1-percent, in fact – who get to play with the new app. If you’re interested in porting the browser to earlier versions of Android, meanwhile, developer Al Sutton points to the direct tarball download for your tinkering delectation.

For everything Chrome for Android can do, check out the full SlashGear review.

Motivation to buy is still stronger for desktop and notebook users, though those on tablets are apparently “nearly as likely” to purchase.

Adobe tracked visits to around 150 of the top US retailers, the company’s stats division says, looking at browsing data from 16.2bn anonymous visits. Both the 2011 holiday season and 2011 as a whole were examined, with tablet use quadrupling over the course of the year, while smartphone shopping use doubled and traditional shopping – though still far ahead – fell to 90-percent of shopping visits per device.

The increased likelihood of tablet-browsing shoppers to spend money isn’t just because they’re using a slate, of course. The study also points out that the type of person to buy a tablet – predominantly male, with a greater-than-average household income – is also the sort that would spend more money anyway. Still, the end conclusion, that retailers and service providers should tailor their sites to suit traditional, phone and tablet browsing individually, holds true.

Prior to Adobe, Teresi served as the Chief Revenue Officer for Quantcast and, still earlier, he was a senior VP at Yahoo. He will now take the position as head of Apple’s iAd division, which has been without a leader since Andy Miller left the post back in August of last year. Miller left to join venture capital firm Highland Capital.

The iAd platform has been struggling for the past year. Despite launching as a high-end marketing option with million-dollar-buy-ins, Apple has had to cut prices to generate more interest. The reluctance of developers may have to do with the platforms lock-in to iOS, whereas other advertising options such as Google’s AdMob are cross-platform. Apple’s insistence on controlling development of the ads itself also didn’t help.

[via MacRumors]

We think that the timing couldn’t be more perfect for those of you that live stateside and just can’t wait to get your hands on Verizon’s sleek new 4G LTE-powered Galaxy Nexus smartphone, reviewed by us here. Also, we want to remind you this is the last version of Flash that will be headed to Android after Adobe announced that it would be completely ditching the platform for Android and other mobile operating systems.

What about other devices besides the Galaxy Nexus? Well, that’s entirely up to the decision of the other OEM companies. Most will probably continue to provide support for future smartphone models, but more significant advances in Flash and Adobe AIR for Android are pretty much finished. But for the Galaxy Nexus hopefuls out there, just be glad you’re getting a last and final update before the last final croak of the mobile flash platform. Rest in peace, mobile Flash, you’ve had a good run on some great smartphones.

[via Adobe]

“Adobe will release one more version of the Flash Player for mobile browsing, which will provide support for Android 4.0, and one more release of the Flash Linux Porting Kit – both expected to be released before the end of this year” a company spokesperson revealed. Beyond that, any further releases will be nothing more than “critical bug fixes and security updates” with the expectation that HTML5 will become the dominant mobile standard instead.

Adobe announced that mobile Flash had been flushed earlier this month, after several years of arguments over whether the technology – which has been accused of making devices run slowly and introducing instabilities – had a place on portable devices. Apple was perhaps Flash’s most vocal critic, with Steve Jobs memorably penning a harsh open letter explaining why, exactly, the iPhone, iPad and other iOS devices didn’t support the technology.

However, other manufacturers have proved less willing to release mobile Flash, with RIM already announcing that it would take up the baton of development for its PlayBook tablet. Google is unlikely to take a similar strategy, however, having already thrown much of its weight behind HTML5. Still, as the web catches up, this final Flash Player release for Ice Cream Sandwich should tide owners over until HTML5 reaches saturation point.

Those of you about to have a heart attack over this would do well to note that it was inevitable as Adobe announced that they’d be axing the mobile version of Flash in favor of HTML5 earlier this month. Then if you’ll go ahead and read what Google has let us know, you’ll see that the story isn’t necessarily completely over for Adobe’s mobile version of Flash. Even though the app and support for Flash will be ending relatively soon, Google had the following to say:

“Flash hasn’t been released for ICS yet so as far as we know, Adobe will support Flash for ICS.” – Google

Have a peek at the gallery below to see several signs that Adobe Flash Player isn’t active in Ice Cream Sandwich, and note that these screenshots are taken on the non-Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus. You can see the rest of our Galaxy Nexus coverage by heading to our giant and ever-expending [Galaxy Nexus Portal] while the same situation is true for Android 4.0 in our [Ice Cream Sandwich portal].

And of course above all – don’t forget to check our our full reviews of the OS and the device separately this weekend here on SlashGear!

Adobe Collage can be used to create moodboards, useful when planning a project, while Adobe Debut is intended to make sharing and reviewing work more straightforward. Finally, Adobe Kuler offers in-depth exploration of color themes.

All five integrate with Adobe Creative Cloud, the company’s web-based file viewing, sharing and transfer system. Working with both the Touch Apps and Adobe’s desktop software, Creative Cloud allows tableteers to open native Photoshop and other files, edit them while on the move, and then return to working on them when they’re back at their desk, without having to manually sync or export along the way.

Adobe Ideas is already available on iOS, and Adobe expects the remaining four apps to make the jump early next year. The company will also announce paid membership options for Creative Cloud, among other things, in the first half of 2012.

Of course, just because it doesn’t believe Flash is best for connected TVs, doesn’t mean the company is leaving the segment entirely to rivals. Instead, it will push Adobe AIR apps as part of its recently announced smart TV port, with developers already using the technology to create software for Samsung sets. AIR apps can also be used on mobile devices and on the desktop, but are standalone code rather than living in the browser.

RIM’s challenge, meanwhile, is to live up to its heavy Flash focused advertising for the PlayBook, with support for the standard being a key part of the Canadian company’s value proposition versus the iPad and Android slates. The plan is to take up independent development of Flash for the PlayBook, though RIM will also look to HTML5 for future BBX phones and tablets.

“As an Adobe source code licensee, we will continue to work on and release our own implementations. RIM remains committed to delivering an uncompromised Web browsing experience to our customers, including native support for Adobe Flash Player on our BlackBerry PlayBook tablet (similar to a desktop PC browser), as well as HTML5 support on both our BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook browsers” RIM statement

Adobe has been criticized for its Flash mobile decision – and the length of time it took the company to settle on a strategy – by former Flash Lite and Flash Mobile lead Calos Icaza.

RIM PlayBook Flash advert:

In addition to the generally negative set of comments found around the web today, former Adobe executive Calos Icaza let the world know through Read Write Web’s Dan Rowinski that he’d been pushing for Adobe to focus on flash for touchscreen displays since all the way back in 1997, and is now feeling a bit like he had the right idea. The situation back then eventually lead to him leaving the company, and now he’s talking up how back then even though half the mobile Flash team at Adobe carried the Apple iPhone in 2007, they said it was a niche. Three years later and flash is on Android, one year after that, Adobe cancels Flash for mobile altogether.

“They dragged it on for months and months and three years down the line they finally kill it. It became too much of a tangle. At the end of the day the focus on what was important was lost and what is important are the developers.” – Icaza

Icaza noted that Adobe’s focus hit the more popular feature phone market through the launch of the iPhone and the rest of the smartphone market, and it was, again, three YEARS until Flash was offered on Android. Reception has been generally lukewarm, and because Flash has taken a backseat in Adobe’s business model to development tools, Flash is done for mobile. Developers, consumers, and Adobe investors have reacted negatively in the face of the move. Take a peek at this chart of the stock price today and feel the heat:

[via Android Community]

“Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.  We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook.  We will of course continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations.  We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations” Adobe

However, Flash on the desktop will continue to be developed, and Adobe is already working on Flash Player 12 “and a new round of exciting features which we expect to again advance what is possible for delivering high definition entertainment experiences.” Part of Adobe’s new focus, however, will be bringing advanced Flash-style features to HTML5 standards, in addition to helping developers transition between the two.

Flash had previously pulled Adobe into a fight with Apple, with Steve Jobs penning a critical open letter in which he argued the standard was unsuited to touchscreen and mobile use. Adobe even began to develop its own alternatives, in the shape of Adobe Edge, an HTML5 app production tool that was announced in pre-beta back in August.

The company announced roughly 700 job losses yesterday, as part of its reorganization strategy.

“Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates” Leaked Adobe announcement

Although currently unconfirmed by Adobe, the company’s financial results announcements this week do suggest a big change is incoming. Adobe will be “shifting resources to support even greater investment in HTML5″ the company’s Digital Media and Digital Marketing strategy plan revealed, “focusing Flash resources on delivering the most advanced PC web experiences, including gaming and premium video, as well as mobile apps.”

Back in April 2010, Steve Jobs published an open letter to Adobe and iOS device customers addressing long-standing calls for the iPhone and other devices to support Mobile Flash. “Flash has not performed well on mobile devices” the then-CEO wrote. “We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.”

“Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers” Jobs concluded. In contrast, Android devices and other platforms have had access to Flash Player for mobile, and users of those devices have had the option whether to turn Flash support on – and face potentially longer webpage loading times, extra battery use and occasional instability – or turn it off and do without animations, games and other interactive elements.

Adobe hasn’t been resting on its Flash laurels, however. Back in August the company demonstrated an early version of Adobe Edge, a system which pulled together HTML5, JavaScript, CSS and more to create online animations and interactive gadgets. The benefit is support within iOS browsers, which are HTML5 compliant, as well as close integration with Adobe’s Creative Suite 5.5. Edge – currently in pre-beta – is one of Adobe’s new focuses, according to the strategy document.

As for Flash on Android and other platforms, Adobe will apparently commit to releasing security updates as required, but nothing more. The demise of Flash on Mobile Devices is expected to be officially confirmed sometime within the next 24 hours.

The system creates a motion trajectory of the camera for the time that the shutter was open, analyzing the exact movements involved. From that – and some other unspecified parameters loaded in the background, which we’re guessing will play a pretty significant role as well – the app can backtrack through the blurring and create a sharper, corrected copy.

The system doesn’t need to work from the original RAW file from your camera, and is shown fixing a low-res image pulled from online. As for when we might expected to see the tool show up in Photoshop, sneak peeks like these “may or may not appear in a future version, we won’t commit to timing” an Adobe exec confirmed at the show.

[via PetaPixel]

If you currently own a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you should automatically get a notification for the software update. You can also check for it under the Software Update section in the settings menu. PlayBook tablets purchased after October 6 will have the update installed automatically during the setup process.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the major BlackBerry Tablet OS 2.0 update that’s been rumored. The update is expected to add native email, contacts, and calendar functionality as well as the Android app player. However, it’s believed that RIM will release the update later this month during the BlackBerry DevCon event.

[via RIM]

The app will be downloadable via the Samsung Apps marketplace. Air is a key element of the Flash platform and allows the developer to make stand alone apps that can be delivered across devices and platforms. That should mean the app is available on other devices as well.

Adobe Air for TV 2.5 is available to developers right now on the 2011 Samsung Smart TV models and will be on the Blu-ray players that are available later this year in North and South America. With only a few months left in 2011, the Blu-ray players should be coming soon.

“Integrating Adobe AIR into our Smart TV platform was a logical step to ensure a robust content ecosystem for Samsung customers,” said Kyungsik Kevin Lee, vice president of Visual Display Business, Samsung Electronics. “By adding support for Adobe AIR for TV, we further opened the Samsung Smart TV ecosystem to more than 3 million Flash developers worldwide, who can seamlessly deliver gaming, media and data-driven apps to a wide range of Samsung devices.”

The updates are expected to bring hardware-accelerate 2D and 3D graphics rendering through Stage 3D. Adobe promises up to 1,000 times faster rendering performance in comparison to Flash Player 10 and AIR 2, which means up to 60FPS rendering and console quality games.

Additionally, LG and TiVo have been announced as the latest partners to bring Flash-based apps to its connected TVs via AIR, while Samsung SmartTVs already support Flash. AIR 3 will also allow developers to convert code to native apps for other platforms, including Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS, and iOS.

The announcement took place during the company’s MAX conference today, where it also revealed six new tablet-optimized apps, including Photoshop Touch, which will be heading to Android tablets first starting next month. For more details on the downloads, you can visit Adobe’s blog post.

[via Android Community]

The other apps include more specialized creativity tools, including Adobe Collage, which lets you import photos and provides drawing tools to create image collages. There’s also Adobe Debut that works like a presentation software for Creative Suites files, Adobe Ideas for vector-based drawing tools, Adobe Kuler for color theme creation, and Adobe Proto for websites and mobile apps prototyping.

The apps, each costing $9.99, will be released first for Android starting next month, while release dates for the iPad versions may not be until early 2012, likely in time to debut with the iPad 3. And although there’s no mention of Windows 8 tablets, the platform is expected to support all apps that have worked in the past for Windows 7, meaning that even traditional Photoshop should work on Windows 8 tablets.

The apps will all be integrated with Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which will allow the company’s desktop and mobile apps to sync and share content. Integrations with Facebook and Google search also allow for easy grabbing and sharing of images without leaving the apps.

[via MacRumors]

Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 provide a cross platform environment that will deliver both gaming and video content to a wide audience using the single platform. AIR has native extensions to take advantage of unique device features and native code libraries. The developers can mix flash and HTML5 along with native code to perfect the experience for each device.

Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 will be offered to the public starting in early October. The Flash Builder and Flex framework for building apps will support the new features in Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 by the end of the year.

Adobe’s platform general manager, Danny Winokur, posted an official response on the Adobe Blog addressing concerns regarding Flash support in Windows 8′s Metro UI. Winokur reminds that Flash will still be supported in the Windows 8 desktop interface, just not in the touch-friendly Metro tablet interface.

“We expect Windows desktop to be extremely popular for years to come (including Windows 8 desktop) and that it will support Flash just fine, including rich web based games and premium videos that require Flash,” said Winokur.

He also points out that Flash-based apps can still be delivered to the Metro version of Windows 8 via Adobe AIR, much like how they are currently deployed on Android, iOS, and the BlackBerry tablet OS.

However, it does seem like Adobe will have to do some transitioning to adapt more HTML 5 into its repertoire. Winokur says that the company is now more focused on providing the tools to enable publishers and developers to deliver the richest user experiences regardless of the technology behind it, be it HTML 5 or Flash. Adobe also looks forward to working with Microsoft, Google, Apple and others in the HTML community to further develop HTML 5 for delivering rich content.

One of those “legacy” technologies is Flash, which Microsoft’s engineers reckon is the most common plugin encountered in the most popular sites. “Many of the 62% of these sites that currently use Adobe Flash already fall back to HTML5 video in the absence of plug-in support” they suggest.

Those still wanting access to Flash and other plugins will be able to switch to the regular, desktop version of IE10, however. That – which will also support pen and touch input – will play nicely with ActiveX controls and the like. If you’d prefer to stick within Metro but still get the full IE10 experience, a “Use Desktop View” option will be available on a site-by-site basis.

It seems even Adobe are trying to look beyond Flash these days, with the company demonstrating its Edge HTML5 app earlier this year as a potential alternative to the existing technology. You can see the Metro IE10 browser demonstrated in our hands-on with Windows 8 on tablets below.

Windows 8 Tablet hands-on:

The Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 and Flash Access 3.0 will essentially process the Flash video on a server that is then able to deliver the same source video to a variety of platforms including both Apple devices and Flash-compatible devices. This will make life much easier for publishers and is done through HTTP Dynamic Streaming or HTTP Live Streaming, which are both compatible with iOS.

So, it’s not exactly real Flash support on iOS, but it could actually deliver some benefits over native support. Instead of relying on the device’s processor to render, the Flash Media Server 4.5 does all the work, repackaging the Flash content for streaming, and avoiding the battery drain and buggy experience that’s associated with using Flash on mobile devices.

The Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 solution is targeted for publishers that wish to deliver their Flash content to multiple platforms and costs $4,500.

[via 9to5Mac]

Instead, it’s a case of making the page look great, and relying on Adobe’s web-elves in the background to do the clever stuff. Sitemaps are organized with straightforward flowcharts, common design elements set up using a straightforward “Master Page” system, and site-wide basics like size and colors can be handled with little fuss. Elements that can frustrate beginners – like creating floating toolbars or pinning certain items so that they always display in the same place – are made far easier to use.

The end results aren’t just static, basic pages, but can be heavily multimedia-centric with embedded Google Maps and YouTube content, hover-over animations and effects, and overlays and Photoshop layers. When you’re done, Adobe will host the site for you, or it can be exported to another host of your choice.

Adobe Muse is available in beta today as a free download from muse.adobe.com. The company says it will remain free until the v1.0 release expected in early 2012, after which point it will be available on a subscription basis at either $20 per month (with no minimum commitment) or $180 for a year. Sites won’t expire if you stop your subscription, however. It will also work with Adobe’s Edge HTML5 app, released earlier this month.

By looking to HTML5, Adobe could effectively bypass Apple’s moratorium on Flash support, which seems unlikely to lift any time soon. Although Flash is supported on recent Android devices, Google itself uses more HTML5 for its own web-apps, and online heavyweights such as Facebook are believed to be using the technology – instead of Flash – for things like the Facebook iPad app and the much-rumored Project Spartan.

Edge consists of various drawing and text tools, into which SVG, PNG, JPG and GIF graphics can be imported. A timeline editor allows for easy animation of position, size, color, shape, rotation and more, and there are 25 built-in transitions along with support for modifying them. Existing HTML pages can be updated using Edge to support motion, without breaking the original CSS layouts.

Adobe is keen to point out that Edge is currently only a preview, released before its even hit beta stage so that the company can gather feedback. If it’s a success, however, it will be interesting to see to what extent it marginalizes Flash. You can access the Edge preview here.