Official: Flash Comes To Android In First Half Of 2010

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Alright, so we pretty much knew this already. Flash has been expected to hit at some point in early 2010 for a while now. Now, however, we've got official word from Adobe on the Flash download site. TmoNews has found that, if you now attempt to download flash player on the T-Mobile G1, you will be prompted by a screen that contains this text;

Posted on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:50:17 CST | by Robert Evans

Centon Unveils Line of MLB Flash Drives

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Baseball Fans looking for a new way to support their team by brandishing the team emblem can now get their mitts on a new line of flash drives from Centon that are officially licensed MLB USB flash drives. The drives are available with the logos from all 30 Major League Baseball teams.

The drives are compatible with PC and Mac computers and are on a keychain ring for convenience. The drive has a sliding design that has no cap to keep up with. Two capacities are available including 2GB and 4GB versions. Read more

Posted on Mon, 9 Nov 2009 07:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Samsung Makes Crazy-Thin 32 GB Flash Memory

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Flash memory just got a little flashier. As Electronista reports Samsung has just revealed yet another advance in NAND flash memory. Their new chip fits 32 GB onto a single .02” thick chip. According to the Korean-based company, this new advance was managed by using a new “bare” package that is half as thick, but apparently as sturdy, as the old one.

Posted on Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:30:46 CST | by Robert Evans

Kingston and Paramount Digital Entertainment Team Up for Movies on Flash Memory

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Kingston and Paramount announced today that the two have teamed up to deliver Paramount movies on Kingston flash memory products. The partnership will deliver full-length movies to consumers as a bundle package sale.

Neither company divulged when the partnership will launch its first products or how the products will be packaged. I bet it will be along the lines of the Godfather flash drives we have seen before with the movie on a drive carrying logos from the film. What movies will be seen first is unknown as well. Read more

Posted on Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

SST Unveils World's First Low Volt, High Speed Quad IO Flash Memory

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SST has announced the world's first low-voltage, high-speed quad I/O serial flash memory. The memory features an 80MHz operating frequency and a new specialized instruction set. The memory has a 26WF series serial quad IO 4-bit multiplexed IO interface.

The high power and low energy consumption of the new memory makes it ideal for use in portable electronics like Bluetooth headsets, GPS devices, and other portable electronic gear. The memory has sustained burst data rates of up to 320Mbit/sec. Read more

Posted on Mon, 2 Nov 2009 13:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Pretec Launches World's Fastest Flash Drive

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Pretec has unveiled a new flash drive called the i-Disk Tango 266x that promises to be the world's fastest USB flash drive with record setting speeds of 40MB/s read and 30MB/s write. The theoretical maximum for USB 2.0 is 60MB/s.

Most devices can’t hit that theoretical limit because of overhead and Pretec claims that 40MB/s is the practical limit for the USB 2.0 specifications meaning its Tango flash drive is as fast as you can get before USB 3.0 is widely available. Read more

Posted on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

No Flash For Android Until 2010?

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Almost as soon as we heard about the Motorola Tao/Sholes/Droid, we've expected it to be the first Android smartphone to launch with Flash. The new Moto smartphone is rumored to launch on December 1, which will have it out a month before Android users can expect to see Flash support. According to Android and Me, Adobe announced at their Max Conference that Android users will not get a shot at Flash until 2010.

Beta versions of Windows Mobile and Palm webOS will be coming soon. Adobe says that Android will take longer because Adobe requires some programming interfaces that won't be out until the launch of Eclair. This could mean one of two things; either all Android 2.0 smartphones will be delayed until early 2010, or they'll hit when expected but without Flash support.

Posted on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 11:20:22 CDT | by Robert Evans

Flash Player 10.1 Brings Open Screen Project To All Smartphones besides iPhone

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Adobe made an important announcement today about bringing Flash to smartphones today. Adobe unveiled Adobe Flash Player 10.1 software for smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PCs and other Internet-connected devices under the Open Screen Project.
A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS and desktop operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year.

Public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to be available in early 2010.
In addition, Adobe and RIM announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash Player to Blackberry smartphones, and Google joined close to 50 other industry players in the Open Screen Project initiative. Read more

Posted on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 00:53:20 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Motorola Sholes/Tao To Have New Name+Adobe Flash

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First it was the Motorola Sholes. Then it was the Motorola Tao. Now, if Boy Genius's tipsters are correct, it's going to be called the Motorola Droid when it launches on the Verizon Wireless carrier.

There's more cool news too, as well as some bad stuff. It's been confirmed now that the Droid will be the first Google Experience phone with built-in Adobe Flash support. For every smartphone owner who's spent the last few years waiting for mobile Flash support, this is incredibly exciting. Unfortunately, it's also been confirmed that the sweet MotoBlur UI will not run on the Motorola Droid.

Posted on Thu, 1 Oct 2009 12:22:06 CDT | by Robert Evans

Kingston Improves Speeds on DataTraveler 410 USB Flash Drive

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Kingston has announced that it has increased the speed on one of its flash drives called the DataTraveler 400. The drive can be had in up to 32GB capacity. With such a high capacity offering, faster speeds are very important to allow large files to be moved more quickly.

The drive is also password protected to prevent unauthorized access to the data on the drive. The drive now has read and write speeds of 20MB/sec. Other capacities are available as well with 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB drives in the line. Read more

Posted on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:53:30 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Pliant Unveils Fast (Fast, Fast) Lightning Enterprise Flash Drives

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Pliant has announced a new line of storage products with super fast data speeds called the Enterprise Flash Drive (EFD). The EFD line includes both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch products that use a software architecture and ASIC controller to improve performance and reliability of storage systems.

The EFD line is intended to be used in enterprise data centers and other HPC environments where 24x7 mission critical applications run. The line of EFDs have no cache to prevent data loss. The Lightning LB series is a 2.5-inch form factor with the LS models using 3.5-inch. Read more

Posted on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

SanDisk CompactFlash Cards: Extreme Speed, Unholy Price

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Looking for a high-quality, high-capacity, ultra-fast SD card for your DSLR? If so, the SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash card is pretty much the king of the market. With a 90 MB/s write speed, these new cards won't slow your high-end camera down. Their models are sized in 16, 32, and 64 GB models.

The catch to these cool new cards is the price. For the 16 GB model, you're looking to pay $304 . If that seems a little expensive to you, don't even bother checking out the 32 GB ($507) and 64 GB models ($811), you might end up with an aneurysm. Yes, SanDisk's new cards are the top of the line. With prices that ridiculous, they have to be.

Posted on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:03:15 CDT | by Robert Evans

Apple Said To Cause NAND Flash Supply Shortage Again

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Apple announced last week new iPods. Of course these new iPods need new NAND chips, especially the new 64GB iPod touch.
Digitimes reports today that the major NAND chip makers informed Taiwanese manufacturers that there is a shortage because of Apple's orders for flash chips. Read more

Posted on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:25:53 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Snow Leopard Upgrade Downgrades Flash

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Did you recently upgrade to Snow Leopard? If so, your computer has a security vulnerability that you may not be aware of. An antivirus company named Sophos has found that Snow Leopard actually installs a security downgrade (via AppleInsider) from the most up-to-date version of Flash. This means that, even if you're diligent about keeping your security updates current on your machine, you could be at risk for attack.

This change, which installs version 10.0.23.1 of Flash instead of 10.0.32.18, is made without warning the user. Considering how ubiquitous Flash is, and that it is a major target of attacks by hackers, this represents a substantial lapse in judgement for Apple. Snow Leopard does offer limited malware protection, but (right now) only against two different Trojans.

Posted on Thu, 3 Sep 2009 10:25:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Joby Gorillatorch Flashlight Review

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Today I am checking out the slick new Gorillatorch from Joby. The device is a magnetic and articulating flashlight that will stick to any metal surface.

The light is very bright and uses energy efficient LEDs for long battery life. This may be the perfect home flashlight thanks to its design that lets you keep your hands free for working. Read more

Posted on Tue, 1 Sep 2009 08:30:05 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

RIM Bringing Full Flash Support to BlackBerries

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Huge news, BlackBerry addicts! According to Boy Genius RIM is in the process of integrating full Flash and Microsoft Silverlight support to the BlackBerry web browser. This is HUGE news for the world's #2 smartphone manufacturer, and bad news to Apple's h.264 codec. Smartphones have gotten away with ignoring Flash for a long time, but it looks like Adobe finally won this particular tug-of-war.

Now, be forewarned that just because Flash support is in development doesn't mean we'll see it anytime soon. RIM is notoriously slow with this sort of thing, and the current scuttlebutt doesn't have this integration going live before next Summer. If that's true, Flash integration will likely be introduced alongside the next big upgrade to the BlackBerry line.

Posted on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:35:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Gorillatorch Magnetic Flashlight Debuts

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Joby makes several different adjustable tripod accessories for cameras and mobile phones. The company has announced a new flashlight called the Gorillatorch that uses the same flexible tripod device with the addition of magnetic feet.

The magnetic feet allow the user to attach the Gorillatorch to any metal surface and shed light on whatever they are doing without having to hold a flashlight in their hands. The adjustable stand will also allow the light to be sat on any horizontal surface as well. Read more

Posted on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Google Buys On2, Should Flash Worry?

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This morning, Google announced the acquisition of video compression developer On2. Each old share of On2 stock will be converted to $.60 of Google Class A common stock. The total value of the transaction is estimated to be around $106.5 million. The .60 per share price represents a 57% increase in the closing price of On2 common just before the deal.

On2 is the company behind many video codec designs, including VP3, 4, and 5, in addition to TrueMotion VP 6, 7, and 8. Google has coyly avoided stating exactly why they wanted to acquire On2, but it's likely related to YouTube. On2 is the developer that released their VP3 technology and patents to the open source community. TechCrunch believes it is possible that Google intends to release VP7 and 8 in the same way.

Posted on Wed, 5 Aug 2009 10:01:15 CDT | by Robert Evans

Maxell Unveils Flash Media Lineup

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Maxell has announced that they will be offering a full line of flash-based storage products with USB connectivity. The line will include a number of flash drives with five different available styles. Among the new drives will be a basic USB drive in blue or silver colors.

Maxell will offer a sliding USB drive with a side push design for the retractable USB port. A drive with a rotating 360-degree cover will be available that offers password protection. The USB Style drive has encryption technology and ships with software to allow backup of files automatically to the flash drive. Read more

Posted on Wed, 5 Aug 2009 09:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

New Sanyo Eneloop Lamp is the coolest Flashlight available

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Sanyo is quite successful with their range of pre-charged rechargeable batteries called Eneloop. I use them for all my gadgets at home.
Today Sanyo announced a cool new gadget in the Eneloop line with the ENL-Y1S Eneloop Lamp.
The Eneloop Lamp a very stylish rechargeable interior light that becomes a flashlight if you lift it up. Read more

Posted on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:21:05 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Hot Flash HD Camcorder: Canon VIXIA HF200

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The Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder offers lots of excitement and high-quality imaging power into its small, lightweight body. With its SuperRange Optical Image Stabilizer, Genuine Canon 15x HD Video Lens, Canons latest DIGIC DV III Image Processor and 3.89-megapixel Full HD CMOS Image Sensor, it captures brightly colored, realistically detailed high definition video and photos. The removable SDHC memory card gives the ease of recording. It uses an RGB Primary Color Filter with Bayer Placement Pattern that separates light into red, green and blue color components. As a result, you will get vibrant images with deep, rich, accurate color and natural-looking tones.
Read more

Posted on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:31:55 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr