Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Since the comparative efficiency of Flash vs. HTML5 seemed easy enough to quantify, I endeavored to do so, using YouTube's new HTML5-based player as the test bed. Specifically, I played a YouTube video in the same browser twice, once via HTML5, once via Flash, and measured CPU utilization during playback."

The results of Streaming Learning Center's tests shuld not be considered exhaustive but it does indicate that HTML5 is an viable all around solution for streaming video to web browsers that support it. The results also show the huge difference between implementations for the Mac version of Flash compared to Windows. I imagine that Linux tests would more closely emulate the results seen on the Mac compared to Windows as well. It should signal to Adobe that it has a lot of work to do in terms of optimizing Flash for OS X and Linux if it wants to remain relevant in today's web. Unfortunately, while Flash also offers a lot of flexibility to allow designers to create more interactive websites more easily, or to develop games, probably the biggest strike against it is that advertisers currently really favor the format as well. Of course, as HTML5 matures and becomes more universally supported, advertisers will begin to design HTML5 based ads, which may end up becoming a horror story in itself.

"We are ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users, but to date we have not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen. Longer term, some point to HTML as eventually supplanting the need for Flash, particularly with the more recent developments coming in HTML with version 5. I don't see this as one replacing the other, certainly not today nor even in the foreseeable future."

I will gladly argue, and have argued that Flash is a ciritcal component to getting the whole "web" experience at present. With its pervasiveness at hundreds of major sites, I consider Flash as much a part of the everday web as I consider PDFs a sad reality of government website forms. That being said, Flash definitely needs to be concerned, and it hopefully will be replaced in the future, despite the confidence that Kevin Lynch exudes. Developers will be pushed by management to develop on what will get the most penetration and presumably, costs the least. Right now, Flash is a great, cheap way to get neato dynamic content online. However, there is a growing population, largely driven by smartphones with the iPhone as the leader, that are accessing online that do not have decent Flash support. With the shrinking userbase, companies are going to look to alternative solutions like HTML5, which can serve the whole market. Well, that is unless they buy into this whole "app" thing, and hire developers to make an iPhone app, other developers for an Android app, even more developers for a Maemo app and even some developers for a WinMo app, if it still exists in a few months. Apple is betting that their base of iPhone users, soon to be bolstered with iPad users, is enough to push companies to go an alternate route than deal with Flash. Had the iPad come before the iPhone, it probably would be a different story, but Flash's days may very well be numbered!

"Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 & Adobe Premiere Elements 8 software gives you power and ease of use so you can do some amazing storytelling with photos and videos. Create extraordinary photos and incredible movies, and use them together in cinematic slide shows and more."

Another year, another version of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. It still feels like v7 of both products are "new" to me, but Adobe has locked into a yearly release cycle for both these products so I shouldn't be surprised. I'm a big fan of Photoshop Elements and use it daily. I happen to believe that a large number of people using Photoshop really don't need it, and encourage people to give Photoshop Elements a try whenever I can - it's a very capable program that can do everything most people need to do. There's certainly a place for the full-fledged version of Photoshop in the marketplace, but I think people buy into the "I need to have Photoshop, nothing else will do" a little too often.

Premiere Elements? I have mixed feelings about this program. On the one hand, it's delightfully easy to use - everything is fairly intuitive about it, and after having used it for a few years I can work really quickly with it. The down-side is that, in general, it's not a very stable program. Prior to v7, I'd describe it as "crash happy". Things got much better with v7, but I still had trouble with it on a fairly frequent basis. What boggles the mind is that Adobe seems to be the only company in the world that never releases software patches or updates for their Elements line - they don't fix bugs, or address new codecs, they just release a new version and presumably fix the problem in the new version. As an example, Premiere Elements 7 chokes on the AVCHD Lite files from my Panasonic DMC-ZS3 camera. Is there going to be an update to fix this problem? Nope. Will it work properly in v8? Yes, it's likely that it will. So I'll very likely give v8 a try and hope that things get better with it again...

"Our biggest problem with Premiere Elements is that it suffers a host of problems (both minor and major). The first glitch occurred when we were trying to capture HDV footage via FireWire from a Canon HV10. The app's preview screen would simply stop showing the preview footage. The content would capture, but we could not watch it as it was captured. OK, not a show stopper. More serious was our inability to burn more than one hour of HD footage to a Blu-ray disc. The app would either hang or reboot Windows Vista 64-bit. And it's not like we didn't bring enough firepower. We tested using this month's Gateway FX6800 (page 76), which was equipped with a 2.93GHz Core i7-940, Radeon HD 4870 X2, and 6GB of RAM."

Reading this review, I could only nod along with their findings - Premiere Elements 7 has a lot going for it, but it's ultimately plagued by bugs, strage behaviours, and limitations around codecs and file formats. I recieved a copy for review months ago, but my review notes read like a product-bashing session because I found more wrong with it than right. Believe it or not though, I'm still using it to produce the videos you see here - that's largely because I've set up templates in it and having to re-create those templates in another program would be a pain. Ultimately, Premiere Elements 7 as a program has a lot of potential, but it doesn't live up to it.

"Welcome to the Adobe® Photoshop® Camera Raw 5.4 plug-in release candidate on Adobe Labs. The Camera Raw plug-in provides easy access within Photoshop to the raw image formats produced by many leading professional and midrange digital cameras. The ‘release candidate' label indicates that the plug-in is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers. The Camera Raw team would like the community to help verify the quality of the plug-in through normal usage as this will ensure that the plug-in is tested on a diversity of hardware and software configurations not available internally at Adobe."

Newly supported cameras in this release are: Canon EOS 500D (EOS Rebel T1i), Epson R-D1x, Hasselblad CF-22, CF-22MS, CF-39, CF-39MS, CFH-22, CFH-39, CFV, 503CWD, H2D-22, H2D-39, H3D-22, H3D-31, H3D-39, H3DII-22, H3DII-31, H3DII-39, H3DII-39MS, H3DII-50, Kodak EasyShare Z980, Nikon D5000, Olympus E-450, Olympus E-620, Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1, and the Sigma DP2. If you've got one of those cameras, and you've been itching to use ACR with the raw files, here's your chance.

Photoshop Elements is a surprisingly powerful and capable package - I've been using it for years, going back several versions, and for the kind of work I tend to do with photos, it's more than enough. I think a lot of people have bought into the hype that Photoshop CS is the "only" software you should use if you're at all serious about photography, and I think that's incorrect. At any rate, getting Photoshop Elements 7 for $59.99 USD (40% off the normal price) is a great deal - it easily out-does every other product I've tested in the sub-$100 price range. The new version, which I'm working on a review of, has a lot to offer.

Product Category: Photo editing software

Manufacturer: Adobe

Where to Buy: Amazon.com [Affiliate]

Price: $265.99 USD ($99 upgrade from Lightroom 1.0 direct from Adobe)

System Requirements: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit) or OS X 10.4/10.5. 1 GB RAM, 1 GB hard drive space...but if you have a computer with those specs, you probably shouldn't be shooting in raw. Figure on 2+ GB of RAM and a 2+ Ghz dual-core CPU for decent performance.

Pros:

• Great quality raw photo conversions using Adobe Camera Raw;
• Fast software that scales to multi-core systems beautifully;
• Clearly designed for photography professionals in a hurry;
• Impressive depth of tools for correction, adjusting, printing, and sharing online.

Cons:

• Lack of HDR functionality; no duplicate filtering
• Needs a fast CPU and plenty of RAM to really sing;
• No automatic lens barrel distortion correction like DxO Optics Pro offers.

Summary: Lightroom is a photo processing software package aimed at professional and prosumer users. More specifically, it's raw photo processing software. If you don't have a camera that can shoot in raw format, or you're only shooting in JPEG, this isn't the software for you. If you're a photographer who shoots in raw format and are looking for software that will help you develop, edit, process, sort, rank, and export your images, this is among the best software on the market for those tasks and well-worth the asking price. Read more...

"Adobe® Photoshop.com Mobile is the easiest way to upload, view, and share your photos online from your phone. All you need is a supported Windows Mobile phone and your Photoshop.com account ID. Photoshop.com Mobile beta will be available as a free download in September."

Adobe claims that Photoshop.com Mobile will only support the MOTO Q, Blackjack, and Treo 700/750 series, although we're willing to bet most other Windows Mobile devices will handle it just fine as long as Flash is installed. At any rate, we'll let you know the moment it's available.

"Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the Open Screen Project, supported by a group of industry leaders, including ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless. The project is dedicated to driving rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics. Also supporting the Open Screen Project are leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal, who want to reliably deliver rich Web and video experiences live and on-demand across a variety of devices. The Open Screen Project is working to enable a consistent runtime environment -- taking advantage of Adobe® Flash® Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR™ -- that will remove barriers for developers and designers as they publish content and applications across desktops and devices, including phones, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), and set top boxes. The Open Screen Project will address potential technology fragmentation by enabling the runtime technology to be updated seamlessly over the air on mobile devices. The consistent runtime environment is intended to provide optimal performance across a variety of operating systems and devices, and ultimately provide the best experience to consumers."



Adobe, in a typical long-winded manner, recently announced the opening up of Flash in an attempt to enable consistency in content delivery across a wide range of devices, including set top boxes and mobile phones. In what is most likely a response to Silverlight and HTML 5, the industry initiative sees the removal of restrictions on the use of SWF and FLV/F4V, the removal of licensing fees, and the publishing of multiple APIs and protocols. Definitely a step forward. Any developers and designers care to weigh in with their thoughts?