Adobe Reboots for apps

For all the folks out there who love to bash Adobe Systems for its Flash Player software, it's time to take a fresh look at the company.
Because today's Adobe is very different than the one that long promoted Flash as the way to a rich, interactive Web. Adobe is being reborn as a Web technology company that is advancing Web standards, not promoting its own in-house technology alternative at the expense of those standards.
It's not just Web standards making an appearance, either. Adobe also is moving beyond the personal-computer era with serious apps for tablets. It's a natural fit for the affluent, creative set that gravitates to Adobe's software, but it's a big change in development and sales for the company.
It's not clear to what extent Adobe's new initiatives will succeed in making the company relevant with modern computing trends. But it's time to give the company credit for adapting.
Actions speak louder than words
Adobe has been talking about its Web work for years now, but actions speak louder than words. Here are major recent moves--some announced this week at the Max conference--that show the company's new Web priorities:
• It's working on software called Edge to let people design dynamic, interactive Web sites. It's developing Edge in public with preview releases that give the company a way to discuss priorities with developers and respond to feedback. Edge is designed to be a tool for professionals.
• It's taking a leadership role in creating standards, notably with the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standard for Web page formatting. Adobe has pushed ahead with CSS Regions and Exclusions for advanced, magazine-like text flow around and within objects, and added to that this week with CSS Shaders, for programmable, animated control over Web pages' 3D geometry and color effects. It's directly building browser code within the WebKit project to support the ideas.

Steve Jobs Died Today 06.10.11

Steve Jobs, from his early days of tinkering with electronics to today's groundbreaking designs of the iPhone and iPad, never wavered from his vision. An iconoclast who changed the way we do everything, from how we listen to music and watch movies to how we teach our children, Jobs died today 06.10.11. He was 56.
"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives," Apple said in a statement. "The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."

Jobs, an Apple co-founder and most recently chairman of the company, had been suffering from various health issues following the seventh anniversary of his surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in August 2004. Apple announced in January that he would be taking an indeterminate medical leave of absence, with Jobs then stepping down from his role as CEO in late August.

Jobs had undergone a liver transplant in April 2009 during an earlier planned six-month leave of absence. He returned to work for a year and a half before his health forced him to take more time off. He told his employees in August, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."