Adobe downgraded; ex-Yahoo added to board

Shares of Adobe Systems fell 7 percent Tuesday after a market analyst downgraded the company's stock from "market perform" to "underperform." Share closed at $22.10, down $1.66, after FBR Research analyst David Hilal said in a research note that he cut his rating on Adobe's stock because the "shares have risen to a point where the risk-reward profile is unfavorable." Hilal also said Adobe depends too much on new unit sales and lacks recurring revenue from existing customers. In other news, Adobe announced that former Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig had joined the company's board of directors. Rosensweig, who served as Yahoo's chief operating officer for nearly five years before departing in 2006, was previously president of CNET Networks, publisher of CNET News.. Adobe also announced that board members Colleen Pouliot and Delbert Yocam would retire, effective March 31. Pouliot has served on the board since 2001, and Yocam has served for 18 years, Adobe said.
[Via: cnet.com ] [Tag: ]

Flash Player 10 beta available now

Adobe has just made the prerelease version of Flash Player 10 available for download. Almost as impressive as the player itself is the fact that the beta is available for Windows, OS X AND Linux (including Ubuntu support)!
For the full list of features and known issues, check out the release notes, but some of the highlights are:

• New text engine
  
• Ubuntu OS support
  
• Custom filters and effects
  
• Large bitmap support

Adobe's demo page for Flash Player 10 is pretty impressive; we especially liked the inverse kinematic and native 3D demos.
Adobe recommends uninstalling previous versions of Flash Player before installing 10 beta. Downloads are available here.

[Via: Download Squad ]
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Tweeting in Linux part II: Twitux v. Twhirl

We're always on the lookout for good desktop Twitter clients. Because while the microblogging service is kind of useful as a web-based tool for sharing your thoughts, desktop clients make Twitter feel more like an instant messaging platform that allows you to communicate with hundreds, even thousands of people at once.

While there are a couple of excellent Twitter clients for Windows and OS X, Linux users have had a more limited selection. A few months ago we looked at gTwitter, an application for reading and sending Tweets from your Linux desktop. While gTwitter will get the job done, it lacks some of the features we use the most, like URL shortening and the ability to reply to tweets from other users with the click of a button.

So we were pretty excited when we read about Twitux, another Twitter client designed for Linux. Installation couldn't have been easier. We downloaded a deb file for Ubuntu, and our system automatically downloaded all the required dependencies and instlled Twtiux. And then we saw that it was almost as basic as gTwitter. Twitux gives you more control over your timeline view, allowing you to see the public timeline, your friends timeline, your own timeline, direct messages, or replies. But if you want to send a reply or direct message you'll have to do it manually. There's no option to click on a friends' name in the timeline and respond.

Fortunately, now that Adobe has released a version of their AIR platform for Linux, you can run popular AIR-based Twitter clients like Spaz and Twhirl, So while we're still kind of hoping that someone will develop a full-featured Twitter client that runs natively in Linux, we'll happily settle for the cross-platform Twhirl client. A new version of Twhirl was released this week with a few bug fixes and one major new feature: support for Friendfeed discussions.

[Via: Download Squad ]
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Nominate the best for the Flash Forward Film Festival

Flashforward2008 is going to be in San Francisco this August. This annual conference is directed at Flash designers and developers and those who aspire to be called a designer or developer. Every year Flashforward features a Film Festival with open nominations of the best Flash content out there. In 2008 the categories have changed to the following:

1. Application
   
2. Cartoon/Story/Narrative
   
3. Code
   
4. Experimental/Art
   
5. Game
   
6. Motion Graphics
   
7. Navigation/Experience
   
8. Sound
   
9. Typography
   
10. Video

Anyone can submit links to Flash based works in all categories that are 'innovative and compelling.' Previous winners include Paper Vision 3d, the MoMA Contemporary Voice exhibition, and the amazing Tokyo Plastic. If you do submit a nomination to Flashforward2008 via the official film festival page, please let us know in the comments below with a link. The deadline for nominations is Father's Day, June 15, 2008.

[Via: Download Squad ]
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