Loudmouthman

What application launches when you watch a movie on your desktop ? Is it Windows Media Player ?, iTunes (Quicktime ) ? or VLC ? All great applications for the desktop platform but what about the Internet ?

Adobe in an recent announcement have updated the Flashmedia player and in doing so they have sent a clear message to their competitors the Interntnet is their platform and they are the default media player for it.

The new release of the public beta version of Flash Player 9 , codenamed MovieStar will see support for H.264 and HE-AAC and will be available for download from Adobe labs. There is a far more technical review and discussion available here but the short answer to the long document is that Adobe are ensuring you can provide an m4a format ( podcasting to the less technically discerning ) file on a webpage and stream it via Adobes flash player. Want to upload video and have it directly delivered via Flash, you got it.

The Internet has is Media player and its name is Flash, cue obvious Queen link.

Thanks for reading.

Video blogging and video comment sites are getting as much buzz as the current trend in Social Networking sites. As a result I find that yet again I am having to spend time in a Windows Platform in order to participate. Its amazing how much traction Ubuntu and Open source has in the conversations I am having on-line in the social networks so it will be disappointing to see the trouble that arises when Webcams are plugged in.

Webcam support within many linux distributions is not as ubiquitous as printers or mice or monitors. Given the growth in interest for Video sites, I am hoping that Webcam manufacturers and lets be honest here “Logitech” will look to work with the community to improve camera support.

I am aware that there is a significant number of cameras that are supported by Linux and several good projects are already in progress and I can only keep my fingers crossed that my cameras , a Logitech Orb and Logitecg 5000v, will get support soon enough. Currently searching on Google for answers shows that Logitech and Philips support is still not at the plug and go experience that Ubuntu is synonymous .

The other aspect to be resolved here is the ( some part of the  ) communities dissatisfaction with Adobe Flash as  playback and video delivery device. From my perspective I cannot think of a better time to embrace and extend our enthusiasm and commitment to supporting a software supplier. Adobe will be facing increasing competition from Microsofts Silverlight format. If we as a community can find ways to support, encourage and aid Adobe with its integration and accommodation of open source development communities we will win far more than we could lose.  I certainly hope ( and hey I can hope ) that smart partnership builders in Dell , IBM and Canonical and Adobe will see an opportunity here to add to a market share.

If that does come about then I for one will video about it here first.

Thanks for reading ( and watching )