| Adobe releases Moviestar beta for Flash Player 9
Adobe Systems's upgrade for its Flash Player, released on Tuesday, adds support for one of the latest video encoding standards as well as new audio support. The upgrade, called Moviestar, applies to Adobe's latest Flash Player, version 9. A beta of the upgrade will be available for download later in the day, with a final version to be ready in the third quarter, Adobe said. Moviestar supports the playback of video encoded using the H.264 standard, which allows for greater compression of video files than previous standards while maintaining quality. Adobe already supports H.264 encoding in products such as Premiere Pro and the After Effects video editing software. Moviestar also includes High-Efficiency AAC support, an improved audio compression technology. Although the complete specifications of the upgrade are complicated, Adobe has tried to stick to industry standards as users sort through a range of available video technologies, wrote Tinic Uro, an Adobe engineer who works on the Flash Player, on his blog.
GStreamer plugin release brings better cross-platform support
A new version of the GStreamer plugin modules was released yesterday after eight months of intensive development. One of the most significant features in this release is support for using native Quicktime and DirectShow codecs on Mac OS X and Windows, a feature that will make GStreamer an ideal framework for developing cross-platform multimedia applications. GStreamer is an open source multimedia framework that facilitates playback and editing of audio and video content. The GStreamer framework is used in a wide variety of popular applications such as Second Life, the Banshee audio player, the Jokosher non-linear audio editor, and the Pitvi video editor. GStreamer provides a versatile pipeline system that allows applications to string together multimedia operations and also has an advanced plugin system that makes it easy to extend.
PCI Express Version of Matrox Axio LE Realtime Editing Platform Now ...
Montreal, Canada . Matrox Video Products Group today announced the immediate availability of the new PCI Express (PCIe) version of the Matrox Axio LE realtime HD and SD editing platform. "We are introducing the PCIe version of Axio LE as part of our commitment to continually evolve our realtime editing platforms to take advantage of new technologies that can lower cost and increase performance for our customers" said Pierre-Martin Dion, Matrox Axio product manager"The PCIe version of Axio LE expands users system choices to include many lower cost workstations including the HP xw4600" Matrox Axio LE provides a complete post-production solution that lets users get the best from Adobe CS3 Production Premium. The Axio platforms are designed to provide the most comprehensive realtime feature set, the highest quality native codec technology, and complete file-based workflows - totally integrated with the Adobe software.
NAACP Demands Apology From Overstock.com Founder
The NAACP demanded an apology Friday from the founder of Overstock.com, who said Utah minorities who don't graduate from high school might as well be burned or thrown away. Patrick Byrne's comments were posted on YouTube. The video clip was from a debate two weeks ago in Provo, where he was speaking in favor of vouchers, public aid for families sending kids to private schools. A statewide voucher program, granting $500 to $3,000 per child, based on family income, is on the Utah ballot Nov. 6. On YouTube, Byrne says: “Right now, 40 percent of Utah minorities are not graduating from high school. You may as well burn those kids. That's the end of their life. That's the end of their ability to achieve in this society if they do not get a high school education." He goes on to add: “You might as, just throw the kids away." Byrne has made similar remarks in other debates.
Dick Jerardi: END OF STREAKS
OU won, 64-37. WILDEST GAME Creighton beat Bradley, 111-110, in two overtimes. The teams will play each other again Friday in the opening round of the MVC Tournament. Creighton now has 10 consecutive 20-win seasons. HAS THIS BEEN DONE? Davidson finished 20-0 in the Southern Conference. That has to be a record. Memphis and Cornell are the only other teams unbeaten in league play. Memphis has two regular-season league games left, Cornell three. DICK JERARDI'S TOP 15 1. Memphis (28-1): Shot well from everywhere, but did not defend for once and held on, 76-67 at Southern Mississippi. USM shot 54.2 percent against the Tigers, who had been holding teams to 37.8 percent. 2. North Carolina (27-2): Came from 18 down early in second half and survived 46 points from Boston College's Tyrese Rice to win, 90-80.
Expo Keynote - Live Update
Almost 20 percent of the installed base is upgraded to Leopard (a nifty wood theme on Keynote pie chart). We get quotes from Walt Mossberg, David Pogue, Ed Baig, (Bet the fourth one is Steven Levy!). Ooh, a surprise: it's actually Ed Mendelson from PC Magazine (that gets a laugh). 9:17 PT: DM - Leopard's been well received by developers. Microsoft is now shipping Office 2008. It's the last big app to go native on Intel. Whoops, first Jobs glitch: he said “Tiger" when he meant “Leopard." 9:18 PT: DM - Jobs talks about Time Machine: You wish you didn't need that wire for connecting your Time Machine drive. And today we've got one— Time Capsule, a backup appliance. It's a full AirPort Extreme base station and a hard drive. 802.11n networking and a server grade hard drive.
2009 Lincoln MKS: All-New Full-Size Flagship Sedan to Win New Buyers ...
In fact, up to 60 percent of those buying the luxury sedan are expected to be new to Lincoln. "We're playing to win with the Lincoln MKS, especially in California, where more luxury vehicles are sold than anywhere else. We will do so by offering confident, understated, respectful luxury -- not something that will go out of fashion in a year or two," said Mike Richards, Lincoln General Marketing Manager. "We're also making an extra effort to reach out to African American and Hispanic buyers who want and deserve luxury in their lives, in part, through new marketing relationships with artists Common and Juanes." Juanes, a 12-time Latin Grammy award winning artist, will help introduce SYNC, which is standard on Lincolns and widely available on Ford and Mercury products, to the Hispanic market.
Upside of U.S. downturn is about inflation
Don't expect Ben Bernanke to come right out and say it. But the U.S. Federal Reserve Board chief just may be secretly wishing for the one thing he insists he's working tirelessly to avert – a recession. The reason, of course, is the surprising resurgence of inflation. While we've all been watching the U.S. housing slump and the credit crunch play out, prices for just about everything have been quietly spiking. Last week, oil and wheat pushed to new highs that seem almost surreal. Oil at more than $103 (U.S.) a barrel. Wheat approaching $15 a bushel. .
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