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kottke.org posts about Adobe

Project Primrose: Interactive Digital Fashion

At their recent creativity conference, Adobe showed off Project Primrose, in the form of a dress that changes colors and patterns at the click of a button. The garment could also display animations, including ones that respond to the wearer’s movements. From The Kid Should See This:

Created with small scales or petals that are programmed with Adobe software, the futuristic ‘fabric’ can be used for clothing, handbags, curtains, furniture, and endless other surfaces.

Research Scientist Christine Dierk and her team designed and programmed everything about it. Dierk also stitched it together.


Adobe acquires Typekit

When I heard the news, my immediate reaction was not positive. There may have been an expletive uttered. I am happy for the crew at Typekit, several of whom are my friends, but Adobe products do not fill me with joy when I use them. No one I know is filled with joy when using Adobe products…mostly the opposite. Typekit is a great service; I hope Adobe keeps it that way.


Steve Jobs: Thoughts on Flash

A letter from Steve Jobs about why they don’t allow Flash on iPhones, iPods, and iPads. (Notice he specifically uses the harsher “allow” instead of the much softer “support”.)

Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript โ€” all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Jobs sort of circles around the main issue which is, from my own perspective as heavy web user and web developer: though Flash may have been necessary in the past to provide functionality in the browser that wasn’t possible using JS, HTML, and CSS, that is no longer the case. Those open web technologies have matured (or will in the near future) and can do most or even all of what is possible with Flash. For 95% of all cases, Flash is, or will soon be, obsolete because there is a better way to do it that’s more accessible, more open, and more “web-like”.


How Adobe Photoshop was born.

How Adobe Photoshop was born.


Adobe has released the beta version of

Adobe has released the beta version of a program called Lightroom (OS X only), a competitor to Apple’s Aperture. Both are pro-level apps for manipulating and organizing digital photos. Here’s the story of Lightroom’s development from one of its developers. (via df)


Adobe is planning on combining Flash Player

Adobe is planning on combining Flash Player and Acrobat Reader? As Todd says, “I don’t know about you, but I just got an acrid taste in my mouth”.

Update: John Dowdell notes that Adobe has clarified their position re: the above combination: “we will continue delivering the Flash Player as a small, efficient runtime for content and applications on the web”. (thx, neil)


Chris Anderson argues that media companies, unable

Chris Anderson argues that media companies, unable to push the piracy rate to 0%, should live with the benefits of “just enough piracy”. I’ve heard that in the (distant) past, Adobe turned a blind eye to piracy of Photoshop because it was getting their product out into the market. Tim O’Reilly’s related essay entitled Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution is worth a read as well.


A timeline of splash screen graphics for

A timeline of splash screen graphics for Adobe Photoshop. I didn’t know that Photoshop was developed outside of Adobe and then licensed later. (thx mark)


GUI: a re-presentation of the Adobe Photoshop

GUI: a re-presentation of the Adobe Photoshop interface within a 3-dimensional space.


John Gruber’s plain English version of the

John Gruber’s plain English version of the Adobe/Macromedia Acquisition FAQ. “Please also note that PDF is an excellent format for sending out resumes.”


Whoa! Adobe to buy Macromedia?!!?!?!

Whoa! Adobe to buy Macromedia?!!?!?!. Wow! ??!!?!??!! I don’t think there’s enough room in my MT database for all the question marks and exclamation points I want to use here.