Adobe, Facebook partner to create Flash developer tools

Adobe has partnered with one of the most popular social networking Web sites, Facebook, to give developers a new set of tools to create applications.

The applications will use Adobe's Flash platform and the new ActionScript 3 Client Library for Facebook the two companies developed together. The client library is a free open source programming language that supports Facebook application programming interfaces (APIs) including Facebook Connect.

Adrian Ludwig, Adobe's group manager for platforms, told Macworld that the companies will release the library and then gather feedback from developers. The libraries will be updated, adding functionality based on that feedback, allowing developers to make better applications.

The number and types of developers using Flash is increasing all the time. Some of the developers are focused on Flash, while others are coming from more traditional segments of the market.

"We are seeing that it's becoming quite easy for traditional developers to start using Flash," said Ludwig. "That's quite a change from where it was five to eight years ago when Flash was focused on animation."

Adobe said that Flash Player 9 has 98 percent penetration, meaning that 98 percent of all Internet connected computers have the application installed. The company did a study two months after the release of Flash Player 10 and found 55 percent penetration. While not released yet, Ludwig said he expects the latest adoption rate for Flash Player 10 to top 80 percent.

Those numbers give Flash Player 10 the fastest adoption rate of any version of Flash Player, according to Adobe.

Writing Facebook applications in Flash is not new. In fact, 12 of top 20 apps on Facebook use Flash. However, the new tools should make it easier for developers in the future.

Adobe is making documentation, example applications and code available for download from its Web site.

Tesla Model S Electric Sedan Breaks Cover

LOS ANGELES — Tesla Motors, the electric-car maker, unveiled its much-anticipated Model S sedan on Thursday, here at the SpaceX rocket plant, which is also owned by Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk.

Mr. Musk, in introducing the Model S, said the first cars would be delivered to customers in the third quarter of 2011. The company said it would build the car in Southern California, but would not say where.

Three different power configurations will be available, Mr. Musk said, “160-mile, 230-mile and 300-mile battery packs.” The 160-mile pack comes standard on the $57,400 base model (a federal tax credit can shave $7,500 from the price). He declined to provide pricing for the longer-range battery packs, but said they could be rented or leased “if you wanted to go on a long trip, or something.” Battery packs have a projected life expectancy of seven to 10 years and can be easily changed or swapped, he added.

In its most powerful configuration, the Model S would weigh “about 4,000 pounds” and have a top speed of more than 130 miles an hour, Mr. Musk said. It is said to accelerate from a standing start to 60 miles an hour in less than six seconds. The $109,000 Tesla Roadster can sprint to 60 miles an hour in four seconds.

The Model S, which looks a bit like the Maserati Quattroporte sedan, was the subject of a recent styling re-do by Franz von Holzhausen, formerly of Mazda, who joined Tesla last year. The original design was sketched by Henrik Fisker, who has since started his own electric-car company.

The Model S will seat up to seven people. Folding the rear seats down increases cargo space.

“It has side-facing seats in the rear, like some station wagons once had,” Mr. von Holzhausen said. “You can also fit a 50-inch plasma TV in there, a surfboard and other large objects — although not at the same time seven people are sitting in it. It’s one or the other.”

The version shown here had a glass roof, which Mr. von Holzhausen said was also planned for the production model.

“The absence of a conventional powertrain creates all sorts of possibilities for rethinking the traditional interior configuration of the automobile,” he explained.

There was some initial confusion about pricing at Thursday’s press conference. Mr. Musk said the price would be $49,900 and suggested the actual cost would actually be less, “down in Ford Taurus territory” when factoring in savings of “$10,000 to $15,000” because the Model S uses no gasoline and qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit. He later said that the price is, in fact, $57,400 and that the federal tax credit should be deducted from that amount, not the $49,900 price he had earlier cited.

Tesla is planning production of up to 20,000 Model S sedans yearly, once manufacturing at its planned plant ramps up fully in mid-2012. Mr. Musk said production of the vehicle was being moved from a previously announced site in San Jose, Calif. The company has said that Model S production also depends on the approval of a loan from the Department of Energy.

Last year, the federal government made $25 billion in low-interest loans available to automakers big and small to develop new technologies like electric cars. The Department of Energy is currently in the process of sifting through the applications.

Fisker Karma Hybrid

One thing that we haven't seen from any of the startup green car makers to date is traditional television advertising. That's partly because most of these companies are operating on minimal budgets and what money they do have is being dedicated to trying to get their vehicles on the road. Fisker Automotive is a different case. With a star designer at the helm and venture capital cash in the bank (for now at least), the fledgling manufacturer has begun running its first TV spots. The initial ads appeared on local Los Angeles stations last week. If a company like Fisker is going to advertise, LA would be the place to do it. The area is home to large numbers of high dollar, high performance cars and plenty of environmentally aware people with money (or it did until about six months ago). These are precisely the people to whom a car like the Karma would appeal. With a goal of 15,000 sales a year, Fisker is going to have its work cut out finding buyers in in this economy. Watch the ad after the jump.

Warren Buffett's advice for 2009

Google Eyes Rival Skype with VoIP Service

Google has launched a VoIP service for mobile phone users that looks set to rival apps from Skype and Truphone.

The service offers the ability to make free local and cheap international calls that are routed through the internet and providing you with one number that receives any calls, whether they are to your home, work, or mobile number

The service also automatically transcribes a voicemail into text and then send it your Gmail inbox or via SMS to your handset, so you read rather than listen to the voicemail. It will also offers the same function for any text messages you receive to you mobile phone.

"We will transcribe voicemails and convert it into text and put it in your inbox so that it's searchable and you will always have a record of that voicemail," said Craig Walker, now group product manager for real time communications at Google and co-founder of GrandCentral - the telephone company Google acquired in 2007.

"They [the transcribed voicemails] may include mistakes but we plan to make accuracy improvements over time," said Google in a blog.

"This is about allowing your existing phone to work better. It's not that we are replacing your phone, we are giving [it] the ability to work better," added Walker.

Google Voice is currently only available to US residents and will initially only be available to subscribers to telephone company GrandCentral.

Google Voice offer similar benefits to a service recently launched by VoIP company Skype and Spinvox. The service allows Skype users to have voicemails sent to their Skype number converted into SMS and sent to their mobile phone. The service costs 17p plus the initial cost of sending a text message.