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INTEREST: iPad, iPhone making gains
by Billing Wayne 23 Jul '11

23 Jul '11

On the Wallstreet Journal run site "All things D(igital)", there are two stories about the growth of iPad and iPhone: ....from: http://allthingsd.com/20110721/apple-the-worlds-largest-smartphone-vendor/?… Apple: World’s Largest Smartphone Vendor JULY 21, 2011 AT 8:23 AM PT Another notch in Apple’s belt. The iPhone maker has finallyovertaken Nokia as the world’s biggest smartphone vendor. Posting abysmal second-quarter earnings this morning, Nokia reported smartphone shipments that slid 34 percent to 16.7 million units, and in doing so, forfeited its title as world’s largest smartphone manufacturer by volume. Apple, which became the world’s largest handset vendor by revenue in the first quarter of 2011 (again overtaking Nokia to claim that title), shipped 20.3 million iPhones in its second quarter. Until today, Nokia had dominated the smartphone market for about 15 years after essentially creating it with the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996. An astonishing upheaval in the global smartphone landscape — more so because Apple managed it in under five years. With a single smartphone. ....from: http://allthingsd.com/20110721/ipad-trouncing-android-in-enterprise/ John Paczkowski iPad Trouncing Android in Enterprise JULY 21, 2011 AT 6:00 AM PT The tablet is not yet a standard-issue sidearm in enterprise, but it’s well on its way to becoming one — particularly Apple’s iPad. According to Good Technology, which provides mobile device management services to 49 of the Fortune 100 and 182 of the Fortune 500, 27 percent of the mobile devices activated by its enterprise customers during the second quarter of 2011 were tablets.* And most of those were iPads. More than 95 percent, actually. Which is impressive, certainly, but not all that surprising. The iPad is more well-established in the tablet market than its various Android rivals; it makes sense that it has made deeper inroads into enterprise. That said, it’s worth noting that Android tablet activations among Good customers actually declined to 3.1 percent during the quarter, despite the debut of the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy. In fact, Good noted more iPad activations during the quarter than activations of all Android tablets and smartphones combined. Interesting, considering Android’s recent growth. Why the disparity? John Herrema, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Good, thinks it’s got a lot to do with the consumerization of IT and the growing number of “Bring Your Own Device” employees in the enterprise space. “We attribute the large gap between iPad and Android tablet activations to the combination of user preference among our ‘BYOD’ users and large deployments of company-owned iPads, especially in verticals like financial services and healthcare,” he told AllThingsD.com. But the iPad can’t maintain that vast a lead forever. Android will likely narrow the gap in tablet activations just as it did for smartphones before, though Good doesn’t see that happening until at least 2012. “As we saw with Android smartphones over the course of 2010, we do expect Android to narrow this huge gap in tablet activations,” the company wrote in its Device Activations Report. “However, we don’t see that happening in 2011. The iPad 2 simply has too much momentum.” Indeed. As Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said during Apple’s latest earnings call earlier this week, “Today 86 percent of the Fortune 500 are deploying or testing iPad within their enterprises, up from 75 percent last quarter. We are also seeing strong adoption internationally with 47 percent of Global 500 companies testing or deploying iPad. In the 15 months since iPad has shipped, we have seen iPad used in the enterprise in ways we could have never imagined.” *Good’s survey data does not include Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook or Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad.

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FYI: OS X 10.7 (Lion) "Up To Date" program: if you've recently purchased
by billing 21 Jul '11

21 Jul '11

...from: http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/ If you've purchased a qualifying computer that does not include OS X Lion, you can upgrade to Lion free of charge. And if you recently purchased a qualifying Mac Server, you can upgrade to Lion Server at no additional cost. Check out the conditions below to see if you qualify. OS X Lion Up to Date Program- How it works Qualifying purchases between June 06, 2011 and July 20, 2011 Customers who purchase a qualifying new Mac Computeror an Apple Certified Refurbished computer from the Apple Online Store between June 6, 2011 and July 20, 2011 that does not include OS X Lion can upgrade to OS X Lion for free. If you purchased your computer from the Apple Online Store, an Apple Retail Store, or an Apple Authorized Reseller, follow one of these links to participate in the program. Remember your order must be entered by August 19, 2011. Subject to terms and conditions. Redeem from the Apple Online Store If you cannot submit an order through the Apple Online Store, follow this link to participate in the program. Qualifying purchases on or after July 21, 2011 Customers who purchase a qualifying new Mac Computeror an Apple Certified Refurbished computer from the Apple Online Store on or after July 21, 2011 that does not include OS X Lion can upgrade to OS X Lion for free. If you purchased your computer from the Apple Online Store, an Apple Retail Store, or an Apple Authorized Reseller, follow one of these links to participate in the program. Remember your completed order must be entered within 30 days of the date of your purchase of a qualifying computer (described in this offer). Subject to terms and conditions. Redeem from the Apple Online Store If you cannot submit an order through the Apple Online Store, follow this link to participate in the program.

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FYI: OS X 10.7 available; JAVA: install-on-demand
by billing 20 Jul '11

20 Jul '11

In case you haven't yet seen it, OS X 10.7 (Lion) is now available for purchase from the MacApp store: http://www.apple.com/ca/macosx/ As a side bar, for those of you who need/use JAVA (from the Apple JAVA developer's mailing list): Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:37:17 -0700 From: Mike Swingler <swingler(a)apple.com> Subject: Re: Java and OS X Lion Cc: Java-Dev Mailing List <java-dev(a)lists.apple.com> Message-ID: <BB21E599-5AF8-43CA-ABC4-005C0B61FEE3(a)apple.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Java for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is provided as an install-on-demand download. Launching an application that is linked against the JavaVM framework (as the JavaApplicationStub is), causes the install-on-demand dialog to be presented, the app is terminated, and if the runtime was successfully installed, the app is re-launched. Long-term, we recommend that app developers who use the JavaApplicationStub should transition to embedding the Java runtime within their own app. We are working with Oracle on the OpenJDK project to provide an open source version of JDK7 that can be embedded, and several developers have already started deploying their apps with an embedded JDK7 (but it requires many manual steps right now). We are tracking the progress of creating an embeddable JRE in <http://java.net/jira/browse/MACOSX_PORT-105>. Regards, Mike Swingler Java Engineering Apple Inc. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

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INTEREST: The theology of iCloud
by billing 30 Jun '11

30 Jun '11

[Any Ihnatko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Ihnatko) is a writer of computer articles, programming manuals, and the like. His wry wit sometimes cuts quickly to the heart of the matter in question. He is credited with the original concept of the MacQuarium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macquarium) as a potential use for outdated Mac 128K and 512K machines and published the first instructions on how to build one.] ...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/160687/2011/06/ihnatko_icloud_god.html#lsrc… The theology of iCloud by Andy Ihnatko, Macworld.com Jun 26, 2011 8:00 am We’re now in the calm, cozy eye of the iCloud storm. The anticipation and speculation period was followed by the day of the announcement and the Getting of the Facts, which was followed by the analysis of the announcement and the grinding but not-at-all necessary process of converting one’s initial enthusiasm into an endless list of reasons to be deeply concerned about the future of our great Republic. Each of these things is stressful. The next step after this is the most stressful yet: it’s the bit when iOS 5 actually ships and we get our first chance to see how iCloud might destroy our day-to-day lives for real, instead of just hypothetically. But as I say, at the moment the skies are blue and the winds are still. It’s a brief bit of time in which we should stroll the yard, tracing bursts of confused clucking and mooing to animals that have been halfway-embedded in trees, and effect a humanitarian rescue, and think about the larger issues while we await the possible end of the world. Technology, when done ambitiously, is a form of art and as with painting, it’s always interesting to see how three different artists have approached the same subject. All art is autobiographical in nature, or so I heard in between naps during my Art History classes. It’s hard for me not to look at iCloud and the other new cloud services offered by Google and Amazon and think of them as emblematic of the companies’ views on the world. What I find most remarkable about iCloud is that (unless there’s a lot more that Apple hasn’t shown us yet) it’s not a destination: it’s a highway system. Yes, technically my iCloud contains loads of information and files, but that fact chiefly articulates itself when I pick up my iPad, launch Pages, and resume work on an article right from the point I left it on my MacBook earlier in the day. We understood iDisk (and even Dropbox) as a directory on a remote server that we could attach to our local file system and use for storage. Despite Apple’s positioning of iCloud as a Huge Thing, we’re not meant to even think of iDisk at all. We’re meant to just have our data where we need it, when we need it. iCloud is the reason why when I got back to my hotel room I found that my bed had been turned down and there was a bottle of Coke already on ice. It’s not the phone call I make to a hotel service to make those things happen. Some clouds have chrome linings Google’s attitude is 180 degrees away from Apple’s. The same week that Apple announced iCloud, the first wave of ChromeBooks started to ship. These are the machines that exist solely as host organisms for the Chrome browser. They can do very little except connect to Google and run apps on their servers, usually with data that’s hosted by Google somewhere. They’ve also introduced Google Music, which will let me sync my music library between my Android devices… provided that I upload all 13,000 tracks to Google’s servers first. Apple tipped its hat early by releasing iPhone and iPod Touch-compatible editions of its iOS iWork apps. Even without iCloud, it was a clear statement that Apple and Google are opposing forces destined to die with their hands wrapped around each other’s throats, like Popeye and Bluto or Lou Reed and Jimmy Buffett. Apple was clearly stating a belief that productivity apps belong on devices, with a network connecting these apps seamlessly. That’s diametrically opposed to Google’s app philosophy. Yes, using Google Docs’ web-based user interface is about as much fun as spending your last minutes of life in a disabled submarine that’s slowly sinking closer and closer to its crush depth… (I’m being kind; I count three independent menu bars.) …But when you host everything on the server, including apps, the user is left solely with the responsibility of launching the browser. And with a ChromeBook, it’s not even as complicated as that. The third cloud company in this pageant is Amazon. Amazon is the friendly neighbor who will always lend you his electric weed trimmer. You would never consider that your using his weed trimmer is coincidentally compatible with his own goals (that’s Apple) or that he’s actually manipulating you into using this weed trimmer as a ploy to broaden his opportunities to exploit you later on (yes, that’s Google; well-spotted). Amazon isn’t as simple-minded as that. It realizes that Amazon Cloud Player makes its MP3 store more valuable. But largely, Amazon’s server storage is like the power tool that it owns and often goes unused. If its customers are buying things from the store, why not give them a free Cloud Drive to put them in? Though it’s perfectly fine with them if you never ask to use it. Yes, it’s a clumsy analogy, but I’ll go ahead and say that Amazon is Ned Flanders… only without the mustache and all the God stuff. The three faces of cloud In a sense, these three companies’ cloud services do represent three different concepts of God. Google is an Old Testament, theist-style cloud all the way: He through whom all blessings and punishments come, who must be praised and supplicated; without the Cloud, you are nothing and have nothing. iCloud represents more of a Deist ideal. The Cloud exists, but its presence is more to be felt than seen; if it does its job right, iCloud will instill great doubt that it even exists, or that it takes any notice of us at all. Amazon is a form of agnosticism. You don’t know if you really believe in it or not, but you do know that on the third weekend of every month this pointy building near the center of town throws a really great bake sale. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced I’m on to something with these ideas about God and iCloud. Some atheists derisively describe God as “Your magic friend who lives in the clouds,” after all. I’m perfectly fine with that concept, if this new magical friend makes sure I’ll never again find myself 3000 miles from home with a hard drive that’s making crunchy noises instead of retrieving the Keynote files I’ll need for the four hours of talks I traveled there to deliver. I mean, at the time I prayed to my previous, analog God for deliverance… and a fat lot of good that did me.

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INTEREST: the Visible Thunderbolt Cable
by billing 30 Jun '11

30 Jun '11

...from: http://www.ifixit.com/blog/blog/2011/06/29/what-makes-the-thunderbolt-cable… What Makes the Thunderbolt Cable Lightning Fast June 29, 2011 Filed under: Hardware,Site News — miro @ 4:05 pm It’s the chips. And we’re not talking about the Lay’s variety. Wereceived good word from one of our friends, Ars Technica’s own Chris Foresman, that the $50Thunderbolt cable may be an active cable. He postulated that the cable may actually have chips containing firmware in it, making it more expensive to produce than your garden-variety HDMI cable — thus justifying the hefty price tag. There was only one way to find out for sure; we hopped on over to the local Apple Store and donated $50 to the build-Apple-a-new-campusfund. A short while later, the cable was in our hands and ready to go under the knife. And we knew exactly where to look. The cable contained a sturdy plastic sleeve on each end that looked quite suspicious. Heating up an Exacto knife worked well against the hard plastic, and we managed to remove the casing from the connector after some careful cutting/melting. Once the casing was gone, we had to perform a significant amount of desoldering and cutting in order remove the metal surrounding the connector. Peeling back the metal (which appears to be plated brass) revealed the hardware underneath. We found two Gennum GN2033 chips in the connector, one on each side. They were flanked by other, much smaller chips that surely added to the cable’s cost: two chips labeled S6A 1JG on one side, and chips labeled 1102F SS8370 and 131 3S on the other. Of course, there were tons of little resistors (providing impedance as needed) all around the larger chips. We assumed that the other connector side would be identical, and we were correct. All in all, Apple’s $50 cable contained a total of 12 larger, inscribed chips, and tons of smaller electronic components. One note: Gennum’s site mentions that their transceiver technology enables “reliable data transfer at cutting-edge speeds over low cost, thin-gauge copper cables.” Perhaps they were thinking of some other low cost cables, as we don’t think Apple’s $50 creation can be considered cheap. But, now you can at least sleep better at night knowing that there’s little chips inside your cable making it go fast. Your move, Monster Cable.

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INTEREST: iCard ECG for iOS
by billing 21 Jun '11

21 Jun '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/20/icard-ecg-brings-heart-monitoring-to-the… iCard ECG brings heart monitoring to the iOS device of your choice (video) By Terrence O'Brien posted Jun 20th 2011 1:55PM AliveCor's iPhoneECG case was pretty sweet but, being a case, could only be strapped to an iPhone 4. Doctors content with their 3GS or patients who prefer to hug an iPad to their chest will be elated to hear the company is working on a more hardware-agnostic option for your iOS heart monitoring needs. The business card-sized iCard ECG mounts to the back of your iDevice using velcro and wirelessly feeds data from its electrodes to the AliveECG app. The app automatically records 30 seconds of your heart's rhythmic pulse before uploading it to AliveCor's servers for sharing with your doctors. The bad news? They're still awaiting FDA approval, so you can't run out and pick one up just yet. But, when it does hit shelves, it looks like you'll have a choice of red or black -- so you can make sure your medical accessories match your scrubs. Check out the video after the break. ...video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ3r-OoCj_8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.engadget.c… OR http://preview.tinyurl.com/6c9ce2a ....and ...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/20/withings-blood-pressure-monitor-for-ios-… Withings Blood Pressure Monitor for iOS hands-on (video) By Zach Honig posted Jun 20th 2011 9:00AM Hands-On Withings users not satisfied with only being able to share their weight with the world can now add blood pressure and heart rate to the mix. This iPhone-connected blood pressure monitor made its first appearance at CES, but you'll finally be able to order one of your own today. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, the $129 accessory costs three to four times as much as off-the-shelf blood pressure monitors, but integrates well if you're looking to pair it with your Withings scale for a complete vitals management solution. Results can be sent to health sites like Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault, or directly to your doctor. Care to see how it works? Join us past the break for a hands-on look at the monitor, including a video comparison with the in-store vitals machine at our neighborhood Kmart. Update: Withings wrote in to let us know that the blood pressure readings in the video below were likely inflated because we were talking, though we do appreciate the concern you've already expressed in the comments. Withings Smart Blood Pressure Monitor for iPhone Hands-On Even iOS newbies shouldn't have any issue getting started -- connecting the monitor to your device's dock connector launches the Withings app (or prompts you to install it, if you haven't already done so). An on-screen start button inflates the AAA-battery powered cuff, and presents your results about 30 seconds later. Colored circles indicate a possible health issue, and an FAQ screen helps to explain your results. During our Kmart test, the Withings monitor presented results of 147/93 with a heart rate of 94, compared to 133/95 with a heart rate of 96 on the in-store machine -- perhaps the c-list discounter was trying to imply that we can afford to load up on some junk food? Considering results tended to vary by a similar amount during multiple tests on the same machine, it's safe to conclude that both are accurate. The Withings Blood Pressure Monitor ships today, so early adopters could be tweeting a complete snapshot of their physical health before the week is out. ...video at: http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/2887/

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INTEREST: iOS5, LION, & Windows 8 in 15 minutes
by billing 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

The beginning of July this year has seen major new changes announced for Microsoft Windows 8 (shipping, perhaps, in 2012) and OS X Lion (shipping in July, 2011). iOS5 will see many improvements including things like "split keyboard" when running on larger displays. Here's an overview of iOS5, Lion, and Windows 8 in about 15 minutes.... well, OK, I guess it's more like 28 minutes if you watch all of them all the way through ::-) : - iOS5: http://www.youtube.com/user/Apple?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/1/LLJIef-e-7g - OS X Lion: http://www.youtube.com/user/Apple?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/2/tq2enQYTrbU - Microsoft Windows 8: http://allthingsd.com/20110601/microsofts-windows-8-demo-from-d9-video/ Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

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INTEREST: Microsoft joins pre-emptive patent protection program
by billing 04 Jun '11

04 Jun '11

....from: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/06/microsoft-joins-pre-emptive-p… Microsoft joins pre-emptive patent protection program By Peter Bright | Published 3 days ago In an effort to avoid costly patent litigation, Microsoft has become the first company to sign up to a crowdsourcing service that seeks to find prior art and eliminate patents that should not have been awarded. The new Litigation Avoidance Program comes from Article One Partners, a startup that pays cash rewards to discoverers of prior art. Article One pays out rewards of between $5,000 and $50,000 to members of its claimed million-strong community of patent researchers, and says it has paid out more than $1.3 million so far. So far, Article One has operated a scheme enabling those on the receiving end of patent litigation to crowdsource the search for relevant prior art; with that prior art the defendents can then seek to have the patents being wielded against them invalidated. The Litigation Avoidance Program goes a step further, proactively seeking out patents purchased by non-practising entities, and then hunting down prior art relevant to those patents. Non-practicing entities—better known as patent trolls—are those companies who perform no research and make no products, but instead buy patents and then use them in lawsuits. The Litigation Avoidance Program should enable companies to more easily identify poor-quality patents that ought not have been issued, and use the prior art to overturn those patents and avoid costly damages awards. Microsoft is no stranger to patent trolls; most famously, the company was ordered to pay $521 million to Eolas after Eolas sued Microsoft claiming that Internet Explorer's use of plugins infringed on an Eolas patent. Microsoft appealed and eventually entered into a settlement agreement with the patent troll, the terms of which are not public. Bart Eppenauer, Chief Patent Counsel at Microsoft, warned that "NPEs continue to actively target large technology companies and often with portfolios of questionable quality", and that the Litgation Avoidance Program would "reduce risk and potential litigation cost." Of course, the Litigation Avoidance Program wouldn't have helped in the Eolas case—that patent withstood prior art challenges.

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INTEREST: Google boots 30 infected applications from Android Market
by billing 04 Jun '11

04 Jun '11

...from: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/06/droiddream-light-a-malware-nigh… DroidDream Light a malware nightmare, booted from Android Market By Ryan Paul | Published 2 days ago A number of malware-encumbered applications were found in the Android Market back in March, but the infestation was brought to a swift end when Google deployed its kill switch. A new variant of the same malware recently resurfaced and was identified by security researchers over the weekend. Google has responded by booting the new round of infected applications out of the Android Market. The malware was discovered by Lookout, a mobile security company. They found just under 30 infected applications across six separate developer accounts. Several of the infected applications were existing third-party programs that the attacker copied and then repackaged with the malware. The malware-bearing programs spanned a diverse range of functions, including a scientific calculator, a solitaire game, and a photo enhancement tool. Malicious developer Magic Photo Studio had the most colorful assortment of infected apps, including a soundboard called Sex Sound and a photo gallery program called Beauty Breasts. The infected applications appear to have been widely downloaded prior to being shut down by Google. Lookout estimates that between 30,000 and 120,000 users have been affected by the attack. We used Google Cache to examine the Android Market pages for several of the malicious apps. The Beauty Breasts program had a 3.5 star rating and been installed between 1,000 and 5,000 times. The new malware is based on the same code that was used back in March, but it is simpler and has some limitations that make it less potentially dangerous. The original March flavor would attempt to root the victim's phone so that it could install additional software without requiring intervention by the user. The new variant still has the capability to download and install additional software, but it doesn't take root access and consequently has to prompt the user before it can install anything. Lookout is calling the variant DroidDream Light. Like the previous version, Droid Dream Light will send information back to a command-and-control server. The malware can apparently do its dirty work even if the user never actually runs the application. It hooks into the platform's event system APIs and will launch itself as a background process when the device's call state changes—like when a call is received. It's worth noting that hooking into the phone's state requires a special permission that is listed when the user installs the application from the Android Market. A savvy user who is paying attention to the permissions would likely realize that phone state monitoring isn't needed for looking at images of breasts and would hopefully think twice before installing the program. This latest round of Android malware makes it seem like the problem isn't going to go away. Although Google responded to the threat very quickly after it was detected, the number of users who downloaded the applications is still troubling. Armed with a remote kill switch and full control over the Android Market, Google can address threats as they arise, but can't really provide a proactive safety net.

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INTEREST: Adobe CEO on FLASH and Apple... and his take on Apple's take on FLASH
by billing 03 Jun '11

03 Jun '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/03/adobe-ceo-has-no-beef-with-apple-no-answ… Adobe CEO has no beef with Apple, no answer for poor Flash performance on Android (video) By Amar Toor posted Jun 3rd 2011 6:06AM The Adobe-Apple Flash war used to be one of the juiciest catfights around, but, much like two aging boxers, both sides now appear willing to act like adults put it all behind them. Speaking at yesterday's D9 conference in Palos Verdes, California, Adobe head Shantanu Narayen confirmed that he and Steve Jobs have reached an unofficial armistice, bringing an end to their prolonged war of words. According to the CEO, Apple's Flash issues stemmed from the company's "business model," rather than any legitimate concerns over quality. "It's control over the app store that's at issue here," Narayen said, implying that Flash's wide-ranging platform compatibility may not have jibed with the Cupertino ethos. He went on to remind moderator Walt Mossberg that developers can still use Adobe's AIR software to get their products to the App Store, adding that his company is looking forward to the rise of HTML5 and "actively contributing" to its development. Mossberg, meanwhile, seemed to blindside Narayen when he brought up Flash's poor performance on Android devices. "I have yet to test a single one where Flash tests really well," the columnist claimed. "I'm sorry, but it's true." Narayen sputtered a bit, before pointing to the BlackBerry PlayBook as an example of the progress that Flash has made. When Mossberg reminded him that the PlayBook doesn't run on Android, the CEO not-so-subtly sidestepped the question by emptily declaring that Adobe's mission is simply to provide people with the best tools to create content. Apparently satisfied with this non-answer, Mossberg changed the subject back to Apple, allowing Narayen to wax poetic about their new Pax Romana -- and, perhaps, to breathe a sigh of relief. See the full interview after the break. http://video.allthingsd.com/video/d9-video-adobe-ceo----flash-war-is-over/7…

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