Adobe acquires Livefyre

 

Adobe today announced that it plans to acquire Livefyre, the service that’s probably best known for its online commenting system. On top of this service, the company also offers a number of tools for brands to engage with their audiences as well, which is likely what Adobe was most interested in.
Adobe plans to integrate Livefyre into its Experience Manager, its content management service for building web sites and basic mobile apps. ” Livefyre will be part of Adobe Experience Manager and integrated across Adobe Marketing Cloud to make user-generated content available across all eight digital marketing solutions,” the company writes in today’s announcement.

Livefyre says its customers include the likes of CNN, The Coca-Cola Company and Major League Baseball. Given the company’s reach, chances are quite a few of its customers are also currently Adobe customers as well (through its Experience Manger, but also its Marketing Cloud).

Livefyre was founded in 2009. At the time, it was mostly a straightforward commenting platform. Over time, the company then added marketing tools on top of this, but at its core, the service is still about user-generated content (and most of that content is still generated in the comments sections of the blogs that use it).

To go beyond comments, Livefyre also acquired the likes of Storify and launched its Livefyre Studio product to curate user-generated content and republish it.

The company raised a total of $67.3 million since its launch. Adobe participated in its last $47 million round (as did Salesforce), so the two companies were already quite familiar with each other.

“As the leader in digital experiences, Adobe helps brands create amazing content with Creative Cloud and then deliver and optimize those experiences using Adobe Marketing Cloud,” said Aseem Chandra, the vice president for Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Target, in today’s announcement. “With this acquisition our customers will be able to unify the best social media content with branded experiences created in Adobe Creative Cloud and community-driven content in Adobe Behance and Adobe Stock.”

Livefyre says its services will continue to work as usual for the time being.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Adobe says it expects the deal to close within the next few months.



Source: Techcrunch

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Photoshop update lets you customize your entire workspace

Adobe has added a suite of customization featuresto Photoshop CC, allowing users to dictate the layout of their workspace.

Users will now be able to add, delete and move the tools that appear on the screen, as well as choosing what your overall layout will look like. The aim is to make the workspace as functional as possible for each individual user; maximizing productivity by only having the necessary tools on the screen.

Photoshop has also gained support for using multiple artboards in the same file. That means users will no longer have to rely on layers or groups, they can look at multiple versions of designs side-by-side at the same time, and each one can have its own guide and grid.

To further the productivity boost, Adobe has added a new Recent Files function too, which users can search to find files stored in Creative Cloud Libraries as well.

Users can also disable the feature and have a blank workspace open instead.

When it comes to adding fonts, it can be a time consuming process to get the right one. Photoshop’s got a new option that allows users to favorite the ones they like or use the most and these will appear in a separate favorites list, making it easier to find them.

Additionally, there’s a new font similarity tool that will suggest other typefaces based on previous choices. These are chosen from the computer and Adobe Typekit.

Meanwhile, Photoshop has also been updated to function better on touch devices, like the iPad Proor Microsoft’s Surface. There are now keyboard-driven shortcuts that place buttons for shift, alt and tab on your workspace so you can simply tap them to complete a task without using your keyboard.

With some of the most attractive and productive updates to date, it’s clear that Adobe remains invested in making its photo-editing app as functional and personable as possible to users of all levels.

Source :The Next Web 

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Adobe releases its first video editor for Android

Adobe has been starting to pay more attention to Android, and that continues today with the launch of Premiere Clip, the first video editor it's brought to Google's platform. Premiere Clip on Android is pretty much identical to Premiere Clip on iOS, which launched around this time last year: it's an easy-to-use but surprisingly capable video editor that lets you assemble clips, adjust their look, and put music over them. For those who don't want to do much editing themselves, the app can also automatically put together videos, matching your clips up to one of its built-in background tracks.

Adobe has brought its biggest apps to Android this year

Like on iOS, some of Clip's most impressive features come from its integration with other Adobe apps. It can pull in visual looks you've created using Adobe Capture, letting you easily apply custom color grading to clips. Projects created in Clip can also be synced back to Premiere on the desktop, letting you pick up with more advanced tools exactly where you left off on mobile.

Though there's no major feature updates in this release of Clip (it received a major update last month on iOS), its arrival on Android is a key step for Adobe. Adobe has been trying to make mobile tools that are as critical for creation as its desktop apps, and this is the first time it's addressing video editing on Android. As with most of Adobe's other mobile apps, Clip is free to use — though you'll need a subscription to use Premiere on the desktop — which could help to hook people on Adobe's services. Adobe still has a lot of other apps on iOS, which seems to be more of a testing ground, but now Android users won't be left out from using the mobile version of one of its biggest apps.

Source :The Verge 

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Adobe releases surprise security update: 23 critical vulnerabilities fixed

Adobe issued the firm's latest set of security updates, specifically targeting the Adobe Flash Player. The updates for Windows, Mac and Linux users address "critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system," according to the software developer.

Adobe Flash Player Desktop Runtime and Adobe Flash Player Extended Support Release 18.0.0.232 and earlier, Adobe Flash Player for Google Chrome 18.0.0.233 and earlier, Adobe Flash Player for Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11 18.0.0.232 and earlier on Windows 10 and Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer 10 and 11 18.0.0.232 and earlier on Windows 8 and 8.1 are all impacted, as well as Adobe Flash Player for Linux versions 18.0.0.199 and earlier.

In addition, AIR Desktop Runtime 18.0.0.199 and earlier for Windows and Mac, AIR SDK 18.0.0.180 and AIR SDK & compiler 18.0.0.180 and earlier on Windows, Android and iOS and AIR for Android 18.0.0.143 and earlier are affected by this update.

The security flaws fixed in this update, all deemed critical, include a type confusion vulnerability, use-after-free flaws, buffer overflow issues and memory corruption vulnerabilities which could lead to remote code execution.

The update also resolves memory leak security flaws, stack corruption and stack overflow vulnerabilities as well as a security bypass vulnerability which could lead to information disclosure.

In addition, Adobe has added further defense to a mitigation barrier which prevents vector length corruptions, resolved a vulnerability which could be exploited to bypass the same-origin-policy and lead to information leaks and improved validation checks in order to reject content from vulnerable JSONP callback APIs.

Adobe recommends users accept automatic updates for the Chrome and Internet Explorer browsers relating to Flash. Users can also manually download updates from the Download Center. Users of the Adobe Flash Player Extended Support Release are encouraged to update toversion 18.0.0.241.

There is an issue brought to light with this update, however. As noted by security expert Brian Krebs, those downloading new installations of Shockwave which bundle Flash are placing themselves at risk if they do not junk the software.

According to Krebs, the bundled Adobe Shockwave Player contains Flash 16.0.0.305, which is many versions behind the current patched version. This version contains a staggering 155 vulnerabilities which leave users completely exposed to backdoors, exploits, remote control and overall system compromise.

Within the security bulletin, Adobe has given credit to the Alibaba Security Research Team, Google Project Zero, HP's Zero Day Initiative, Google's Chrome Rewards Program and AddReality, among others.

Qualys CTO Wolfgang Kandek raised an interesting point in a forum post, noting the surprise update, as it is outside of the normal update cycle, may be due to "potentially disclosure deadlines [..] in play." If this is the case, Adobe has given users time to update before vulnerability details enter the public domain and potentially end up exploited by attackers.

Last month, Adobe fixed two critical flaws in Flashwhich were discovered due to the Hacking Team data breach. The exploits, zero-day vulnerabilities which allowed attackers to remotely control a computer, impacted Windows, Mac and Linux machines.

Source :ZDNet 

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Apple, Google, and other tech giants will pay $415 million in poaching scandal settlement

After tentatively approving the settlement in March, US District Judge Lucy Koh ruled on Wednesday that some of tech's biggest companies will pay out $415 million to settle a long-running employee poaching lawsuit.

Apple, Google, Adobe, Intel, and other major companies were hit with the class-action lawsuit for allegedly agreeing to not poach employees from one another, an action the plaintiffs in the case argued kept wages artificially low. Last year, Judge Koh rejected a $324.5 million settlement, saying the thousands of employees involved in the case deserved more, after it was shown there was "ample evidence of an overarching conspiracy." (Meanwhile, the attorney for the plaintiffs had requested about $81 million in fees, which the judge's ruling this week kicked down to $40 million.)

The case centered on emails between executives at the companies. Steve Jobs, in a 2006 email to Eric Schmidt, said Google was "relentlessly recruiting" from Apple's iPod group, asking that, if true, Schmidt would "put a stop to it."


Source :CNET

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Farewell To Flash: What It Means For Digital Video Publishers

It’“Thoughts on Flash” letter citing the high level of energy consumption, lack of performance on mobile and poor security as the reasons his company’s products would not support Adobe Flash technology. Finally, it appears we’re getting closer to the curtain closing on Flash.

It's been more than five years since Steve Jobs wrote his infamous

Not too long ago, Flash powered a high percentage of the Internet’s vast array of video content. Today, that number is lower. But make no mistake, there are still many Flash-powered multimedia items on the web, including graphics, videos, games and animations, like GIFs, a preferred method of expression for millennials and adults alike.

We’ve been watching HTML5 impede on Flash for a while, and it’s now taking center stage, establishing itself as a predominant creative format, validated by the recent moves by Google and Mozilla that are only helping to accelerate that transition.

Over the years, Flash has become famous for a few less-than flattering features that can all play a role in hindering user experience, including intrusive experiences, increasing page-load times, lowering a site’s search engine optimization (SEO) and security flaws.

Despite all these grievances, the digital-videoadvertising industry has been forced to use Flashbecause of VPAID (Video Player-Ad Interface Definition), a standard that allows a video ad and avideo player to communicate with each other. VPAID provides a way to dynamically swap or customize video-ad creative based on ad decisions, and has long been used for Flash-based video ads on desktops.

When you consider the fact that Flash needs to be installed (as opposed to HTML5, which requires no installation), it’s easy to see why in the long term, it didn’t stand a chance. Some would argue that Apple’s refusal to ever support it should have been a sign of things to come.

However, it’s important to remember that Flashwas developed in a time where the desktop was king. The long load times it commands simply aren’t conducive to mobile environments — a deal-breaker for today’s mobile-first world.

What Does The Change Mean For Publishers?

In spite of all this, for digital-video publishers, excitement may not be the initial emotion evoked by Flash‘s funeral. With the goal of increasing browsing speed and reducing power consumption for users, Google’s Chrome desktop browserannounced their formerly opt-in setting that pauses plug-in content that isn’t considered essential to the webpage will become a default setting by early September.

This means that if publishers don’t upgrade their format specification, some or all of their videocontent may no longer be available for people to view; this will certainly affect viewer loyalty and monetization efforts.

For example, Flash video ads served in a desktop Chrome browser will load in a paused state, then the user will have to click the ad for it to play. These ads will still register as impressions. However, it won’t take long for programmatic buyers to scale back their bids on video ad inventory garnering a high number of impressions with no quartiles.

Publishers need to urge their buyers to prepare for the upcoming Flash-pocalypse because, despite thepublishers‘ level of preparation, if their buyers don’t have the proper HTML5 creative assets, it will impact their ability to transact, having an impact on publisher revenue and the ability to successfully implement advertiser campaigns.

How Publishers Can Prepare

The most crucial thing for publishers is going to be ensuring that their advertisers and demand partners (ad networks, ad exchanges and advertisers) are providing and hosting HTML5 ad creatives moving forward.

Publishers themselves will also need to migrate their tech stack. Not having a complete HTML5 advertising technology stack can potentially impact their ad revenue as buyer bids will eventually subside for non-compatible inventory.

Any change that has the potential to have a significant, long-term impact on a publisher’s business is going to be a bit scary. However, in the long run, this change will be better for the digitalecosystem as a whole.

In fact, some advertising technology companies have already begun to automatically convert Flashads to HTML5 to help make the transition forpublishers less painful.

The Impact

For publishers, one of the biggest wins of Flash‘s depreciation comes in the form of engineering resources saved. Historically, video publishershave always wanted to pick a standard, but the reality is, they haven’t been able to because of the aforementioned VPAID issue.

They’ve essentially been forced to use Flash to keep their ads business running — but also support an HTML5 code base. This means that any software management, maintenance and updates they make, like bug fixes, must be addressed in both code bases, which is very time-consuming from an engineering standpoint.

By switching their platform to HTML5, companies can improve supportability, development time will decrease and the duplicative efforts of supporting two code bases will be eliminated. It will also result in lower operating costs and a consistent user experience between desktop and mobile web.

A major concern for publishers today is the amount of media consumption that’s occurring in mobile environments. They need to prioritize providing the best possible experience on mobile, and the decline of Flash and movement to HTML5 will do just that, as Flash has never worked well on mobile.

Time spent on mobile devices is still climbing steadily; according to eMarketer, U.S. adults will spend more than 5.5 hours per day with digitalmedia in 2015, the majority (2:51) of which will be spent on a mobile device.

Popular desktop browsers, like Chrome, revoking their support for Flash, is a catalyst for HTML5 becoming digital-video advertising’s format for the future.

A Win-Win-Win

I believe that a Flash-free world will be better for everyone. HTML5 is conducive to the direction media consumption is heading and will positively affect people’s digital-video viewing (a primary concern for today’s digital publishers), creating a better overall Internet experience. It also takes less bandwidth than Flash to run, making it much more efficient for battery life on consumer’s devices.

There will be some initial challenges for digital-video publishers and broadcasters. For example, HTML5 creative is heavier, so they’ll need to be diligent about updating their specs and acceptance. But in the long run, they will be able to provide a better user experience, which in turn will help drives results for their advertisers.

News with such big implications for the digital-ad world can often warrant mixed reactions and spark discussions over who will benefit the most. But this is one change that I think both publishersand advertisers can appreciate and recognize as a huge step forward for the ecosystem.

Take a bow, Flash; your grand finale is here — and everyone in the audience should be clapping.

Source :  TechCrunch 

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