Here's an update to a post I made last January regarding Adobe Flash on TV. This week the New York Times published an article, Adobe in Push to Spread Web Video to TV Sets, which reports on Shantanu Narayen's, Adobe’s chief executive, announcement that Flash will be extended to TV sets AND he expects TVs and set-up boxes supporting Flash to be selling later this year. The article goes on to discuss its impact on Hollywood, being able to deliver video to TVs, PCs, cell phones and other devices in a single format.There was no mention of educational uses. Not too surprising since we are a bit lower on the radar than Hollywood studios, but I am confident it has a lot of potential for e-learning delivery.
I was surprised to read that Microsoft's Silverlight can be a formidable competitor for Adobe's new venture. Plus, Microsoft already has a presence in many of our living rooms via devices like the Xbox 360, which can stream videos to TVs.
I am sure there will be much more news to come when these Flash enabled TVs hit the stores.
Yes, you were ahead-of-the-curve by picking up on the Intel, Broadcom and Sigma Designs announcements at CES about integrating Flash into their upcoming System-on-a-Chip solutions for home TVs. The NAB announcements formalized this, but first hardware isn't expected to arrive until later this year.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the possibilities for learning. Much of the initial commentary has been about video. But I'm more excited about putting a social layer above video... sharing annotations with classmates, being able to drill in for additional information on a section of the video, even just using friends' recommendations as a guide for what to watch.
There's a lot of room to grow here, and the first hardware won't necessarily show all that we'll soon be able to achieve.... ;-)
tx, jd/adobe