The top software-maker in the world, Microsoft Inc., released a new Android developers package to make it easier for developers to port their applications to the Windows Phone platform.

The Android developers kit provided by Microsoft includes two primary tools, an Android to Windows Phone API mapping tool, and a ninety page white paper (“Windows Phone 7 Guide for Android Application Developers“).

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Adobe has confirmed the company would be releasing Adobe AIR for the Google Android mobile platform on October 8, with support for other platforms like the BlackBerry soon to follow.

Adobe AIR allows developers to use various platforms like HTML5, JavaScript, including the company’s own Flash platform, among others, to build Internet applications that could run locally on supported operating systems like Linux, Mac, Windows, and mobile operating systems, without the need for a browser.

Firstly, released February of 2008, the platform has been installed more than 200-million times and is used by firms like FedEx, eBay, NASDAQ, among others.

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The maker of the popular Internet based Flash platform, Adobe Systems Inc. demonstrated impressive new photography technologies during a recent Nvidia Tech Conference, that would allow users to refocus photos on their computers after the photo was originally snapped.

The company used plenoptic lenses, which essentially are many lenses clustered together that are able to focus on different parts of a picture (including the ability to capture 3D images), the result is a mosaic like non-natural group of micro-pictures with an infinite depth of field.

Specialized computer software is subsequently used to re-render the original micro-pictures to create a normal image.

What is most intriguing is that the user can choose what parts of the picture are in focus by using software, that includes a person, or scenery in the background.

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A serious flaw in popular Adobe software products, including the company’s popular Flash web platform, has been found that could easily allow a computer hacker to take control of a computer.

Adobe says the security hole is present in all Adobe Flash Player builds up to version 10.1.82.76, and affects Windows, Mac, Linux, and Solaris machines.

Additionally, the vulnerability is also present on the mobile Flash player found on the Google Android operating system.

The company warns the critical vulnerability could also suddenly crash your system, but most importantly, it could compromise important information on your machine, including banking information and your files stored on your computer as a hacker could gain complete control.

The company says its Acrobat and Reader software is not affected.

Adobe says it is in the process of working to release an updated version to patch the vulnerability by the end of September.

Apple Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs essentially banned the Flash platform in Apple iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad, citing the platform was not as secure and not suited for mobile devices.

A new Adobe tool in Adobe Air could revolutionize the way developers produce applications.

Developers are able to build a single code-base for a single application, and utilize the tool to essentially convert the application to run on multiple operating systems (including mobile operating systems) that support Adobe Flash. No additional code needs to be changed to support the different platforms.

Adobe says the tool is the first of its kind, and no other technology currently allows developers to maintain the same code-base without any modifications to the initial code to run on a variety of platforms.

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Apple has long been restrictive with what apps get approved in its iOS app store found on the iPhone and iPad.

Since 2008, when Apple firstly opened the doors to the App Store, the company has yet to publish a governing list of rules to help developers better understand on what grounds the company rejects or approves applications – until today: Apple said it would publish a list of governing policies to help developers better understand the approval process.

Apple previously decided to allow developers to only use the computer programming language Objective-C, including C++, effectively blocking other programming platforms like JavaScript, and Adobe’s hugely popular Flash platform.

In a recent blog post, Apple chief executive Mr. Jobs, expressed his views specifically about Flash, essentially claiming the proprietary Flash platform is dated and not suited for mobile devices, instead opting towards the open source HTML5 standard.

The direction of Apple not only initiated an anti-trust investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), but also forced Adobe to announce the company would cancel all plans to develop for the iPhone and iPad.

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Google today started to add support for embedded YouTube videos based on HTML5, and not on the traditional Flash platform the company currently uses to power videos.

Users could already embed HTML5 videos, as the company continues to test the platform that many argue is more secure and more efficient than Adobe’s proprietary Flash platform.

One of the most publically critical companies to criticize the Flash platform is Apple, who banned the platform in its popular products, including the iPhone 4 and the iPad tablet computer.

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Adobe Systems, the maker of the popular Internet platform Flash, announced [PDF] earnings for the second quarter of 2010 late this afternoon.

The company posted record quarterly earnings, posting total revenue of $943-million for the period ended June 14. Total revenue in the period compares to $704.7-million in the same period of the last fiscal year.

The actual earnings beat internal company forecasts of revenue between $875-million and $925-million.

Adobe president and CEO Narayen said today the strong earnings can be attributed to strong sales of Creative Suite 5.

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Adobe Systems today made new predictions about its popular Flash Player, saying it expects it to be installed in more than 250-million smartphones by 2012.

The optimistic comments come as Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said his company would not support the Adobe Flash platform on its iPhone and iPad devices, saying it is no longer relevant in the mobile space, favoring the more robust and opened HTML5 platform.

Steve Jobs’ argument is Flash is not efficient for mobile devices because of the high power consumption and security concerns, and largely the fact that the platform is proprietary.

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Only a couple of days after the leak of the next-generation iPhone that is expected to launch on June 22nd, Adobe, the maker of the popular web development platform Flash, has announced the company will entirely stop development for the iPhone.

The relationship between Apple and Adobe has deteriorated in recent weeks as the companies have failed to reach an agreement to bring Flash support to the iPhone.

Apple recently announced it has banned the use of Flash in its hugely popular app store; today prompting Adobe to cease future development for the iPhone entirely, meaning Adobe has no plans to bring Flash to the iPhone.

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