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Flash embraces Google's open video codec

Adobe extends Dreamweaver to HTML5

Google I/O Adobe has rolled out an HTML5 development kit and announced that Flash will use Google's freshly open sourced VP8 video codec. The company wants you to know that despite its tussle with Steve Jobs, it very much believes in web standards.

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch unveiled the new HTML5 Pack - an extension to Adobe's existing HTML editing kit, Dreamweaver CS5 - at Google's annual developer conference this morning in San Francisco. The extension arrives just three weeks after release of Dreamweaver CS5.

Lynch arrived on stage just after Google announced that it had open sourced On2 Technologies' VP8 video codec, and that it was already using it to encode videos on YouTube. YouTube was built on Adobe Flash, and as Google moves the video site to HTML5 video, Adobe is keen to show it's OK with that.

Adobe is engaged in a long-running spat with Steve Jobs and Apple over the Cupertino cult's decision to ban Flash from the iPhone and the iPad – even if it's translated into Apple-friendly code. In an open letter on Flash, Jobs said he was banning the technology in part because he prefers HTML5 and other open standards, but Adobe says that it's much more open than Jobs will ever be - and that it fully supported HTML5 development.

"HTML5 is great," Lynch said. "It's great move forward for HTML and for the web ... At Adobe, for over 25 years now, we've been allowing people to express themselves with a variety of technologies and it's great to see new technologies like this arrive."

Adobe says its HTML5 Pack extension includes new code hinting for HTML5 and CSS3 that allows Dreamweaver users to "easily" make use of new HTML5 tags. It also includes WebKit engine updates and improvements that support video and audio in Dreamweaver CS5's Live View, HTML5 starter layouts for Dreamweaver's New Document dialog box, and a multi-screen preview for scrutinizing how your HTML5 app will look across multiple devices.

This morning, Google open sourced the VP8 video codec it acquired with the $124.6 million purchase of video compression outfit On2 Technologies, and Lynch responded by saying that it plans to use VP8 with Flash. Currently, Flash uses the patented H.264 codec. VP8 has been open sourced under a royalty-free license.

Adobe's move means that web developers could encode video once for VP8, and then it could be viewed via Flash or HTML5. ®

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