Adobe extends Flash to more smartphones

In today's podcast: Adobe extends Flash to more smartphones; T-Mobile links PBXs to BlackBerry; and Toshiba amps up TV with Cell chip.

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Adobe's Flash Player is getting closer to appearing on smartphones, which should mean a wider range of content and applications for mobile users, including more games, videos, location-based services and social-networking. At the Adobe Max conference in Los Angeles this week, the company is announcing that betas of new Flash Player 10.1 software will be released by the end of the year for Windows Mobile and the Palm webOS, with betas for Google's Android and the Symbian platform to follow early next year. At the last minute, BlackBerry was added and it's not immediately clear when that beta will appear. Nineteen of the top 20 handset makers have now agreed to carry the software, Adobe says. The iPhone also remains absent from the list of supported devices. An Adobe executive said the company needs additional support and cooperation from Apple to get Flash on the iPhone.

T-Mobile USA is expanding beyond its consumer roots on Monday with a service that lets businesses extend capabilities of their desk phones to BlackBerry smartphones. The service will tie into office PBX systems so employees can use their T-Mobile BlackBerries in the office on Wi-Fi, using the same number as on their desk phones. They will also have one voicemail box and call filtering system for both phones. While extending PBX features to mobile phones is nothing new, creating a service offering specifically for businesses is a rare move for T-Mobile. The nation's fourth-largest mobile operator has overwhelmingly marketed to consumers, making its name with devices such as the youth-oriented Sidekick texting phone.

At the CEATEC show in Tokyo this week, Toshiba will make a move to set itself apart from other television makers. It is unveiling the first TV based on the powerful Cell multimedia processor, the same chip that's used in the PlayStation 3. The Cell Regza TV, which is initially aimed at the Japanese market, can simultaneously record eight high-definition channels. The Cell chip contains a single Power PC core and eight co-processors. The simultaneous recording function uses two-thirds of the space on an internal 3Terabyte hard-disk drive to provide, when run continuously, the last 26 hours of television on-demand from eight channels. The remaining terabyte of disk space can be used to record other desired programs and keep them indefinitely. The hard-disk, Cell chip and most of the other intelligence and processing systems for the set are included in an external box. Some of the technology from the set is expected to make its way down to smaller TVs.

And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Elizabeth Heichler in Boston. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.