Adobe to Introduce New Android Apps for Upcoming Sony Tablets

Adobe and Sony have announced the new ‘Adobe AIR App Challenge’ to entice developers to create and develop unique high-performance mobile applications - a precursor to their upcoming ‘Sony Tablet’ rumored to become available in the global market starting Fall 2011.

Both companies will enable tapping into native device capabilities to combine Adobe Flash technology and HTML 5 to enable a wide range of applications including media, gaming and data-driven applications. Adobe says that their Creative Suite 5.5 and their latest developer tools combined with Sony’s upcoming tablets will provide content publishers with a platform to deliver better tablet experiences. 

Sony Tablets to get taste of Adobe Air

 

Sony, as we've already reported, are developing two tablets - the S1 optimized for media and the S2 designed for mobile communication as well as entertainment. As part of the collaboration, Sony will pre-install Adobe Flash Player on ‘Sony Tablet’ devices enabling a more 'complete' Web browsing experience that includes an array of videos, games and other multimedia content.

This sounds like good news for developers as it’s relatively easy to build AIR applications with Adobe tools and deploy them as native applications via the Android Market. The new apps, it seems, will have tight device integration, including support for camera, video, microphone, multi-touch and more. Also, support for geo-location allows developers to create location-based applications and services. However, only time will tell if this new tablet with ‘new’ applications will satiate the ever-increasing needs of the consumer. 

Sony PlayStation Store Resumes Service, Finally!

After being taken down for more than a month, the PlayStation Network finally resumed services. Although the PlayStation Store was disabled for a while in the beggining, it is now up as well.  So as of now, all services including its music service, called Qriocity, have been enabled, except the Welcome Back package. The service resumed first  in some areas of America, Europe, and parts of Asia, and is now reported up in all parts of the world.

Gamers await free game bundles

The new store comes online with a ton of content that includes trial games, free games, DLC packs, and avatars. Players weren’t able to make purchases all the while that the network was disabled. Several game launches were affected. For example, gamers couldn’t use any redeem codes for the popular Dirt 3 title without the PlayStation Store. The news comes just when some of Sony’s other services have been under attack by other hacking groups. The Welcome Back program that includes the option to download a few games for free and the trial PSN+ feature is expected to be made available sometime soon.