Adobe has made several announcements regarding its Flash platform, including new Linux support, server options, and mobile versions. The ubiquitous multimedia plugin, used for everything from animations to streaming video, is closed-source software, distributed by Adobe as a pre-compiled binary. For Linux users, that's meant that even after volunteer developers ported most of the system's code for 64-bit processors, Firefox was stuck using an emulation layer to make the old 32-bit Flash plugin work with the 64-bit OS. Adobe has finally rectified the situation, releasing an alpha version of its software for the 64-bit system; ports for 64-bit copies of Windows and Mac OSX are still unavailable.

For mobile devices, Adobe announced a full version of Flash for Windows Mobile. The company already provided Flash Lite, a partial implementation, for mobile platforms. The demoed full-version Flash player will be available in 2009. Adobe reiterated its desire to support Flash for the iPhone, citing Apple as the cause of the delay. Among the concerns Apple has voiced, it doesn't want a CPU-intensive Flash player slowing down the rest of the platform.

On the other end of the Flash equation, Adobe revealed an upgrade for its Flash server software to version 3.5. The updated server supports enhanced high definition playback and gives viewers the ability to pause and rewind "live" streams. The software will be available in 2009.

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