Adobe CEO says Flash apps coming to iPhone

Adobe Systems CEO Shantanu Narayen said the company intends to bring its Flash Player to Apple's iPhone. Whether and how Flash applications would run on Apple's iPhone has been an open question since the device's launch. Narayen's comments indicate that Adobe will be able to create a version of Flash Lite for the iPhone by using the iPhone software developers kit (SDK) which was released earlier this month. (News.com, Seeking Alpha)

iPhone SDK downloaded by 100,000 developers

Despite some early problems managing the flood of developers seeking access to the iPhone software development kit (SDK), Apple reported 100,000 developers have downloaded the kit as of Sunday 9 March. In the latest update Apple quoted a number of third-party developers to give a pretty clear signal of what types of applications are already in development. (Silicon.com)

DoubleTwist Launches DRM-Stripping Applications

DoubleTwist, the company founded by famed DRM hacker "DVD Jon" Lech Johansen and Monique Farantzos in late 2006, came out of the shadows this week with announcements of venture capital investment and of the launch of its first products: doubleTwist desktop, a personal media sharing application for PCs, and Twist Me! Both products are currently in beta. They enable sharing of media files in a variety of formats and DRM schemes, including Microsoft Windows Media as well as Apple's FairPlay for iTunes, and syncing of media among multiple devices. (DRM Watch)

Thoma Cressey Bravo to Acquire Macrovision's Software Business

Private equity investment firm Thoma Cressey Bravo (TCB) has entered into a definitive agreement with Macrovision Corporation to acquire Macrovision’s Software Business Unit in a cash transaction valued at approximately $200 million. Macrovision provides a broad set of solutions that enable businesses to protect, enhance and distribute their digital goods to consumers across multiple channels. (PR)

SeeqPod IPhone Button Allows Instant Access to Free Music

We've been following SeeqPod for a while as the company has honed its music search engine, which lets you play the internet's hidden music on your computer, IPhone, or iPod Touch. After installing the latest firmware (in iTunes), you can add an SeeqPod icon to your iPhone or iPod Touch menu that offers direct access to the service. Once you search for or browse to a song (enter a band you like in the Discover menu to find new stuff), songs load as Quicktime movies on the iPhone. (Wired Blog)

Creating amazing music blog experiences

Today we're releasing a piece of very early, very experimental (possibly dodgy) alpha software -- a desktop application called Blog Remix written using Adobe AIR. Blog Remix immerses you in an active music blog experience. It merges blog posts and MP3s and lets you mix together different tracks or blog entries from your favorite MP3 blogs. Save the mix for yourself, or share it with the rest of us as an XSPF playlist, podcast, or feed (using Atom or RSS). (Next Yahoo Blog)

BBC iPlayer bursts through user target

More than 3.5 million programmes were viewed on the BBC's iPlayer catch-up TV service over the Christmas period, according to the first figures released by the corporation. The research found that around 1 million people visited bbc.co.uk/iplayer between Christmas Day and January 7, and revealed that the most watched programmes on the iPlayer during this period were the Doctor Who and Extras Christmas specials. The BBC also found that that there was a significant "long tail" effect, with many users seeking out more niche interest programmes. More than half of all programmes either downloaded or streamed were placed outside of the top 50. (The Guardian)

Apple gets moving to present its new vision

Mobility and music are expected to take centre stage tomorrow as Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, introduces new products at the computer maker's annual MacWorld conference in San Francisco. While Apple has kept quiet about its plans, analysts familiar with the company's suppliers in Taiwan say Mr Jobs could unveil a small, "sub-notebook" computer and other portable products. Mr Jobs is also expected to reveal updates to Apple's iTunes music store, including a new video-on-demand service that will allow iTunes users to download and rent a film. (Financial Times)

Yahoo Releases Browser Based MP3 Player

This is clearly just a first step in whatever Yahoo’s grand plans are around the future of their music service, but today they released some code to embed a very simple Javascript based MP3 player on any website. The player finds MP3s on a given web page, creates a playlist and a very simple overlay to play the songs. A small play icon is placed next to every MP3 link, and the player itself hovers over the bottom left of the page. (TechCrunch)