Year: 2010

Make no mistake: the battle between Apple and Google has just heated up. Immensely, due to a plethora of initiatives unveiled at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco Thursday.

Google has purchased Simplify Media, which makes software that lets you stream music from your home computer to mobile devices. If you think that sounds similar to Apple’s acquisition of LaLa, which lets you stream your own music from its central servers, well, you’re right.

Tapped out of video ports but want to add a new display? Gefen makes it easier with the new USB to DVI HD (http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8863). This tiny, US$149 adapter comes equipped with one USB input and one DVI output. Any USB port on the computer can be used to connect a digital display using the DVI, VGA or HDMI format.

Adobe says Flash 10.1 will support touch screens, conserve battery life and take advantage of faster mobile processors. It’s designed “to make video run more smoothly on mobile phones — and quash criticism by Steve Jobs,” according to “Bloomberg” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=afLN8vkNx9u4).

The next iteration, Flash 10.1, will be unveiled today at a conference sponsored by Google, David Wadhwani, an Adobe vice president, said in an interview with “Bloomberg” last week.