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The battle between Apple and Adobe is not going to end anytime soon, but for frustrated iPad users there may be a way out, sort of. It requires a jail broken iPad but Comex, developer of Frash, thinks it will have a working plug-in soon.

Frash runs within the mobile iPad Safari browser and is based on the Android Flash plug-in that Adobe recently made available for Google’s Android mobile operating system. It is not yet available for wider release; according to its developers it is not quite stable enough.

That said Comex has decided to make the app’s source files available on GitHub so that any developer can improve and tweak the software for iOS. Eventually the app will become reliable enough to release to the public. However Comex says it may be difficult to support all of the features included in the Flash platform, one of them being video – which is what users are really looking for.

Adobe has pointed out time and time again that most of the Web’s games and videos use Flash. Even though HTML 5.0 is due to provide some of the functionality of Flash it is unlikely that Flash will be uprooted any time soon.

Jail breaking of course comes with strings, and is not for the technically challenged. Essentially, unless you are willing to jailbreak your iPad, you will have no chance of having the full web experience on an otherwise excellent device unless Apple bows to public pressure – don’t hold your breath.

The Chinese government is claiming that Google backed down on censorship issues and that they have reinstated Google’s license to operate in China.  If the Reuters report is correct, Google has made a major change to its January assertion that it would no longer abide by the draconian censorship laws in China after accusations that China had hacked into Google services in order to spy on “dissidents.”

This comes after Google agreed (and implemented the change) last month to stop automatically redirecting Chinese searchers to the uncensored Google Hong Kong site – users are now presented with a search box that clicks through to their Hong Kong site.

So far, Google has not explained the situation publicly or given their side of the story.  With license approval may come new changes to the Google China site (again).  It’s hard to see how Google will be able to explain this without seriously losing face, but part of the deal may have been pushed by the U.S. government which has shaky relations with Beijing at the moment and has been working to bolster them.

The reinstatement of Google’s license raises a lot of questions that so far, neither the Chinese government nor Google have answered.  It will be an interesting couple of days as this plays out.

TechHub is a new project that offers a physical space in London for tech companies who are nearby and across the world. It is planned to be a community space that is both affordable and accessible, with an aim of bringing together the right people in the right place to collaborate on new ideas and ventures.

Now Google announced that they are sponsoring the foundation of TechHub along with Pearson, the publishing group, who announced their participation earlier this year. A spokesperson for Google says their aim is to support TechHub’s developers and tech entrepreneurs with “an affordable, buzzing and creative working environment”.

Elizabeth Varley, TechHub’s CEO, says that Google’s sponsorship illustrates their desire “to get right in at the coal face with tech innovators”. According to Ms Varley Google have some plans ahead that will be of big benefit to the developers and entrepreneurs who settle down at TechHub.
TechHub has its official opening party scheduled for the 12th of June at its new location on 76-80 City Road, on Old Street, in central London – right in the middle of the “Silicon Roundabout” cluster of technology companies.
While there are other shared office facilities in London and elsewhere, TechHub differs in that it focuses on cutting edge Web 2.0 applications and mobile technology. Unique facilities include a 100mbps uncontended leased line, device room where developers can test their applications on different devices as well as large spaces for conference events, meeting rooms and more. Google’s participation will undoubtedly be of benefit for the residents of TechHub.

ITA Software is a leading provider of flight information such as schedules, fares and availability that is used by most of the key online travel sites and search engines as well as all the major airlines. This is a new direction for Google as it tries to offer a more complete search experience.

In the past, Google’s goal was limited to displaying the sharpest search results in an attempt to get you off their page and on to the content you want as soon as possible. However, Google has been inching forward by offering more and more search query customizations. recently made more accessible when Google undertook a results page interface revamp.

Bing, the search engine from Microsoft, has been making public search functionality that lets users drill down into more details before they move onto the final website. The deeper search experience from Bing extends into travel, but also on to health, shopping and entertainment.
As this latest acquisition illustrates, Google is realizing that for some topics, the Internet’s most popular search engine can do far more than just filter and organize result,s and that doing so can deliver more profitable advertising revenue. This comes as Google is reporting a growth in demand while its classic search functionality is maturing.

Google says that it has no intention of withdrawing ITA Software’s services from its competitors and neither does it seem as if Google has made the acquisition to withhold crucial flights information from anyone. That said regardless of Google’s intents any attempt to shut down ITA Software is likely to be met with anti-competitive charges.

The story broke yesterday morning at The Next Web, announcing that the App Store had been hacked.  They had been alerted by App Store developers who noted that a sudden rise in electronic books (ebooks) written in Vietnamese made no sense.

The ebook section of the Store is usually dominated by English-based books and even then, only a couple of hundred sales a day are required to stay near the top of the rankings.  That all of the newly-rising ebooks were written in Vietnamese and were relatively obscure and, most telling, were all from the same developer, was strange.  The App Store had been hacked by someone who was using the access to Store and iTunes accounts to “purchase” their own books in order to artificially raise them in prominence.

When reviews from purchasers began surfacing saying that they never bought the book and they wanted refunds, the fix was obvious.  Apple quickly closed the offending developer’s account and refunded all sales.

This is not the first time Apple has been the focus of an attack like this.  In fact, according to MacRumors, it’s a common, ongoing problem.  A problem that most outlets similar to iTunes have to deal with.

CNet, however, is reporting the problem to be much larger than the downplayed MacRumors article would admit.  TheNextWeb has since expanded their story as well, showing that the attacks have not been just for those books and have been more widespread – global, in fact .  The trend appears to be to purchase one or two low-cost apps ($1-$2) and then jump to a much higher-cost app (nearing $100). All of the apps involved so far seem to be from Asia-based developers.

Apple is encouraging users to change their passwords, but has otherwise made no comment.