Flash 10 already supports HD video on the desktop, but 10.1 -- announced this week at Adobe's MAX conference in Los Angeles -- is being billed the first to really reap the full benefits of the Open Screen Project by unifying feature sets across a wide variety of platforms on the desktop, the laptop, and the pocket. As usual, Windows, Mac, and Linux will all get hooked up with the latest release, but public betas of 10.1 for Windows Mobile and webOS will be hitting before the end of the year as well followed by Android and Symbian in "early" 2010. RIM's also gotten official with its rumored membership in the Open Screen Project, though the lack of a timeline for 10.1 support in BlackBerry OS is a stark reminder of the long technical road that lies ahead for Waterloo as it tries to match the smartphone competition tit-for-tat in the multimedia space. At the end of the day, mobile Flash means nothing without the horsepower to properly drive it, so let's hope that Tegra, Snapdragon, and next-generation architectures like OMAP4 start to come on board en masse just as these builds come out of beta.

Speaking of fast chipsets, the other big news out of the show is that Flash 10.1 will take advantage of GPU acceleration on a number of key mobile platforms, including both nVidia's Tegra and Qualcomm's Snapdragon alongside ION for smooth (well, theoretically smooth) 720p and 1080p video on the latest generation of netbooks and smartbooks.

Update: Added video of the Palm Pre running three instances of Flash in parallel after the break.

Read - Flash 10.1 announcement
Read - RIM joins the OSP

NVIDIA's Tegra chip has shown itself to be quite a gem, especially in the field of augmented reality zombie destruction. Looks like Samsung agrees with that sentiment, and has confirmed that it's currently developing a smartphone with the powerful processor. That's not a lot to go on, but knowing the capabilities of the CPU, we're excited. It's probably safe to assume an AMOLED touchscreen is a given, as well as a plethora of TouchWiz widgets, but whether or not the phone goes with Windows Mobile or Android is still a mystery. A recent rumor suggested one of the "top five" smartphone makers would be releasing a $199 GSM-based Tegra device by year's end -- no indication if these two reports are one in the same, but we'd love to see what Sammy has in store sooner rather than later.

If you want to get HD in your handheld, NVIDIA's Tegra processor is the hot way to do it at the moment, and we've got reasonably concrete sounding rumors from disparate sources that a handset containing one of the chips is currently under development by a "top five" smartphone builder (we're guessing it's not Apple), and that it'll be out sometime before the end of the year, selling at T-Mobile and AT&T for just $199. The details of the device beyond that are scant, with Android being a possibility but Windows Mobile looking more likely, and a continued pledge of battery life of rated for "days and days" of mobile multimedia. We like the sound of that.

Read - NVIDIA Tegra phone due from "big five" firm
Read - Rumor: NVIDIA Tegra phones in Q409?

Ready for some more delicious Zune / Windows Mobile rumors after today's June Zune letdown? Well buckle up -- the always-sharp Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet says she's got specs for Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1, the heart of that rumored "Pink" smartphone, and they're pretty wild. According to the list, Chassis 1 phones will all have 3.5-inch or larger multitouch displays with ARM v6+ processors and OpenGL ES 2.0-compatible graphics hardware, 256MB or more of RAM and 1GB or more of storage, as well as at least a 3 megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, a compass, and accelerometer. Oh, and glory be -- a 3.5mm headphone jack is required. Here's the kicker, though: NVIDIA's Tegra platform is specifically listed as meeting the core CPU requirements, as well as TI's OMAP 3 platform and "Qualcomm 8k," which sounds to us like Snapdragon's QSD8xxx-series chips. If you've been following along, you know that all three of these (Tegra in particular) have been bandied about as potential Microsoft phone platforms, so it makes perfect sense to us that Microsoft's giving its hardware partners a choice of currently-available high-powered platforms for Chassis 1 -- especially since we've been hearing lots of whispers of hardware based on these chips in the works.

Here's the thing, though: we've also always been told that "Pink" is the codename for Zune software and services on Windows Mobile, so something tells us that Chassis 1 phones running Windows Mobile 7 will feature a strong dose of Zune flavoring -- a plan Steve Ballmer's repeatedly confirmed in the past year. So how do we think this all fits together? Well, we'll slightly revise our previous totally crazy, off-the-wall prediction: we think "Pink" is the codename for a new consumer-focused version of Windows Mobile that integrates Zune services, running not only on a touchscreen Zune HD, but on several third-party phones. Are we crazy? Yes, absolutely -- but you've got to admit the pieces are coming together.

We've been waiting patiently since Tegra's announcement half a year ago for some seriously awesome Tegra-powered hardware (well, any hardware) to get unveiled, but so far, you could hear a pin drop -- we've gotten nothing. That should hopefully change in a big way in 2009, and at least one analyst is predicting that HTC will play a role in getting that mobile NVIDIA silicon into pockets around the world. There's no question that HTC's supposed leaked lineup contains devices that would fit well into Tegra's high-function, multimedia-heavy aspirations, but on the flipside, we've also got rumors that the company moving toward Ericsson chipsets. Tegra's definitely flashier than anything in Ericsson's stable, and HTC's big enough to pursue multiple chipset strategies at the same time -- they have with software platforms, after all -- so let's hope this high drama all resolves itself by MWC next month, eh?

[Via wmpoweruser.com]

The popular rumor floating around at the moment is that Microsoft intends to announce self-branded handsets powered by NVIDIA's beefy Tegra architecture for next-gen phones and MIDs at the GSMA's Mobile World Congress in February of next year. Let's put aside for a moment the fact that Redmond continues to vehemently deny having any interest in getting into the hardware end of its Windows Mobile racket -- concealing the truth is a part of doing competitive business, after all -- and turn our attention to the practical matter of whether this makes any sense whatsoever. First off, Windows Mobile's strength lies in its incredibly deep and wide partner base, a base that includes visionary teams at HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, and countless others. With Android and Symbian finally becoming viable opportunities for third-party manufacturers, Microsoft doesn't want to do anything that's going to hasten the revolt before it's able to wrap up version 7 (or at the very least, 6.5) -- and competing with your own licensees would be a bang-up way to do that. Granted, Microsoft did exactly that by introducing Zune following the PlaysForSure initiative, but let's be honest: Windows Mobile and Zune don't play in the same league. Zune's a hobby, a side gig; WinMo's a monster, a long-term cash cow that's got to be treated with the same franchise tag as Windows itself.

Yesterday we told you about NVIDIA's new mobile platform, Tegra, and today, we've got some videos from the company showing off the system, and giving you a good impression of just how much less juice this architecture uses compared to the competition. Check the videos after the break demonstrating the systems' lean energy needs, HDMI output capabilities, blazing fast gaming, and that fancy UI we keep telling you about.