Well it looks like the people at adobe are finally integrating the macromedia folks and by the end of the month we should have some new killer apps to play with. For those of you out their that don?t know Adobe has been doing some really revolutionary things lately. They have begun to take their apps to the web. Just take a look at PhotoBucket.com and the integration with adobes on-line video editor remix. Adobe has also made it clear they are interested in multiple models of distribution. So I guess what I am getting at is PhotoBucket is not going to be the only social network with adobes on-line editing tools. This is excellent news for all the budding social networks out there. Adobe is also working on placing a Photoshop app on the web as well with an advertising model to support it to compete more directly with Googles Picasa! So you may be wondering what else you can expect out of Adobe and CS 3. Well for starters you may have heard the latest rumors of the new version of Flash. You may have heard people talking about new abilities to turn frame based animations into action script with the click of a button. Does that sound good to you that is just for starters no question about it Action Script 3 is what flash developers have been carving for since Flash 3. If you have downloaded the Beta I recommend you try it! I personally am anxious to see what they do with DreamWeaver lets hope for an overhaul of the CSS tools and maybe some Spry Ajax integration.
Adobe has also been rumored to be working on a Windows Platform Killer called Apollo. You may be wonder just what is Apollo?
Apollo will be used to create a hybrid applications that are truly cross platform (that Includes Linux). You will be able to use your desktop horse power to make changes to video and image files while saving them on-line. It will also have a host of other features as well. In short I expect this application to kill off applications like MDM studio and other methods of creating flash applications on the desktop. Apollo will also integrate more with the applications suites adobe already hasJ So Apollo is definitely worth checking out and I would expect to see some pleasant surprises in the Adobe Labs relatively soon! So check out some of the rumors for yourself:
http://news.com.com/Adobe+sees+its+future+on+the+Web/2008-1012_3-6164143.html?tag=st.num http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2544 http://www.whatisinthebox.co.uk/
Flash9 and Action Script 3
Well Action Script 3 is quite a revolution! Check out PaperVision3D! PaperVision is a 3d engine for Flash that uses XML or Collada files. It looks extremely powerful and you can now expect flash to boldly go where no other web plugin has gone before (Well no other plugin has that kind of penetration). It is also nice to see that Adobe has handed over the Flash Virtual Machine code to the FireFox foundation. Just what does this mean to you well for starters flash will truly be cross platform. I am also anxious to see it used in new ways that were previously not thought of. Thinking of FireFox Check out some of Alessandro Crugnola firefox extensions.
http://www.sephiroth.it/firefox/
Crugnola also has an extremely useful open source editor you can use to create .swf files if you good at coding Action Script it also has Motion Twin integrated into the application so you can actually build and test your .swf files. In short the web is looking better and better as a platform for applications, video, and interactive media. Adobe has some great things in store for us so keep a vigilant eye out on what is on the horizon.YouTube Apollo Videos
This week site of the week is a tie between IFBIN and MTASC (Motion Twin). The ifBin is an excellent resource for flash developers there is a considerable amount of code to learn from, it also happens to be one of the only areas on the web where you can download source files for Flex projects. If you are a developer I strongly encourage anyone learning Flex or Flash to dig through the ifBin and see what you can find. The ifBin has some pretty neat projects like a FLEX news aggregator that is cool. This site also used to charge a $250 membership fee; now you can receive all the projects for free!! Motion Twin is an action script library open source compiler. This means you can create .swf by simply writing the code and compiling it. This is great if you know exactly what you want to do and can code it. I am also interested to see if anyone tries to create a gui for it and then it would be great but one thing at a time is fine with me! The bottom line is both of these sites are worth your time so check them out. Click Here for ifbin in aciton?
The end of the desktop has been upon us for awhile now but Adobe is really getting their ducks in order. If you have noticed lately they release Flex 2 which supports Action Script 3 and MXML (Introduced by Adobe/Macromedia for the Flex line). They have had the beta available for download for some time so if you didn’t take advantage of the Beta I guess it kind of sucks to be you.. (Kidding) If you have been paying attention to Microsoft and its sparkle (Interactive Designer) uses XAML. I guess I would compare MXML to XAML because they do share many similarities. The benefit of using MXML is of course you don’t have to have the windows presentation foundation running on your machine it just uses the flash player! Adobe had been focusing all of it energy toward the Apollo Project its goal to render the desktop obsolete. Flash has had the ability for awhile now to create executables that connect to the internet and gather information. When you combine Flash with Flex you have the ability to create enterprise level applications. I can see flex being used in the financial area soon it has a seemingly endless shelf life and a massive amount of potential. I am also excited to see flex working with PHP relatively easily! They also demoed a Flex interface for Drupal recently. So the next wave of web applications is almost here in the next few years the web will rapidly change and hopefully become what it was originally intended for connecting us all easily and cost efficiently! I highly recommend getting a Flex server it has vast potential.
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