Russdesigns » adobe

Back from Adobe MAX 2009

russ — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:16:59 +0000

Got to go to AdobeMAX again this year. Took some arm-twisting by some co-workers to get the expense approved, but it probably helped that it was here in L.A. this year. As expected, it was a total nerd-fest, and as expected I loved every minute of it. I got to go to Flash classes taught by my idols, including Joshua Davis, Lee Brimelow, Colin Moock and Seb Lee-Delisle. John Mayer made a guest appearance. Probably to collect his giant bag with a dollar sign on the side. Even Mark Hamill was there as a presenter (yes, Luke Skywalker), and it looked like he was only there because he heard a rumor there was an open bar. He was looking more like William Shatner.

There were quite a few cool things announced on the horizon for interactive web developers like myself, including Adobe Flash CS5. Custom code hinting, integration with Flash Builder 4, the 10.1 player for every mobile phone under the sun (except the iPhone, of course), and the fact that it would just run a lot less processor power under 10.1. All good news for me. Oh, and the ability to create iPhone apps out of flash! Job security is always good.

All in all, MAX was a good time and a worthwhile investment as a web developer. Can’t wait for next year!

Outside the Nokia Theater

Mark Hamill collecting checks for his alimony

Avatar 3D sneak peak was awesome

Nerds love their Teslas!

Adobe Max 2007 Wrap Up

russ — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:07:11 +0000

Last week we got back from Adobe Max in Chicago.
It feels like it took a week to decompress all the info we took in. A lot of big things are happening with Flash, and it’s pretty exciting. Some of the most exciting stuff:
1. Adobe Air: Imagine any Flash or Flex web application. Now imagine it running natively on the desktop with no browser, on either Mac or PC.

The only caveat is that the Air runtime environment needs to be installed first, but once a major company or web app (i.e. Facebook) pushes out an Air version, people will adopt this quick. Ebay’s app is a great example.
2. Future versions of the Flash player: Hot. That sums it up. I mean, .h264 HD video support, custom filters and (simple) 3D support? And thats just the Flash 9 player updates. The Flash 10 sneak peeks were out of this world. Although Flash’s current video codec of choice (on2vp6) is fantastic and allows for transparent video backgrounds, the .h264 codec supports much higher quality video while still keeping the bandwidth relatively low.
Flash Lite 3: The Flash Lite plugin has always come across as too weak for Flash devs, yet on most phones always ran kinda slow. With the advent of more powerful cell phones and the new flash lite plugin, things are getting closer to mimicking the web, like .flv video support. Youtube for the masses’ cellphones will finally be here, not just for iPhones anymore ha ha.