Today is a big day for the guys at Adobe. AIR 1.0 and Flex 3 have hit the streets and will set them in position to own the RIA marketplace for a long time coming. With the rich history behind Flex and now AIR, Adobe's latest product that allows developers from all types of backgrounds to develop RIA's. Its a sure win for Adobe and for anyone using the internet today.
AIR gives developers from Flash, AJAX and Flex backgrounds the ability to develop desktop applications that are immediately usable and cross platform compatible. Something no one can argue is a wonderful step forward for the next generation of the web (3.0?). And what's neat about the cross platform is that it works not only on Windows and Apple machines but also on Linux boxes (Coming soon!). This means developing apps for the One Laptop Per Child project is now easy for us all. This also means your product can now stretch across the world like never before.
Flex Builder 3 is pretty cheap and will only run you$249. Which is a steal for anyone wanting to start learning and building RIA's especially for students. But for those of us that already own Flash CS3 the upgrade to AIR is $0! So if you already coding MXML or AS3 you are already to go and begin coding your own desktop applications! During the AIR beta 3 I put together a super simple FLV and H.264 player that now anyone can download and use on any system they choose! I will update it later today so its compliant with the latest release of AIR 1.0! Very exciting!
I am anxiously waiting to see what AIR and all the developers world wide will be developing this year and the years to come! Great work Adobe! We can't wait to see where this product takes us in the years to come!
Update: I just found a rockin' poster done by eboy for the AIR and Flex3 product launch! Download and print it on some 11x17 paper to spice up your office, its pretty sweet! Great work eboy!
Yesterday when I was looking at the new panels Lee Brimelow released it got me thinking about his tutorials on AIR and video. So I was like, hey, it would be cool to have a super simple AIR app that played my FLV's I've been compressing. It seemed like every player I tried was just a bit much. Soooo... here is my first AIR app. Its really nothing so don't expect anything. Currently, as it is, it has no controls or REAL features for that matter. I just put it together so I could play some FLV's I've been compressing. Really just to view them quickly and see how they looked in a player. Anyway its really just for quick testing tool for developers like me. So don't hold your breath for your new end all FLV player! It does the trick and has some scaling feature when you drag the video onto it, it will resize to the size the video has in its META data. Oh and enjoy my amazing graphics I made for it!
px4 flvPlayer 0.6.3
(0.6.3 cause I always wanted to have some weird beta number on something.)
Features - if that's what you want to call them
- drag FLV's onto it to start playing
- scales to the movies correct dimensions
To be added later:
- full play/pause/seek/volume controls
- ability to check META data
- screen shot video and save to PNG
- custom chrome
I will most likely open source the entire project so you guys can see my AS3 mess and help out or maybe learn a little. Either way it will be worth it to someone!
Update: I added H.264 support. And it was incredibly easy. Really as easy as a simple 'if' statement. Thanks for the idea Freddy! If you do place an MOV on it that isn't H.264 format it just won't play or will stop the video that was playing and wait for a new video to be loaded. I will do some error handling to this at a later date. Enjoy for now!
This afternoon Steven Sacks announced the Gaia 2.0 Panel for Flash CS3. So for those of you guys interested jump over a read his official release post. I am hoping to review it myself this week and see what I can find. But I'd love to hear what you guys think when you try it out!
Wow this is great! So I might be behind in knowing about this but, Adobe and some friends have been making some Why Flash?Why Flex?Why AIR? videos and posting them on youtube.com. They are pretty amazing I must say! So if you got a minute and want to do some laughing at nerds being nerds jump on over to youtube and watch a few videos. Below is one of our good buddy Lee Brimelow of theflashblog.com. Also don't miss out on the Why AJAX? spoof by Phillip Kerman. Enjoy!
Ok not really on shelves per say put on a web site near you! I know some of you guys are really excited about this release and can't wait for Steven to release the final version. But for those of you already creating AS3 sites why not help out in testing! This way you can be sure its the product it can be! For you, and for everyone else out here on the inner webs. Well thats, that. Its a quick post, I know, but I wanted to make sure you all knew in case you hadn't been reading Steven's blog also! Enjoy! And please comment and lets us all know what you think about it and let Steven know too!
Do you love you some Flash? Are you a flash developer? Are you a flash designer?
Did you answer yes to one of these questions and you live in Dallas, Tx? I sure hope so!
I have been thinking about getting the Dallas flash community closer. How you ask? Well, how else! Get us all together for a few beers and a little actionscripting!
In all seriousness I am hoping to find about 10-20 Flash guru's that want to get together to start collaborating and teaching each other some tips and tricks. We have a great community here of Flash developers with a lot of talent and I think its time we start tapping into it. I haven't worked out ANY details as of yet. I really just wanted to try and get a head count of who might be interested. So if you don't mind helping with the cause and emailing your fellow flash buddies, that would be great! Who says Dallas can't do what the other big cities are doing? Now lets see what we are capable of!
I will start gathering a list, so if you guys could either emailing me or comment on this post about your interest that would be great. Then in about a week or so I will gather up all the emails and see how many people we have intrested and go from there. Also if you are interested in speaking to the group or have a facility that we could all meet up at I would be very interested! My email is corbanb[at]gmail[dot]com. I can't wait to hear from you all.
Update: I don't have any location details but I am thinking like the second Wednesday of the month after work. Like 7 - 8PM possibly.
Ok, so I was just chatting with a friend and we were talking about the iPhone SDK. And how apple is most likely going to be selling ALL the apps you all create via iTunes. So both you and them make some money.
Is this why we are not seeing the flash player on the iPhone? Is apple being greedy so we can't make free apps and games for everyone to use, using flash? I don't know but it sures seems that way. I know adobe doesn't want to drag their feet on this so it must be n Apple thing. What do you think?
Wow guys! A friend of mine called me about an hour ago to tell me Lee Brimelow of Adobe had posted a blog talking about my Dear Adobe letter! It's such a great feeling to know that they are this close to us and our community and that they really do care what we have to say. WE are the people that make Flash. WE are in the trenches together and WE get to help guide our future. It is up to US!!
I really can't begin to explain how great a feeling this is. Knowing that Adobe is listening is one of the biggest honors to me and it should be to all of you too! Choosing a career path is hard for us all and most of the time, it only gets harder as we move on. Thinking "the man" is against us and we are all constantly fighting an uphill battle. Well it almost feels like we have "the man" on our team today. All I can say to the rest of you guys is keep up the great work. Our community speaks wonders about the way technology can bring us all closer, make the world feel smaller and help build better things in every way possible!
And Lee, thanks for the post, it's a true honor. I never really looked at how the product seems to alternate versions from developer to designer, but it really kinda does. I just hope it never leaves the hands of the young "devigners" who keep us moving forward and progressing our product.
Hey guys last night I got my invite key to the blist beta site. Its a pretty interesting Flex app for sharing a database with friends, family and really anyone you want to. Anyway if any of you guys are interested in seeing what they have built comment below and I will share the love.
I really want to know what you guys think of this app and how you might see it useful to you. Right now I am not seeing how I could potentially use it but maybe I am missing something. Mostly I see myself browsing docs others are sharing. Maybe it would be fun to keep some tutorials I want to put together in a blist doc. That way all you guys would be able to edit and improve the code in them. To build a better database of scripts we all regularly use. Whata you think?
Update: The guys at blist put up there live demo from DEMO today if you are interested in watching it also.
About Me
Name: Corban Baxter. I am a full time flash developer and lover of all technology, gadgets, art, photography, interface design and life in general.
that allows developers from all types of backgrounds to develop RIA's. Its a sure win for Adobe and for anyone using the internet today.
Well thats, that. Its a quick post, I know, but I wanted to make sure you all knew in case you hadn't been reading Steven's blog also! Enjoy! And please comment and lets us all know what you think about it and let Steven know too!
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