Hey everyone, I’m in sunny San Francisco attending Adobe’s premiere event, Adobe Max. I have to tell you, it’s awesome! With close to 200 classes, and 5,000 guests, this event is huge! The opening keynote was hosted by Kevin Lynch from Adobe Systems. He talked about what the big A is cooking up for all of us.
Many things were discussed at the Keynote, but there were a couple of things that were of specific interest. The next version of the Flex builder application, codenamed Gumbo, was released to the Max 2008 crowd. Also released was Cocomo, a Platform as a Service that allows Flex developers to easily add real-time social capabilities into their RIA (rich Internet applications). Project Thermo is now a little more revealed — its new name being Adobe Flash Catalyst.
Finally, Adobe AIR 1.5 and Flash player 10 got some serious speeches, showcasing applications that are being developed for the New York Times, The Red project, and a project for the state of California called the California Museum Legacy Trails – developed by California’s First Lady, Maria Shriver – who made a special appearance!
The most meaningful portion for me was the moment where Kevin was talking about Adobe’s commitment to bringing Flash10 to the mobile phone market. According to Kevin, the landscape is changing so much that users are viewing sites primarily on mobile phones, and the computer is becoming a third option, with TV emerging as a new second option. To that end, having Flash10 available on the mobile phone is a big push, and Kevin showcased it working on a couple of phones – the HTC touch, and a Nokia phone. A big gasp from the crowd came when Kevin pulled out AN IPHONE from the pile, and stated that they are close to having it working, but need to get it “some approvals or reviews from others ” which I assumed to be Apple. This was a brief but meaningful mention of Flash coming to the iPhone, which I thought was a very cool thing!!
I have some video on the conference, and I’ll be sure to post it over the next coming days. Stay Tuned!
Smart Contact Sheets with Terry White
Terry White’s got a great tutorial on how to develop smart Contact Sheets in InDesign. This definitely warrants a look over:
“I know what you’re thinking: “Shouldn’t this be in the Photoshop section?” After all, whenever you hear the term “contact sheet,” you probably immediately think images and Photoshop. Also, if you looked around the InDesign interface, you wouldn’t really find anything that says contact sheet; however, Adobe Bridge CS3 and InDesign have this secret relationship that allows you to do some really cool things with automating image placement and metadata”
Contest Time
Go to the Contact page, select the Layers Blog dropdown, then fill in your name, email address and answer to this week’s following question. Remember, the contest will end Thursday 5PM,. and the winner will be announced Friday morning.
The Contest Question: What is the prize that we are giving away on the Layers Magazine Back Page Design Contest (you can find the link on the homepage)
The Prize: A 1 Year subscription to Layers Magazine, as well as a copy of Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy: Digital Painting by Bert Monroy
Have a great week everyone!
Oh, Wow! The iPhone can totally use Flash.. Browsing in Safari is nice especially when you’re where there is a WiFi connection, and Flash would bring it to a whole new level. and Hey, I would be able to watch layerstv on my phone without having to download the podcast..