Archive for January, 2008

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Computerworld on AIR, Macworld AIR presentation audio posted

January 26th, 2008

I recently did an interview with Computerworld’s Heather Havenstein for an article about Adobe AIR. Heather also posted a brief Q&A with me discussing the types of applications that can be built with AIR. As I told Heather in the interview, AIR can be used for developing a wide range of applications from consumer-facing to line-of-business software. 

Chuck Joiner of MacVoices recorded the audio from a presentation that I gave to a large number of Mac-related user group managers while at Macworld Expo in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. This was my standard Adobe AIR overview which was followed by Adobe’s Dave Helmly giving an impressive demonstration of Adobe’s Production Premium suite and Adobe’s Terry White diving into the Creative Suite design tools. Terry was the MC of the event and managed to change my title when he introduced me (though we did write it down for him). So if you listen to the recording don’t think that I’ve changed jobs again. :)

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Posted in AIR

I’m live blogging from Macworld

January 16th, 2008

Hello everyone – I’m on stage at Macworld showing off the Bee sample application for Adobe AIR. Find it on the samples page at labs.adobe.com.

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Posted in AIR

AOL to enhance Xdrive with AIR-based client

January 14th, 2008

PC Magazine reports that AOL is working on a new interface for it’s Xdrive service will be based on Adobe AIR. It’s great to see major offerings from media giants like AOL utilizing Adobe AIR to deliver integrated desktop applications built around web-based technologies and services. I can’t wait to try this out.

The new interface for Xdrive, codenamed “Oxygen” will offer an Adobe AIR-based desktop client that will give access to media and files on your local machine in the same interface in which you access your Xdrive contents. Any devices connected to the PC will also show up in the client, and you’ll be able to drag-and-drop their contents to your Xdrive storage. This interface targets less-sophisticated users who may struggle with the concept of file system integration already available in Xdrive. The AIR client will eventually look identical to the web client, so that no adjustment will be needed on the part of user when moving from one to the other. The new Xdrive clients will be available as a public beta on February 8.

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Posted in AIR

Spell Check component updated

January 9th, 2008

Grant Skinner first showed me his components for spell checking in Flex, Flash, and AIR at MAX Chicago. I was interested in them because they were being used in Buzzword (which Adobe recently acquired), and because I’m always interested in checking out Grant’s latest work. I also wanted to see them because they were built partly as a result of a challenge that the AIR team gave Grant: the first versions of his spell check engine used server side spell checking, and we challenged him to make it work client-side so it could be used offline with AIR applications.

The thing that really stood out for me after looking the components over is how polished the whole product is. The code is very slick and optimized, the API looks really robust, the documentation is complete, and the whole package is really well organized. Grant also made it really simple to implement: drag a component onto a textfield or component in Flash to add spell checking, or add a simple tag in Flex. The Flash community would really benefit if there was a wide variety of professional components like these.

This latest update improves Flex integration, and makes it behave more like spell checking in Word or Pages.

Check out the SPL product page for more info, and demos of the components in action.

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Posted in ActionScript, AIR

Flash Media Server 3 details

January 9th, 2008

FMS 3 IconLast September we previewed Flash Media Server 3, which will be shipping later this month. In December we made the official announcement but, based on questions I’ve been getting recently, I think a lot of people missed the details due to the holiday break. I thought I would summarize some of the more interesting details.

1. New product editions: “Interactive” and “Streaming” (full comparison of editions here)

Flash Media Interactive Server 3 – Full ver licensing starts at US$4,500

This is the full-blown FMS version that gives you all the bells and whistles. Notable new features:

  1. Major performance gains over earlier editions, which mean more streams and users per server.
  2. More secure content delivery via the new RTMPE protocol, offering high-performance 128-bit encryption. This also includes a verification feature for protecting SWF files from being reused, modified, or hosted in unauthorized locations.
  3. H.264 video and HE-AAC audio for streaming video up to 1080p HD resolution
  4. Improved Live video support via Flash Media Encoder 2
  5. Mobile delivery to Flash Lite 3
  6. New plug-in architecture that allows you to integrate with other back-end servers and services.

Features of Flash Media Interactive Server 3 that are NOT included with the lower-priced Flash Media Streaming Server edition:

  • Multi-way applications (think Adobe Acrobat Connect)
  • Unlimited scalability with Origin/Edge (replicate content from an origin server to an edge server)
  • Plug-in architecture for LDAP authentication
  • C++ Plug-in architecture
  • Multipoint publishing (for live stream posting to multiple origins to automatically reflect the stream)
  • Server redirection (used for authentication, requests can be redirected based on business logic)
  • AMF3 support (for data communications)
  • Server-side playlists
  • Video recording

Download the free Developer Edition (Currently FMS 2, will update to FMS 3 when it ships later this month)

Flash Media Streaming Server 3 – Full ver licensing starts at US$995

This is a more affordable step up from progressive download. It allows you to gain the benefits of streaming such as improved performance, especially over slower connections, and the ability to seek forward into video content that hasn’t been downloaded to the user yet. It also allows unlimited bandwidth and users. This is a huge benefit compared to the old licensing model.

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Posted in Uncategorized