Monthly Archives: June 2006

Chizen Talks About Apollo

Posted on by
Reply

I blogged about this article over on my ZDNet blog but I also wanted to mention it here because I think it’s very significant.

Adobe is starting to push back. They’re putting their mouth where their money is (I realize that seems backwards) and talking up both Apollo and their view of the future of software. As my readers know, I’m very excited about Apollo. At first I didn’t get it, and it’s clear from this thread that there are a lot of unanswered questions. I think this is the first step in answering those questions for you. Adobe is finally talking about Apollo, and hopefully the specifics will follow.

Adobe Q2 Conference Call

Posted on by
Reply

There was a time in the not too distant past that I would have been all over the Q2 conference call because I’m a Wall Street junkie. Unfortunately (or actually, fortunately) I don’t have as much time to follow it as I used to. Luckily, Alexandru has the scoop. Maybe someday I can get back to doing things like this, but right now I’m having too much fun with everything else. It’s well worth a read of his summary. There are a few Flex tidbits there and it’s clear that Flex is going to play a big part in their strategy. It won’t be close to the Creative Suite, but it’s getting there.

Flex Builder 2 Pricing and Release Date

Posted on by
Reply

I just saw this over at Dave Carabetta’s blog – it looks like some information on Flex 2 is trickling out:

  • Final Release Date: June 28th
  • Flex 2 SDK Price: FREE
  • Flex Builder 2 (Separately): $499
  • Flex Builder 2: (with Charting): $749
  • Flex Charting Components (Alone): $299
  • Flex Data Services (one application per CPU, unlimited users): FREE
  • Flex Data Services (100 concurrent users):$6,000
  • Flex Data Services (enterprise): $20,000

My hat is off to Adobe. Not only did you come in below $1,000 bucks, you came in at half of it. I don’t like the fact that charting is a separate product, but I understand the economics behind it, and I think it’s a big draw. Also, there’s a whole lotta free in that offering, so that’s a huge plus. The FDS pricing is also pretty reasonable considering we all paid big money for Flex 1.5.

Now, this is all unofficial, but I think it seems reasonable enough to believe. It’s going to be a fun CFUnited!

A Flex Developer’s Version of Boxers or Briefs – Plugin or Standalone?

Posted on by
Reply

Whenever I see someone from Adobe demo Flex, it seems like they’re always using the standalone version of Flex Builder. I became familiar with Eclipse before Flex 2 was announced, and so I’m particularly partial to the plugin version.

So for those of you developing Flex, what are you wearing? Plugin or Standalone? Let me know in the comments. Also, word to the wise – don’t search Google images for boxers or briefs. You don’t want to see the results.

Joe’s Goals – Simple Ajax and ColdFusion

Posted on by
Reply

There has been a lot of buzz around Joe’s Goals which is an elegant, clean, Ajax app written with ColdFusion. The idea is simple: you can track a series of positive or negative goals and then track how you’re doing. You can also share the goals with friends which goes a long way towards keeping on top of them. It’s a great example of ColdFusion and Ajax and I thought some of you might enjoy it.

I Have Seen Apollo and it is Awesome

Posted on by

Update: This has been dugg, which is very cool. For those of you not familiar with what Apollo is, check out the FAQ over at Adobe Labs.
Luis Pollanco presented during the session “Building Killer RIAs? Meet: Adobe’s Next-Gen Technology” today for Adobe Developer Week and gave demos of some Apollo applications that the team has been working on. All of the demo applications were built using Flex Builder. I assume they will have a recording up soon, but until then, enjoy some of the screenshots I took during the presentation: (click for bigger images)

Apollo Tunes
Apollo Tunes
Apollo Tunes Visualization
Apollo Tunes Visualization
Apollo Transparency Demo
Apollo Transparency Demo
Apollo Travel Application
Apollo Travel Application

When the recording is up I’ll make sure to link to it here and on the FAQ.

Adobe on Facebook

Posted on by
Reply

Having been in college only a short time ago, I got into Facebook. Penn was one of the first schools that got it, but it was right at the tail end of my senior year, so while I thought it was cool, I haven’t used it a whole lot. With the news they were moving into companies, my interest was re-piqued. Unfortunately, WorldClass is not on the list yet (although I submitted it). However, Adobe is! Is anyone at Adobe using Facebook? I’m curious to see if Facebook can make the leap from college to workplace.

The Flash Blog on WPF

Posted on by
Reply

I just had a really fun conversation with Brad Becker who some of you might be familiar with from his time at Adobe. He’s now the Senior Product Manager for Expression at Microsoft and he has some great insight into RIAs and the future of software. He was a great resource and I picked his brain about all kinds of things during the call including WPF, Flex, the Web, and the role of designers in software.

Coincidentally, there is a very good piece over at The FlashBlog comparing WPF and Flash. The calls I’ve had with Microsoft have given me a much better understanding of WPF, and I think WPF competes with Flex more than it does with Flash. Overall, I think that Lee’s comparisons are correct.

I’ve been lucky to get to talk to a lot of people at Adobe, Microsoft and OpenLaszlo that are shaping the next generation of software. Over on ZDNet I am going to put together a series of articles examining the strengths and weaknesses of each. I had planned to do a straight compare/contrast, but I think there’s too much information to do that. It’s not quite apples and oranges, because they all try to solve the same problems, but the technologies are more different than I thought.