Julie just posted a video of NJ and I doing the Flash Catalyst demo from the MAX Keynote. If you didn’t see the keynote or want to get a better idea of what Flash Catalyst will do for you, it provides a great demo of the features and a closeup of how everything works. I think it turned out really well, and yes, I know I need to shave.
I’ve got a bunch of cool stuff from MAX Milan to post this week, so stay tuned.
TweetFor Tech Talk with Ryan Stewart I sat down with Chris Brichford who works on the HTML side of the AIR Runtime. We talk about some of the history behind HTML support in AIR and some of the history on the team. It’s just a bit over 6 minutes but there’s some cool background on how decisions were made around HTML and Adobe AIR as well as how Adobe is working with the HTML and WebKit communities.
TweetI’m starting a new show on Adobe TV called Tech Talk with Ryan Stewart. In my first episode I chat with Matt Chotin about new features in Flex 4 and then do a small demo on how to get started with FXG. It’s a little out of date because we recorded it awhile ago, but there is still some solid info from Matt.
And no, we didn’t coordinate haircuts or wardrobe, but I think we look pretty snappy.
TweetWhile at OSCON a couple of weeks ago I interviewed Simeon Bateman about Ruby and Flex. Simeon is a long time Flex developer and has given a few presentations on how to integrate Ruby and Flex. We cover Ruby from a Flex development standpoint and talk about how Flex and Rails can communicate. One of the major projects out there is RubyAMF which lets you talk to a Ruby application using fast, speedy, AMF. We also dive into some of the benefits of Rails when doing Flex development and how using Flex can make any Rails application better by offloading some of the work to the front end.
I apologize for the video quality. We were filming it an informal style and Simeon’s dog wanted to be on camera.
Good Ruby/Flex Resources
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Degrafa is one of the more interesting open source projects in the Flex community. While visiting EffectiveUI in Denver I sat down and interviewed Juan Sanchez about the project. In the video Juan gives an overview of the project and also talks about the difference between Degrafa and FXG, Adobe’s declarative markup for graphics.
Some good Degrafa links:
According to Rafat over at Paid Content, Fader magazine is offering PDF subscriptions over iTunes. The commentary seems to revolve around this relatively small magazine being able to up its subscription rate and get more exposure. They even have Southern Comfort sponsoring the download.
So is Adobe the king of digital content? You can watch ABC shows on Flash Video (not to mention the thousands of budding young directors on YouTube and Google Video). PDF has a long and established history of document presentation, but the idea of “subscribing” to a PDF (Rubel calls them magcasts) is relatively new.
Wherever people want to present content and keep the original design intact, Adobe is there providing a solution to do just that. In the swirling mix of media, advertising and content, people are turning to Adobe to bring their ideas to life. This has to be part of the reason that Adobe is so vehemently protecting its turf. There is a lot at stake in this game as more people are using the web as their medium of choice, and Adobe has to feel that they can’t let up. Otherwise, someone else will step in.
TweetThere is a post over at FlashInsider that quotes an AccuStream iMedia study saying that SWF is second only to Windows Media in the streaming video space. He wonders about why companies like Viacom aren’t yet using Flash to stream their content.
Flash Video’s rapid growth is largely a result of sites like YouTube and Google Video that focus (primarily) on free content uploaded by users. With the announcement by ABC that it is offering some of its shows free via Flash Video, we saw a big win for Flash. And now that Verizon is going to offer Flash on their phones, content providers can capitalize on their Flash investments in the mobile area. Eventually however, Flash is going to need to answer questions about DRM. Streaming content for free is great, but being able to take that content with you is even better.
Perhaps that isn’t the market that Flash Video fits into, or wants to be a part of, but in order to offer the full package for big companies (like Viacom) Adobe has to figure out how to implement DRM in an un-obnoxious way. I hate DRM and want as little of it as possible, but it’s a huge concern for major companies and the competitors (Microsoft, Real, Apple) have given it a lot of thought.
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