Ted Patrick > { Events & Community } > Adobe Systems

In 2008 we are going big in San Francisco with MAX 2008. It took a ton of work to get 2008's venue booked before actually delivering MAX 2007. We are pleased to be able to give advanced notice on next years dates and venue.



Cheers,

Ted :)

This morning I am flying from San Francisco to Chicago to join the MAX team onsite during preparations. I am looking forward to seeing how 4 months of planning and hard work turned out and help put the finishing touches on MAX. The MAX team has done such an amazing job and it has been an honor being on the team. Although I have suddenly transformed into the public face of MAX (that is really scary), there are so many people working around the clock to put this event on. When you look at the hotel logistics, the shipping and set-up, the printing, the tech setup, the sessions scheduling and speaker prep, the scale of MAX begins to hit you. It takes a great number of people to make events like this happen and the MAX team has delivered. When you are at MAX, please take the time to say thanks to the team behind the scenes, they worked really hard to make everything you see and experience happen.



The stage is set, the conference is being built out as I type this, and it is sure to be one of the best MAX events ever, if not the best one yet.

See you in AIRPark, see you at MAX 2007!

Ted :)

The first changes target the code navigation and are extensions/refinement around language intelligence (refactoring, search, code model). To enable this feature simple hold down CTRL and click on any property to navigate into its definition. We supported this before but now you can navigate seemlessly into the Flex SDK codebase for any class, property, style, or event.











Better yet if you download the daily/milestone builds of Flex 3, you can refactor the entire Flex Framework locally, not for the faint of heart, but possible now.

With AIR entering the final stages of development, we have seen the end of the "AIR Project", everything is just a "Flex Project" or "AS Project" now with deployment options noted below. This change will throw you for a loop at first but it makes perfect sense.





We also added a handy feature for building proxy classes for the AJAXBridge libraries.




We also couldn't help but make some really nice subtle improvements to the Flex Debugger.










And last but far from least we added some things into the profiler. The profiler is such a key addition to Flex and these refinements really make it essential. There is nothing worse than a profiler that points you in the wrong direction and the team has made some essential changes in how memory and performance are measured to make what is happening in your application clear.









As you will find, these refinements really assist in code development, debugging and profiling of your applications. And if you don't think the team went far enough, the code model and language intelligence features are there for you to extend and build upon. Eclipse is designed from the ground up to support plug-in extensibility and we have exposed these APIS for you to extend. With Flex 3 we are at the cusp of seeing many new extensions to Flex Builder atop this simple and powerful foundation.

Flex 3 Beta 2 Schedule:
Saturday/Sunday - Keynote Prep Chicago!
Monday - "FLEX 3 PRICE Enhancements"
Tuesday - "FLEX 3 FAMILY Enhancements"

Cheers,

Ted :)

This morning I called 390 MAX speakers and I have been getting lots of email all morning. Yesterday afternoon I was in San Jose and read an invitation to the MAX speaker dinner that I had written. So I am in the keynote reviews this morning and my phone rang, it was me telling me about the MAX Speaker dinner. It was very strange hearing my invitation.

See you at MAX!

Regards,

Ted :)

The first changes target the workflow and UI for skinning and styling in Flex Builder and provide UI for the new constraint types in the Flex Framework. The design view has come a long way from the last version and we can now set constraints on anything easily.











We wanted to make it easier to allow new developers to learn Flex. We took a deep look at how the documentation and getting started examples were written and we made some changes. The result is a shift that makes Flex more discoverable and easier to explore. I certainly do not know all the classes in the Flex Framework and use the documentation and examples when there are features I do not understand. As I have found, this change makes finding things easier. Also you will find a new search toolset








We also integrated JSEclipse into Flex Builder as an installation option. Special thanks to the Romania Team for this great addition to Flex Builder and Eclipse.




As you will find these refinements really assist in development. Flex is easier to learn and easier to control from a design perspective.

Flex 3 Beta 2 Schedule:
Friday - "CODE, DEBUG, PROFILE Enhancements"
Saturday/Sunday - Keynote Prep Chicago!
Monday - "FLEX 3 PRICE Enhancements"
Tuesday - "FLEX 3 FAMILY Enhancements"

Cheers,

Ted :)

Flex Builder 3 Beta 2 has a new feature for generating server side code for data exchange with ASP.NET, PHP, and JAVA. Simply select a database, select the tables you want to edit, and presto, full CRUD, Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete. Here are some images:










To top that, we added WDSL Introspection to allow you to work with Web Services using Strong typing. Simply enter a WSDL URL, select the methods and types you want to generate for and sha-zam, a set of classes is generated for your application. Here are some images:







So there you have it, backend CRUD generation for ASP.NET, PHP, JAVA and support for strongly typed Web Services.

Flex 3 and Flex Builder 3, the best Flex yet!

Cheers,

Ted :)

The MAX team has closed registration for Adobe MAX 2007 and we will not be taking more registrations even "walk-ins".

Adobe MAX 2007 Chicago IS "SOLD OUT"!!!

The MAX team really wanted to keep registration open but the registration surge in the last week is straining our ability to deliver the event. The keynote fire capacity is 3700 and attendance is 4300 people. At this point Adobe staff will be watching the keynotes and sneaks from an alternative location to give first priority to attendees. Additionally we ordered an additional 1000 conference bags created and flown to Chicago. We have had to adjust food service and food service locations to accommodate the larger audience.

Sincere apologies to those who were planning "walk-in" registration, we are currently unable to support your attendance.

Given the sold out nature of the event, we are making arrangements to film many of the conference sessions and broadcast them using some new Adobe technology. Please follow the MAX 2007 North America blog where we will be providing coverage and posting videos. Additionally keep an eye on developer.adobe.com for news on the keynote and the conference.

On behalf of Adobe, I would like to thank everyone that has registered and supported the MAX event. As this is my first year working on MAX, a sellout was not expected and is really exciting to see for Adobe and the larger RIA, Rich Internet Application movement. We are working around the clock to deliver a great conference experience and look forward to hosting you in Chicago in 4 days time.

Go MAX, Go Adobe!
See you in Chicago, MAX is now officially a "SOLD OUT" show!

If you want to go to MAX Europe or MAX Japan, I would register now.

Ted :)

Are you ready for the bubble shield, grav lift, power drainer, trip mine, or the return of the assault rifle? For all you Halo fans, we will have more than enough Halo 3 at Adobe MAX.



I have been practicing recently and ran through the Halo 2 campaign in prep for gaming all next week. We will have 2 dedicated gaming stations in the 4 after-hour lounges and the evangelism team members are staying in these suites over night. There are also 6 gaming stations in the MAX Party on Tuesday night among all the other activities at the MAX party.

Cheers,

Ted :)

I am going to be blogging about Flex 3 Beta 2 details this Wednesday to next Monday. Each day, starting on Wednesday Sept 27, I will be covering the details within Flex 3 Beta 2 in detail. Many of these features have not been discussed publicly and the team has been heads down coding like mad. I am really looking forward to the Flex 3 Beta 2 release, it is easily the best build of Flex Builder to date and we have some surprises in store. On Monday Oct 1, this series will end with 2 key announcements regarding Flex Builder 3 pricing changes and the expansion of the Flex Family.

Surely you didn't think I would have blogged ALL the features in June!



Trust me, you will not be disappointed, the Flex/AIR/Flash Player teams have been very very busy! It should be a wild week as the teams prepare for the beta 2 of the best release of Flex yet, Flex 3!

Flex 3 Beta 2 is right around the corner at MAX!

Ted :)

There are lots of things to see and do at Adobe MAX in Chicago. Here is my Flex biased top 11 list. Also I highly encourage other biased product focused people to post their top 10/11 lists on ColdFusion, Flash, AIR, LiveCycle, Flash-Lite, Photoshop, etc. Here is my take:

ADOBE MAX CHICAGO - FLEX TOP 11!

1. Welcome Reception and O'Reilly Ignite
Come see 16 sessions from the community. There are about 7 sessions that focus on Flex. Plus there is free beer here and lots of like-minded Flex folks will be in attendance.

* Sunday, Sept 30 5-7PM

2. Keynotes, Sneak Peeks, MAX Party - Miss at your peril!

* Monday, October 9:30AM - 11AM
* Tuesday, October 10:30AM - 12PM
* Tuesday, October 5:30PM - 7PM
* Tuesday, October 7PM - 11PM

3. Beyond the Basics of Flex Builder - David Zuckerman
Explore some of the more advanced features of Flex Builder 3. Learn tips and tricks for enhancing your productivity with features like refactoring and the outline view, as well as powerful keyboard shortcuts you never knew existed.

* Monday, October 12:00PM - 3:00PM
* Tuesday, October 2:45PM - 3:45PM

4. Boot Camp for Flex - Flex Team
Write code together with the Flex development team in this three-hour collaborative session. Boot Camp provides a mixture of short presentations, workshops, and free-form coding. Make sure to bring your laptop, your best questions, your most desired features, your coolest projects to share, and be ready to learn something new.

* Wednesday, October 9:00 am - 12:30 pm

5. Flex Roadmap - Ely Greenfield
Hear from one of the Flex architects on ideas for the future direction of the Flex SDK and Flex Builder. We'll discuss new ideas that are still bubbling in the imaginations of the Flex team, as well as demonstrate ideas that are a little more tangible. No Non-Disclosure Agreement required!

* Tuesday, October 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
* Wednesday, October 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm

6. Flex Best Practices - Joe Berkovitz, Steven Webster, Anatole Tartakovsky
Join leading Flex developers in a discussion about best practices for building Flex applications. We'll discuss small issues, such as coding conventions, to large ones, such as frameworks. Expect a spirited discussion!

* Tuesday, October 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

7. Building Stunning Flex Applications with Flex Builder and Creative Suite 3 - Peter Flynn
Join Flex Builder engineers as they demonstrate the new workflow features for getting various artwork into your Flex applications from Illustrator, Flash, Photoshop, and Fireworks. Learn how to easily use artwork created in your favorite applications as custom skins for components. We'll also show how to create unique looks using nothing but the software's built-in CSS styling mechanism with the help of the new graphical CSS Design View in Flex Builder. Finally, we'll discuss related features that may be available in future releases.

* Monday, October 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
* Wednesday, October 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm

8. Case Study: ESRI Geospatial Application Using Adobe Flex - Mansour Raad
ESRI, the world leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, will discuss its Flex-based solution for processing and managing information.

* Monday, October 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
* Tuesday, October 9:15 am - 10:15 am


9. Hands On: Building a Rich Internet Application with Flex 3 and .NET - Mark Piller
Learn how to build a rich Internet application with Flex 3 and .NET. No prior Flex experience is required, but .NET experience is recommended. Finally, learn how to deploy your Flex application to Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR).

* Tuesday, October 8:30 am - 10:00 am
* Tuesday, October 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
* Wednesday, October 1:45 pm - 3:15 pm
* Wednesday, October 3:45 pm - 5:15 pm

10. Inspire Session: Building Buzzword, a New Breed of Word Processor - David Coletta, Rick Treitman, Robby Shaver
Virtual Ubiquity CEO Rick Treitman, designer Robby Shaver, and developer David Coletta will share the story behind Buzzword, an innovative new word processor deployed with Adobe AIR. See how Buzzword is shifting the paradigm in word processing to an efficient, elegant, web-based application built for ease of use and easy collaboration.

* Monday, October 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm

11. Inspire Session: Building SlideRocket, a New Breed of Presentation Software - Mitch Grasso
This changes everything! Learn how one developer set out to transform the way people create, manage, and share presentations on the web using Adobe Flex and AIR technologies. See one of the coolest rich Internet applications around, and find inspiration for your own innovative projects.

* Monday, October 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm


MAX is going to be a great event this year, maybe too good. There is so much great content that making a top 10 list (or top 11 in this case) is very hard. Make sure to check out all the other Flex sessions at MAX.

See you at MAX 2007 in Chicago!

Cheers,

Ted :)

I went to the Adobe company meeting this AM and there were 3995 registrations, I return from the meeting and registration is at 4011 and rising. The 4000th registration was Chris Brown of MotionBox.com, Chris has just won a copy of CS3 Master Collection for being the 4000th registration. MotionBox.com was the first Flex based video solution and hopefully this CS3 suite will go to good use. Chris, thanks for supporting Adobe MAX 2007.



See you at MAX!

Ted :)

Here is the Birds of a Feather and Meet The Teams session schedule. Thanks for everyone who posted a BOF session for MAX 2007 Chicago. We were able to accommodate all BOF sessions submitted prior to Sept 1 and the evening looks to be a great set of content. The BOF and MTT Sessions have an open bar and food this year so it will be a lively evening of tech.

Here is the schedule:



I really have to say that the session quality and content posted for the BOF sessions exceeded my expectations. It is really great to work with such a vibrant community.

Andrew Shorten is coordinating the BOF sessions for MAX Barcelona. Feel free to post a session to the MAX Europe BOF list.

See you at MAX 2007 in Chicago!

Ted :)

11 days til MAX 2007 starts in Chicago with record attendance. We are very close to hitting 4000 total attendees at MAX. If you are interested in attending MAX there is still time to make plans to attend. On the tail of the "Thermo" scandle and emerging news about project "Astro", we are seeing a ton of interest in MAX and Adobe's future plans. Shoot we haven't even mentioned "Share" or "Pacifica" or "CoCoMo" or "Hydra" or "Vellum" or "Hima". We have some amazing things in store for attendees at MAX that have yet to be revealed.



See you at MAX 2007!

Ted :)

I can confirm that "Thermo" will have a very prominent location in the MAX 2007 General Session (AKA, Keynote) in Chicago, Barcelona, and Japan. "Thermo" is a major initiative at Adobe for creating RIA's and we are very close to showcasing the details on the new product in development.

"Thermo" dramatically changes the way that RIA's are created. It will enable a level of UI quality and interaction that we have not seen to date. There are great things ahead, simple as that.

+10 points to Sam Robbins for locating the "Thermo" job posting at Adobe. Go "Thermo", Go Flex, Go Adobe!

See you at MAX 2007!

Ted :)

Due to a very large and unexpected number of attendees at MAX 2007 Chicago, we have SOLD OUT the four hotels where we had room blocks reserved. Here is a list of hotels with availability Setp30-Oct 4. The list will continue to update as hotels arrangements are booked.

We are very close to 4000 registrations, 3858 to be exact, at MAX 2007 in Chicago. To give this some perspective:

2050 Attendees - 2002 (DEVCON)
1795 Attendees - MAX 2003 Salt Lake
1924 Attendees - MAX 2004 New Orleans
1875 Attendees - MAX 2005 Anaheim
2442 Attendees - MAX 2006 Las Vegas
3858 Attendees - MAX 2007 Chicago




We have attendees from the following countries attending MAX North America:

Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, Yemen, Yugoslavia


This is going to be an amazing conference and I couldn't be more pleased with how things are turning out.

MAX 2007 North America is currently the largest Allaire/Macromedia/Adobe event in the collective corporate history. Woot!

See you at MAX!

Cheers,

Ted :)

I decided to submit a talk for O'Reilly Ignite at Adobe MAX Sept 30 6PM, if you haven't yet, you should. The talk will cover "Making MAX or how I learned to love the roller-coaster!" and should be a ton of fun to make and watch. I really have learned a ton of important lessons working on MAX and I continue to learn more daily. Working on a project this chaotic is humbling and without an amazing team MAX would never have happened. I have some people to thank, some people to grill, some funny moments to share, and ideally this will kick off the MAX "Ted Style". And who knows, if you like it, I might get into the keynote.



O'Reilly Ignite is a very unique format of talk. You only have 20 slides and they rotate automatically every 15 seconds. At a 5 minute talk you must be very focused on what you want to cover and thus the format makes for a very entertaining evening. At Ignite MAX we will have an open bar and the venue set-up looks great. I am certain that this will be the place to be as the speaker dinner follows Ignite so it will be a who's-who event.

O'Reilly Ignite MAX (At the MAX Welcome Reception!)
Sunday, September 30, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Seriously, MAX has been a blast to make and we are almost done. The keynote rehearsals are in full swing, all logistics are locked down, the SWAG (Stuff We All Get) is being made, and all systems are a go for launch.

See you at MAX!

Ted :)

The MAX Intronetworks site is now live, login and set-up your profile, and drop me a note. Here is how it works:

1. Login to the MAX NA Site

2. Click "Community" on the right.

3. Complete your profile here:


4. Find attendees:


See you at MAX! It is never too late to register!

Cheers,

Ted :)

This morning I received 3 new listings that push the Flex Directory over 200 companies focused on Flex.

Visit the Flex Directory

Here are some fun facts about the directory:

2165 developers represented
41 countries represented
25,328 visits to sites
16+ new partners for Adobe
1 XML Document with a Flex UI via XSL
#1 at Google for "Flex Directory" beating out flexdirectory.com!

My 2008 project was to do the same thing for developers but it looks it will be shipping early at MAX in less than 20 days time, ADN is almost ready for launch. :)

Cheers,

Ted :)

Microsoft has removed my example streaming SWF/FLV from their streaming service. Looks like I violated the terms of service in streaming FLV and SWF files.

The example no longer works but this is how it was done:

1. Create an account over at Microsoft Silverlight Streaming Service.

2. Upload this ZIP file.

3. Looks at the results page look at the JS in the last call:

function CreateSilverlight(){
Silverlight.createHostedObjectEx({
source: "streaming:/27498/SWFStreaming",parentElement: Wrapper_SWFStreaming});
}

4. Take the highlighted URL and open it in a browser like so:

http://silverlight.services.live.com/invoke/27498/SWFStreaming/iframe.html

5. You will get a 301 redirect, similar to how YouTube.com works to a much longer URL into the cluster at the Microsoft Silverlight Streaming Service.

6. Chop off the files and you are in the ZIP file you uploaded as a file system. From here on out simply call the URLS relative to the base path.

For all the talk about how the formats work together, it is a shame they do not allow the streaming service to serve FLV and SWF.

So this is the end of the experiment. A day of blogging and exploring on one of Microsoft's most state of the art services. At the end I guess I am little frustrated at the lack of a solid definition of "Streaming" by either company. "Streaming" means different things to different people. I guess in some cases "Streaming" is progressive download, "Streaming" is playback before the file is complete, full control over skipping forward in a file without delay, or others full RTSP and other protocols.

Cheers,

Ted :)

I uploaded an FLV and SWF files as .WMV to the Microsoft Streaming Service to see if the service was looking at the contents within the WMV files. Typically with real streaming solutions the server understands the contents of the file it is asked to stream. In this case the service, using MS "Streaming" definition, streamed an SWF and FLV within the service.

This examples was posted at 12:47 PST on Tuesday Sept. 11. Lets see how long it takes for MS to take it down. The example "streams" a SWF and FLV as WMV files using MS Streaming Service.

View Source to see the URLS

DIRECT URL TO SWF (as WMV)
DIRECT URL TO FLV (as WMV)

DIRECT URL TO EXAMPLE


Cheers,

Ted :)

You have to hand it to Microsoft, they tell a really good story. Today I decided to understand the Windows Live Streaming Service and see how Microsoft was actually "Streaming" under the hood. The fact is they aren't streaming at all, rather this is just progressive download with a bandwidth limit. Using Charles Proxy, the Windows Live Streaming service is using HTTP 1.0 with a bandwidth ceiling of 700kbs. Basically they have a server farm throttle limited to 700kbs serving WMV files over HTTP 1.0. This is just progressive download with a bandwidth bitrate limitation and truthfully any HTTP web server was capable of this 8 years ago.

Take a look for yourself:

1. Download Charles Proxy here (great tool btw!)

2. Load up this webpage: Tim Sneath Streaming Example or Fox SliverLight "Streaming" Example

3. Take a look at the proxy:

Tim Sneath "Streaming" Example


Fox "Streaming" Example


Personally I think it is wrong to call this streaming. Even worse is that at IBC Microsoft is touting their low cost for "Streaming" solutions. Given this is their definition of "Streaming", then streaming content for Flash Player has always been free by comparison.

NEW

I uploaded an FLV and SWF files as .WMV to the Microsoft Streaming Service to see if the service was looking at the contents within the WMV files. Typically with real streaming solutions the server understands the contents of the file it is asked to stream. In this case the service, using MS "Streaming" definition, streamed an SWF and FLV within the service.

This examples was posted at 12:47 PST on Tuesday Sept. 11. Lets see how long it takes for MS to take it down. The example "streams" a SWF and FLV as WMV files using MS Streaming Service.

View Source to see the URLS

DIRECT URL TO SWF (as WMV)
DIRECT URL TO FLV (as WMV)

DIRECT URL TO EXAMPLE


Maybe it should be renamed to:

"Microsoft Windows Live Progressive Download Video Service with Bandwidth Limitations(TM)" although I am sure this new name would not be as popular.

Maybe I should quit and start a "Streaming Service" with Apache and EC2 .... hmmmmmm.

Cheers,

Ted :)

When we started working on "Inspire" at MAX, we envisioned highlighting a few key customers with a larger session area. The problem is we have lots of great customers and there are so many leaders in the market that need to be showcased. It became obviously that 13 sessions was not enough, so we have silently expanded "Inspire" to 26 sessions in 2 adjacent rooms holding 400 people each. These sessions will only occur once at MAX but they will be shown in the AIR Park throughout MAX and will be published to the "MAX" channel on the Adobe Media Player.

Here are the sessions:

Inspire Session: Making Things Move - Keith Peters

Inspire Session: Fifty Reasons Why ActionScript 3 Rocks - Grant Skinner

Inspire Session: Rediscovering Fun - Aral Balkan

Inspire Session: Big Spaceship, Digital Creative Agency - Josh Hirsch, Michael Lebowitz

Inspire Session: XD: Experience Design, An Adobe Perspective - Michael Gough

Inspire Session: Yahoo! Presents "Examples of Integration" - Michael Hoch, Allen Rabinovich, Josh Tynjala, Kent Brewster, Alaric Cole, Thomas Sha

Inspire Session: onAIR Back Seat Driving with Chambers and Brimelow - Lee Brimelow, Mike Chambers

Inspire Session: Building Buzzword, a New Breed of Word Processor - David Coletta, Rick Treitman, Robby Shaver

Inspire Session: The Art of Playing - Erik Natzke

Inspire Session: Beyond Web 2.0 - Jesse James Garrett

Inspire Session: Use the Force: Star Wars and PaperVision 3D - John Grden

Inspire Session: The Dawning of the Age of Experience - Jared Spool

Inspire Session: Building SlideRocket, a New Breed of Presentation Software - Mitch Grasso

Inspire Session: AIR Customer Panel - Mike Downey, CV Vick

Inspire Session: Building Software People Like with Flash and Flex - Chafic Kazoun

Inspire Session: Ribbit on AIR - Charles Freedman

Inspire Session: Lessons Learned on AIR - Alan Lewis

Inspire Session: AIR, Finetune Desktop, and the Circle of Engagement - Tony MacDonell

Inspire Session: Building AIR with HTML/AJAX - Andre Charland, Alexei White

Inspire Session: Design Patterns and ColdFusion - Sean Corfield

Inspire Session: Monetizing AIR with Ads and Licensing - Matt Voerman

Inspire Session: Designing the Obvious - Robert Hoekman, Jr.

Inspire Session: FarCry Core is More Than Just a CMS - Geoff Bowers

Inspire Session: Opening up the Internet - Building RIA API's with Kapow - Andreas Krohn

Inspire Session: Dynamic Abstraction and Finding Creative Inspiration - Joshua Davis

Special thanks to all the "Inspire" speakers for making Adobe MAX 2007 great.

regards,

Ted :)

It is really great to see someone as talented as Lee Brimelow join Adobe as a evangelist and even better for him to be focused on Flash. Flash is an amazing product but without a public facing evangelist showcasing the capabilities, I think many were left to wonder about where Flash was headed. Having spent time with Lee on the on AIR bus tour I am very excited about him joining Adobe and representing Flash. Lee Brimelow is both a great person and a very talented developer/designer/devigner.



Lee welcome to Adobe, Flash you are in good hands!

Cheers,

Ted :)

The MAX team encountered a serious problem when we visited Chicago a month ago. What do you do with a 40,000 square foot area in the center of the conference that is basically just cement where the infamous on AIR Tour Bus is parked? We decided to make it into a park and we have purchased the grass, lamps, park benches, a movie screen, and much more.

What is AIR Park?

A place to meet friends at MAX!
A place to get your questions answered from Adobe Support!
A place to hang out and code!
A place to watch movies of the "Inspire" sessions!
A place to meet great companies developing applications using Adobe AIR!
A place to relax and have fun!





The team has been working around the clock on this section of MAX and today we got the first comps of what AIR Park will look like. We have purchased about 30,000 square foots of grass, park benches, a 30 foot movie screen, bean bags, a sidewalk, booths for AIR partners, park audio track, the MAX Store, and the Adobe Support Center. Air Park is one of the craziest things at MAX (the party is truly insane) and is sure to be a bit hit.



If you find yourself needing to relax at MAX, head over to AIR Park and hang out.
If you need to meet up with friends, just say "Meet me in AIR Park", it is impossible to miss.

MAX is going to be the best event Adobe or Macromedia has ever had. We have already set attendance records and we are putting the finishing touches on the fun parts.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Long time Flash developer turned artist Joshua Davis will be presenting in the "Inspire" sessions at Adobe MAX 2007 in Chicago. Joshua has redefined art by generating art using Flash CS3, ActionScript, Illustrator, and PhotoShop. Joshua's work was recently showcased over at Apple.com and the article there is worth a read.










I am looking forward to Josh's session. Josh thanks for helping us change MAX 2007!
Adobe MAX 2007. Connect. Discover. Inspire.

Ted :)

It has been 4 years since Microsoft started talking about "Sparkle" and 2 years since unveiling WPF/E at MIX '06. Microsoft shipped Silverlight 1.0 today. It's great to have such a large company trying to compete with Adobe Flash Player.

Flash development has prospered in relatively small ecosystem of passionate developers/designers for the past 10 years. Only in the past 5 years has it made a move into the mainstream and is now the de-facto standard for creating interactivity, video, and RIA on the web. We are seeing sites depend on Adobe Flash Player for all sorts of interactivity and soon will see the same richness deployed to the desktop with Adobe Integrated Runtime, AIR. We even added an entirely new development paradigm called Flex to expand the developer market who could create RIA. The Flex SDK (FREE) is perfectly suited to classical software developers using C, C++, C#, .NET, Java, VB, Delphi but specifically for creating RIA. The Flex SDK and the Flex Builder IDE will ship in their 4th generation in early 2008 and I think it will again push us ever forward.

SilverLight forced Adobe to speed up existing plans and focus on broad adoption while adding great developer features in the runtime. Internally the gloves are off and teams are full speed ahead creating the next generation of RIA tools and runtimes. Customer feedback (#1) and competitive pressure (#2) were driving factors in creating "MovieStar" and pushing our H.264 adoption plans forward with full 720/1080p hardware scaling support. When "MovieStar" ships in the next few months, yes in 2007, it will support millions of existing H.264 video content by default without special streaming solutions or proprietary video codecs like Microsoft's VC1.

Flash Player 9 continues to make great strides forward in adoption in current support of over 90% of web enabled desktop computers. It has been installed over the last 12 months over 2.5 Billion times, not downloaded, installed across 3 minor releases! For developers looking for wide compatible deployment of rich content it is the only choice for end users. On the MLB.com site, SilverLight showcase, I was watching the Flash banner advertisements for "StubHub" long before the SilverLight plug-in started playback. The Flash content on that page just worked without an installation and loaded current game data via a data feed on the game selected.

At Adobe MAX 2007 in Chicago we are going showing off the next full release of Flash Player code named "Astro". The features are mind blowing and add capabilities far beyond anything the market today. The future of Adobe Flash Player looks very bright indeed.

Microsoft, thanks for the competition!

Cheers,

Ted :)