Macromedia Releases Flash Professional 8

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.macromedia.com/mobile/special/flashpro8_features/' target='_blank'>http://www.macromedia.com/mobile/sp...hpro8_features/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Whether you're an experienced Flash developer interested in creating mobile content, someone who's just starting out or a mobile developer who's never used Flash, Flash Professional 8 is packed with many new features to assist you when creating mobile content."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050809-Flash8.gif" /><br /><br />Macromedia has just released Studio 8, and among the many applications included, there is Flash Professional 8. The new version has a greater emphasis on mobile device content and it includes many new features such as a new mobile device emulator, a new ActionScript Assist feature, greater control over device settings and much more. Visit <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/mobile/special/flashpro8_features/">Macromedia</a> for more details.<br /><br />Note there is also <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=detail&id=127144">a 90-minute Flash Lite Online Live Seminar on August 24, 2005</a>, which will take you through the basics of using Flash Professional 8 to develop rich mobile Flash applications.

[yanathin]

Being a regular user of Flash and Photoshop, I am thrilled to see that they finally implemented Photoshop's "blending effects" into real-time flash. This will GREATLY reduce the amount of seperate png files inserted into a non-vector-based Flash file.

I'm also happy they have templates for all the mobile devices that support Flash, too. I wasn't too thrilled with the past two releases of Flash, but this is definitely a breakthrough for Macromedia.

[stevelam]

I wasn't too thrilled with the past two releases of Flash, but this is definitely a breakthrough for Macromedia.

Could it be something to do with the fact that it isnt Macromedia anymore but Adobe Systems Incorporated :?:

[Darius Wey]

Could it be something to do with the fact that it isnt Macromedia anymore but Adobe Systems Incorporated :?:

I doubt it. Over the past year, Macromedia has been dedicated to the mobile platform and has been pushing mobile Flash content through all avenues - advertising, contests, etc. So, improving the mobile development capabilities of Flash has always been on Macromedia's radar, and I doubt Flash 8 (or Studio 8 for that matter) had a lot of influence from Adobe.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure this is the last "Macromedia" Flash release we'll see before everything is branded with the Adobe name. What's next for Flash? Time will tell.

[SteveHoward999]

I wasn't too thrilled with the past two releases of Flash, but this is definitely a breakthrough for Macromedia.

Could it be something to do with the fact that it isnt Macromedia anymore but Adobe Systems Incorporated :?:


No because the takeover still has not gone through. There's another couple of months to go before they can legally proceed.

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[x999x]

So does this still use the old flash plugin for PPC, or has that also been updated?

There's quite a bit of great actionscript that simply doesn't work with the pocketpc flash conduit, and I'm wondering if this new flash fixes that.

[Darius Wey]

So does this still use the old flash plugin for PPC, or has that also been updated?

Unfortunately, the mobile Flash player for Pocket PC is still sitting at v6.0. I'm kind of hoping that gets updated soon - if not now, maybe when Windows Mobile 5.0 becomes the standard.

[steddyman]

Unfortunately, the mobile Flash player for Pocket PC is still sitting at v6.0. I'm kind of hoping that gets updated soon - if not now, maybe when Windows Mobile 5.0 becomes the standard.

Unfortunately it looks like Macromedia are abandoning the PPC platform since there is certainly no beta version of the PPC player beyond 6.0

Their strategy is to use Flash Lite for mobile devices which sucks and isn't even available on any Pocket PC devices yet. Its feature set is similar to Flash 4 on the desktop.

The version 6 player for PPC is already a heavyweight and I doubt they will squeeze the Java 2.0 interpreter of Flash 7 into the memory footprint any time soon.

Lets hope the Adobe takeover helps expand their device strategy a little.

[SteveHoward999]

Unfortunately it looks like Macromedia are abandoning the PPC platform since there is certainly no beta version of the PPC player beyond 6.0


That's not my understanding of it. I work very closely with Macromedia and they have not made any suggestion of 'abandoning' the PPC platform. Lack of player 7 or 8 support is very irritating, though and we should all nag them to get their finger out with appropriate updates!!!!

Their strategy is to use Flash Lite for mobile devices which sucks and isn't even available on any Pocket PC devices yet. Its feature set is similar to Flash 4 on the desktop.

But remember that Flash Lite is aimed at smartphones, not PPC. You are talking about two different platforms entirely. Those with Windows Mobile phone/PDAs have access to the Flash 6 player for PPC.

The version 6 player for PPC is already a heavyweight and I doubt they will squeeze the Java 2.0 interpreter of Flash 7 into the memory footprint any time soon.

I guess at 800k you could say it is pretty big, but I don't think I would go as far as to say it is heavyweight.

By the way - I presume you mean JavaScript - or do you actually mean ActionScript 2? Flash does not do any kind of Java.

Lets hope the Adobe takeover helps expand their device strategy a little.

More would be better, but don't be fooled into thinking they are taking their eye off the ball. I think their main strategy was to get a player to as many phone models as possible first with Flash Lite, then they will be able to concentrate on getting more powerful features to as many devices as possible. Rememner the early 'smart' phones are still very crippled in functionality compared to a PPC, but they will quickly catch up, and when they do, you can guarantee Macromedia will be there with more powerful (Flash 5, 6, 7, 8?) players for them.


It would be lovely to see a Flash 8 player for Windows Mobile 5 :-)

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[davea0511]

More and more it seems that Flash is becoming one of the best platform independent programming tools out there. I recently did a writeup on this: http://kionetics.com/flash.htm

Let's hope this release is less buggy than MX was.

[SteveHoward999]

More and more it seems that Flash is becoming one of the best platform independent programming tools out there. I recently did a writeup on this: http://kionetics.com/flash.htm

Let's hope this release is less buggy than MX was.


Couple of comments:-

Typo - Macromedia Director, not Directory - By the way this tool still blows Flash away with it's ability to, among other thing, play video as a texture on a flag flapping in a breeze ... control bitmaps pixel by pixel, true 3D support and a zillion other cool things ;-)

Not all platofrms have the latest player available to them - PPC is currently stuck on Flash Player 6, Window sand Mac are on 8, and I think Linux, Sun, Unix and some others are stuck on 5 or even 4. SmartPhones have Flash Lite (love the spelling) which is basically Flash 4, so very crippled compared to the current player.

Generator - I think Macromedia killed that off when they brought out Flash 6 (Flash MX) and Communication Server (among a few other things).

Otherwise, a useful comment on the versatility of Flash.


Since this is a PPC forum, it is also good to point out that you can buy a Standalone player from Macromedia to generate exe projectors that will run full-screen on a QVGA PPC - this does not need the Flash player installed!. There are also a number of third-party offerings that enable you to wrap the Flash ActiveX control inside eVC, eVB, .NET etc to achieve the same thing. None of these options are free (Starting at about $250) but all of the mmake the delivery of Flash to PPC much more user friendly, and give the developer access to things like local databases etc.

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