08-09-2005, 05:00 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Macromedia Releases Flash Professional 8
"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."
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 Macromedia for more details.
Note there is also a 90-minute Flash Lite Online Live Seminar on August 24, 2005, which will take you through the basics of using Flash Professional 8 to develop rich mobile Flash applications.
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08-09-2005, 06:31 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 197
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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.
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08-09-2005, 09:00 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 398
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by yanathin
I wasn't too thrilled with the past two releases of Flash, but this is definitely a breakthrough for Macromedia.
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Could it be something to do with the fact that it isnt Macromedia anymore but Adobe Systems Incorporated :?:
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08-09-2005, 09:30 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by stevelam
Could it be something to do with the fact that it isnt Macromedia anymore but Adobe Systems Incorporated :?:
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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.
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08-09-2005, 01:00 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by stevelam
Quote:
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Originally Posted by yanathin
I wasn't too thrilled with the past two releases of Flash, but this is definitely a breakthrough for Macromedia.
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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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08-09-2005, 05:10 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 119
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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.
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08-09-2005, 05:38 PM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by x999x
So does this still use the old flash plugin for PPC, or has that also been updated?
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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.
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08-09-2005, 06:57 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 40
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Quote:
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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.
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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.
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08-10-2005, 12:41 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by steddyman
Unfortunately it looks like Macromedia are abandoning the PPC platform since there is certainly no beta version of the PPC player beyond 6.0
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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!!!!
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Originally Posted by steddyman
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.
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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.
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Originally Posted by steddyman
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.
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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 Java Script - or do you actually mean ActionScript 2? Flash does not do any kind of Java.
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Originally Posted by steddyman
Lets hope the Adobe takeover helps expand their device strategy a little.
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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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08-13-2005, 08:55 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 146
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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.
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