In the email from Macromedia you saw what they had to say, but what does this really mean to Flash users and developers.
a) Flash Player keeps its sacred status.
This is a given, especially with the high penatration of flash players in web browsers and now mobile devices. Plus Flash is quickly becoming the goto for marketing content, just take a look at those CDs you get with every product these days. What type of software do you think they use to create a presentation advertising the greatest feature for their product on a cross plat form CD?
b) Flash MX tools slowly transform into part of the “Photoshop family.â€
This means soon the Adobe CS2 design suite of apps with include Flash and you will be able to create a vector image in one of the high end apps (like Illustrator) and them immediately push it to Flash to animate, etc.
c) Server products get much-needed marketing support.
Adobe can now start pushing the languishing Flash Communication Server amoungst other things. FCS allows users to connect and teleconfrence via the web without browser or os dependence. It even supports multiconnection video conferencing (ever wonder what that camera() object was for in Flash MX and beyond). Not to mention the fact that now coldfusion will have some sort of native support, possibly within Acrobat. Imagine a world where business clients can run real time reporting within Acrobat instead of Crystal Reports and have those reports dynamicly online without purchasing the $30,000+ enterprise server edition of Crystal Reports.
d) Flash Video format gets instant credibility.
Flash added a video codec to MX and has been quickly integrating it to the point that a user doesn’t really need quicktime or real or windows media player to view web based video and its a heck of a lot easier for a web designer to stream Flash than to stream any of those other formats. Plus Flash can include some sort of time waster for its users while they wait for the download. And remember the communication server with realtime video conferencing?
e) FlashPaper becomes a feature in Acrobat.
Take a PDF and open it in a web browser… now wait two minutes for Acrobat reader to load or take that same PDF and convert it to FlashPaper that loads in Flash player and voila, immediate open of PDFs in web browsers!
Based on the PDF from Harley Manning
with Nate L. Root and Michelle Amato on the Macromedia merger page.
Macromedia just sent out an email to its current customers about the big merge. check it out below:
Dear Macromedia customer,
As you probably know, Macromedia and Adobe are joining together to deliver solutions for our customers that make great digital experiences possible.
With complementary technology platforms, products, and customers, we are both focused on enabling the creation and delivery of compelling content and experiences across multiple operating systems, devices, and media. Most importantly, we share a common mission for the future: to help people and organizations communicate better.
By combining the passion and creativity of two leading-edge companies with the diversity and energy of our respective customers, we will drive innovations that will inspire you to improve the ways people everywhere are experiencing and interacting with information. We look forward to working with you, our customers, as we create the future together.
The companies anticipate completion of this transaction by the fall of this year. Although we are currently engaged in integration planning, we will remain and operate as independent entities until the acquisition is complete. Macromedia customers should continue to contact Macromedia sales and support for Macromedia products and solutions.
We invite you to learn more about the acquisition, and, as always, we welcome your feedback.
Regards,
Stephen Elop
CEO, Macromedia
I think it was a was a really good idea for Macromedia to give its customers this personal heads up. This way we can find out a little more about what’s going on for the horse mouth rather than from stock analysts, news rumor sites, and people like me who read google constantly hoping to not have to find a better platform.
Also there’s good news in a PDF on the Macromedia merger page. Apparently:
a) Flash Player keeps its sacred status.
b) Flash MX tools slowly transform into part of the “Photoshop family.â€
c) Server products get much-needed marketing support.
d) Flash Video format gets instant credibility.
e) FlashPaper becomes a feature in Acrobat.
This is all good news for Flash geeks and hopefully this means that sometime in the future we’ll get an indept article on what the merge means for Dreamweaver, the other web design baby.
More information on the merge at Macromedia’s site
Today is Free-For-All Friday! Free for All means you can post whatever you want on my blog. Say what you want to say, share a link, complain about the wheels on your chair, etc…all you have to do is login and post! Need an idea of what to write? First off Tell me who you are and pimp your blog then tell me about your favorite family member. Today is the sixth day of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Passover is eight days long and started Saturday night with a great meal and the historic re-telling of the Jews exodus from Egypt. It is one of the four major harvest holidays in the Jewish calendar. For a week, we are not allowed to eat any kind of leavened (risen) bread or anything related to it (like foods with corn syrup and rice). This week I’ve been chowing down on matzah, matzah balls, gefite fish and macaroons! Hope I’m able to make it to everybody’s FFAF today and please enjoy. edit: wow, didn’t answer my own question… my wife… who else, take’s care of you when you’re sick and listens to you complain about work and puts up with you not cleaning the house enough?
Here’s how to do it:
1. Go to http://www.schleifstein.net/wp-admin/post.php
2. Login/Password: guest/freeforall
3. Enter a title, make the category “free for all”
4. Type what you want to type in “Post” and feel free to add technorati tags in the “Tags” box.
5. When you’re done, click “Publish”
Rules:
1. Please keep it somewhat clean…if you don’t think I would post it, don’t. God forbid if I find spam or porn links…
2. Feel free to link your blog…just make sure you say who you are. (sign your post)
3. I reserve the right to edit/delete inappropriate posts (or those with really obvious spelling mistakes)
4. Please don’t link to images, since this is an artist portfolio site I prefer to have only my artwork here, your thoughts on anything are fine I just need to draw the line at image linking, thanks.
Have fun! Check the FFAF blogroll and a larger version of the art I created today using matzah and Passover as my inspiration after the jump.
Continue reading ‘A Passover Friday Free For All…’
Wired News has a story from webmonkey that tried to soothe some of my worries. They think the coming merger will be good for cross application integration. I agree that i would love to have some of the application integration that macromedia has in its programs added to my design suite. I’d love to start a logo design in flash and then export it to any size in photoshop to finish up the work for publication.
I’m sure all already know this but, it was announced today that Adobe is going to aquire Macromedia for 3.4 billion dollars in stock. This is a huge deal as to most used web design and animation products are put out by either of these companies. Plus the fact that the default standard for easy animation is Flash and the most open standard for document creation is the PDF. This can only be good for the world, but bad for the small developer. It is already impossible for a student to afford photoshop, does this acquisition mean the cost of macromedia studio is going to skyrocket?! Hopefully Adobe keeps the macromedia product costs down and developes a better pricing system as the over 1000 it costs to buy any of their products right now is just way to much!
Now some links to stories on the aquisition around the web:
themacobserver | macworld | gizmodo | Macromedia blog | theregister | newsday | dmn newswire
what slashdot is saying
the adobe press release
Published on
March 16, 2005 in
Flash.
This piece was created by importing a small photograph from my treo600 to Flash. Once there, I painted over the image to create a flat painting style image that seems to spring from a general face image and is enhanced by a contoured ceiling. The ceiling appears to overtake the work but is balanced by the emotion on the face as well as the contrast between the un-lined figure and the etching in the ceiling near various lighted regions. This piece took a little over four hours to complete and may inspire animation based art in the future. The work was created March 16, 2005. Click through to see a larger version of the work.
Continue reading ‘The painted face and ceiling’
I know, you own a Samsung i330 Palm based smartphone and are Jewish, plus you want to personalize your graffiti area on said phone. What do you do? Well, when I was a more regular contributer to PdaPhoneHome.com I found out about a way to create and upload personalized grafitti areas and phone pads to a specialized website. The site will convert the files to ones that are readable by the OS on the Samsung i330 phone and replace your graffiti area with a new personalized one. Of course I immediately created a small Shalom graphic and uploaded it. Now you can download and use it too. Just click here to download the shalom graffiti area for your Samsung i330 phone/palm. And please, enjoy!
