Adobe
Adobe Responds: Flash isn’t Open Source, but we’re trying
A few days ago I had posted Apple, Adobe, Flash, iPhone, iPad and Open Source with reference to a debate on various blogs. The debate is whether Flash will ever go open source, should they, and what it means to the Apple / iPhone / iPad contingent.
Adobe came back with the blog post Following the open trail, by Dave McAllister. › Continue reading
Apple, Adobe, Flash, iPhone, iPad and Open Source
I just saw an interesting blog “Back and Forth” between a few sites:
- Robert Scoble at Scobleizer
- John Gruber at Daring Fireball
- Dave Winer at scripting.com
The conversation revolves around the future of Flash and open standards. › Continue reading
Illustrator Tutorial: Create a vector RSS Icon (a la web 2.0)
Not being an artist or designer by default (I do some design by usually by applying formulas — I find a completely deterministic experince, a happier experience), I attempted to learn more about all those pretty graphics we see out there these days.
I grew up in Photoshop, and have recently been “seeing the light” of Adobe Illustrator. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve used Illustrator for quite a while, but I’m just now learning all the various tools that I need to know.
See the icon in this article? I made it. All by myself. Of course with the aid of an excellent tutorial:
Spoon Graphics Blog – Create a Vector RSS Icon with Illustrator
Adobe and Apple working together for Flash on the iPhone
I know, can you believe it? All this drama, and we find out they’re both amicably working towards a solution.
Saw it on Apple Insider, Adobe, Apple working together on Flash for iPhone.
Seems like it was announced recently.
Apple Insider mentions that Apple has been trying to tout HTML 5 as a replacement to flash on the iPhone. I know HTML 5 has some cool toys in it, but not nearly enough to meet why people demand Flash on the iPhone — because everyone is already USING flash on the web. Saying you provide a desktop like browsing environment and not including Flash is a big deal to me.
This made me happy to read (except the HTML 5 part). Hope you enjoy the news too!
Flash or Flex?
Both Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex build SWFs. They are the same right?
I’ve asked myself the Flash or Flex question recently and wanted to post my thoughts.
It’s a good idea to think about platforms when building web applications ahead of time. Factors I traditionally use, but will not reference here, are the current employee skillsets, ability of the team to learn, and cost to update software. I know — it’s good to get updated software in a company, but sometimes it just doesn’t make sense for a company to spend $1,000 for 5 users, to maintain a project that only costs $5,000 to build. If the company is already equipped with Flash but not Flex — it may make sense to choose Flash even though the project doesn’t lend itself.
That being said, here’s the breakdown of Flash and Flex
Flash CS4
Flash has always been the tool used by develops wanting to create vector animations on the web. Recently Microsoft has introduced Silverlight, we will be ignoring that option for this scenario as I don’t believe I have the expertise to judge Silverlight.
Strengths:
- Comes with standard Adobe Creative Suite Bundles
- Timeline based animations
- Hand animated assets
- Standard Animation
- Self Created Vector Assets
- Highly customized interfaces
- Animation / Design leaning IDE
- Visual
- Familiar environment, as it is the standard way to deploy SWFs
Weaknesses:
- Not meant for AS3 development
- Becomes a basic text editor in most Object Oriented development exercises
- Timeline approach means maintenance is more expensive long term
Summary:
Basically Flash is the ideal environment for development if you are doing things such as banners, animations, logos, or any other visual type of project. It leans itself towards graphic design and animation.
Flash is found in the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium
Adobe Flex 3
Flex is the newcomer to the vector animation IDE’s from Adobe. Flex is primarily targeted at developers working in the Flash environment. Flex 3 Builder is a modified Eclipse IDE. The Flex platform was built to enable developers to adapt better to Flash, and be able to create Flash O-O applications.
Strengths:
- Developer friendly IDE
- Built in components for standard GUI elements
- Meant for highly interactive applications
- Performance tools
- Debugging
- Maintaining code
- Can leverage SWFs
- Can leverage AS3 code
Weaknesses:
- No Timeline
- Not for designers
- May seem “cryptic” to traditional Flash developers
- Not visual
- Requires learning new MXML code
- Complex working environment
Summary:
Flex is meant for application development. The IDE lets developers work in a familiar environment, separate from the graphical tools designers are traditionally used to. Flex will give developers the tools they need to rapidly prototype application interfaces, with standardized tools and interface elements.
Flex is available as either Adobe Flex Builder 3.0
So which one should I choose?
Ultimately both Flash and Flex compile into the Flash SWF format. That means they are both capable of the same functionality and same graphical quality. The major difference is in the individual building the SWF, as well as the goal of the SWF. If your goal is for a design oriented SWF, then go with Flash. If you want an application, or a complex interactive interface then Flex will most likely be your tool of choise.
35 Tutorials to get started with Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is an amazing tool for web development, and image processing in general. I remember my first experience with Photoshop when I was back in Massapequa High School. There was an after school program that brought a local web designer in to help the kids work with websites and such.
My first creation was a series of boxes swirled. It looked cool, and was so easy to do.
Now Photoshop places a large role in our everyday computer usage. Everyone has a digital camera nowadays, and those with digital cameras should know how to use Photoshop to process those photos (deleting that annoying beach guy in the background who doesn’t understand you shouldn’t wear a “sweater” to the beach, or just to balance out colors).
Of course there are excellent alternatives now, such as Google Picasa or the Adobe Lightroom.
If you go the Photoshop route, check out this post at Six Revisions — 35 Basic Tutorials to Get You Started with Photoshop.
Wired: Why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone
A topic I am highly interested, the intersection of two of my favorite technologies — Adobe Flash (earlier, Macromedia Flash) and the iPhone.
Wired.com has a story published today, November 17, 2008 — Why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone.
Although there are reports that Adobe is investing in porting Flash over to the iPhone, Flash for the iPhone (seangw.com), according to the iPhone SDK agreement, recently published by wikileaks.org, “No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).”
Personally I just cannot see Apple eliminating Flash from the iPhone. It is a power struggle between Adobe and Apple, but why? Adobe’s applications have supported the core Apple “worhshippers”, designers, who have used Apple devotedly for decades. The only thing that Flash does for the iPhone is eliminate control by Apple over content on the iPhone. We all know it’s going to happen sooner or later.
Some other arguments Apple is using, or that can be conceivable are:
- Lack of control over applications
- Goes against the iPhone developer’s Terms of Service specifically prohibiting Flash from appearing on the iPhone.
- Customer support complaints regarding flash (given the already large number of requests for the iPhone)
- Battery life issues
- Straining the iPhone’s limited resources
Flash for the iPhone – Already developed by Adobe
Announced at Flash On The Beach, Adobe confirmed it is actively developing a Flash Player for the iPhone.
Broken (as far as I can tell) by Flash Magazine, on the post Flash For the iPhone Confirmed At FOTB.
Now lets hope it doesn’t suck too many batteries, is fully compatible with the standard flash browser, and Apple will graciously let Adobe deploy the Flash Player.
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