Today, Adobe has released the first Flex 3 and Adobe AIR desktop version for Linux. This release is in alpha 3 state and has been delayed, because of a missing major update for Flash Player 9 under Linux. The Alpha is ready to download at Adobe Labs
Prism is an open source cross-platform prototype of functionality that lets users split web applications out of the browser and run them directly on the desktop.
This news is already a few weeks old, but i didnt notice it. Mozilla has released the first prototype of Prism integrated in Firefox 3.0
I didnt install the beta yet, but it sounds damn cool just to convert a website in a full desktop application. Let´s wait how this is going to be in reality when we can expect a more developed version of this prototype.
Corban Baxter writes on his blog how easy it is to enable Google Analytics page tracking in Flash websites with just a few lines. Just write a small method submitting your current section (trackPage(/home/page1). In this method just referencing the JS function pageTracker._trackPageview(), referencing the current path of your website. Very easy done. Have a look at Corban´s blog
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | /// GOOGLE ANALYTICS SIMPLE TRACKING /// Script by: corban baxter import flash.external.ExternalInterface; function gaTracking(page) { ExternalInterface.call("pageTracker._trackPageview", page); } //end |
call:
1 | gaTracking("/flash/home"); //sends event to google's analytics system |
Today, Adobe launched the beta version of Photoshop Express, an online image editing software like Picnik, but with a lot more manipulation features and interfaces to Facebook, Picasa and others. It comes with an online storage of 2 Gb per user and offers rich gallery handling and image editing features. The entire project has been developed in Adobe Flex. All in one a great product with amazing features and in my eyes not to compare with Picnik or other online picture editing solutions. And last but not least: Its for free! 
Yesterday, Harald and I moved to mediatemple. We are using their Grid-Service offer and i am really curious about this provider. My happiness has been settled down, when i have seen the FTP upload performance (max 40 Kb/sec, im located in Germany). But the entire product, covering a lot of traffic, an excellent administration backend and accurate settings for each domain and all for a very cheap price, seems to be very nice. Let´s see! I will also keep my german hosting provider for the next time to check out the mediatemple service very carefully. I´ve found a nice comment from a long time customer of mediatemple in a blog, that describes the features very well, for everybody who wants to know about all the mediatemples superdupermegafeatures:
It is easter! - four free days and i have to work. What a shame. But however, i have to finish my things here, in order to move to London very soon. So i have just finished a small website for an network and telecommunication company. I hope this was my last HTML/CMS website and now i can fully concentrate on Flash driven websites and applications only. I´m just going to extend the PHP/MySQL functionality behind my portfolio website and develop a video player application in Flex 3, powered by the veoh API. So check back very soon and enjoy your free time…
Adobe just released a special educational license of Flex Builder 3.0 Professional for free. The license is for students and likewise for all educational institutions.
“The education version is only available to education customers and is not meant for distribution to institutions, organizations or people outside the authorized educational institution.”
For more information visit Adobes official Flex registration website.
Microsoft licensed Flash Lite 3 and Adobe Reader LE for the operating system Windows Mobile. That is a great news for all Flash Lite developers and users with a mobile which runs on Windows Mobile. Processors on mobile machines are getting faster, so hopefully in the future we can expect a lot of cool applications including Flash video on this platform. Currently Flash Lite has a growth of 150 percent per year. I think this news should encourage Apple to bring Flash Late to the iPhone.
Yesterday the guys at deconcept released SWFObject 2.0 and moved the entire project to google code.
SWFObject 2.0 now offers embedding Flash content and alternative content using standards compliant markup (static publishing). The old method from version 1.5, to embed your Flash content using JavaScript is still part of the package of course. In my eyes, it is still the same way to do that except that you dont have to create an instance of the class first and a change in calling the method that writes the Flash content (swfobject.embedSWF()), as shown in the example below.
The documentation can be found here. The project now comes with a handy code generator consisting of a web form that let you enter all relevant data for your flash website.
Obviously, YouTube is going to change the video codec to the new H.264 codec, which allows users to watch videos in high definition, a huge quality improvement. Watch a sample video below.
To test the video in fullscreen mode and to see the modified player interface, click the link: