Adobe Max 2008

I attended the Adobe Max 2008 conference in San Francisco this week. Here are some take-aways I had from the event:

There was an educators' reception on Sunday where they displayed some sample web applications. The best thing I saw displayed was a simulated stock market created as an Adobe Air desktop application. This was used for a class where the instructor controlled the value of the stocks via a database and students would buy and sell stocks as they saw fit. The Air application would connect to the internet and retrieve the latest dataset that the instructor uploaded into the database. Students would "cash out" their stocks at the end of the semester to see how well they did.

Thermo, the user interface design tool that was previewed by Adobe last year will now be known as Adobe Flash Catalyst. Here is the website info: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcatalyst/ It will make a functional user interface from photoshop and illustrator layers. All you do is assign what type of behavior it should have and it does the basic coding so you can hand it off to a developer.

WebKit's core JavaScript engine just got a new interpreter, code-named SquirrelFish. It is over 50% faster than the previous version.

Photoshop.com is a new website where you can get an account and upload all your photos to share and edit. It's kind of like iPhoto as a web app, created with Adobe Flex.

Over 80% of all video on the web is now Flash video. Most recently, Major League Baseball has chosen to stream its games in Flash video. Mobile devices now account for more connections to the Internet than computers.

Disney Interactive Group's Club Penguin is a kids' website where they can meet and talk with kids from all over the world in their native language through translators. Not sure how well this works.

Flash Player 10 includes an enhanced 3D rendering engine. They showed a vector animation of a rag that they moved back and forth and were able to key video into it. They could also draw with text. They selected some text then used it as a brush to flow it onto the screen wherever they wanted. Supports encrypted local sqlLite databases.

Showed an example of a Rich Internet Application (RIA), an Adobe Air application done as the Global Edition of the New York Times. It will update when the user is online with all new stories. Has an interactive crossword puzzle as well as interactive ads that animate when you click on them. When the user resizes the app, all the text automatically flows with it seamlessly. Pretty amazing. Has a browse mode just as you would browse the headlines when reading the paper.

These types of web-based apps (Client to Cloud) will probably be the wave of the future. They are cross-platform and can also work on Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).

California Museum Legacy Trails Flash-based website that highlights people and places throughout California's history. Currently displaying the Remarkable Women Trail. Allows you to view a timeline, photos, and videos of important women in California's history. Maria Shriver, first lady of California, was a guest presenter for this piece.

Tour de Flex is a desktop application for exploring Flex capabilities and resources, including the core Flex components, Adobe AIR and data integration, as well as a variety of third-party components, effects, skins, and more. It includes over 200 runnable samples, each with source code, links to documentation, and other details.

Cocomo is a free public beta Platform as a Service that allows Flex developers to easily add real-time social capabilities into their RIA (rich Internet applications). Comprised of both Flex-based client components and a hosted services infrastructure, Cocomo allows you to build real-time, multi-user applications with Flex in less time than ever before. And because Acrobat.com hosts the service, issues like deployment, maintenance, and scalability are taken care of for you.You can add social features to your existing Flex apps or build totally new ones, such as real-time productivity/collaboration apps, multiplayer games, and audio/video chat.

Features of the Cocomo beta include the following:

• VoIP Audio
• Webcam Video
• Chat
• Multi-User Whiteboards
• Real-Time File Sharing
• User Management
• Roles and Permissions
• Robust Data Messaging

Adobe Wave is an Adobe AIR application and Adobe hosted service that work together to enable desktop notifications. It helps publishers stay connected to your customers and lets users avoid the email clutter of dozens of newsletters and social network update messages. Adobe Wave is a single web service call that lets publishers reach users directly on their desktop: there's no need to make them download a custom application or build it yourself.

They did a demo of using a hand-held internet device and flicking photos from it to a TV that was internet ready with their finger. Truly amazing.

I attended quite a few technical seminars that I took notes on, but I won't bore you with here, as you won't even understand any of it. I took seminars on tricks using After Effects and Flash, Actionscript, Adobe Air for Flash developers, Flash for Mobile Phone application development, Flex Builder, and After Effects using the Mocha plugin, which allows you to track objects on the video for special effects.

I also attended a session called Playful Development. They said that neurologists, through MRIs and such can identify Play as a distinguishable state in the human brain. During play, more of the brain is engaged. There is lower inhibition, higher intelliegence, enhanced accuity, and more empathy. Made me feel better about how much my kids play video games. They asked "Can programmers play"? They suggest doing things that seem on the surface unrelated to get ideas. Take time to play, to try new things, break things to see how they work, explore. This will get you out of the status quo. Stuart Brown (whoever he is) said "Play is the exploration of the possible." Play stimulates the right side of the brain. Play should come at every level of development. 30 different types of play have been identified. There are 3 major categories of play: exploratory (understanding what's possible), generative play (when we need new solutions for stale problems), and diversionary play (most common, take a break and the idea comes to us when we're not actively thinking about it). Techniques to try are Paired Programming where 2 people work together on a common problem (1 + 1 = 3), there are less interruptions because people are more hesitant to interrupt 2 people working together, it's more fun, there is usually a driver and a navigator, but sometimes they switch roles when needed, use 2 sets of mouse and keyboard on the same computer so both can work at once. Flow (in the zone) is a state of heightened effectiveness, when ideas and production seem to come automatically. A trickle of endorphins in flow state will sustain you for a very long time. Play has been called "the next great breakthrough in developer productivity."