Radley Marx

Steve’s Folly and the Ignorance of Flash

I’ve been trying to sit down and write this for several weeks but each time I’ve inevitably waved it off thinking the debate was over and we could finally move on. But no, there’s always some computer industry idiot who pops up and declares Flash all-but-dead as if it were nothing more than a mere browser plug-in.

But Flash isn’t an interloper any more than H.264 is the end of the world of video. Flash is a core component of several massive creative industries who could care less about web standards as long as their content continues to attract massive attention. The big picture is that this is about engineers versus creatives, and engineers are mad and confused that content is king.

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Adobe: stop playing CalvinBall with Apple and move on

Great news from Apple today: their platform is such a success that they’ve decided to take over all money-making verticals. They already had communication and media, but now they’ll be in charge of advertising, social gaming, location, and especially development.

With less than 48 business hours to launch CS5, Adobe must scramble to change their story. If not, the news cycle won’t move on to Adobe’s new product and features, the story will remain “Flash blocked by Apple: is Flash washed-up?”

This isn’t time to keep playing CalvinBall with Apple. This is the time to quit the games and move on to your real platform: anything that isn’t iPOS.

Here’s my 5-part game plan for Adobe: More »

Five Myths of HTML5 (vs. Adobe Flash)

First off, the inevitable disclaimer: I’m a Flash guy, not really an HTML5 guy. But I’m also an Apple guy  - I’ve owned 8 Macs, 2 iPhones, and 0 PCs over the last 20 years. I’m naturally receptive to Steve’s ideas, so maybe this HTML5 stuff does make sense. Or does it?

I don’t mean to come late to or prolong the argument. Rather, I actually wanted to dig a little deeper into the HTML5 vs. Flash debate and offer a fair rebuttal to the most fanatical of claims.

Let’s get to it…

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Best of MAX ‘09 on Adobe TV & Max Online

This year’s MAX was a blast. Lots of great announcements (but not many releases) from Adobe on what’s in store in the coming year. The best part: almost all of the sessions are now available as videos on Adobe TV and  MAX Online.

The big announcement was Flash-based app development for the iPhone which came as a great surprise for everyone. I’m very surprised how close I came in calling it in my pre-MAX blog post. If blogging was pool, my post would count if we’re playing “call pocket” and not “call shot”.

Most of my planned sessions focussed on P2P, AIR for Mobile, Collaboration, and Flex. Only a few ended up ditch-worthy (I’ll never attend “roadmap” sessions again, bah!) and in one case fell happily into a great iPhone session with AIR-master Arno Gourdol. In the end, I attended mostly P2P, video, iPhone, and Flex courses… yet there are more than a few that I missed.

This is a very subjective “best of” list based on my personal interests and skills. Thus, I’ve compiled a list of the best sessions I attended (*) as well as those recommended by others that I’ll catch up on over the next few weeks.



Flash / iPhone

XML based FLA: The New Flash File Format (Jeff Ahlquist)

Designing Flash Applications for iPhone * (Arno Gourdol)
(aka Designing Applications for Desktops and Mobile Devices with Adobe AIR)

Optimizing Flash Content for iPhone Applications (Scott Petersen & Chris Brichford)

Building Applications for iPhone with Flash Professional CS5 * (Aditya Bansod)

Multi-Touch and the Flash Platform * (Daniel Dura & Matt Bugbee)

Secret Session: Flash Professional (Richard  Galvan, long video: session repeats due to scheduling)

ActionScript 3.0 Tastes Good (and Is Good for You, Too!) (Phillip Kerman)

Things Every Flash Developer Should Know (Grant Skinner)



Video / P2P / OSMF

P2P on the Flash Platform with RTMFP * (Matthew Kaufman)

Social Media Experiences with Flash Media and RTMFP * (Tom Krcha)

Introduction to Adobe’s Open Source Media Framework (Will Law & Edwin van Rijkom)

Netflix on TVs Using Flash (Matt McCarthy & Michael Hoch)

Encoding Best Practices for H.264 Video Using Flash (Fabio Sonnati)



Flex / AIR

Preview: Flex for Mobile Devices (Ely Greenfield & Greg Burch)

Flash Builder 4 Advanced Tips and Tricks * (Scott Evans)

Effects in Flex 4 (Chet Haase)

What’s New in Flash Builder 4 (Tim Buntel)

Moving from Flex 3 to Flex 4 (Joan Lafferty)

Multitouch Development with Flex (Andrew Trice)

A Deep Dive into Flex 4 Lists and Layouts (Glenn Ruehle)

What’s Coming in Adobe AIR 2 (Christian Cantrell)



Flash Catalyst

Working with Flash Catalyst Projects in Flash Builder 4 (Andrew Shorten)

Prototyping and Interactive Wireframes Using Flash Catalyst (Peter Flynn)



Flash Platform

Killer Text in Flash with the Text Layout Framework (TLF) (Doug Benson & Rusty Williams)

Flash Player Internals (Lee Thomason)

GPU Acceleration in the next Flash Player (NVIDIA)

Adobe Wave: Increasing the Use of your Websites and Applications (John Shapiro & Joerg Beckert)

SEO Secrets, Technology, and Magic Behind Flash (Duane Nickull & Rich Tretola)



Design

Hot Tips and Cool Tools in Illustrator CS4 (David Macy)

Photoshop CS4: Hidden Gems and New Technologies (Brian O’Neil Hughes)



[Update: New videos and missing links added. A few session videos didn't get posted to Adobe TV, but are available via MAX Online (thank you @mesh).]

My Quick Guide to LA for MAX Attendees

I really miss LA… great food, beautiful beaches, and lots of amazing music and culture.

It’s impossible to make a list of “the best of everything” because there’s so much and everyone has their tastes. So I’ve put together this quick & dirty list of places I miss and plan to hit, as well as a couple of sites that I might use to discover what’s new. I hope this can be useful…

Flavorpill (LA)
Great resource for daytime and nightime events

Yelp
Tons of people in LA use yelp

Hipsters:
google “Silverlake”

Food:
(Most of these are a 5-10 min drive from Downtown)

Papa Cristos C&K Importing (arguably the best Greek in LA)
Phillips Bar-B-Que (serious, serious BBQ)
Daikokuya (great Ramen, they usually sell out before closing time)
Chano’s Drive-In (cheap, semi-late night tacos & burritos)
Palm’s Thai Restaurant (Thai food, featuring Thai Elvis live)
Little Tokyo (Various restaurants in the northeast corner of Downtown)
Chinatown (Various restaurants just north of Downtown)
Sushi / Noodle Row – 1st Street & Central (north end of Little Tokyo)

West Side (Venice / Santa Monica / Culver City)

If you have time, I recommend heading out to the west side to check out Venice and Santa Monica, but be warned: both freeways (10 & 405) are usually total gridlock during rush hour. Also, don’t forget LAFlashapaloozastock takes place in Venice on Saturday.

Walk-around, food, & shopping:
Santa Monica – Main Street
Santa Monica – 3rd Street Prominade
Santa Monica – Santa Monica Little Tokyo
Venice – Abbot Kinney
Venice – Venice Beach (rent a bike and ride on the beachfront bike path)
Culver City – Downtown (lots of great food, I suggest Tender Greens)

Art on west side:
Bergomot Station – group of art galleries
Hennessey & Ingalls – giant art book store
Griffin LA – David Lynch: New Paintings