Life as an Adobe SE http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/ Random thoughts on Connect Pro, Flash Media Server, Creative Suite & other web technologies from Abbas Rizvi en Copyright 2008 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:34:38 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss More FMRMS info on Adobe.com This morning the Adobe Developer Connection posted two articles to support the FMRMS launch:

Introducing Flash Media Rights Management Server (by Desiree Motamedi)
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/logged_in/dmotamedi_fmrms.html

Exploring content protection options with Flash Media Rights Management Server (by Laurel Reitman)
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashmediaserver/articles/fmrms_content_protection.html

Both are featured on the FMS Developer Center:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashmediaserver/

as well as the ADC home page:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/more_fmrms_info_on_adobecom.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/more_fmrms_info_on_adobecom.html Flex & AIR Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:34:38 -0500 Flash Media Rights Management Server Released A new addition to the Flash Media Server family will be announced (and start shipping) today. The Flash Media Rights Management Server (or FMRMS - who doesn't love a new acronym to use at cocktail parties?) is a new content protection solution that helps safeguard video content created for Adobe Flash technology. With FMRMS, content producers can now deliver and protect their content, both online and offline - through the Adobe Media Player and applications that run on Adobe Air software.

With FMRMS in play, Adobe now offers copy protection for both online/streaming content, as well as downloaded/offline content. This is the first time that you're able to protect FLV files on desktops - so this is pretty huge!

The interesting thing is that FMRMS will enable new business models that go beyond the traditional download-to-own or download-to-rent models, but will also allow monetization of content through advertisement, online and offline!

Lots more information coming soon to Adobe.com, so stay tuned!

Here's the overview slide deck:

And the FAQ:

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/flash_media_rights_management.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/flash_media_rights_management.html Flash Media Server Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:22:00 -0500 kuler update - new release!
Today is the latest release of kuler, the Adobe web-hosted application for exploring, creating and sharing color themes.

New! Use color extraction to quickly and automatically generate a color theme from any uploaded photo or other image. Explore different moods, such as bright or muted, to see different colors, or drag the markers to select colors. The color extraction feature will engage with the creativity of the kuler community in new ways, while helping to expand the range of interesting themes on the site.

Other new features:

  • Endless favorites: Now save as many themes as you like, and browse them in your Mykuler area
  • Browse by Random (randomly selected) themes, in addition to Highest Rated, Newest, and Most Popular
The kuler team is looking for feedback from you, so be sure to visit the kuler forum on Adobe.com!

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/kuler_update_new_release.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/kuler_update_new_release.html Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:07:37 -0500 New AS3 Reference Guide Published Hot off the presses, the official Adobe technology platform ActionScript reference for RIA development is now available. The notebook-format document provides a complete ActionScript 3 API listing for Flash Player, Flex 3 and Adobe AIR.

You can read Mike Chambers' blog entry about it, or download the PDF here. It's distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License, so you are free to edit and redistribute the file.

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/new_as3_reference_guide_publis.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/new_as3_reference_guide_publis.html Flex & AIR Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:03:25 -0500 Getting your web design to the browser I recently presented an online seminar on Photoshop CS3 and Dreamweaver CS3 integration/workflow late last month, and I got a lot of requests for the demo files and additional documentation. Now, to be honest, I didn't create the assets or the workflow script, so I wasn't sure what the official line was on sharing these things with seminar attendees.. well, as it turns out, there is a publicly available document on Adobe.com that provides step-by-step instructions plus the source files. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find this document on the site myself, so I've just shared the PDF and source files here:

Link to Source Files

Enjoy!

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/getting_your_web_design_to_the.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/getting_your_web_design_to_the.html Creative Suite Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:15:17 -0500 Brand New Flash Media Server 3 White Paper The FMS team recently released a technical white paper which provides a great overview of the server technology/platform:

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/brand_new_flash_media_server_3.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/03/brand_new_flash_media_server_3.html Flash Media Server Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:33:48 -0500 More news from kuler... More news from kuler (kuler.adobe.com), an Adobe web-hosted application for exploring, creating and sharing color harmonies. A new version of kuler desktop is now available, to accompany the official release of AIR , the Adobe development platform to deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop. The Emerging Creative Technologies (ECT) team at Adobe is excited to support the AIR development platform and to extend the current kuler functionality of RSS feeds.

New features include (Feature Guide below:

  • Browse color themes from the kuler website while offline (up to 100 themes cached per feed)
  • Drag and drop themes onto your own desktop as transparent "tear offs," which can be scaled and viewed over any application
  • Access themes from Mykuler (must be signed in)
  • Download themes as ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) files directly from the kuler desktop (must be signed in)
  • New RSS feed "Random"

Moving forward, as additional functionality becomes available in the AIR platform, new features will be added to the kuler desktop.

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/more_news_from_kuler.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/more_news_from_kuler.html New Products Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:11:13 -0500 Engage 2008 (From Adobe Developer Connection) Engage 2008—held in San Francisco on February 25, 2008—is Adobe's annual conversation on the future of applications and the web, bringing together key thought leaders and influencers to share perspectives from a broad spectrum of industries. In this video, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and CTO Kevin Lynch begin the dialog and show you what's coming next from Adobe.

Watch the video here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/videos/engage_2008/

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/engage_2008_from_adobe_develop.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/engage_2008_from_adobe_develop.html Random Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:15:24 -0500 A quick media hit As I mentioned earlier, I've been doing a few press interviews/briefings for the AIR launch, and I actually got quoted in an article.. for your reading pleasure:
http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/News/9414fcd0-b94d-4635-8936-bb4b2fca7abd.html

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/a_quick_media_hit.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/a_quick_media_hit.html Random Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:25:58 -0500 Adobe AIR (& Flex 3) now in production Absolutely huge news!

Adobe AIR just went 1.0. As the official Adobe spokesperson for AIR in Canada, I've been busy doing over/interviews with journalists across the country in preparation for the AIR launch.. and it's finally here!

With the announcement, Adobe also added to the already impressive list of customers (eBay, AOL, FedEx, Nasdaq, SAP to name a few). Newcomers include The New York Times, BBC, and Deutsche Bank. Pretty darn impressive for a 1.0 product (whatever happened to waiting for the first service pack, or a 1.1 update??)

Also, Adobe Flex 3, the free open source framework for RIA development, moved from beta to production.. so all in all, a super exciting time to be at Adobe (or to be an Adobe customer)!

Some of my favourite AIR examples that you can install today:
Shifd from NYT

Others at the AIR Showcase site...

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/adobe_air_flex_3_now_in_produc.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/adobe_air_flex_3_now_in_produc.html Flex & AIR Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:08:24 -0500 Fellow SE an Oscar Winner? This is a somewhat random post - definitely not related to Adobe technology, but definitely related to an Adobe employee.

I initially heard about the movie 'Once' from my wife when she saw the premiere at Sundance last year (I was working the festival, and my wife Kaniz came along for the fun), which just won the best song Oscar tonight. So even though the movie has been out for some time, I didn't actually get to watch it until a month ago. Imagine my surprise when I saw Kyle Thompson, a fellow Adobe SE, moonlighting as the lead actor under the name 'Glen Hansard'.

Now, I'm sure that Kyle will deny this.. but for your consideration, I submit Exhibit A (a promotional picture of 'Glen' for the movie):
And for Exhibit B, here is Kyle with his adorable daughter Elise:

And here's the coup d'etat - Kyle/Glen with his guitar:

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case!

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/fellow_se_an_oscar_winner.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/fellow_se_an_oscar_winner.html Random Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:24:21 -0500 Check the latest Adobe EDGE issue FYI, the February 2008 issue of Adobe EDGE has a lot of interesting content, including a discussion of open source at Adobe as well as an overview of Adobe Media Player and RSS feeds.

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/check_the_latest_adobe_edge_is.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/check_the_latest_adobe_edge_is.html Adobe Media Player Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:20:21 -0500 Remix (Adobe Premiere Express) Online Seminar Have you checked out MTV Remix yet? The site lets users produce their own music videos for various artists using on a collection of video clips, graphics, transitions, etc. The tunes are courtesy of the musicians, the graphics are probably courtesy of MTV, but the technology is all Adobe. The Remix site is actually one rendition of several online of Adobe Premiere Express.

If you're interested in checking out a live online seminar on the topic, there's one happening on February 27th - go to the Adobe event registration page for more information.

Here is some more detail from the invite:

Join us to learn how entertainment and media companies such as MTV, YouTube, and Photobucket are generating more advertising revenue and creating fun, interactive user experiences on the web with Premiere Express, Adobe’s popular online video editing application. With Adobe® Premiere® Express, anyone can make videos that rock in minutes.

Let your site’s users reorder, split, and trim video clips; add music, transitions, and titles; and then make it all their own with a mix of favorite photos, graphics, and animation. Adobe Premiere Express is an easy-to-use, Flash-based, cross-platform application that gives users the ability to mash up and remix user-generated, professionally produced, and branded content, while extending advertising and sponsorship opportunities and keeping your audience engaged longer and returning more often through contests, promotions, viral campaigns, and more.

This eSeminar will feature a guest speaker from MTV Networks to discuss how Premiere Express is used for their remix.mtv.com website.

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/remix_adobe_premiere_express_o.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/remix_adobe_premiere_express_o.html Online Seminars Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:07:57 -0500 Flash Video 101 presentation It just occurred to me that I had promised the AIGA Philadelphia folks a copy of my Flash Video presentation, and I forgot to post it.. so here it is:

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/flash_video_101_presentation.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/flash_video_101_presentation.html Flash Video Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:00:48 -0500 Director 11 Released! Adobe Director 11 boxshotIn case you missed it, Adobe released a brand new version of Director last night at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. The official press release can be found here, or you can review the product page to read up on what's new in this release.

From the product page, here's a quick list of top features:

  • Support for more than 40 video, audio, and image file formats
  • Native 3D rendering with DirectX 9 support
  • Advanced physics with the included AGEIA™ PhysX™ engine
  • Support for Adobe Flash CS3 Professional software and video created with Flash
  • Unicode support, including multimode publishing
  • Enhanced text rendering engine
  • Enhanced user interface
  • Enhanced Script Browser and full JavaScript support
  • Bitmap filters
  • Xtra plug-ins
The ones I'm most excited about are the support for Flash CS3 and the new AGEIA PhysX engine. Check out the AGEIA site for more info on the PhysX engine.

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/director_11_released.html http://blogs.adobe.com/lifeasanse/2008/02/director_11_released.html New Products Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:26:29 -0500