Christoph Rooms Adobe Creative Pro Belgium / Luxembourg

Back to business !

Holidays are over again for me and it’s back to business … Let’s have a quick overview on what happened at Adobe while i was gone …

RIM and Adobe expanded their collaboration

At Adobe Max we already heared about RIM joining the Open Screen project. In this announcement Adobe commits to make sure that with the next version of Creative Suite you’ll be able to create content for the Blackberry devices. Through the OSP RIM allready commited to provide flash player on the Blackberry devices. Check out the press release here.

Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2.0 on labs.adobe.com

Announced on MAX and now beta available on labs.adobe.com. At this moment you can find the windows, mac and linux versions online. More info  on new features on labs.adobe.com.

New release of acrobat.com platform

Very exiting new release of the acrobat.com platform. You will find some new features like presentations and tables (spreadsheet). The file management interface has got a lot better and more intuitive. There is still a free version so check it out

Social : integrate with social networks

We already had the Actionscript library to connect to facebook. This library has been extended with support for other social networks. Check it out on http://labs.adobe.com

Those are the  most important updates from Adobe.

Next stop is the Adobe Usergroup xl meeting next week in the Netherlands. They have got a nice program and it’s happening in Amsterdam.

What should you remember from Adobe Max 2009

What were the hightlights from Adobe Max 2009 ? Let me list the most important announcements …

1. Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones, netbooks, PCs and other Internet-connected devices

A Flash Player that will provide all functionality of the latest Flash Player on pc’s and mobile devices. This version of the Flash Player will use the GPU from devices to offer a good rendering quality which will provide a great user experience on all devices. Get all the details on labs.adobe.com.

2. Google and RIM join the Open Screen Project

The Open Screen Project, the catalysator of Flash on mobile devices, welcomes 2 new and very important members. With Google and RIM the Open Screen Project  covers most of the Mobile market with Google Android and Blackberry.

3. Adobe AIR 2.0 announced

The next version of AIR has been announced. Beside having Flash Player 10.1 there is also a new version of WebKit included. There will also be the possibility to call native programs, access USB storage devices and multi-touch and gesture support. All the details can be found on the AIR team’s blog.

Watch online to this Max session talking about Air 2.0.

4. Flash Media Server : Improvements on RTMP / RTMFP (peer assisted networking) and support for HTTP streaming

Get all the details on the blog of Kevin Towes, product manager for Flash Media Server

5.  Flash Catalyst beta 2, Flash Builder 4 beta 2 and LC DataServices beta 3 available on labs.adobe.com

6. Create iPhone applications with Flash CS5

No Flash Player on the iPhone yet. But with Flash CS5 we can help the mobile developer by letting him export his Flash Mobile projects to an iPhone project. So you only need to develop once for different platforms / devices. Some example apps, and a link to subscribe to get notified of a public beta can be found here.

7. Shibuya : Earn money with an AIR application.

It’s a a try & buy licensing model for AIR applications, which can be integrated into your AIR applications with online a few lines of code. Adobe takes care of the handling of trials, payment, … through online services. Check it out on http://labs.adobe.com.

8. Slider : Flex Mobile

Still early but a mobile version of the well now Flex framework, code name Slider.

9. Release of LiveCycle ES 2

Release of the new version of the enterprise solution from Adobe. Check out the official website.

“Pepsi Max It” (Proximity BBDO) wins Max Award !!!

Great news coming from Max LA ! The Adnerds have been rewarded with a Max Award in the category Advertisement. You can still check out the project here. Congrats guys ! And when is the party ?

Max Awards : Let’s vote for the Pepsi Max-it case !

As mentioned a  few weeks ago, the “Pepsi Max-it” case from Proximity BBDO , is a finalist for a Max Award in the “Advertising and Branding” category.

Now it’s time to vote ! Give them your vote and let’s make sure at least 1 Max Award will come back to the Benelux

Voting can be done here : http://max.adobe.com/awards/finalists/

How to become an Adobe Certified Expert

As this is a question that comes quite often … How to become an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert)

1. Define the type of ACE  you want to get …

Here you can find a list of all the available certifications :

http://partners.adobe.com/public/ace/main.html

2. Locate a exam center in your neighbourhood and book an exam

Adobe is working with Pearson Vue, you can find an exam center using this page : http://www.vue.com/adobe/locate/

3. Prepare and take the exam

There are depending on the product a number of books / white papers that will help you to prepare for the exam. Check Google for these.

For Flex for example you can get this white paper : http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex_certification.html

More info on http://www.adobe.com/support/certification/ace.html

Get better Flex code with FlexPMD

Check out this new open source project, FlexPMD. It is meant to automatically detect code anti-patterns, code smells, common bad practices in a Flash/Flex based source code. Get more info here.

Adobe Max coming up !

Don’t forget to get your  tickets for Adobe Max October 4 – 7th. This year we are going to Los Angeles. Tickets to fly there should be quite reasonable, as airlines are selling tickets at crazy prices.

Also check out Serge Jespers his blog, he’s got some good advice on how to travel cheap.

Adobe AIR 1.5.2 available

This version contains bug fixes for specific issues. Adobe AIR will be updated automatically. More info : http://blogs.adobe.com/air/2009/07/adobe_air_152_now_available.html