Tuesday, March 13, 2007
FlexBuilder for the Macintosh Ships
by Brian Duck, Product Review Coordinator
Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the delivery of Adobe® Flex™ Builder™ 2 for Macintosh, an extension of its powerful toolset for designing and deploying a new class of rich Internet applications. The release of Flex Builder 2 for the Macintosh helps developers and designers build engaging Web applications that combine the benefits of desktop software with the reach of the Web.
I’ve been working with AJAX application framework call BackBase for the past few months, and this looks much more productive. It seemed like a worthwhile effort to let some of our FordMug members who are developers know about this development environment. Adobe is currently working on a product, codename Apollo, which will turn Flex in to a full-fledged desktop application development environment. It’s worth taking a look: labs.adobe.com
“The response to Flex Builder from the Mac developer community has been overwhelming and positive,” said Jeff Whatcott, vice president marketing and business development for Adobe’s Enterprise and Developer Business Unit.... With Flex Builder for the Mac more exciting and more engaging experiences will be in reach for greater numbers of people, regardless of their development platform.”
The Adobe Flex 2 product line provides developers with a comprehensive, integrated set of tools and technology for fast, end-to-end development of rich and innovative Web applications. With the free license version of the Flex 2 SDK, developers have everything they need to build and deploy complete rich Internet applications with no software licensing costs. Flex Builder 2, a powerful Eclipse® based integrated development environment (IDE), combines powerful ActionScript and MXML editors, a visual UI designer, and integrated debugging, to help developers build applications faster.
“Many developers build engaging web applications leveraging the combination of Flex and our flagship product WebLogic,” said Bill Roth, vice president of the Workshop business unit at BEA. “The release of Flex Builder for the Macintosh helps ensure that our customers have a complete cross-platform, rich Internet application experience on top of the WebLogic Server.”
Flex Builder enables Macintosh community to quickly develop rich internet applications
“The response to Flex Builder from the Mac developer community has been overwhelming and positive,” said Jeff Whatcott, vice president marketing and business development for Adobe’s Enterprise and Developer Business Unit. “More and more, the Web is about experiences. With Flex Builder for the Mac more exciting and more engaging experiences will be in reach for greater numbers of people, regardless of their development platform.”
Pricing and Availability
Flex Builder 2 for the Macintosh and the Flex Builder 2 Eclipse® Plug-in for the Macintosh are now publicly available for trial and purchase at http://www.adobe.com/flex . The Mac OS X version of Flex is a Universal Binary that will install on Intel®- and PowerPC®-based Macintosh systems. In addition to the new Flex Builder for the Macintosh offering, Adobe is also making available updates to the Windows version of Flex Builder 2, and the Windows and Linux® version of the Flex 2 SDK and Flex Data Services 2. Customers can download these free updates from the Adobe Flex support center (http://www.adobe.com/support/flex ).
The Adobe Flex 2 SDK, which includes the Flex framework and command line compiler, is available free of charge. Adobe Flex Builder 2 is available for an estimated street price of US$499. Adobe Flex Builder 2 with Charting is available for an estimated street price of US$749. Volume discounts and custom pricing structures for ISV/OEM customers also are available.*
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Upcoming events
A list of upcoming events from conferences.oreillynet.com.
Join us February 27 to March 1, 2007 in Burlingame, California for the second edition of ETel, the O’Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference. ETel compares and contrasts web telephony technology, business, and culture, articulating how they conspire and inform consumers, creators, and purveyors. ETel gets rid of the hype and “conventional wisdom” of the past, presenting a whole new way of looking at the industry for newcomers and established players alike. Explore strategies for taming disruption and exploiting opportunities being created by web telephony innovations in a spirited, collaborative atmosphere at ETel 2007.
CRAFT is the first project-based magazine dedicated to the renaissance that is occurring within the world of crafts. Celebrating the DIY spirit, CRAFT’s goal is to unite, inspire, inform and entertain a growing community of highly imaginative people who are transforming traditional art and crafts with unconventional, unexpected and even renegade techniques, materials and tools; resourceful spirits who undertake amazing crafting projects in their homes and communities. Volume 01, the premier issue, features 23 projects with a twist! Make a programmable LED shirt, turn dud shoes into great knitted boots, felt an iPod cocoon, embroider a skateboard, and much more.
Get ready to play when Make Volume 08, our “Toys and Games” issue, hits the stands. You’ll learn how to build a wind-up bird that really flies, how to restore an old pinball machine, and learn the secret history of the world’s best-selling computer game from Myst’s co-creator. You’ll also meet a well-known toy inventor and learn how to make molds and casts with MythBusters star Adam Savage.
Full Description
If you like to tweak, disassemble, recreate, and invent cool new uses for technology, you’ll love MAKE, our project-based quarterly for the inquisitive do-it-yourselfer.
Get ready to play when Make Volume 08, our “Toys and Games” issue, hits the stands. You’ll learn how to build a wind-up bird that really flies, how to restore an old pinball machine, and learn the secret history of the world’s best-selling computer game from Myst’s co-creator. You’ll also meet a well-known toy inventor and learn how to make molds and casts with MythBusters star Adam Savage.Monday, June 12, 2006
Adobe Photoshop CS2
by Les Parisek, Product Review Coordinator Photoshop CS2, Adobe’s flagship digital image editing program, is packed with powerful new filters and tools that provide a little something for just about anyone working with digital image editing.For the Photographer
Photoshop CS2 has added support for 32-bit HDR (High Dynamic Range) images, Camera Raw 3, and the Adobe backed DNG (Digital Negative) standard. The Merge to HDR command allows you to combine multiple exposures of a scene into 32-bit HDR images. Enhanced Camera Raw support includes simultaneous background processing of Raw images from a wide range of digital camera models. And there is support for a new archival format (DNG) for the raw files generated by digital cameras. Further enhancements include one-click Red Eye correction, Noise Reduction, and Spot Healing Brush to eradicate some of the more common photo flaws. Finally, a few new Lens Correction filters have been added for correcting common forms of optical image distortion like pincushion distortion, barrel distortion, and perspective adjustments.
For the Digital Artist
The latest release of Photoshop has added a number of tools and filters to expand the Digital Artist’s bag of tricks. Vanishing Point, although a difficult tool to master, is a filter with tools for drawing grids that define the perspective in your scene. Once the perspective has been defined, a layer can be added to the image to paint, clone, map text, or a texture to the image and Vanishing Point will automatically distort the layer to match the perspective of the scene. Photoshop CS2’s new Warp filter provides vector-based warping, similar to the Warp Text effect, with the addition of Beziér control points for tweaking your image. Unlike other warp effects, the new Warp filter doesn’t stretch the image and can create break or ripping effects in the image, hence the need for fine control of the Warp tool. Photoshop CS2’s Smart Objects are a boon to the digital editing process. A Smart Object is basically selecting layers with raster or vector art and grouping them as a Smart Object. Smart Objects can then be edited just like any other layer. Move them, transform them, change their opacity and/or blending mode, and apply layer styles without altering the original image. You can always open, edit, and change the original and the change will be reflected in the Smart Object. Other additions include enhanced high color image editing in tools like Liquify and Shadow/Highlight, native Animated Gif tools similar to those in Image Ready, and Smart Guides that help with layer alignment.
Workflow and Overall usability
Photoshop CS2 has updated the old file manager with Adobe Bridge, a visual file browser that displays thumbnail images and access to edit a file’s metadata. Adobe has also updated its memory manager to keep pace with today’s RAM happy desktops and users are able to devote RAM in excess of 2 GB to the program. Long overdue enhancements to the interface include a WYSIWYG font menu and menu customization. Users are now able to preview images destined for video directly on an external monitor. And automation enhancements like updated actions and scripts, variables, and event-based scripting help to streamline batch image processing and repetitive graphic production.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional
Adobe Acrobat 7.0 software is part of a family of desktop applications that enables workgroups to manage a range of essential business activities. Acrobat 7.0, the latest update to the Adobe Intelligent Document Platform, provides users the ability to assemble documents from multiple sources, create intelligent forms, and collaborate on projects inside and outside the firewall, among other capabilities.
The Acrobat 7.0 family offers different functionality to address specific customer workflows. Acrobat 7.0 Professional provides more advanced control over engineering and design documents for technical and creative workgroups that rely on specialized software, including computer-aided design applications and publishing solutions such as Adobe Creative Suite. Acrobat 7.0 Standard is ideal for business professionals in organizations of all sizes, where the ability to effectively find, use and manage vital information from emails and Web pages to everyday application files is key to getting work done on time and budget.
Acrobat Elements is a license-only product that allows enterprises to put Adobe PDF creation capability on every desktop for more secure document distribution.
Adobe also announced the immediate availability of Adobe Reader 7.0, including a public beta version for the Linux operating system. The company’s free client software can be downloaded at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. In addition to the ability to reliably view and print Adobe PDF files, Adobe Reader 7.0 now offers more powerful capabilities. Users can participate in document reviews, have Yahoo! Search capabilities at their fingertips and can interact with 3D objects placed in PDF. Adobe has distributed over half-a-billion copies of Adobe Reader since its 1993 introduction.
Pricing and Availability
Acrobat 7.0 Professional and Acrobat 7.0 Standard for Microsoft Windows 2000 (with service pack 2), Windows XP Professional, Home and Tablet PC Editions, and Mac OS X v10.2.8 and v10.3, are immediately available in English. French, German and Japanese language versions are expected to be available in early 2005. Acrobat 7.0 Professional has an estimated street price of US$449. Registered users of Acrobat 4.0, Acrobat 5.0, Acrobat 6.0 Standard, or Acrobat 6.0 Professional can upgrade to Acrobat 7.0 Professional for an estimated street price of US$159. Acrobat 7.0 Standard has an estimated street price of US$299. Registered users of Acrobat 4.0, Acrobat 5.0 or Acrobat 6.0 Standard can upgrade to Acrobat 7.0 Standard for an estimated street price of US$99.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Mac user installs Mac mini with ‘Front Row’ in Ford F-150
Ok, someone went and did this. Now there’s one one question, when can I get one in my Explorer?
Better yet, maybe I would have more fun with it if it was in my wife’s Explorer!
