Not so sure if Adobe will push it through full featured online office suit, but surely the launch of Acrobat.com will make a lot of people worried. Adobe released today a free Web-based beta supplement called Acrobat.com for its popular PDF application. This Acrobat.com is a suite of hosted services available as public beta for free signup, bringing Adobe style RIA based communication, productivity, and collaboration tools right within a web browser. This beta release supports basic Web conferencing (don’t …

Though recently Apple chief executive Steve Jobs slams Flash by saying at Apple’s shareholder meeting that the version of Flash for desktops and notebooks "performs too slow to be useful" on the iPhone, and the mobile version of Flash "is not capable of being used with the Web." But good news for Adobe, Microsoft just announced that in addition to its own Silverlight multimedia technology, Microsoft will support Adobe’s competing Flash technology on Windows Mobile phones. Since already 450 million Flash-enabled devices out there …

Adobe took an important step in merging desktop and Internet applications upon announcing the availability of AIR 1.0, a run-time module that provides a way of running "rich Internet applications" (RIAs) on the desktop. Since the release of the beta version of AIR, several organizations already adopted the technology; among them, NASDAQ Stock Market Inc, AOL, EBay and many others. I agree with most developers, that AIR will reduce download time due to the fact that the desktop is constantly being updated while connected to the Internet. …

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona has been full of surprises and innovations, every top notch companies were out there showing off what’s under their sleeve. Adobe systems didn’t hold back either, this week they launched two new mobile applications, Flash Home and Flash Cast 2, designed for providers that want to enhance their products with rich mobile content. Flash Home is a mobile application for creating customizable home screens and wallpapers using live data services. The combination gives users a more personalized mobile experience, …

Adobe Systems Inc. has announced plans to discontinue its Adobe Stock Photos service effective April 1, 2008. The service enables users of Adobe’s Bridge software to purchase royalty-free images for use in their work. It was introduced in 2005 when Adobe rolled out Creative Suite 2. “Adobe has decided to concentrate its efforts in other areas,” said the company in a statement posted to the Adobe Stock Photos Web site. In straighter wards-Adobe stock photos don’t bring us any money, the way our world class …

Just couple of years ago SaaS (Software as a service) was just merely an idea/lab concept of software giants. But hey that scenario has completely changed and turned into a head to toe race that transforming the basic computing completely virtual. T Though Adobe is one of the most admirable software giant, but was completely absent from this race, by virtue of its purchase of a start-up firm (Virtual Ubiquity Inc) that’s been developing an online word processor that’s coincidentally built on Adobe technology now adobe joins the race in full gear. Adobe will announce today …

ActionScript is a scripting language (Developed by Macromedia,now owned by Adobe ) based on ECMAScript (Also referred as JavaScript or Jscript), used primarily for the development of websites and software using the Adobe Flash Player platform. The latest ActionScript 3.0 introduced last June (2006) with Adobe Flex 2.0 and Flash player 9.0. This ActionScript is completely different than any of its predecessor since it uses an entirely different virtual machine. ActionScript 3.0 provides significant enhancement in performance, as well as more robust programming model that lends itself to complex Rich Internet Application development. You can say that’s the reason Flex is so kick ass RIA builder. How ActionScript work? The way ActionScript work is very simple like any other scripting you have known. Generally ActionScript is executed by the ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM), which is part of Flash Player. ActionScript code is typically compiled into bytecode format by a compiler, such Flex Builder, or that is available in the Flex SDK and the Flex Data Services. The bytecode is embedded in SWF files, which are executed by the Flash Player, the run-time environment. Pretty simple and straight forward isn’t it? Why ActionScript 3.0? As you already know since Flex 2, all flex version use ActionScript 3.0, but what are the advantages of this? This goes beyond the scripting capabilities of previous versions of ActionScript. It is designed to facilitate the creation of highly complex applications (RIAs) with large data sets and object-oriented, reusable code bases. While ActionScript 3.0 is not required for content that runs in Adobe Flash Player 9, it assists to performance improvements that are only available with the AVM2, the new virtual machine. ActionScript 3.0 code can execute up to ten times faster than legacy ActionScript code. You must know Flash Player 9 still do support the older version of ActionScript Virtual Machine, AVM1 for backward compatibility with existing and legacy content. Apart from the above mentioned advantages ActionScript also poses features like- ECMAScript for XML, native support for regular expressions, a method closure for better event handling, sealed classes for improved memory usage and run-time exception for handle errors robustly. Usage There are two methods for using ActionScript in a Flex application- <mx:Script> tag, which lets you insert ActionScript code as if it was typed directly within the <mx:Script> tag.If you want smarter way to organize your code than the best method is always storing your code in an ActionScript file. An ActionScript source file is just a text files with the .as extension, just like CSS file. You can call this in MXML using these methods- Using <mx:Script> tag which lets you specify a source attribute that identifies an external ActionScript file to be loaded at a specific point in the application. For example- <mx:Script source=”example.as” /> In this method you have to use the import statement to specify the full name of the class (Case sensitive), so the ActionScript compiler knows where to find it. For example, if you want to use the FlexExam class in ActionScript, you first need to import that class using its full name, including package and class: import flash.tutor.FlexExam; Through code which specifically refers to the class name. It works very simple, by referring to another class name in ActionScript code; you tell the compiler to load the definition of that class. For example, given an external class called Exx, this statement causes a new instance of the Exx class to be created: var sqr:Exx = new Exx(40,20);

About a decade ago virtual meeting, conferencing was just an idea, now that idea not only came into reality but as well flourishing and expending beyond traditional boundaries. A lot of conferencing application/software you will find now which offers us rich arrays of features and functionality to make virtual meeting almost as realistic as the real one. We even have VR (Virtual Reality) conference in Second Life. Sounds the situation is pretty much cool right? But I am afraid it isn’t. When it comes to cost-effective, organized total conferencing solution that you can rely on, only a handful of them will be in your list of choice. First of all you have to understand we are talking about professional solution that fits the needs of from small business to corporation, not individual/personal. For personal solution I am still happy with my Skype, there are plenty more to choose from. Now days a most business needs not only a tele/web conferencing as well as a collaboration method integrated with the solution. Very few software/application currently poses that, if not costumed tailored. Last month I talked about “Microsoft Office Live Meeting”, which is one of the few solutions that made it to this category. Off course Microsoft’s Unified Communication Portal which is still in beta stage is intended to deliver much more sophisticated solutions. Anyway our discussion today isn’t Microsoft’s solution; instead we want to check out “Acrobat Connect Professional” by Adobe. Acrobat Connect Professional is part of adobe’s Acrobat family product line, which can be either Hosted or self-managed solution. Both presenter and participants need almost similar system requirements, though the presenter’s OS (operating system) has to be either windows or Mac. This solution is packed with some serious features all integrated which actually we can get using several solutions elsewhere. Here is the rundown of the key features of Adobe Acrobat Professional- 24/7/365 Personal meeting space Unlike Office live meeting Acrobat Connect Professional meeting rooms are always available via a steady URL. All personal settings/options are automatically saved since the first use, and automatically loaded there on for saving time and efforts. Even the layouts, previous notes, conversation history are saved for further reference if needed.

Got knack for video editing or just need a professional video editing solution for your video production? Then you got to love this Premiere Pro Creative Suite 3  (sponsored link). A bit pricey but worth every penny you spend for  it.With this piece of extraordinary application, even a newbie can do video editing on the fly (Learning curves are higher for advance video editing features). So here is an overview of what this app can bring you-Cross Platform The Premiere Pro CS3, a completely re-written and supercharged …

This is the second session in the flex tutorial series. In “Flex 101: Knowing Flex” we just get to know Flex a bit closely. In this session we will focus on MXML basics, which is the key to any Flex application development.

As you already know, MXML is a kind of XML markup language, which only used in Flex especially for layout user interface components.

MXML vs. HTML

Though for a new bi it may be hard to grasp, but honestly MXML isn’t so different than HTML. Just like HTML, MXML provides tags that define user interfaces. But MXML provides a much richer tag set, such as-data grids, data binding, trees, tab navigators, accordions, menus, animation effects etc. Not only that you will be even able to extend MXML with custom components (MXML + ActionScript) that you reference as MXML tags. The biggest difference between HTML and MXML is the outcome, the MXML defined applications are compiled into SWF (Flash file) files and rendered by Flash Player which you got to admit much more rich and dynamic than HTML.

MXML coding

You are a developer or not, you should know by now, every markup language follow their own coding standard, MXML isn’t different at all. Since it is a variant of XML markup language, you will find a lot of similarities. So let’s start with a simple MXML file and explaining the parts of it.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx=”http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml”>

<mx:Label text=”Hello World!” fontWeight=”bold” fontSize=”24″ />

</mx:Application>

This is an example of simple MXML file, to display “Hello World”. Note that the first line of the MXML file specifies an optional declaration of the XML version.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>