[via JD]
New data from a recent series of focus groups has been put together in a report, regarding flash player versions ubiquity. As John Dowell states, this results (about 80% of participants could see Flash MX content immediately) are from regular consumer studies, and may not match specific target audiences. Keep that in mind when trying to convince your boss or your clients.
DevNet is currently featuring a fifth beta report, authored by Al Ramadan, Macromedia’s executive vice-president of Marketing. This time, Al writes about browser compatibility and accessibility issues being addressed by the development team in the latest beta version of the Macromedia.com
In addition to it, three presentations (made with Breeze, by the way) from members of the web development team focus on other related points:
- Customer Feedback Presentation, by Matt Belkin (Macromedia’s web analytics guru)
- Advanced Global Navigation, by Tony Lopez (Executive Producer for the new Macromedia.com)
- Real-time Load Testing, by Brandon Purcell (ColdFusion and JRun senior Engineer)
On a side note, there has been some wondering about how many beta versions of the Macromedia.com will be released before a stable version is announced. I was asking this myself on a previous posting, and today I commented a similar questioning over at voisen.org.
Related Resources:
Macromedia.com Beta Progress Report Archive
This came through the LIFUG mailing list, and isn’t very Flash related but very interesting to see. The piece has been put together making pieces of the car interacting in a sequence, in a cartoon-like fashion (remember “Tom & Jerry”?). You better see it for yourself.
I’m kinda hoping it isn’t to late to write about this, but tonight’s NYMMUG (New York Macromedia Users Group) meeting is Open Mouse, meaning some of the member will be sharing their work, tricks and experiences with the rest. If you are in New York and into Flash and other Macromedia stuff, you should join the group. You can find more information about tonight’s meeting, and how to join the group at their website.
I rarely recommend stuff to other people, but I would have to make an exception with this movie.
Anger Management, starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, is the best comedy movie I’ve seen this year. In fact I cannot remember the last time I laughed so much and so loud in a movie theater. Good balance between comedy and psychological-urban ‘mystery’, it keeps you wondering until the very end. Nicholson offers a magnificent performance, and makes you laugh like never before with this madman-like character. With such versatility, no wonder he is one of my favorite contemporary actors.
Although it has some problems displaying posting dates and sorting them accordingly, the blog aggregator Macromedia has put together is one of the most comprehensive collection of Macromedia products related blogs I’ve ever seen. With more than 50 blogs being aggregated in three main categories (Flash, ColdFusion, and Macromedia blogs), the site is a must see.
If you ever had trouble finding where to get the most recent version of the flash players installed in your computer (this is release, debug, standalone and browser plug-in players), this is it:
Macromedia Flash Support Center
I really think the Flash authoring tool should have a feature for automatic updates of its players, since many people don’t realize they can be running different versions of the flash player in their browsers and their tests inside Flash MX. Many vendors include such features in their software, maybe there is a reason Macromedia doesn’t?
In the other hand, I just read a posting over at Mike Chambers’ blog, about a page in Macromedia’s website leading to updates for all of its products. Here it is:
Ok, maybe I’ve been a little obsessed with this new apartment improvement business, but this time the posting is about a drink.
Last night, after spending almost a week buying and getting rid of things, we (my wife and I) finally got everything we needed to feel completely comfortable with the place. So, we wanted to have a little celebration and I came up with this creation:
Looking good eh? Here is the recipe for two glasses:
3oz lemon juice
2oz ice cubes
4oz vodka
1 small egg white
1 cherry
Put everything together in the blender and liquefy until the mix is uniform. Put a cherry at the bottom of a margarita glass, and cover it until 3/4 with Grenadine syrup. Very very slowly, pour the liquefied mix near the border of the glass to avoid mixing with the syrup, and see how the cherry ends up floating between the two liquids!
The latest version of the Bytes-based Preloaders is up, and available for download from the Macromedia Flash Exchange. Additionally, if you are not registered with Macromedia, you can find the Bytes-based Preloaders at FlashComponents.net
The Bytes-based Preloaders have been designed to be very simple to use. All you need to do is place a copy of the Preloaders of your preference in the first frame of the first scene of your movie (preferably alone) and you are ready to go. In most cases, you won’t need any additional steps, just make sure that the Preloader is the only component being exported at the first frame, if you are using it in combination with other components.
What’s new in version 2.1
Fixed: Rough jumps on progress and regressive bars with large widths.
Fixed: Preloader flashes when refreshing pages and already loaded movies.
Added: More flexibility for text properties, including the ability to accept embedded fonts.
More Information:
If you want to learn more about how to use the components and how to personalize its appearance, please direct your mouse to the following URLs:
Bytes-based Preloaders customization
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)