Tag Archive

The following is a list of all entries tagged with flash.

Converting SVG To PNG On The Fly: How? [Update] Comments 3 Comments

June 18th, 2008 , , ,

Remember SVG? Pioneered by Adobe back in the day, Scalable Vector Graphics were to compete with Macromedias Flash. They never could (and so they bought them), but the result — the SVG standard, is interesting for HTML / CSS uses.


Up In The AIR Comments Comment

February 29th, 2008 ,

Adobe AIR 1.0 just launched. AIR is a machinery you outfit your computer with, in order to install and run web applications, without the browser. I predict it’ll be a massive success, once one or two killer apps emerge. One such killer app could be Google Docs.

Flash And Quicktime: Not Sitting In A Tree Comments 4 Comments

February 13th, 2008 , , ,

In a recent piece, News Flash: No Flash, John Gruber writes that he finds it unlikely for Flash to appear on the iPhone any time soon. He’s right, as usual, but he’s got a few details wrong.

The single most popular thing people use Flash for is to watch YouTube videos, which you can already watch a subset of using the native Mobile OS X YouTube app. In short, is the lack of Flash keeping people from buying iPhones and iPod Touches?

Right, but wrong. Video is great, but the coming battle won’t be about video. I dare predict that Apple has a dirty secret in their pocket, a secret that’s ready to explode. A secret that’ll bring them head to head (more so) with Adobe, Microsoft and Mozilla. Possibly even Sony and Nintendo.


Tin Man Microsite Comments Comment

November 2nd, 2007 , ,

Sci-Fi channel has made a delicious zooming Flash microsite for their upcoming Wizard of Oz re-interpretation entitled Tin Man. Note to self: try and make such a picture/flash combo.

Mozilla Unveils Prism: (Another) Web-App Framework Comments 5 Comments

October 30th, 2007 , , ,

Mozilla has just launched another web-app framework. Prism, kinda like Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight, allows you to take websites with you to the Desktop.

It works this way: first you install Mozilla Prism. Then you start the app and type in the URL of the website you want to take with you to the desktop. [...]


Flash Player & HD Video, Not A Joke Comments Comment

August 22nd, 2007 ,

Just yesterday, Adobe released a beta version of their new Flash Player. The new version 9 beta adds support for H.264 compressed video and hardware acceleration for fullscreen HD video. Still no hardware acceleration for plain old non-video Flash.

Another Piece of Flash Bites the Dust Comments 18 Comments

June 14th, 2007 , ,

The real secret to web 2.0 (the bullshit bingo word everyone is throwing around these days) is that good websites can make money. Part of that means making sure things are easy to use. As much as I like Flash, it’s rarely what makes a website userfriendly. And so, like Flickr dropped their Flash-based image note viewer, so have I dropped my Flash-based installment teaser image viewer located on the right hand side of the index page. The result? A faster, more compatible, more user-friendly piece of web code on which middle-click/open in tab works. There’s a time and place for Flash, this wasn’t it.

Apollo Becomes AIR Comments 4 Comments

June 11th, 2007 ,

Adobe’s new web application framework previously code-named Apollo got a few neat things over the weekend. First of all, it’s name is now AIR: Adobe Integrated Runtime. More interestingly, the video is now hardware accelerated. Poof. The latter is definitely a step in the right direction. But why not full hardware acceleration for all flash content?

Flash Player 9 + Fullscreen Mode Comments 3 Comments

May 29th, 2007 ,

Youtube + Fullscreen Adobe recently released their massive CS3 package. With this, a new version of the Flash authoring tool. While Flash Player 9 has been around for a while now, the release of the authoring tool unlocks dormant features that were put there by the “visionary” minds at Macromedia Adobe. Among this functionality: the ability to fullscreen-fullscreen.

There was a time when lousy Flash sites drove people from the plugin. It seems as though the advent of YouTube has driven people back again. So it’s only natural for Adobe to embrace YouTube-like sites. Case in point: the fullscreen feature does seem like it’s been added solely for the benefit of YouTube. And sure enough, YouTube has already integrated the new code. Click the fullscreen button in the bottom right corner: fullscreen Flash video with no chrome (Requires FP9). I think it works well and I plan to use it myself. Now we just need hardware acceleration.

Did you notice the change?

Showdown: Adobe vs. Microsoft Comments 15 Comments

April 17th, 2007 , ,

Adobe has started shipping their Creative Suite 3 including a new Adobe Media Player. Incidentally, Microsoft has also just launched their competitor, Microsoft Silverlight (previously known as Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere, or WPF/E).

The competition is direct; Adobe now has a web media player solution (video on demand, trailers, there are plenty of reasons to have a strong offering here) and Apollo, a crossplatform runtime that allows one to create web-apps; applications that work like regular appplications, but are/can be deeply integrated with the web (RIAs). In the other corner, we have Silverlight which claims to do exactly the same. In various commentary we’re told that whichever platform wins, both companies win. Even so, there’s nothing like a good cagematch and some healthy competition. Round one: Fight!