Archive for March, 2008
Adobe AIR for Linux
Today Adobe announced that the pre-release alpha version of Adobe AIR for Linux! Previously the AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) platform was only available to Mac and Windows users. Now Linux users can run AIR applications and RIA developers can extend the reach of their desktop applications on Adobe AIR to Linux users without writing additional platform-specific code!
Go to Adobe Labs (www.adobe.com/go/airlinux) to learn more.Â
No commentsActionScript 3, Flex and Air Class Reference Diagam
Here’s a nice little poster to put up for a quick reference to the Flash, Flex and AIR API’s. It’s pretty big so taking this pdf to a professional print shop is the best way to go.
Or
If your looking for a more compact version Mike Chambers posted a newer version that is intended to be more usable and portable. The guide is around 50 pages, and is meant to be printed out on comic book glossy stock.
2 commentsWhat it’s like to work as a Intern @ Adobe
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Since September 07 I’ve been working as a Intern at the Adobe office in Ottawa, Canada. I thought I would share some of my thoughts about what its like to work as a intern for a company like Adobe.
Currently I’m in my second co-op term at Adobe working as Software Verification Intern and I just got signed on for a third placement in the summer as a Software Developer. Now prior to my first placement at Adobe I worked as a Developer for Canada Revenue. So I got to get a feel for what’s its like to work in both the public and private sector. Now don’t get me wrong, working for the government definitely has its benefits, but for me, I quickly realized after my first month that working in the private sector at a company like Adobe was the way to go.
One of the most obvious benefits of working for a company like Adobe is that you get exposed to new and exciting technology. In my opinion Adobe is leading the way for the development of Web 2.0 applications and having knowledge and skills in products like Air, Flex and BlazeDS are going to be very valuable assets in the future. Working at Adobe really gives you the ability to learn about these technologies right from the source and can really give you an edge that other jobs cannot.
Another thing I noticed about working at Adobe is the amount of knowledge and information you can acquire while working there. It seems to me that the company really wants its employees to understand the products that are made by Adobe and as you know their product line is very broad. Chances are if you got a internship at Adobe you would work on a team that only deals with a few of their products. So Adobe offers a set of informational sessions that inform employees about what’s going on with their complete product line as well as with other interesting and innovative technologies.
There are “Adobe Developer” seminars that all employees have access to that deal with all sorts of topics from Air and Flex unit testing to GPU processing for rendering and simulations. I just recently watched one on developing iphone applications which was pretty cool.
There are also informational sessions called “Knowing the Business” and they happen pretty much once every other week. During these sessions they will focus on one topic, such as Rich Internet Applications for example and discuss things like how adobe is trying to position themselves in the market, what the competition is doing, and also some of there marketing strategies.
Both the Adobe Developer seminars and the Knowing the Business sessions can be accessed through a Adobe Connect session and can be viewed right from your desk at work. I’ve had days were I’ll be sitting at my desk doing work while listing to a presentation that’s happening in San Jose, it’s pretty neat!Â
So all the information and knowledge you can handle is all at your fingertips, its just up to you to try and sit down and digest it all!
Another great thing about Adobe is that if your a full time employee they will actually pay up to 10K for training if you wanted to take a class in a topic that’s related to your field. I have a co-worker who is currently studying for his MBA and all his schooling is paid for by Adobe.
A few months back Adobe held their Tech Summit Conference which happens in San Jose, California. This conference is put on by Adobe to inform and educate employees about what’s going on in the company as well as in the industry. This year there were over 2,300 employees from all over the world that attended. All the employees had all there travel and board expenses paid for! Unfortunetly they don’t send interns and contractors to the tech summit, so I did not get to attend.
One of my other favorite benefits about working at Adobe is there staff purchase plan. I just got my copy of the CS3 Master Collection last week which includes pretty much every design product Adobe makes including Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier Pro, After effects, Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat, InDesign, Fireworks, Contribute, Connect, Device Central, SoundBooth, Encore, OnLocation, Bridge and Adobe Ultra + more…. Now I won’t tell you how much I paid for it, but I’ll tell you that the CS3 master collection retails for about 2,500 dollars and I paid under $300. Which is a steal in my mind!
Another benefit of working at Adobe is the Facilities that the employees get access to. They just built a really nice brand new building at Preston and the 417. There is a full gym with Cardio Bikes and treadmills as well as free weights and machines. There are also exercise classes that you get access to such as a core class, yoga and kickboxing. The gym membership unfortunately is not free. But its only 16 dollars a month which is nothing when you compare it to some of the other gyms you can get a membership to.
The other great thing about the facilities at Adobe is the lunch room. The lunch room is more like an entertainment center. There are 2 foosball tables, a pool table, an air hockey table and a giant 50″ TV that has a Nintendo wii hooked up to it. So it’s nice to be able to sometimes just leave your work behind for a little bit and go shoot a game of pool.
Also there is a kitchen on every floor of the building which are fully stocked with free Pop, juice, Milk, Chocolate milk, Chocolate bars, Coffee and soup. And if you’re a health nut there are Apples and Granola bars too.
Adobe recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary and they threw a party at the Capital City Music hall in January. The headliners for the event were Canada’s own Bedouin SoundClash. The 25th anniversary party in San Jose had Smash Mouth as their headliner which is really cool.
So I hope that gives you an Idea of what it’s like to work at Adobe. Without a doubt it’s the best job I’ve ever had and my advice to any students looking for internships is to keep your eye on their recruiting page and apply if you see something that interests you. You won’t regret it!
For more information about Adobe’s Internship program and available positions go to their Recruiting Page at Adobe.com   Â
No commentsPhotoshop Express Beta Released!
Today, Adobe announced the much anticipated public beta release of Photoshop Express, a web-based flex application that lets anyone add eye-catching effects as well as sort, store and show off their digital photos. The new Adobe-hosted and -branded service leverages thier advanced technology and makes it accessible to a new online audience – and it’s free!
Photoshop Express features tools let you crop and rotate, auto correct, fix exposure, remove red eye, touch up, and fix the saturation of an image. Tuning tools let you adjust white balance, improve highlight and fill light, sharpen, and fix focus by sharpening or soft focusing. The Effects tools let you spot color, change colors, convert a color photo to black and white, tint, turn a photo into a sketch, and distort an image. You can view and choose variations of your edits to determine which ones you like best.
Try out PhotoShop Express
No commentsAttn Students: Enter your work in the 2008 Adobe Design Achievement Awards
The Adobe® Design Achievement Awards celebrate student achievement reflecting the powerful convergence of technology and the creative arts. The competition — which showcases individual and group projects created with industry-leading Adobe creative software — honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from the world’s top institutions of higher education.
Enter in 12 categories in 3 media areas endorsed by the industry, over 60$K US in cash prizes will be awarded in New York City.
Categories
Both individuals and groups may enter one unique project in up to three of the following categories:
- Interactive media
- Browser-Based Design
- Non-Browser-Based Design
- Designer/Developer Collaboration
- Mobile Design
- Installation Design
- Video and motion
- Animation
- Live Action
- Motion Graphics
- Traditional media
- Illustration
- Packaging
- Photography
- Print Communications
Submissions close May 2, 2008.
Go to http://www.adaaentry.com/ for more info and to enter
Flash on the IPhone?? Apparently not any time soon suggests Jobs.
For me the IPhone is the perfect fit for the technology geek inside of me, the fact that it has built-in WIFI capabilities and a proper internet browser (Safari) made it a no brainer when it came time to upgrade my phone. But the one thing that is missing from the IPhone is Flash. I have been waiting patently for either a Flash 9 or flash lite plugin to come out, and I had high hopes that in the near future I could build a Flex app that would run on my phone.. But after reading this article it doesn’t look like that could be happening any time soon.
Steve Jobs pans Flash on the iPhone
No commentsWhat is Thermo?
Thermo is the codename for a new design tool created by adobe that allows designers to develop Rich Internet Applications from Interfaces that were made in programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.
Applications created in Thermo are Flex applications that can be loaded directly into Flex Builder, providing a great roundtrip workflow for designers collaborating with developers. The designer’s work can be incorporated directly into the production application with no loss of fidelity, and designers can continue to refine the design throughout the iterative development process.
Below are some features taken from the Adobe Labs Site
Features
- Use drawing tools to create original graphics, wireframe an application design, or manipulate artwork imported from Adobe Creative Suite tools.
- Turn artwork from Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or Fireworks directly into functional components that use the original artwork as a “skin”.
- Define and wire up interactive behavior, such as what to do when a user clicks on something, without having to write code.
- Easily design UIs that work with dynamic data, such as a list of contacts or product information, without having access to the actual data source. Design-time sample data can be used as a realistic placeholder when laying out an application, testing interactivity, and choreographing motion.
Check out these links for a Demo
Still no date set yet for a beta release but the word is that we will see one sometime this year!
No commentsAdobe Flash Lite Shipments Pass Half Billion Mark!
Adobe announced today that more than 500 million mobile devices have been shipped with Adobe® Flash® Lite™ software to date. Flash Lite, Adobe’s award-winning Flash Player runtime specifically designed for mobile devices, has seen over 150 percent growth over the last year and is now delivered on mobile phones and devices from all major handset manufacturers worldwide.
Adobe also announced that Microsoft today became the latest company to license Flash Lite, for use in Microsoft Windows Mobile phones. The deal also includes licensing of Adobe Reader LE for viewing PDF documents sent as e-mail attachments or made available as Web downloads.
No only if we could get Flash on the IPhone 
To read the entire press release, go to the Press Room on Adobe.com.
No commentsGetting Started with Flex?
One of the resources available online that can be really helpful in getting you started with flex quickly is the Flex Component Explorer. This handy little app showcases all the components available in the Flex SDK and provides examples on how to use them. When I first started out with flex I referred back to this app countless times.
Bookmark this link!!
Here’s a few other explorers that might come in Handy.
- Style Explorer (Also available as a Fireworks CS3 Extension)
- Charting Explorer
- Enhanced Button Skin Explorer (Written By: Daniel Wabyick)
Note: You will need to download FlexLib to use the EnhancedButtonSkin.
- Filter Explorer
- Reflection Explorer (Note: Right Click to download source)
Cairngorm Code Generator
This is a cool app built by Tyler Beck that enables developers to quickly create a Flex application skeleton based on the Cairngorm micro architecture. The Cairngorm creator allows you to define all the different components that makeup the cairngorm design pattern including Value Objects, Models, Services, Events, Views etc.
Check out the Caringorm Creator
