Here are the poll result for the poll : "Do you think Microsoft Avalon is a possible threat to Macromedia Flex?"
Yes : 32%
No : 38%
Not Sure : 30%
The results seems to be mixed, but the majority think that Avalon is not a threat to Flex (The Linux and Anti-MS Community is always there ;) ). And looks like we also have a sub-set of users who are still confused and not able to decide if its really a threat ot not, since we have not yet experienced Avalon personally.
February 11, 2005
Flash Lite Player for Mobiles now for Sale for $10 !!!
This is great news; the most wanted and the most demanded Flash Lite Player for mobile is available for a very less price now. The player for a price of almost $10 is dirt cheap and definetly worth a buy. It supports most of the common handsets in the market and is very light with just a 750KB footprint. As of now the only language supported is English. Checkout the Flash Lite FAQ for more details. I am excited to see what people are going to create with Flash Lite.
Read more about it here.
Epica Award : Mahatma Gandhi in a Flash Video
Its so nice to see Mahatma Gandhi, the father of nation of India in a Flash Video file. This ad is very creative and is definitely worth a look. And need not mention, this ad is one of the winners of the Epica Award.
February 07, 2005
Certified Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Developer
I never felt the urge to do Certification but due to some professional reasons I had to clear that off and I decided to give it a shot. Last weekend I took the Certified Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Developer examination and cleared it with 88%. Didn't do much of preparation indeed, so was a bit worried if I would clear the exam. In my personal opinion anyone who has been using Flash for more than two years can easily clear the examination, the certification by itself is not complex but the questions are very tricky. I didn't find it as tough as I expected it to be and many topics like Video, Sound, Components and Classes were trivially missing. But it's very true that none can clear the certification without a very good working knowledge in Flash. The Certified Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Developer Study Guide is of use to some extend if you are already familiar with Flash and looking for some unexplored areas in Flash MX 2004 like the uncommon ones like Projects , Accessibility and stuffs. But in general good working experience in Flash is what would really help clear the certification.
Some online materials which can come handy for the certfication are listed below :
1) Tom Kitta's Flash MX 2004 preparation guide
2) Forta.com's Certified Flash MX 2004 Developer online sample Test
3) Tom Kitta's Flash MX 2004 short test.
If anyone wants some more details about the exam, leave a comment here and I will answer them. Please don't ask for the actual questions, as it's against the rules and regulations of the exam.
February 04, 2005
Digital Curiosity's Envision
Digital Curiosity has launched its screen capturing solution Envision which plugs into the Flash Authoring Environment and assists in screen capturing and recording.
The product description as found in their website is :
Envision Seamlessly integrates with Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and records all on screen activity complete with mouse movements, mouse clicks and Key Presses.Then exactly re-creates them within Flash MX 2004 adding mouse click animations etc ready for any further editing. Allowing you to quickly and easily create Desktop Screen Captures, Product Demonstrations, Interactive Tutorials and more straight from the Flash MX 2004 IDE. And then utilize the awesome power of Flash MX 2004 to annotate and further customize your screen recordings.
The highlighted features include :
- User Customizable MovieClips automatically added to animate MouseClicks, KeyPresses etc...
- Unique Recording preview Window that is invisible to the captured frames.
- Record the entire desktop, an area of the desktop or an application window.
- Automatic snapping of recording area to application windows,buttons,menus etc..
- A Host of Capture event options including Left Mouse button Press,While Left mouse button down and Left Mouse Button Release plus many more...
- Action Area Recording, records a user defined area around the mouse producing a pan effect.
- Frame Compression options resulting in smaller .swf file sizes.
- Adjustable Capture Scale and Quality.
- Configurable Recording hotkeys.