All posts tagged ‘CS5’

File Under: HTML5, Multimedia, Software
Apr
12
2010

Flash Faces Down Threats on Adobe’s Big Day

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Adobe announced details of its Creative Suite of applications Monday amid a stormy debate over its relevancy and the vitality of Flash, one of its most important products. But even though the air around it has grown chilly and the skies above have darkened with menace, Adobe went ahead and held its big parade anyway.

[See our reviews of the new Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash]

The fact is, even though it looks like the cards are stacked against the Flash platform, there’s very little threat that it will be supplanted by another technology any time soon.

Key to Flash’s success is the explosion of web video. More than 90 percent of web-enabled computers around the world have Flash Player installed, and all of those people can go to sites like Hulu or Comedy Central or YouTube right now and watch the full spectrum of clips, from viral candy to Hollywood hits. Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, which can also stream videos at a level of quality roughly on par with Flash, doesn’t have the same penetration (it’s closer to 30 to 40 percent Update: the post I previously linked to was outdated, and according to Microsoft’s April numbers, it’s actually closer to 60 percent), and there are far fewer sites using Silverlight as their sole video platform.

Also, the latest version of Flash Player (version 10.1, which came out earlier this year) addressed many of the performance, security and consistency issues that have been dogging Flash for the last year.

So, for now, Flash remains the de facto standard for video on the web.

While some proponents of the open web would have you believe that a viable replacement for Flash is already here in the form of HTML5 video, that’s not exactly the case. The HTML5 video tag does indeed allow you to embed videos in web pages without Flash. But native HTML5 video has several things holding it back.

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File Under: Programming, Software
Apr
12
2010

Dreamweaver CS5 First Look: More WordPressy, More Firebuggy

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Dreamweaver CS5

There’s a new version of Adobe Dreamweaver on the way, and it includes new features for building sites with WordPress, new CSS enhancements and a new set of tools that let you see code changes in real time as you work, much like the popular Firebug add-on.

Adobe announced details about its latest Creative Suite bundle of applications on Monday morning. Creative Suite 5 is Adobe’s new package of apps for building websites, assembling videos and editing photos. We have a first look at Flash CS5 here on Webmonkey, and we have a first look at the new Photoshop on Wired.com’s Gadget Lab.

Dreamweaver, which has been one of the most popular apps for developing websites since its debut (as a Macromedia creation) in 1998, gets a fairly substantial update in Creative Suite 5. It doesn’t have the whiz-bang new features found in Photoshop CS5, but if Dreamweaver is part of your development workflow, you’ll definitely find much to appreciate in the new Dreamweaver CS5 that makes it worth an upgrade.

Of course, whether or not to use a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver is a debate in itself. Most can get by with a text editor, a few browsers and a short stack of reference materials. But if you’re working with a team of developers, or if you’re building more complicated sites with dynamic elements, databases and hundreds of pages, tools like Dreamweaver are essential. They speed up the workflow, keep everything organized and ease the pain of constant testing and iteration.

So, if Dreamweaver has a place in your life, here’s a rundown of what’s new in the latest version.

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File Under: HTML5, Multimedia, Software
Apr
12
2010

Flash CS5 First Look: Adobe Drops a Hefty Update Into Stormy Waters

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Adobe has released details about the latest version its Flash authoring tool, which arrives amid great uncertainty concerning the multimedia platform’s future.

Flash Professional CS5 boasts a number of improvements over previous versions, including better animation physics, improved typography controls, new code hints and snippets for building webapps in ActionScript, some new data formats, and better ability to add cue points to videos. It also has a few tricks for developers eager to publish apps to places where Flash isn’t allowed.

Flash is part of Creative Suite 5, Adobe’s new package of apps for building websites, assembling videos and editing photos. The new suite of apps, which Adobe says will ship mid-May, was announced Monday. We have a first look at Dreamweaver CS5 on Webmonkey, and we have a first look at the new Photoshop on Wired.com’s Gadget Lab.

Adobe Flash has taken a beating lately, especially from the hurricane that Apple’s public relations team generated around the launch of the iPad. Apple’s mobile devices don’t support Flash Player, so Apple is encouraging web developers to make their sites “iPad-ready” by removing Flash elements.

Also, last week, the new iPhone OS was announced, and it includes a new rule banning applications built with cross-compilers. Flash CS5 will ship with such a cross-compiler, Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, which lets developers build apps in Adobe’s suite of tools that can be exported with the click of a button and wrapped up as Apple-native code. Well, those apps won’t run on iPhones and iPads once the devices get their software updates this summer and fall, respectively. (There’s also a note on Adobe’s website Monday noting the use of Packager for iPhone is “Subject to Apple’s current requirements and approval.”)

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File Under: Software, UI/UX, Visual Design
Mar
26
2010

Adobe’s Magical ‘Content Aware Fill’ Bends Pixels to Your Will

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pscs4Adobe is already counting down to a new version of its creative suite, with updates for Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop and other apps common in the web designer’s toolkit. While the company is characteristically tight-lipped about new features, it is showing off a mind-bending new tool for Photoshop — content aware fill.

Like the content aware scaling (AKA seam stitching) in the current version of Photoshop, content aware fill is about intelligently adding, removing and changing objects in an image based on what’s around them. While that sounds fairly prosaic, seeing it in action will blow you away.

The video above starts a bit slowly (photographers would no doubt argue, realistically), if you just want to see the crazy stuff skip to the halfway point.

As always Adobe isn’t saying the content aware fill will be in Photoshop CS5 (due next month), but that’s really their way of saying it will be in Photoshop CS5 because no company in its right mind would show off these features and not deliver them shortly thereafter.

If you’re interested in learning more about the tech behind the content aware fill features, check out the Adobe website which features another, earlier demo movie.

If the content aware fill whets your appetite for CS5, well you don’t have long to wait. In fact, thanks to Adobe’s CS 5 countdown site we can tell you you only have 17 days, 00 hours, 00 minutes and 49 seconds as of this writing.

Normally we’re not ones for promo sites, but this one is notable because Adobe created the entire site without any gratuitous Flash elements. See, Adobe is embracing the modern web.

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