Adobe announced at Adobe MAX 2008 further advancements to the Adobe Flash Platform, a complete system of integrated tools, frameworks, clients and servers to develop Web applications, content and video that run consistently across operating systems and devices.
The new innovations include technology previews of Adobe Flash Catalyst and the next version of Adobe Flex Builder, code named Gumbo. Adobe also announced the availability of AdobeAIR 1.5 and an alpha version of Adobe Flash Player 10 software for 64-bit Linux. The Adobe Flash Platform is tightly integrated with the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family.
New to the Adobe Flash Platform is Adobe Flash Catalyst (formerly code named Thermo), a professional interaction design tool for creating application interfaces and interactive content without coding. Flash Catalyst enables artwork created in Adobe Creative Suite 4 to be imported with full fidelity and converted into dynamic components such as buttons, scrollbars, input fields and more. Finished projects can be published directly to Flash Player or AIR. When combined with the next version of Flex Builder, Adobe Flash Catalyst enables design and development to be done in parallel. This workflow supports iterative development and delivers higher quality results with faster time to market. A public beta version is expected to be available on Adobe Labs in early 2009.
The Flex Builder “Gumbo” preview release expands the use of Flex to a wider audience of developers, offering new data-centric development capabilities to create rich Internet applications. Gumbo also enhances project productivity through the improved design and development workflow with Adobe Flash Catalyst and improvements to core development capabilities such as the debugger, profiler and code editor.
Adobe also announced the availability of Adobe AIR 1.5, a key component of the Adobe Flash Platform, which enables Web developers to deliver rich Internet applications outside the browser. Offering new features and performance improvements to create more expressive AIR applications, Adobe AIR 1.5 incorporates the open source WebKit HTML engine and now accelerates application performance with “SquirrelFish,” the new WebKit JavaScript interpreter. Adobe AIR 1.5 also includes a new, encrypted database that meets enterprise security compliance requirements while storing data securely on customers’ computers. Additionally, AIR 1.5 includes functionality introduced in Adobe Flash Player 10, such as support for custom filters and effects, native 3D transformation and animation, and extensible rich text layout. Adobe AIR 1.5 is available immediately as a free download for Windows and Mac, and AIR 1.5 for Linux is expected to be available before the end of the year.
Furthering Adobe’s commitment to the Linux community and as part of ensuring the cross-platform compatibility of Flash Player, a pre-release 64-bit Linux version of Adobe Flash Player 10 is available on Adobe Labs. This offers easier, native installation on 64-bit Linux systems and removes the need for 32-bit emulation. Additionally, a preview of Adobe Flash Player 10 for smartphones is being demonstrated at MAX 2008, which will reveal the latest advancements related to the Open Screen Project. Adobe Flash Platform innovations are at the core of the Open Screen Project, which is an industry-wide initiative to deliver rich multi-screen experiences built on a consistent runtime environment for open Web browsing and standalone applications across personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics.