With the day 1 keynote wrapping up, Adobe MAX 2009 has now officially started. While most of the announcements in today’s keynote were already sent out last night, the biggest announcement was probably a very big surprise to many. The first time I heard this news a few weeks ago, I nearly fell off my chair and I’ve been dying to tell you guys about it ever since.

To come back to the title of this post, it really is a great time to be a Flash Platform developer. Without having to learn anything new (with the exception of some new APIs), you can now leverage your skills to create applications that not only run in the browser and on the desktop but also on millions of devices already in the market today. The Flash Platform gives you the broadest possible reach for your applications.

I’m sure you know that we’ve been talking about bringing Flash Player 10 to mobile devices and I think after today you’ll agree that we’ve made a lot of progress. We’ve been working very hard with our Open Screen Project partners to optimize Flash Player to run on a variety of smart phones. Flash Player 10.1 (the first runtime release of the Open Screen Project) will be available for a broad range of mobile devices, including smartphones, netbooks and other Internet-connected devices, allowing your content to reach your customers wherever they are. Check out these demonstration videos to see Flash Player in action on a Palm Pre and a Windows Mobile device.

The biggest announcement of the day was without a doubt the work we’ve done for the iPhone. In the not too distant future you will be able to build applications for iPhone with Flash CS5 Professional. Those applications can be distributed through Apple’s App Store. A public beta version of Flash CS5 Professional with this new capability is planned for later this year. This new capability in Flash CS5 Professional allows developers to use their preferred Flash Platform tools and technologies to develop content for a device that was previously closed to them. Because the source code and assets are reusable for applications that run on Flash Platform runtimes, Adobe AIR and Flash Player, it allows them to more easily target other mobile and desktop environments. If you’d like to test the performance on your iPhone, feel free to download any of the Flash based apps that are currently already available in Apple’s App Store. For more information go to http://adobe.com/go/iphone.

For an overview of other news released at MAX, check out Ryan Stewart’s rundown of the MAX news.

Flash on!

I completely agree ;-)

I’m sure that by now you will have noticed that Adobe MAX is literally just around the corner. The pre-conference show starts this weekend and the countdown has started to Monday’s first keynote. I have managed to sneak in to some rehearsals this week in the San Francisco office and I was absolutely speechless when I saw the amazing things we have lined up for the keynotes and sneaks.

I’m sure some of you will not be able to join us in Los Angeles and that is why we are doing everything we can to make sure you don’t miss out. I’m sure you already know that you can watch the keynote sessions live wherever you are but the conference will also be covered on the Adobe MAX blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Photoshop.com. For a complete list of social media resources, check out http://max.adobe.com/resources/

We also published a list of official and community driven Twitter-tags on http://bit.ly/adobemaxtags as well as a list of interesting Tweeters to follow http://bit.ly/adobemaxtweeters. For a full list of Adobe employees and products on Twitter, check out http://bit.ly/AdobeOnTwitter.

If you are in L.A. and are taking pictures, make sure you add them to the Adobe MAX Flickr group (http://bit.ly/adobemaxflickr) and check out the Flickr photostream (http://bit.ly/adobemaxphotos). I’ll try to add some backstage shots whenever I can.

And last but certainly not least, Lee Brimelow has put together a new DeadDrop challenge, which will start at noon on Tuesday October 6th. The winner will receive the grand prize (a US$7,500 value) including an Apple MacBook Pro with Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection and Adobe Flex Builder Professional fully loaded, a conference pass to MAX 2010 with 3-nights of hotel accommodation, and more. For details, watch the video at http://adobedeaddrop.com.

I hope you are as excited about Adobe MAX as we are!

I was just putting my MAX sessions in my calendar and realized that I didn’t blog about these yet… Major oooops :D So… Let me rectify that by listing my sessions below.

If I’m not in a session or rehearsal, chances are that you can find me in the community lounge or at the Adobe booth. Come and say “hi”!

Tuesday, October 6th, 9am-10am
ColdFusion for PHP developers
If you want to understand what ColdFusion is, why you need it, and how you can use PHP and ColdFusion together, attend this session. You may have tried ColdFusion once, switched back to PHP, and never looked at CF again. So did I, until I learned just how much time I’d save with ColdFusion. You’ll learn about the vast array of integrated services and understand why ColdFusion is considered the best server-side platform for building Flex and AIR applications.

Tuesday, October 6th, 10:30am
My appearance in the day 2 keynote
I’m extremely excited about this one! I’m sure this is going to be an amazing experience… It’s not every week that a small town guy from Belgium gets to be on stage in the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. The same venue that is home to the American Idols Final show, The Emmy Awards, The American Music Awards and the likes… Really looking forward to it!

Tuesday, October 6th, 3pm-4pm
Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst, and Flash Builder: Facts, Features, and (work)Flows
Other speakers: Paul Burnett, Paul Trani, Ryan Stewart
Spend 60 minutes with three products with a single purpose: to help designers and developers deliver interactive content and rich Internet applications (RIAs) with the tool that’s best for their needs. Compare and contrast Flash Professional and Flash Catalyst use cases. Learn how to decide when a project is right for the Flex framework. And walk away with a better understanding of what tool is right for your skill set, your projects, and your professional goals.

Wednesday, October 7th, 1:30pm-3pm
Bring Your Own Laptop Lab: Multiscreen Development
Other speakers: Dale Rankine
Dive deep into development and design techniques for multiscreen applications built with the Flash Platform. You’ll create a scalable cross- platform application using common assets and Flash Player features and learn how to package and distribute it anywhere from desktop computers and mobile phones to the digital home.