Wow… Where do I start? First of all, you may have noticed that the activity on my blog has been rather low the last couple of weeks. June is a pretty hectic month and it’s not always easy to finish a blog post (I have several sitting in my draft folder now) while traveling.

This week, Adobe announced so much cool stuff that I have to catch up with all the news. So here we go…

MAX
Registrations for MAX are now open. Registrations for MAX are now open. Registrations for MAX are now open. Registrations for MAX are now open. This year, MAX offers more than 200 sessions and 100 hands-on labs. If you register before August 31st, you get $200 off the regular price of a full conference pass!

RTMP
As promised/announced back in January, Adobe now published the specs for RTMP. RTMP was designed for high-performance transmission of audio, video, and data between Adobe Flash Platform technologies. RTMP is now available as an open specification to create products and technology that enable delivery of video, audio, and data in the open AMF, SWF, FLV, and F4V formats compatible with Adobe Flash Player.

Flash Player 10 for smart phones
Just last night, Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen announced that we will have a public beta for Flash Player 10 for smart phones at MAX. He also said that we will be initially targeting Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm webOS devices and that early builds have already been shipped to manufacturers.

Acrobat.com
Acrobat.com now becomes a full online office suite. Recently the team added Presentations to the offering and just this week Tables saw the light of day. Both apps can be found on http://labs.acrobat.com.

AIR
The AIR runtime is now installed on more than 200 million desktop computers worldwide. That’s 200 million in just 16 months. Obviously this is thanks to all the AIR developers out there that actually build applications using the technology. So big kudos to you!

Remember the “old” days where you had to struggle with bandwidth selectors, video player choices and codec nightmares before you could watch a video online? I know it’s kind of a bold statement, but Flash really did change all that and the continuously increasing Flash Video market share proves that. I also often hear people complain about the quality of Flash Video. Most of the time, these people don’t know that Flash Player can actually play high definition video up to 1080p using the H.264 industry standard video codec.

But Flash Video is about more than just video. With Flash, you can easily make your video interactive. A piece of video in a Flash project is just like any other visual object. You can animate it, change it’s dimensions, layer it with other videos, make it interactive, … Heck… You can even personalize it. No other web technology currently available on 99% of all Internet-connected PCs is able to do this. And bloggers who claim otherwise should get their facts straight. (Are you reading this TechCrunch?)

Flash Video is everywhere and sites like YouTube, Vimeo and many other like it would not be as popular today without Flash Video! Traditional media companies like the New York Times, CNN, ABC, MSNBC also use Flash for the delivery of their video content. Hollywood studios use it on Hulu and the recently announced Epix site.

But like I said, Flash Video isn’t just about playing on demand video. Lots of people also use it for live video every day. Sites like UStream, Justin.tv, Qik and FlixWagon allow users to quickly setup a live video stream and stream it to hundreds of viewers. Ever sent a recorded video message to someone on FaceBook or Tokbox?

So how about interactive video? There are tons of amazing examples out there! Remember the immensely popular Elf Yourself campaign? Or what about those really cool augmented reality cases? Augmented reality is actually another great example of how Flash changes the web. AR has been around for years now but it wasn’t until the recent availability of the FLARToolkit that the technology was used online and even in campaigns for big brands like Doritos, Jack Link’s and Microsoft.

Flash on!

Augmented reality has been around for quite some time but now that it is available for the Flash Platform (and thus available to just about everyone) it is really booming. I was recently looking for some AR examples and came across some really cool applications. I hope these will give you a bit of an idea of the immense possibilities this technology has. It’s not even that difficult to build. Check out Lee Brimelow’s tutorial video and you’ll be building applications like this in no time.

LIVING SASQUATCH

This one really blows people away. You can completely animate the sasquatch while still being able to control it in 3D space. You really need to play with it yourself to believe it. Check it out on http://www.livingsasquatch.com/

RONALD CHEVALIER

This one is very funny to demo. You stick the black and white pattern on your forehead and when you launch the application, your face is replaced with the one from Ronald Chevalier. Good fun! ;-) Check it out on http://ronaldchevalier.com/mindportal/

GE SMARTGRID

This was the first augmented reality Flash application that I saw and you’ve probably seen it as well. But if you haven’t, go check it out on http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

MICROSOFT SQL SERVER
I think this is the first augmented reality campaign in Belgium. Obviously the agency and the client chose the best platform to do this. The Flash Platform is also the only cross OS and cross browser platform that allows you to bring AR to the widest possible audience. Check it out on http://sqlug.be/augmentedreality/activate/activate/

I’m sure you’ll agree that augmented reality is pretty cool but what do you do with it? In Brazil, Doritos actually put the black and white pattern on the Doritos bag. When you go to their site and show the bag, you get access to exclusive content. (via http://kiss-the-future.blogspot.com/2009/04/augmented-reality-in-doritos-sweet.html)

Lego even created an in-store display with augmented reality. Just hold up the box to the camera and the display shows you what the finished project looks like. See http://www.notcot.com/archives/2009/01/legos_digital_b.php for more.

I’m sure there are more AR cases out there. If you know of any or are building one yourself, please leave a comment.

Flash Player 10 is now on 75% of all Internet connected PCs. It’s amazing to see it reached that number just 6 5 months after it was released. And it’s even more amazing to see what developers are building on top of the Flash Platform these days.

Sumo Paint

When I first saw Sumo Paint, I was completely blown away. It was just a couple of weeks ago, on April 1st. I remember mailing out a link to their main page and getting replies from colleagues asking if this was an April Fools joke. ;-) Sumo Paint is actually very easy to describe. Think Photoshop in a browser window. I thought these guys were also using Pixel Bender to do some of the effects but when I met them earlier this week in Helsinki (where they are based), they told me it’s all ActionScript 3.0. Even though Sumo Paint’s feature set is extremely close to Photoshop, it’s all built using ActionScript 3 and the Flex framework.

Hobnox Audiotool

You’ve probably seen this one before but this German based company just keeps adding new features and new instruments and it just keeps amazing me every time I see or demo it. The Hobnox Audiotool is basically a complete studio to create electronic music. The Hobnox team made Flash versions of a bunch of popular electronic drum computers and synthesizers that you can easily add to your composition. Additionally, you can also add effect modules and even record your performance to share with your friends. And all this is done using ActionScript.

Aviary

Aviary is a suite of online creative tools. Where Sumo Paint is “just” an image editor, Aviary has a vector editor, image editor, visual laboratory and a colour palettes application. All built on the top of the Flash Platform. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of code behind this application suite and it all runs smoothly in a browser window using the Flash Player.

These are just 3 great examples that nicely demonstrate the power of the Flash Platform and there are many more out there. If you know of a cool example, make sure you leave a comment with the link(s).

Now… If you’re a web developer, just ask your self this question: “Can the platform I’m building applications on do this?”. If the answer is yes, chances are you are already a Flash Platform developer. If the answer is no, it’s not too late for you. ;-)

Did you know it took 38 years for radio to get 50 million users? 13 years for TV to get to that number and 4 years for the Internet to get to 50 million users? (according to Discovery Channel)

Adopting new technology seems to go faster and faster and the Flash Player census numbers prove this every quarter. The most recent numbers (published just now), show that Flash Player 10 was installed on more than 55 percent of computers worldwide in just the first two months of its release! That means it will surpass 80 percent by the second quarter of 2009, far outpacing the installation rate of past versions of the software.

The AIR runtime has also been doing very well. In less than one year after its initial release, there have been more than 100 million installations of Adobe AIR! On top of that, there have been over 1 million downloads of the AIR software development kit (SDK), the free open source Flex framework and Adobe Flex Builder in the last 12 months.

A big thank you goes out to all the developers out there who are building cool apps on top of the Flash Platform. Flash on!

Update: Also check Adrian Ludwig’s blog post on how we measure these installations.

My colleague Mihai Corlan just published an excellent article on how to use the new Text Layout Framework. 

The Text Layout Framework (released on Labs) is an extensible library, built on the new text engine in Adobe Flash Player 10 (and also available in AIR 1.5), which delivers advanced, easy-to-integrate typographic and text layout features for rich, sophisticated and innovative typography on the web.

Go check it out on Mihai’s blog.

• Make my logo bigger
  Are your clients asking to make their logo bigger? This will help!
• 25 hot female web designers
  With Belgium’s Veerle Pieters in second place
• Get better color online through Flash Player 10
  “Presenting your images through Flash is now the best way to preserve the fidelity of their color online.”
• Justin Everett-Church on Flash 10 FileReference
  Lee Brimelow talks to Justin about the recent controversial changes to the FileReference class
• Microsoft’s guerilla retail tactics
  Microsoft parks a large “I’m a PC” kiosk outside a shopping center-based Apple retail store
• Bomb-proof, news-delivering trash cans
  London intends to install dozens of the fancy waste receptacles in London’s financial district next year

Last week, we launched Flash Player 10. It’s amazing to see that people pick up on all it’s new capabilities so fast and there are already some really cool applications and examples floating around. Here are some of my favorites:

• Away 3D demo: http://www.closier.nl/playground/railaway_express.html
• Backflip: http://www.backflip.co.uk/flash10gallery/
• Hobnox Audiotool: http://www.hobnox.com/audiotool
• PixelBender example: http://www.anttikupila.com/flash/pixel-bender-levels-example/
• NoteFlight: http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/ca3a1593ed6236c9bb56971b89d80f23a105f5c4
• FotoBooth: http://www.everythingflex.com/fp10/fotobooth/
• Picnick (now using PixelBender): http://www.picnik.com/app#/create/sandbox
• Boulevart Labs: http://labs.boulevart.be/
• Nascom Labs [updated]: http://www.nascom.be/404/fp10-3d-features-partii-z-sorting-truly-simple-shader-nested-perspective

Please let me know if you’re working on something cool or already have a Flash Player 10 application/demo out there!

This week a collection of remarkable Flash Player 10 examples. Some of these I showed at Flash Forum Konferenz in Koln and Multi-Mania in Kortrijk. Obviously, you need Flash Player 10 installed to view these examples. Can’t wait to see what else the Flash community will come up with! If you found a cool example, don’t hesitate to leave a comment with the URL.

• Alternativa3D: 3D platform created in Eastern Europe Russia. Mind you, this is not even using the GPU acceleration yet! [link]
• Pixel Bender: Eric Dolecki shows off the performance of Pixel Bender [link]
• Flanger effect: Joa Ebert experiments with audio effects in FP10 [link]
• 8Bit audio: FP10 now does 8-bit audio. Again from Joa Ebert. No MP3s playing! This is all generated on runtime [link]
• 3-band EQ: Flash Player 10 can do live equalizing [link]
• Dynamic sound: Keith Peters making some noise [link]
• Cut and edit MP3: Benjamin Dobler also got bitten by the FP10 virus. This example allows you to edit MP3 files in the browser [link]
• Mix WAV files: Another example from Benjamin. [link]