Flash has been fueling innovation since the day it was first released. When Flash first arrived on the web it opened up a whole new world for web designers. It literally lit up the web by adding the ability to create rich and engaging experiences on the web. Flash has evolved (and continues to evolve) with every new release. Every new release adds new capabilities and features to the web.

Some people say that Flash is a dying technology but I beg to differ. Flash is just in its teens, far from dead and is still fueling innovation today. I’ve said this a few many times before but I’ll say it again: The “skip intro”-era is already far behind us and Flash is now being used as a platform for full blown applications that run in every browser and multiple devices.

But don’t just take my word for it. Check out these hot new startups and what they are doing with the Flash Platform!

UJam was founded by musicians Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams together with music software pioneers Peter Gorges and Axel Hensen. They wanted to build a new and easy way to make music even for people that don’t know anything about music.

Pharrell Williams: “If you have a tune in your head no longer do you have to hope and pray that you have to find a team to help to put it together. Now you can do it yourself.” Hans Zimmer: “UJam makes it possible to turn a tune that’s stuck in your head in to music.”

UJam was recently demoed at TechCrunch Disrupt and actually came in second in the Disrupt startup competition. It is truly an amazing piece of software. You basically sing or hum a tune in to your microphone and the application turns it in to music. You have to see it to believe it. At TC Disrupt, the UJAM folks pointed out that their site wouldn’t be technically feasible without Flash… I can’t wait to play around with this but it’s still in early stages and not available to the outside world. Imagine if UJam and Audiotool came together…

VideoGenie was also launched at TechCrunch Disrupt. “VideoGenie automatically creates compilation videos that allow companies to solicit customer sentiment in the most impactful way possible. Marketers can easily use VideoGenie for testimonials, reviews, suggestions, and corporate communication. VideoGenie’s disruptive technology provides marketers with a cost efficient, effective way to create, collect, manage, and distribute compelling video content without the expense, training, and software traditionally required.”

VideoGenie uses the Flash Platform and its ability to record video from the user’s webcam with just a few clicks.

Have you ever been in a situation that reminded you of something you once saw in a movie? Or just thought of a quote that you heard in a movie once but you can’t remember which movie it was? You probably go and search on YouTube or try to find it on Google so you can share it with your friends. Your chances of finding it there are pretty slim mainly because of licensing. Movieclips.com have partnerships with 6 Hollywood studios to provide clips for their site. Their Mashup engine allows you to quickly search for a specific actor, movie, quote, action and/or situation and will provide you with a list of matching movies. Once you pick your favorite one, you can trim the clip to that specific moment you had in your mind and then share it with your friends.

“Navigaya is One Ultra-Hot Content Platform”, was the headline on TechCrunch.com a few weeks ago. TechCrunch’s Roi Carthy wrote: “What single adjective best describes Navigaya? Gorgeous? Stylish? Addictive? Having spent a few weeks playing with it, I’d have to concede, all of the above. There really is just no way around it, Navigaya is one of the most mesmerizing content products I’ve seen in a while.“.

Navigaya (completely built with Flash) is all about content. It allows you to browse content from all over the web in a new and very exciting way. It’s really hard to explain so check out the video to get a better idea of what it does.

The idea behind WeTransfer is nothing new. The way they do it is. WeTransfer allows you to send big files (up to 2GB) to your colleagues and friends. You just add the file(s) and the email address of each friend you want to receive it, optionally add a message and click “Transfer”. That’s it. No need to install anything. No need to register. While the files transfer WeTransfer shows you adverts (with gorgeous images) in the background. Easy, simple, beautiful and built with Flash.

Scribblar.com is an easy to use online meeting place where multiple users can collaborate on images, use shared whiteboards, have a live audio or text chat and more. Because Scribblar is built with Flash the user does not need to install anything new. Just send your customer the link to your online meetingroom and within minutes you are revising the artwork he commissioned, engaging in a creative brainstorm, or leading an online training session.

The social web has dramatically changed the way people do business and the way people communicate with and about brands. Radian6 helps brands understand who is talking about them and what people are discussing by monitoring different social networking sources. With an easy to use and clear interface the Radian6 suite also allows brand managers to easily engage with their customers wherever they hang out on the social web. It also gives you in depth statistics and reports to easily measure your impact on social networks. Radian6 built the entire interface using the Flex framework and the AIR runtime.

Even hardware startups are relying on Flash. The litl is a very good example.

From the litl blog: “The litl webbook is an “Internet computer”, a new type of computer built on and for the web. It can go online in a conventional laptop-like mode, rendering websites with its modern browser and built-in support for Flash. Used like this, it’s ideal for traditional “lean forward” web activities like searching, reading, typing, and clicking. However, the computer can also stand upright like an easel when its screen and keyboard are flipped around its hinge. In this new mode, the litl webbook and its exposed 12-inch screen transform into a platform for “lean back” or passive web activities — watching video, enjoying photos, listening to music, and scanning headlines, for example.“. In this “lean back” mode you’re actually using full screen Flash based applications that developers can build using the litl SDK and the Flash knowledge they already have.

BoosterMedia built their entire business around building Flash based games. – VIAAS is a video monitoring system that relies on Flex and Flash. – Crystal Mapping does mind mapping in a Flash based UI. – Jilster allows multiple users to collaborate on creating a magazine. The UI uses Flash and the magazine is delivered on paper. – Lumacentral used Flex to built an online creation/ordering/management system for marketers. – ScrapHD is an online scrapbook application. – Pearltrees enables you to organize, discover and share stuff you find on the web. – Shufflr.tv is a social video browser built on top of the AIR runtime.

The list goes on and on… And I bet that while writing this post at least a few more saw the light of day. The Flash Platform is a popular choice for startups and that is probably not going to change any time soon.

Flash on!

PS: If you’re working for a cool startup that uses the Flash Platform, feel free to leave a comment or get in touch!

If you’re anything like me, you probably drink a lot of coffee, love Flash and enjoy talking about geek stuff… Blend all of these ingredients together and you get “Flash Coffee“!

Join Adobe Platform Evangelists from across Europe for a cuppa, an espresso, a double non fat latte or whatever your chosen caffeine jolt is and see what’s new with the Adobe Flash Platform. Ask some questions, see Flash Player 10.1 running on Android devices, see what’s new with Flash Builder 4 and Flash Catalyst, show what you are working on…

These meetups are informal and small, taking place at various coffee shops around Europe. Come along and join us for a drink and a chat! We’re limiting the numbers per meetup depending on the location so register early!

I just added the first two dates and I hope to see you there.

• Flash Coffee Amsterdam – June 9th – Beurs van Berlage Café – Raffle prize: a Google Nexus One
• Flash Coffee Antwerp – July 7th – Starbucks Antwerp – Raffle prize: Flash Builder 4 Premium

(You have to attend to be eligible to win the raffle prize!)

Keep an eye on http://bit.ly/flcoffee for more dates.

During Developer Week, learn about the Adobe Flash Platform, including Flex, Flash Builder, AIR, and how it integrates with Creative Suite 5 technologies. This weeklong event features free, live webinars presented by Adobe technology experts. See live demos and have your questions answered by the experts during interactive Q&A sessions. Register and attend whichever sessions suit your needs and you will be eligible to win a copy of Flash Builder 4 Professional or Creative Suite 5 Web Premium.

Click for more info.

NATO started using a Flex application for their Mission Support System in 2007. I saw it in action once… but if I told you about it I would probably end up in a dark dungeon 20 floors below the NATO HQ in Brussels. During MAX in San Francisco in 2008 Peter Martin and Mansour Raad from Adobe Consulting and ESRI discussed the application. The presentation (available on Adobe TV) gives you an idea of how NATO is using Flex.

Today, ISS announced that under the sponsorship of the Air Force Research Laboratory and direction of Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) they developed and deployed an application to enable critical infrastructure monitoring to the White House Situation Room.

The ISS team developed an application for deployment on the SPAWAR touch table framework, leveraging touch technologies to provide insight into the current status of various elements of critical infrastructure across the United States.  The application provides users such as the President and his staff with the ability to view the status of any of thousands of pieces of critical infrastructure with a single tap on a touch surface.

According to Rob Rogers, Vice President of National Systems at ISS, “The touch table application for the White House presented many interesting challenges to the team.  The application is really a mash-up of technologies including the ISS-developed Web Enabled Temporal Analysis System framework for data access and aggregation combined with a custom touch interface developed by ISS, utilizing the Adobe Flex framework, finally sending results to Google Earth.  The President, Vice President, and the Secretary of Homeland Security have used the application and have expressed positive feedback.”

I doubt that I will ever get to see that application…

Flash on!

The Flex family extends far beyond the Flex Framework and the Flash Builder IDE. A lot of third party vendors have created applications, frameworks, components and tools to help you be successful in your application development. There are tools for functional, performance and security testing, third party components, AMF products, licensing and encryption tools and even plugins for Visual Studio.

To make it easier for you to find these third party tools, we’ve just posted a comprehensive list of products and projects that provide support for the Flex framework.

I came across this video on Ubergizmo and I wish this was real today…! The video demonstrates a multi-touch tablet to read magazines in full color with video, audio and online capabilities. The video is created by The Wonder Factory and other than that, there really isn’t any more information out there. While it’s only a concept today, I really do hope we’ll see some of this in the future. Maybe we’ll even see it on an Apple tablet in the not too distant future?

UPDATE: Wow… I’ve just read that this is actually a real product. They’ve even showed a working prototype to the press last week. What’s even cooler is that it’s built with AIR & Flex!

Microsoft has (rightfully) gotten a lot of attention with their Surface multi-touch table. Schematic has now raised the bar. In Cannes at the Cannes Lions festival, they were showing a 3.5m (12ft) x 1.5m (5ft) multi-touch/multi-user intelligent wall which puts the Surface to shame.

The massive display gives attendees instant access to the complete festival program, 3D maps of the event and surrounding area, and information on local restaurants and bars. The Touchwall also helps delegates schedule meetings with each other and trade contact information via email. The presentation layer is built with the Flex 4 framework and runs on Flash Player 10.

I interviewed John Barton, Senior Solutions Architect at Schematic and asked him about the wall’s features, how it was built and where they are taking this next.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get something like this at MAX?

When we named project “Thermo” Flash Catalyst, everyone started speculating about where we were going with this. Soon after, rumours about renaming Flex Builder started to float around in the community and today is that day… The next version of Flex Builder will be named Flash Builder 4. And I think it makes total sense. This change will provide better naming consistency for the Flash family of tools and position Flash Builder as the development tool for the Flash Platform. Not convinced? Let me try to persuade you.

When you build applications in Flex Builder, you’re building them with the open source Flex Framework and/or ActionScript. The applications then get compiled in to a SWF-file that runs in the Flash Player. When talking to customers, I regularly got asked if you needed “Flex Player” installed to run an application and that is exactly the type of confusion that we want to solve. By renaming Flex Builder to Flash Builder, there is no doubt what you are going to build using this product. You’re going to build an application that will run on the ubiquitous and trusted Flash Player.

While we are renaming the next version of Flex Builder to Flash Builder 4, it will still be the same Eclipse-based IDE with lots of exciting new features. We are not renaming the open source Flex Framework or the free Flex SDK. Also, if you’ve been calling yourself a Flex developer, there’s no need to go and print new business cards. You will still be building applications with the Flex Framework, so no change there. We will also continue to promote the use of the Flex Framework and Flex development in general.

I know all of you are really excited about the upcoming releases of Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst and while we haven’t announced any release dates yet, I can tell you that we will be releasing public beta versions of both products this summer. So if you haven’t planned your summer vacation yet, you may want to hold off on that and plan on playing with Flash Catalyst beta and Flash Builder 4 beta during the summer. That’s what I’m going to do ;-)

Also, you may want to check with your local Adobe User Group. We are doing a pre-release tour through 119 different locations in June. So if you want to find out more about what we are doing with the upcoming beta releases of Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder, this would be a great place to start.

If you have any questions or comments about this upcoming name change, feel free to leave a note below.

Update: Lee Brimelow just published an FAQ about the rebranding.

Flash on!

There are a couple of ways you can use Flex and Flash together. I’ve already showed you a couple of those in previous tutorials. In this video, I’ll show you how to use the SWC files created by a Flex library project in Flash CS4. That way, you can have an ActionScript developer work in Flex who can then hand off compiled SWC files to a Flash designer.

According to the Union of Belgian Advertisers and researchers Profact [as published on Digimedia (dutch)], there is no crisis on the Internet. According to this report, 90% of all advertisers said the crisis does impact the way they work and over 80% reduced their budgets by 10 to 20%.

Where it gets interesting, is where they are spending their money. 55% of all advertisers said they will spend less money on tv, newspaper, magazine, movie theater, radio and street ads. However, 37% of them said they are investing more in Internet advertising.

On top of that, I also see a lot of interactive agencies looking to hire extra Flash designers and developers. This week alone, I saw at least 6 job openings across Europe on Twitter. I also received a couple of emails from agencies looking for people.

While talking to agencies at both FITC and FlashCamp UK last week, I found that this seems to be a common trend. Most of the people I talked to still had plenty of work but are expecting a cutback in marketing projects. Most of the people I talked to are planing on filling any gaps with research (looking into mobile development came up frequently) and diversifying their skill set.

Now, I may be completely wrong, but to me it sounds as if “the Internet” is doing ok at the moment. I’m sure there have been some cutbacks here and there already but the bigger agencies seem to be doing alright.

I’d love to hear your stories! How have you been doing? Has your company been hit by the crisis? If so, in what way?