If so, why?

In conjunction with the CS4 release, the Adobe Developer Center has just post some new articles on Flash Player 10, and Flash Professional CS4. Flash Introducing Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Generating sounds dynamically in Flash Player 10 Creating blends, filters and fills with Adobe Pixel Bender New Flash samples Updated Flash quick starts Flash Player Introducing Adobe Flash Player 10 Detecting Flash Player versions and embedding SWF files with SWFObject 2 Adobe Flash Player Administration Guide for Flash Player 10 Understanding the security changes in Flash Player 10 Policy file changes in Flash Player 9 and Flash Player 10

We have just released the shipping version of Flash Player 10 (Mac, Windows and Linux). You can find more information on all of the new features on the Flash Player product page. You can download the player for Mac, Windows and Linux players from here. You can grab debug and standalone players from here. You can grab the release notes from here.

While in Berlin this summer for the on AIR Tour, Lee Brimelow and I got the opportunity to visit their eBoy studio and chat with the guys about how they create their work. Lee has just posted a video of the visit on his blog. I have always been a huge fan of eBoy’s work and art (best know for their pixel art). We worked with them to design the Adobe AIR launch t-shirt and poster (both of which have been very popular), and most recently, on a new AIR tshirt (which we gave out in Asia).

I have switched over to using TextMate for some of my experimentations with ActionScript. I like how lightweight it is, its extensibility, command completion functionality, and ease of setting up new projects. I find it is perfect for quickly testing new code and ideas. I have put together a couple of bash scripts, which coupled with the ActionScript 3 and Flex TextMate bundles have made working in TextMate a little easier for me.

I have been reading through Colin Moock’s Essential ActionScript 3 book, taking my time on each chapter to make sure I get the most out of it. I have been using ActionScript 3 pretty consistently for a couple of years (about a year before it was public), but I have been pleasantly surprised with how much stuff I am learning from reading Moock’s book. Anyways, I am currently reading Chapter 5 on Functions which among other things covers function scope and closures activation objects (although the book goes into more detail in Chapter 16).

If you are in the San Francisco Bay area (or not too far away), then make sure to check out Flash Camp this weekend, being held in the Adobe San Francisco office by the Flash team. This is an all weekend event that will go in depth over the new Flash Player 10 and Flash Authoring features. Its a great chance to get up to speed really quickly on all of the new APIs and features, as well as hang out and have a few beers with the Flash team.

I am currently on a speaking and press tour in Asia talking about some of the new stuff we are doing in Flex 4. One of the things that people seem to be really excited about is FXG and Thermo, and the improved designer / developer workflow that they promise. However, I have received a couple of questions about why we didnt just choose to use SVG instead of creating a new format.

Here are the links I mentioned during the SparkProject.org meeting tonight in Tokyo: Pixel Bender on Labs Creating ActionScript libraries of Pixel Bender Filters Tinic Uro’s Post on Pixel Bender in the Flash Player Flash Player 10 Drawing API overview Mysql ActioScript 3 Library

Lee Brimelow has put together a video demonstrating some of the new features of Flash CS4. My favorites thus far include the new UI, inverse kinematics (really cool when applied to shapes), new animation tools and features, and Flex created SWCs working in CS4. You can view the entire video here. You can find more information on Flash CS4 here.