Yay, yay, yay!!!!!!!!
Want to know more about the new Flash Communication Server? Here's a Desdev article on the new features and technical changes...
At the SF FlashForward, Macromedia recently announced the launch of Macromedia Central. From what little I could understand Central is a wrapper for deploying Flash based web-applications on the desktop (SWF studio??). You can make changes on the desktop version in a disconnected mode and they would be updated online the next time you go online. Sounds interesting, I'll post more news as and when I have more...
Also at the FF, they announced the release of Flash Comm Server 1.5. The most noticeable feature was a free developer version ;)
I was reading this article which says that a Barandchannel study has ranked Google as the brand of the year. Google tipped Coke to reach this spot.
Impressive. And considering how many people have come to rely on Google for researching everything - from the best way to implement PHP/XML based websites to finding out the recipe for chocolate cake- you could easily end up offending some. But the fact remains that Google does exactly what it is supposed to do and at the same time, it delivers a brilliant user experience. This has helped Google build a brand with an almost non-existent advertising budget.
UE concepts like Persuasive Technology and such have been trying to make the point that experience matters a lot. And not surprisingly, so has Macromedia.
However, looking at their new site it does not seem they have got the point entirely. While, their Flash based homepage seems like a way to show everybody that they are willing to eat their own pie, a bloated up size of 270k is not going to leave a good taste in visitors' mouths.
Here are some comments about the new site on a few other blogs :
Mike Chambers
Flazoom
Seems like most users want something simpler and more usable (I personally don’t think Flash is the real issue with the page). The longer Macromedia waits to make these changes, the more the user experience on their site will suffer. So I hope they respond quickly and take a few quick hints from Google.
Careating mouse-button bindings are an integral part of developing usable application and generally, the only button Flash gives you control over, is the left mouse button. But there are extensions which allow you to gain access to more mouse-buttons. You can get the code from Layer51 and see it in action here.
Also there is another example that I came across which gives you a few other features as well.
So putting the two together on can have lot more control over the mouse buttons. Now only if macromedia would have allowed us to disable the Flash Player contextual menu completely.
