Macromedia will adapt the interface along the lines of its Dreamweaver and Fireworks.Share with others. That was the primary theme of the Macromedia keynote address at FlashForward 2005, being held at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco through Friday.
And with all that Macromedia was showing off at its keynote, there was plenty of applause from the audience.
Kevin Lynch, executive vice president and chief software architect for Macromedia, said he believes community is one of the most important parts of the success of the Flash platform.
"We're here to give you a sneak peek at some things but also to talk about the openness of community," Lynch said.
"Flash has always been very open. We're all sharing information with each other. Now you can share your content and your source code. You can even make your own link to your source code to share it, and I encourage you to do that. We want to make this even more available."
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According to Lynch, Flash player adoption reaches almost 98 percent with every release.
"We're the only technology that has that much reach in the world. We're in a great position, and we just keep innovating."
Mike Holland, a longtime Flash user from Ripon, Calif., agreed with Lynch.
"Just watching up there what they were doing and knowing that Flash is really the number one app to use for any of this just is really inspiring. And the improvements it looks like we're going to see in the next rendition are really exciting. Can't wait."
Lynch showed off how companies on their Web sites are using Flash to make their content more interesting and interactive.
The New York Times, for example, had used Flash to create an entire experience around the story of the pope's death.
Users could see how long the lines were to view him, get a 3-D picture of the inside of the basilica and view streaming video of one of his sermons along with being able to view an interactive map that showed all the places the pope had visited in his papacy.
"This engages people more in the news and they can learn more," Lynch said. "It's a fun, interactive piece."
Flickr.com uses Flash to manage photo albums and allows users to organize photos and view them in a timeline.
And, with Mappr, you can search the Flickr database of photos of, for example, all photos about food.
It shows a map and then shows thumbnails of the photos, and users can enlarge them.
"This is another way to use Flash to create new, fun, interactive experiences for people," Lynch said.
Another Flash application Lynch demonstrated was by Toyota Japan. Its site was entirely Flash-produced and was an interactive way for users to pick out a car and all of its features, to a jazz soundtrack.
The content built upon itself as users picked more options. Then, after features had all been chosen, the site showed a complete movie of the "new car."
"I'm very impressed with what auto companies have been doing to push the envelope with Flash," Lynch said. "It's very fun to watch people experimenting with Flash and continue to push that envelope."
Mike Downey, technical product manager, was introduced by Lynch to talk about video on the Web.
"When you hit the 'play video' button on a Web site, it should play video," Downey said. "It shouldn't take you to a page where you have to pick a player and a speed to view the video."
Downey pointed out that with Flash, most people have the player already and there aren't any pop-ups. Video just plays and, with automatic bandwidth detection, no one has to make any choices.
"Can you imagine if you had to pick a player and a speed with your TV?" Downey asked. "Streaming video should be seamless."
Next Page: Flash takes to the small screen.
Downey's examples of Flash video included Adidas and redbullcopilot.com. With the latter, it was all about being in the cockpit of a plane.
With the Flash application used, a visitor could fly the plane, change views, change audio and do all of this on the fly and without it having to rebuffer and disappear.
"This is seamless. You are a part of the video experience and you can control everything," Downey said.
Lynch then moved into the mobile world and the application of Flash, introducing Macromedia's Gary Kovacs.
Lynch said, "We're going to start seeing a shift in the use of Flash from the big screen to the small screen. We have more than 125 partners for delivering that vision across the globe for mobile."
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According to Lynch, 40 percent of all phones sold in Japan have the Flash player already loaded.
Lynch announced new deals just completed with the No. 1 and No. 3 mobile phone companies in the world, Nokia and Samsung, which, according to Lynch, will get the Flash player on nearly all the phones being sold around the world.
Kovacs asked the audience if they were pleased with their phone experience or mobile experience. There was silence.
"Flash brings a whole new experience to the mobile world," Kovacs said. "These devices in our pockets are always on. Mobile content has to improve."
Kovacs showed FlashCast, which isn't available just yet, but which would turn a phone into a TV experience by offering channels of video and information via a guide that looks like a cable guide.
He also announced a deal with Samsung and demonstrated how Samsung has used Flash not only to do creative content but it also to control the actual functions of the phone.
"Samsung wanted to take it one step further," Kovacs said. "This was developed entirely in Flash, and it controls the phone and phone properties, complete with full integrated sound. Makes the out-of-the-box experience fantastic and allows users to fully experience the phone."
To see more of what Macromedia is doing with mobile devices, visit www.macromedia.com/mobile.
"There's no end to the possibilities with that. I can't wait to get busy developing stuff for phones," said Erin Talbert, a Flash developer for an East Coast company, after Kovacs was done.
It seemed the moment many were waiting for, however, came at the end when Lynch came out to talk about the future.
What would the next generation of the Flash client look like? What would the next generation of the full Flash product have?
Lynch started with the Flash player, code-named Maelstrom.
Lynch showed off the new capabilities of the player, including being able to render 2-D items in a more 3-D view, being able to view video on a much bigger screen and have no degradation of the video quality, and the improvement of font and text technology.
Next Page: 8Ball: The next iteration of Flash.
But the crowd didn't seem disappointed with hearing about the next full release of Flash, code-named 8ball.
Doug Benson, leader of the Flash development team, walked the crowd through the next version of the authoring tool.
"This is the most customer-driven release ever done by Macromedia. We're making video easier to work with, we're giving better mobile options, and we'll have a much better user interface," Benson said. "We're bringing Flash in line with how Dreamweaver and Fireworks work."
Highlights included:
New tabbed panels that imitate how Dreamweaver works.
Emulator that will allow users to test mobile applications before they get loaded onto the mobile device.
Totally customizable user interface.
Library panel now works like all the other panels (and doesn't move around all the time).
Drawing enhancements, including object drawing, won't take a bite out of the object behind when top object is moved.
Added many elements that have been a part of Photoshop, Illustrator and FreeHand for years.
"We didn't want to break anybody's workflow," Benson said. "This release is about enabling creativity and bringing Flash back to its creative roots."
Phil Zichterman, chief of interpretation, education and technology at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, in Colorado, said he was excited by what he saw.
"This is outstanding. It sounds like some wonderful improvements with the 8ball," he said.
Zichterman is in charge of developing more interactivity for the Web sites of the National Parks.
"I'm really interested, too, in the small mobility aspects. If people could have small devices at our parks, that would be way more interactive, and they'd learn more."
Lynch closed the keynote with expressing his excitement about what will come next:
"Our team is excited about this release. We'll be thrilled to see what you do with it."
Shouts from the audience asked when the next release will be, but Lynch said he will only commit to "soon."
"I just can't wait to get my hands on that new 8ball," said Brian Dell, a longtime Flash developer from Oregon.
"They just keep making it easier and easier for us to do incredible things with Flash. There just isn't another program out there like it."
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