This is a blog for reviews and articles about Adobe (Formerly Macromedia)Products, Flash 8 and graphic and animation technologies.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Adobe message to Macromedia community

Sara Spalding's message to Macromedia community supports the expectation of more support from Adobe to the huge community that Macromedia created and helped to create. This open community helped a lot of people around the world to know learn and exchange ideas and information related to Macromedia products.

I think the decision of containing the community support is wise one and in the same side of Adobe further strategy.

Below is the letter sent by Sara Spalding, Director of Developer Relations at Adobe:



Dear Macromedia Community Members:

By now you most likely know that Adobe has finalized its acquisition of Macromedia, combining the leading-edge technologies of two pioneering software companies. We'd like to take this opportunity to let you know what the acquisition means to you as a valued member of our community and what you can expect from Adobe in the days ahead.

With the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe is dramatically advancing its ability to deliver a platform that provides you with powerful solutions for engaging people with digital information. We are now better positioned than ever to assist you in meeting and exceeding your business requirements and goals.

Moving forward, we will bring together some of the industry's strongest brands and most ubiquitous technologies, including Acrobat, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, PDF, ColdFusion and Flash. Customers who have relied on Adobe and Macromedia solutions will benefit from a consistent platform and common user interface, as well as the outstanding care they've come to expect from both companies.

At a high level, by bringing our technologies together, we will provide the community with the software solutions you need to meet the increasing demands of today's competitive environment. Now more than ever, we are positioned to help you securely extend the reach of your information, business processes and services to engage and interact with customers and constituents online, via mobile devices – by whatever medium you choose.

As you may know many of Macromedia's leaders are now in leadership roles at Adobe. Kevin Lynch is now Adobe's Senior Vice President and Chief Software Architect, Platform Business Unit. Kevin's responsibilities include the Flash Player, Acrobat Reader, and Developer Relations. David Mendels is now Adobe's Senior Vice President of Enterprise and Developer Solutions, and is responsible for products like Flex, ColdFusion and LiveCycle. Tom Hale is now Adobe's Senior Vice President of the Knowledge Worker Solutions Business Unit, which includes Breeze and Acrobat. And lastly, Stephen Elop, Macromedia's former President and CEO, is the President of Adobe's worldwide field organization.

Our efforts with user groups around the world, developer events and conferences, and throughout the community will continue as they always have, and we're excited about how we can enhance and expand our relationships with our development community.

We look forward to sharing more information with the community in the coming weeks. For more information about the merger, please visit www.adobe.com. If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me directly, or any of your contacts on the developer relations team.

On behalf of all of Adobe, and the Developer Relations team in particular, I want to thank you for your continued commitment to our community, and I look forward to new opportunities to work together.

With best regards,

Sara Spalding, Director, Developer Relations

sspaldin at adobe dot com

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Reviewing Macromedia Flash 8 Tutorial Guide (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

The macromedia Flash 8 tutorial guide for Jay Armstrong and Jen deHaan is the official macromedia tutorial guide for Flash 8. This book is a good book for beginners to Flash 8 as it gives simple organized training examples that help understanding the program features.

The book is divided into tasks starting from creating Flash-working file to using dynamic content in the Flash project.

The best advantage in this book is the simplicity in delivering information, as well as the organizing and the developing of the examples.

Product Details:

Macromedia Flash 8: A Tutorial Guide

Publisher: Macromedia Press

ISBN: 0321394143

Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy

Reviewing Digital Photography Pocket Guide (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Do you remember when you first hold your new digital camera? Have you got this strong desire to take a professional shots for every thing around you and the people around you?

Then, you hold your camera searching for the power button!! And face the fact that you need to know your camera to be able to get your professional shots. However, many people do not know much about their digital camera and its capabilities, losing chances of great shots.

The Digital Photography Pocket Guide, O'reilly's best selling book, leads you to know your camera starting from its components, features and software features to how to take good shots with your camera.

The first chapter introduces to you the digital camera and its features. The second chapter tells you alphabetically what every button and menu do starting from Aperture Value to Zooming.

The last chapter includes some useful tips and tricks to consider when taking your shots. And in the end of the book, Derrick Story included important indexes about your digital camera

Actually, the secret of the good shots is to consider your camera the extension of you hand that translate your eyes vision and ideas to camera shots. And the first step to achieve this is to know your camera.

This guide is a very useful for both beginners who want to get a new camera or the user that already have a digital camera but do not know much about it.

Product Details:

Digital Photography Pocket Guide

Publisher: O'reilly

ISBN: 0-596-10015-9

Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy