Aral Balkan’s contributions to the Flash community are well-known and we’re grateful to have had him contribute to several Flashforward events, as well as our upcoming D×3 Conference. So it’s impossible not to get excited about the secret new project he’s been teasing for the past week!

Now all has been revealed: Aral’s “Tangent” is SWX, a new data exchange format for Flash. And as you’d expect from Aral, it’s open source.

One of the key features of SWX is that it delivers data into your SWF as… a SWF! So a simple loadMovie() is all the code you need on the client side, making this immediately useful for limited versions of the Flash client (like on phones and other low-horsepower devices). It’s also very appealing for those of us who, shortly after our first clumsy experience working with XML in ActionScript, more or less gave up on data-driven Flash altogether (ahem.)

SWX is still in alpha, and already it’s been fascinating to listen in on the conversation about its potential and its role among the other data exchange options. We think it’s reassuring that, even while Flash continues its evolution into a serious RIA platform, attention is still being spared to develop user-friendly solutions for “right brain” Flash users who want to play with mashups etc. without a big learning curve.

So thank you Aral! We’re excited to see what your little hatchling grows into.

Go get it: the long-awaited Apollo Alpha.

Also check out the (free) Apollo Alpha Preview online training videos, provided by lynda.com and presented by Mike Chambers.

Join Mike Chambers, Adobe’s Senior Product Manager for Developer Relations, as he gives an exclusive, hands-on glimpse of the alpha version Apollo: a powerful new development tool from Adobe. Web developers fluent in Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, and Ajax have been promised a smooth transitional tool for building cross-platform desktop and hybrid web/desktop applications, and Mike shows just how Apollo fulfills this promise.

In honor of the free posting of alpha software by Adobe on Adobe Labs, lynda.com is making this online training totally free to the community. Stay tuned for a full-fledged training course once Apollo is finalized and for sale.

(Mike will be joining us at the D×3 Conference to present several sessions on Apollo and Flex as well.)

Now go play, and show us what you make!

backstage view of Flash Player 9 running in a Linux browser

Today we launch the first full day of sessions at Flashforward2006 Austin, beginning with the Adobe Keynote. This blogger is watching it from backstage, so it’s a bit difficult to hear; if any of these tidbits are completely backwards, you know why. Anyone with more to add, please chime in!

Chapman Bros video honoring Flash 5

Kevin Lynch: Flash 9 player penetration: forecast to achieve 50% of web users in 3 months! (well ahead of even the Flash 8 curve)

Garrett Nantz: Showed Flash 9 player on Ubuntu Linux (running Nike Air site)

Mark Anders: Demo of FlexBuilder 2 on 15″ MacBook Pro (built sleek Flickr browser)
Then showed it running as a self-contained app… Apollo on a Mac!

Justin Everett-Church: Showed Flash 9 Public Alpha (on WinXP on Parallels on 17″ MacBook Pro); cool demo of huge speed increase from AS2 –> AS3 (sun-like vizualization built from particles)

Mike Downey: first public demo of Flash 9 internal build (on WinXP on Parallels on 17″ MacBook Pro)

- imports PSD files: control over every layer, group, effect, etc — and control the import options for every layer right in the importing tool; auto-placing the layered import (and/or individual layers/groups) into MovieClip(s), etc.

Imported text can be designated editable, or rendered to vectors, etc.

Can tweak (render-time) compression settings per object right in import tool, and preview the resulting size of the objects (easier initial optimization)

- space-efficient new interface options (tools recede to the edges of the screen until called on)

Flash Complaint: The designer/animator protptypes his work on the timeline (lots of keyframes, tweens) then developer starts over in code; does it match? No

New workflow: devised with Robert Penner. Shows ladybug animation with all this type of animation, all built in the timeline. Then right-clicked selected frames in the timeline and chose “Copy Motion as ActionScript 3” (applause) and after a couple prompts, you can paste the resulting code (XML-heavy) onto a new instance of the bug, which then animates EXACTLY the same way as the hand-animated bug! (applause)

Then you can take the code over to Flex Builder and continue working with it! (Applause)

Components: users requested components that are smaller and easier to skin

Beau Ambur and Grant Skinner are helping out with those new components, and they meet those requests! Will be demoed in their respective sessions.

Q&A is still underway but I honestly can’t hear it very well so I’ll let someone else blog about that.

What an exciting start to the day!

Update: Robert Hoekman posted a list of highlights from his perspective, and Lee Brimelow took a couple screenshots of the key Flash 9 features that were demonstrated. Woohoo!

Update 2: Flashmagazine and Aral Balkan posted their recaps of the keynote as well! Many interesting details there that escaped me, so check them out.

Update 3 Regarding that 50% penetration statistic — after reading other bloggers’ recaps of the keynote, I now think Kevin said this penetration rate is a forecast, based on the current shape of the curve, but hasn’t been achieved quite yet. FP9 hasn’t even been out for three whole months — this press release is dated June 28:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200606/062806Flash9.htm

So no one should cite that as a fait accompli until you see the Adobe press release in a couple more weeks. :-)

Busy days for Apollo! (Not that Apollo. But what a great show.)

A little over a week ago, Ryan Stewart bravely started his own Apollo page on the Adobe Labs wiki, and expected to see the page disappear in minutes. Instead, Mike Chambers tacitly approved.

Yesterday, Mike updated the wiki by adding the Apollo Developer FAQ he’s been working on, based around questions submitted by the community.

Mike discusses all this and goes into additional detail about Apollo in his latest Podcast.

In other news, Christian Cantrell has joined the Apollo team, and will also be joining us at Flashforward2006 Austin, teaming up with with Mike to present a pair of sessions: “Understanding Apollo” and “Building Your First Apollo Application.”

(Which as-yet-unannounced Adobe product will be code-named Starbuck, do you think?)

The one good thing about linking to important posts a week late is that by now they have become enriched with interesting comments!

Mike Chambers noted these three posts discussing the new Flash landscape and what Flex 2, AS3 and Flash Player 9 bring to the scene.

(Many of you will have formed your own opinions on all this by now, but anyone who was waiting for the end of beta to start paying attention probably has catching up to do and these are great reads.)

Colin Moock — summarizes the latest batch of new releases, then provides brief advice for different categories of Flash user: AS2 Developers, Timeline Scripters, Flash Designers, Aspiring Flash Programmers, and AS1 Developers. (And now I know that if someone asks, I should refer to myself as a Timeline Scripter. There, I admitted it.)

Grant Skinner — writes about Flex 2 from the perspective of a Flash developer. (Spoiler: he likes it for the right type of project.) There is an analogy involving cows here that is kind of gross! Enjoy!

Richard Ziade — took the Top 10 approach to things he loves about Flex 2. E4X and CSS caught my attention, as I’ve been wrestling with a small project involving XML and styles and am looking forward to improvements in those areas. No cow analogies here but more good comments.

Remember that Grant Skinner will be joining us in Austin in a couple months to talk about AS3, along with Mike Chambers discussing Apollo, and a bunch of other friendly geniuses who will be able to answer any questions you have about any of these technologies. We hope to see you there!