Author:
Joe Hakooz
Category:
Flash
Lee Brimelow, an Adobe Platform Evangelist, has released a video called Just Ask Us which is 45 minutes jammed packed with answers to many popular Flash community questions.
It's great that Lee is taking the time to answer these questions, many of which have no easily available answer. I suggest you check out the video when you have some time. And here are a few questions and answers that I found interesting...
Q: It would be nice to see better HTML support inside Flash...
A: Although you will be able to do a lot more with text formatting, don't hold your breath as far as new HTML support.
Q: Will there be more keyboard support when in fullscreen mode?
A: AIR already has full keyboard support when in fullscreen. Flash Player 10 will support many "non-printing keys", but there is no plan to support full keyboard access in Flash Player.
Q: Flash Player for iPhone... what's the deal?
A: This one sounds touchy... Lee read an "official" statement from Adobe which I'll paraphrase. "Adobe is bringing Flash Player to a whole host of mobile devices many of which have already received an early version of this Flash Player. The beta will be available to developers later this year. Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and the new Palm OS will be among the first to support Flash Player. While iPhone support is currently in development, we need further support from Apple."
It appears that Lee is under a legal iron fist on this one. I however am not and can tell you my humble opinion... Apple currently controls app developement to the point that you MUST use a Mac and you MUST give Apple its' 30% to play in that space. I thought Microsoft was supposed to be the anti-competitive one? The truth is that Flash would immediately dominate iPhone apps which would hurt Apple's app store profits. Once a real iPhone killer shows up, with Flash support, it will do much more damage to Apple financially so suck it up and be cool Apple!
Q: Is Adobe "scared" of HTML 5?
A: HTML 5 is impressive, so Adobe is keeping an eye on it just like they are Silverlight. A future version of AIR will include support for HTML 5, but the problem is the same... HTML depends on browser compliance while Flash does not.
Q: Will there be different Flash Player versions for different devices? TVs, mobile, etc...
A: Eventually, there will be only two players... AIR for stand-alone usage, and Flash Player for browser based usage.
Q: Are there any plans to integrate a real 3D engine into Flash?
A: It would take a while to get to that point, but anything's possible. No real plans at this point though.
Q: When will AS4 come out?
A: No such thing. Don't worry about it anytime soon.
Q: How do I prepare for mobile Flash development.
A: For starters, get really good at AS3...
There are a ton of other questions, about 58 in all, so head over to Lee's site to see them all...