This year's day 1 keynote was chock full of amazing stuff. Here are some of the key points for developers along with links. If you want to follow MAX with up to the minute news, get MAXimizr, an AIR app we built for those who aren't able to be in SF.
- Flash Platform - Umbrella terminology for all things Flash. Pretty sure this isn't a new term, but maybe to reiterate the centrality of Flash player in all of this. Flash Platform Home.
- Flash Catalyst - The app formerly known as Thermo promised to vastly improve designer/developer workflow. We should be seeing a lot more of it before MAX is over. Unfortunately, it won't be available on labs until early 2009. Catalyst on Labs. Catalyst Blog.
- Gumbo (Flex 4) - Not really breaking news as builds have been available on Labs for quite some time, but it is tightly connected with Catalyst so it deserves a mention. Gumbo on Adobe Open Source.
- AIR 1.5 - Updates include support for FP10 features, encryption in local databases and updated WebKit for faster html based rendering. Intro Article. Download the runtime. Download the SDK.
- Tour de Flex - a desktop application for exploring Flex capabilities and resources, including the core Flex components, Adobe AIR and data integration, as well as a variety of third-party components, effects, skins, and more. Download it.
- Cocomo - a "platform as service" that allows Flex devs to easily add real-time social capatilities to their apps. Cocomo on Labs. Developer Portal.
- Wave - a desktop notification service built in AIR allowing users to receive notifications from publishers that they specify. Wave on Labs.
- Flash player 10 for mobile - hopefully I'm reading this correctly, but they're shooting for a fully functional FP10 for mobile devices. Fantasic news for developers. Obviously hardware may be a limitation, but demos were shown on Symbian, Win mobile and Android (sorry, no FP on iPhone yet...that's in Apple's hands)
- Distributable Flash Lite player - another awesome piece of news! Apps can be deployed with the ability to install Flash Lite if required (over the air).
Also, not sure if this was directly touched on in the keynote, but Flash Media Server 3.5 was announced. Read about it here. Get it.
Can't wait to see what the Day 2 Keynote brings.
