by John C. Bland II | Sep 8, 2007 | Flash Platform
I signed up for “Google Analytics”:https://www.google.com/analytics/ the other day just to try it out. They take roughly 24 hours to retrieve data about your site but once you do the dogs are let loose and you get a ton of stats (very useful too). So this morning I decide to look at the stats, thinking it would be a normal stat viewing site, but I ran into some pure sweetness.
I won’t go into every detail of the site (sign up or view the demo to see for yourself) just so I can stay on topic here but I will say…the Dashboard is sweet! You can add, from what I’ve seen, any report to the dashboard AND you can organize the reports in terms of position on the dashboard…NICE. The best part of the dashboard is the use of Flash.
Several of Google sites use Flash (best so far: “Google Finance”:https://finance.google.com/) and I can never easily tell when Flash is being used until I mouse over. The widgets gel with the page so the only way to tell is the interactivity, which some **could** be ajax [isn’t but it could], or the right click menu. Their implementation of Flash is simply smooth, useful, and done right. You should seriously check the Analytics dashboard.
Bravo Google!
by John C. Bland II | Sep 6, 2007 | Flash Platform
“Adobe announced some of the new features in Flash Media Server 3”:https://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200709/090607FMS.html and one of them is regarding the integration with Flash Lite 3.
bq. Adobe Flash Media Server 3 will also support live and recorded streaming to Adobe Flash® Lite™ 3, Adobe’s award-winning Flash Player runtime specifically designed for mobile phones. Adobe Flash Lite 3 will bring the Adobe Flash Player video format from the desktop to mobile handsets and devices, enabling operators, handset manufacturers and developers alike to deliver more engaging experiences to mobile users. Adobe expects the first Flash Lite 3 enabled devices to be available by the end of the year.
Here are some of highlights that are most interesting to me. Read the first link above for all of them.
bq. **Integrated Content Protection**
Adobe Flash Media Server 3 will offer a new encrypted protocol to help protect streamed content and provide support for the upcoming Adobe Media Player.
bq. **Major Performance Gains**
Streaming performance almost doubles in Adobe Flash Media Server 3, allowing more streams and more users per server, helping to lower overall deployment costs. Building on the recently announced support for H.264 video codec and High Efficiency AAC+ (HE-AAC) audio, Adobe Flash Media Server 3 customers can now leverage most of their existing MPEG content directly without having to re-encode, helping reduce the cost of distributing via Adobe Flash Player compatible video. Users can enjoy higher-quality video experiences in the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player, which is currently installed on 98 percent of internet-enabled desktops worldwide.
bq. **Availability**
Adobe Flash Media Server 3 is expected to be available as a service through select partners in the fourth quarter of 2007 and for sale worldwide in the first quarter of 2008. For more information about Adobe Flash Media Server, please visit www.adobe.com/go/fms3_faq .
Good stuf Adobe! I’ve heard some really good things about FMS3 and I can’t wait to use it, especially with Flash Lite 3.
**Update**
I just found “this PDF”:https://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/FMS3FAQ.pdf from some blog somewhere and it details a lot more updates.
by John C. Bland II | Sep 6, 2007 | Flash Platform
“Jobe Makar has a post about the MatrixTransformer”:https://jobemakar.blogspot.com/2007/06/rotating-around-point.html (found it today)
and “Robert Penner”:https://www.robertpenner.com/ commented a few times. The MatrixTransformer is pretty sweet, from what I saw on the post, but what caught my eye most is:
bq. Hi Jobe, I wrote the fl.motion package; it’s cool to see you found MatrixTransformer.
Nice! I had no idea Robert was still in the game. I figured he went supernova and burned out on us. The dude is super smart though and brought us such Actionscript sweetness like the tween classes.
Anyways…Robert, good to see you are still rocking AS and definitely glad to see you’re still working with Adobe! Keep it up!
Note:
You can read “Penner’s blog here”:https://robertpenner.com/flashblog/index.html.
