More news from kuler...

More news from kuler (kuler.adobe.com), an Adobe web-hosted application for exploring, creating and sharing color harmonies. A new version of kuler desktop is now available, to accompany the official release of AIR , the Adobe development platform to deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop. The Emerging Creative Technologies (ECT) team at Adobe is excited to support the AIR development platform and to extend the current kuler functionality of RSS feeds.

New features include (Feature Guide below:

• Browse color themes from the kuler website while offline (up to 100 themes cached per feed)
  
• Drag and drop themes onto your own desktop as transparent "tear offs," which can be scaled and viewed over any application
  
• Access themes from Mykuler (must be signed in)
  
• Download themes as ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) files directly from the kuler desktop (must be signed in)
  
• New RSS feed "Random"

Moving forward, as additional functionality becomes available in the AIR platform, new features will be added to the kuler desktop.

A quick media hit

As I mentioned earlier, I've been doing a few press interviews/briefings for the AIR launch, and I actually got quoted in an article.. for your reading pleasure: 
http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/News/9414fcd0-b94d-4635-8936-bb4b2fca7abd.html

Adobe AIR (& Flex 3) now in production

Absolutely huge news!

Adobe AIR just went 1.0. As the official Adobe spokesperson for AIR in Canada, I've been busy doing over/interviews with journalists across the country in preparation for the AIR launch.. and it's finally here!

With the announcement, Adobe also added to the already impressive list of customers (eBay, AOL, FedEx, Nasdaq, SAP to name a few). Newcomers include The New York Times, BBC, and Deutsche Bank. Pretty darn impressive for a 1.0 product (whatever happened to waiting for the first service pack, or a 1.1 update??)

Also, Adobe Flex 3, the free open source framework for RIA development, moved from beta to production.. so all in all, a super exciting time to be at Adobe (or to be an Adobe customer)!

Read the press release

Go to the technology page

Some of my favourite AIR examples that you can install today:

eBay Desktop

Finetune

AOL Music - Top 100 videos

Shifd from NYT

Others at the AIR Showcase site...

Fellow SE an Oscar Winner?

This is a somewhat random post - definitely not related to Adobe technology, but definitely related to an Adobe employee. 

I initially heard about the movie 'Once' from my wife when she saw the premiere at Sundance last year (I was working the festival, and my wife Kaniz came along for the fun), which just won the best song Oscar tonight. So even though the movie has been out for some time, I didn't actually get to watch it until a month ago. Imagine my surprise when I saw Kyle Thompson, a fellow Adobe SE, moonlighting as the lead actor under the name 'Glen Hansard'.

Now, I'm sure that Kyle will deny this.. but for your consideration, I submit Exhibit A (a promotional picture of 'Glen' for the movie):

And for Exhibit B, here is Kyle with his adorable daughter Elise:

And here's the coup d'etat - Kyle/Glen with his guitar:

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case!

Check the latest Adobe EDGE issue

FYI, the February 2008 issue of Adobe EDGE has a lot of interesting content, including a discussion of open source at Adobe as well as an overview of Adobe Media Player and RSS feeds.

Remix (Adobe Premiere Express) Online Seminar

Have you checked out MTV Remix yet? The site lets users produce their own music videos for various artists using on a collection of video clips, graphics, transitions, etc. The tunes are courtesy of the musicians, the graphics are probably courtesy of MTV, but the technology is all Adobe. The Remix site is actually one rendition of several online of Adobe Premiere Express.

If you're interested in checking out a live online seminar on the topic, there's one happening on February 27th - go to the Adobe event registration page for more information.

Here is some more detail from the invite:

Join us to learn how entertainment and media companies such as MTV, YouTube, and Photobucket are generating more advertising revenue and creating fun, interactive user experiences on the web with Premiere Express, Adobe’s popular online video editing application. With Adobe® Premiere® Express, anyone can make videos that rock in minutes.

Let your site’s users reorder, split, and trim video clips; add music, transitions, and titles; and then make it all their own with a mix of favorite photos, graphics, and animation. Adobe Premiere Express is an easy-to-use, Flash-based, cross-platform application that gives users the ability to mash up and remix user-generated, professionally produced, and branded content, while extending advertising and sponsorship opportunities and keeping your audience engaged longer and returning more often through contests, promotions, viral campaigns, and more.

This eSeminar will feature a guest speaker from MTV Networks to discuss how Premiere Express is used for their remix.mtv.com website.

Flash Video 101 presentation

It just occurred to me that I had promised the AIGA Philadelphia folks a copy of my Flash Video presentation, and I forgot to post it.. so here it is: