Day 2 of MAX is upon us, and again we had another excellent keynote session with some of the leads on Adobe projects. Here are my notes from this keynote. You can find a slew of pictures that I snapped with my cell phone on my flickr page.

Kevin Lynch comes onto stage, right off the bat introduces Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe.

• Talks about being a CEO
  • Talks about meeting with Press, Financial People

On meeting with Financial People:

It’s like Going to a dentist and getting your teeth drilled without novacane

• “Why do I put up with the pain?”
• Tells a story about being backstage at a Dave Matthews Band show and talking with the light and sound guys about how Adobe products are being used in big shows like the DMB show, and them being so involved in the conversation they forget they have a job to do (get ready for the show)
• Connect, Discover, Inspire
• Developers are inspiring him - “It’s you that inspire me” (awww, warm fuzzy)

Kevin comes back out on stage

• Shows the keynote overview slide with Servers, Services, and Tools
• Business Logic constantly being rewritten (preaching to the choir…)

Kevin introduces Steven Webster to discuss LiveCycle

• Discusses how we do great things with Flash and Flex that look great “in front of the glass” but wants to discuss what goes on “behind the glass”
• Bad experiences behind the glass can spoil the experience in front of the glass
• Shows a case study for MFG.com (Also a MAX Award candidate) - short film
• LiveCycle data services to improve developer productivity
• Demonistrates a Flex application with LiveCycle - shows the Eclipse LiveCycle IDE
• Talks about PDF Rights management
  • Supplier A and B open a PDF document, we eventually deny rights on Supplier B and he gets an error message and can’t open the document.

Kevin comes back out on stage

• Shows hosted services, a Chart on the slide includes Scene 7, Share beta, Pacifica, and CoCoMo

Kevin Introduces Doug Mack from Scene 7.

• Scene 7 enables “Great Website Experience” [Experience seems to be a huge theme at this conference]
• Scene 7 allows rich media publishing services
• Takes focus off of low level coding, and focus on value added [Presumably content publishing]
• Shows gucci.com - beautiful Flex demo where they can scroll through watches, click and zoom in, very high resolution images all delivered “on-demand” [Not sure what this means]
• Shows of company website Teamwork Athletic Apparel website - logos are customized on a model of some guy in football pads.
  • Customizes uniform color, number, etc.
  • Adds a custom logo to the uniform (MAX Logo) from a file on the desktop
• You can add content to Scene 7 in any format (psd, ai, pdf, jpg, etc.)
• Use a scene7 URL to deliver the content in any format and size/resolution, etc. On Demand
• QVC AIR example
  • has a live broadcast of the TV Channel
  • Recent, Current, and Future products are shown that go along with the live broadcast (presumably)
  • Chat (Ask on-air host)
  • Video timeline tags (Doug clicks on a tag on the video timeline that takes us to a shot of the heel of a shoe, which is appropriately tagged “heel”

Doug introduces Andrew Shebanow to talk about Share beta

• Share beta - it’s a flex app that lets you share files [Fitting name, I suppose]
• Tries to upload a file into the app… error message (see flickr)… tries again… error… 3x a charm… works, audience cheers.
• Inserts the shared item directly into his blog with an embedded object, kind of like a youtube video inserted into a blog.
• Includes REST APIs, ActionScript 3 library support, AIR Integration
• You can print, MS Office convert documents, Tagging.
• Available at adobe.com/go/share

Andrew introduces Danielle Deibler on the Adobe Pacifica team.

• Does a demo with some guy back stage… uses voice chat. The guy back stage shares a video with her.
• Works from behind a firewall, supposedly a direct connection to the peer
• Can’t really figure out what the hell this is… seems just like Adobe Premiere Express with voice chat and video sharing…. weird.
• Private beta October 2007

Danielle introduces Nigel Pegg of the CoCoMo team

• CoCoMo is the project name of the Adobe Acrobat Connect redesign
• Redesigned into the flex framework
• Split up into UI Components that you can use in your own Flex applications
• Video, Voice, Chat, Whiteboard
• Run it as a service with an API
  • Real-time Data Messaging
  • Real-time AV Streaming
  • User Identity Presence and Permissions
  • File Publishing
• Goes to a computer, a fake outlook reminder window pops up that says “Not a Fake outlook Reminder” that was due 15 minutes ago with Fang.
• Creates a quick flex app to connect to Fang’s Adobe Connect channel - has video only right away, Fang looks mad…
• Adds in voice and chat to the Flex App and recompiles, connects back with Fang and Fang is angry but he can only chat with him
• Adds in a whiteboard with slides, recompiles, connects back

Kevin comes back out on stage

• Scene7 and Share beta are availble now
• Pacifica and CoCoMo are available soon
• Talks about some great tools in development

Kevin introduces Mark Anders and Steven Heintz (I took lots of pictures of the interface here - check out flickr)

• They announce a new RIA Design tool code name “Thermo”
• It looks like a designer tool, similar to photoshop
• Opens up photoshop and shows an application that is mocked up in photoshop with some CD covers, a scrollbar
• Imports the photoshop document into Thermo, and it creates a Flex application behind the scenes - Audience cheers
• Converts the mock text field into a text-box by right clicking and selecting convert to text box… very impressive. Audience cheers
  • Font info is retained on the text box
• Selects 6 cd covers, converts them into “Dummy data” - creates a field in Flex.
• Adds a rollover event for the dummy items
  • grows the image
  • adds cd cover text
• Converts the mockedup scrollbar into a Flex scrollbar
  • separate the two-part image (thumb+track)
• Links the scrollbar to the dummy data field
• Compiles and scrolls the data with the mouseover events… very impressive.
• Next year “we can experiment” with it.

Kevin introduces Mike Sundermeyer from the Experience Design team

• Asks “What makes the difference between an OK application and a great experience?”
• Introduces new developer site: xd.adobe.com - in alpha
• Purpose for Experience Design collaboration
  • XD Case studies
  • Defining and Designing RIA’s
  • Resource Library
  • User Comments
• Example on the site: A use case of TV 2.0 (now called Adobe Media Player)
  • Started off ass initial idea for RSS feed for TV
• Has XD Best Practices, Design Principles

Kevin comes back out on stage

• Shows a video of the “World’s Largest Flash Device”
• 120 foot yacht called the Susan B.
• InteliSea software - yacht sensors hooked up to a flex interface
• RFID System - Yacht workers wear and an alarm signals if one falls overboard.
• alarm goes off - A woman with a very plesant voice and a happy chime - Audience Laugh
• Kevin displays the Adobe Roadmap (flickr)
• Reminds us to vote for MAX events
• Shows the AIR Bus Video

Event ends

There’s a definite theme to this MAX event and it seems to revolve around getting developers to design for the user experience. The most exciting part of this keynote was the Thermo design tool - very cool stuff. If they manage to pull it off, it will be a great tool for Flex designers.

The keynote auditorium was quite an awesome site to see, with three large projection screens setup with a stage in front of the center screen.

Pictures can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13578268@N05/

The opening keynote speaker was Kevin Lynch, Chief Software Architect and Visionary at Adobe.

• Adobe Developer Connection launched this weekend
  • Includes a social network site originally developed by Intronetworks - transitioned from MAX Social Network, runs on flex
• 25th Anniversary of Adobe
  • Showing slides on how technology has evolved through the decades
  • “Pushing Adobe Forward”, “Staying on the Leading Edge” - warm fuzzy quotes on how we all love Adobe products.

He the introduced Shantanu Narayen, COO

• “The time is right for a brand new set of applications to emerge”
• Content is king - Adobe’s vision is to make sure all the user interaction flows from the content delivered.
• Make it personal - If you can adapt the software to the individual, it is more likely to be accepted
  • Showed examples of mobile phone software personalized for the <20>
• Make it Simple - Less is (still) more
  • Eludes to the fact that you will deliver a better user experience by minimizing the complexity of the interface
  • Showed a demonstration of video editing software - Premiere Express (YouTube, Photobucket, MTV) - Might be web based software? Not sure about that.
• Movement has meaning - applications become more immersive and the user experience is enhanced with transition effects between actions taken. This is a good point and can be seen as a philosophy by other software companies, Apple comes to mind.
  • Glide UI - Shows Adobe Media Player
• Create an Experience, not a UI.
  • Showed the California Tour Bike Race site built on flex - Integrated GPS with Video, Flickr, Maps, Chat.
  • “[a] Compelling and Engaging Experience”
• Technology is catching up with [Adobe's] Vision
  • The next digital revolution will be based on experience, interface

Kevin Lynch comes back on stage

• Adobe Technology Platforms
• Video
  • 70% of all video on the internet is in Flash
  • 98% reach of flash on all computers
  • H.264 Video - Industry standard for high definition - embedded into flash
• Yahoo Video example - shows a film
  • Uses flash media server, CS3 for production of the content
• Next Version of Flash - “MovieStar”
  • Will allow HD quality video up to 1080p
  • Added efficiencies for multi-core systems
  • Full screen hardware scaling
  • Shows a demo of a 720p CSI clip in flash delivered over the internet - looks incredible
  • Case study: Halo 3 promotion site - Streaming flash video w/ stepping points where you can click for more detailed info. This is especially funny, as MS now has one of the best flash sites out there. /bye Silverlight.
• Adobe Media Player
  • AIR app
  • Shows off RSS Feeds of videos, TV series
  • Relevant Ads are displayed before or after a video, can dynamically add overlays
• Flash Lite 3
  • Deliver video feeds to mobile devices (shows the same CSI video clip on a mobile device)
  • Available next month in beta on symbian devices
• United Way Website - built with CF7 & DreamWeaver - Introduces Ben Forta & Scott

Ben Forta, Product Evangelist and Scott Fegette(?) take the stage to show what they did with 1 week with CF8 and Dreamweaver

• Ben shows off the “Tell us about you” form, long, wordy, also shows off the PDF Documents page
• Shows his solution to combine the two and when they submit the form it generates a single PDF file for them with location relevant to the zip code that they provide, uses and
• Scott shows off dreamweaver integration with Spry, quickly takes the long form and condenses it using an accordion widget

Kevin comes back, introduces Ed Rowe, Sr. Adobe Engineer to talk about AIR

• Shows off an image of the AIR Runtime Stack. OS sits underneath AIR APIs, which sit underneath the AIR Apps that developers build. Nothing surprising here.
• Embedded SQL Database in AIR - new feature requested by developers
• Shows an AIR demo of a sales tracking system, drags a vcard file into the AIR App and it adds the vcard data as a contact to the company automagically.
• Beta 2 of AIR, and Flex 3 Beta 2 available today

Kevin comes back onstage

• 300k downloads of AIR Runtime/SDKs
• Flex is open source
• New version of flex being developed - Code Moxi (sp?)

Kevin introduces Heidi Williams, a Flex Developer

• Shows off features in the upcoming version of Flex
  • Profiling, Memory and Performance
  • Language Intelligence (not sure what this means… I’m guessing better eclipse auto-complete support)
  • Flex Famework Caching - reduces file sizes of .swf files generated by flex
  • Refactoring support for Flex in Eclipse
  • Advanced Data Visualization
    • Drags over a couple data points and dynamically changes a pie chart - Kind of neat.

Kevin returns to the stage

• Talks about the AIR Competition called the AIR Developer Derby - Announces the winners:
  • Spaz.AIR
  • OraTimeTracker
  • AgileAgenda - Overall Winner - The creator is presented with a Trip around the world and a “send-0ff bag” with an adobe logo and presumably filled with some swag.
  • SearchCodxs
  • DigiMix

Kevin introduces some Disney employees, who are leveraging AIR To create an application to be used by travel agents that book Disney vacations. Bob Ott and Cary Gibaldi come to the stage.

• Bob Ott gives a blurb on innovation and how great Disney is.
• Goal is to give travel agents availability to disney travel info, booking engines, etc.
• Cary takes over and shows the program, there’s a fantasia hat that turns with some blue streaky stars for the synchronization animation… how cute.
• Interesting features here - there’s a scratchpad you can drag basically anything onto, such as items from the main screen such as News, Events, Packages, Quotes, and items from the desktop such as PDF documents. He copies some text from a PDF and pastes it directly into the scratch pad and it becomes an object that can be dragged around. Neat.
• Shows off multiple quotes packaged into a single PDF document, with items from the desktop included.

Kevin returns to the stage

You might say it’s the happiest application on Earth. –Kevin

• Segment that he calls “Day in the life with AIR” - expose of AIR programs in development.
  • Shows off Tweetr, Snippage
  • Keyboard malfunction… starts typing in a URL and “o”’s start filling up the URL bar… audience laughs. Kevin: “USB is not an Adobe technology”
  • Pronto on AIR -AIR email client. Has an interface nearly identical to Outlook. Aside from the cross-platform compatability.. makes you wonder why this product was created.
  • Analytics Reporting Suite, PayPal Desktop
  • Nickelodeon Puzzle - I thought this was especially clever. He launches the AIR program, which is a jigsaw puzzle, and he has to browse the Nickelodeon site to find the missing pieces, and then drags them into the AIR screen. When he completes it a Sponge Bob movie shows up. Very cool.
  • SAP Briefing Book, Digimix, WaveIM, (again… why?) AOL Top 100 Videos, Pownce, Desktop Magnets, (very fun- like fridge magnets), Pownce
  • Buzzword - AIR word processor… this is very very cool, and the things they were able to do with Flex is mind boggling. They wrote their own text-rendering engine for this.
• Announces that Adobe just recently acquired Buzzword and welcomes them to the Adobe team.
• Announces the MTV Adobe AIR Challenge - looks like another AIR Competition.
• Leads into next speaker with Flash “Astro” blurb, the next generation of Flash.

Introduces Emmy Huang and Justin Everett-Church, Senior product managers for Adobe Flash

• Announcing next-gen Flash features
• Advanced Text Layout Support
• Language specific line breaking rules (Right to left/left to right support)
• Native support for transforming objects in a 3d space.
  • Show off a movie player and then rotate it in 3 dimensions. All of the buttons and controls are still usable. Pushes pause while the movie is skewed in 3d. Very cool - we haven’t seen anything like this before.
• Custom filters, blend modes, and fills.
  • New programming language called “Hydra” which is specific to image manipulation. Should be interesting to see what happens with this.

Kevin closes the Keynote.

All in all the keynote event was impressive. Some pretty sweet stuff is coming ahead from Adobe, and I can finally see some practical (and some very non-practical and quite worthless) uses for AIR.