Google talk.. its finally here!

http://www.google.com/talk/

Light weight, simple, and has voice too :)

I feature in the About Flash dialog now.

Am honored. Really. Some 3 yrs back, I never even dreamt about anything like that. And now, I feature in the about page of Flash - The software I always loved. Listed along with the likes of the legends who literally created revolutions( be it RIAs, light weight video on the web - high Quality vector graphics on the web) - Its overwhelming.

As I said before.. Am really feeling honored. And let me borrow a punch line from Mc Donalds :

"Am Loving it!"

Studio 8 - The announcement has been made :)

- Studio: http://www.macromedia.com/software/studio/
- Dreamweaver: http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/
- Flash: http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/flashpro/
- Fireworks: http://www.macromedia.com/software/fireworks/

Studio 8 announcement to be out at 8 AM on 8 / 8 SF Time

Watch out, today is the announcement day! Macromedia is making its public announcement of the next Studio today. Check out a detailed news item on MacWorld.com

This release of Studio, Studio 8, will include Flash Professional 8, Dreamweaver 8, Fireworks 8, Contribute 3 and FlashPaper 2. As a change from the previous Studio suite, this release will not ship any new version of FreeHand, but adds Contribute and FlashPaper.

The page on MacWorld also has links to their reviews on the Flash Professional 8, Dreamweaver 8 and Fireworks 8.

Watch this space for more news ...

Bangalore Youth Choir

For a friend:

The bangalore Youth Choir, a leading Indian choral music institution, invites fresh, young voices to join the choir on the occasion of its 20th anniversary celebrations. The Choir is the first and one of the few authentic non-religious choral music groups in the state of Karnataka. Interested members may contact the choir director, Mrs. Kaveri Sridhar on 9845569043/08023595808.

Flash player 8 public beta is out.

Am late in posting this by a day. Click here to go to the download page.

There was an article about this release in CNET about it yesterday. You can find it here.


Had a 3 week trip to Macromedia HQ at San Francisco, CA, and just returned 2 days back. Things are slowly falling back in place... Getting back to the normal schedule :)

Will write more about the trip later. Now got to get back to work.

Macromedia and... Breeze 5

2 weeks back, there was this mail from Stephen Elop, our CEO, regarding Adobe acquiring Macromedia.. And the subject line read 'Macromedia and Adobe'

And today we get a mail from him again, which reads ' Macromedia and .... Breeze 5"

My heart did skip a beat, and I rushed to read the end of the line... Aaaah.. relieved, I was. It was about the release of Breeze 5.

for basic information on breeze, go to the URL below:

http://www.macromedia.com/software/breeze/

Breeze 5 - high-impact online communications everyone can access instantly. Test drive Breeze 5 today!

flash - sparkle, Flex - ADML , now PDF - Metro

Microsoft aims "Metro" at Adobe
(article on computerworld.com.au)

The next version of Windows will include a new document format, code-named "Metro," to print and share documents, Microsoft said Monday. Metro appears to rival Adobe Systems's PostScript and PDF (portable document format) technologies.

Metro was demonstrated during Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates' keynote at the start of the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) on Monday in Seattle.

The format, based on XML (extensible markup language), will be licensed royalty free and users will be able to open Metro files without a special client. In the demonstration, a Metro file was opened and printed from Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Web browser.

Read the complete article here

Flashy site names on the web:


timeline.com
stage.com
tooltips.com
onclipevent.com
onrelease.com
onconnect.com
ondata.com
onload.com
localtoglobal.com
globaltoLocal.com
onenterframe.com
gotoandstop.com
gotoandplay.com
stop.com
play.com
netconnection.com
netstream.com
getbytesloaded.com
fscommand.com
extends.com
untitled.com
untitled-1.com
nextframe.com
currentframe.com
geturl.com
sharedobject.com

I'm sure there are tonnes more like that, I couldn't spare more time into that. You people can add to this list, by commenting on this post. :-)

Adobe and Macromedia - its final now

For a long time now, there has been speculations about a possible merger between Macromedia and Adobe. And it’s final now.

Abobe has arrived at an agreement to acquire Macromedia.

www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html

stay tuned, for more news.