Well day one is coming to a close, but before I call it a night I figure I would list out the key happenings for today. Figure if I don't get them down tonight, after another full day of sessions it will all begin to blend together.


I started off this morning with Flash 2.0 Evolution by Bill Perry. Bill showed how Flash Lite has developed from a basic animation tool to a full featured content layer for creating rich mobile games and applications. This was also the first time that he publicly showcased the next version of Flash Lite, version 2.0. This next version should make a lot of developers happy because it is based around the Flash 7 player, meaning you no longer have to spend your time remembering how to code in Flash 4, but can use AS2 (well most of it.. remember you are still developing for Mobile Phones). There are also some really nice features that have been missing from previous versions of Flash Lite such as embedded Video support and the ability to store data locally on the device. Flash Lite 2.0 should start shipping in Q1 of 2006, so hopefully we will see it on a few devices by the middle of next year.

The next sessions was by Vera Sparre (Macromedia) and George Lindardos (Nokia) talking about how to make money with Flash Lite. Nokia is currently releasing a solution to allow developers to sell content on mobile devices. It is called Perminent Solutions and will offer a catalog of games and applications that users can purchase right from their mobile phone. While this is cool, the best part is it will support Flash Lite content. So we now have a viable solution to make money off the games and applications we are developing. The user will still have to have Flash Lite installed on their phone to take advantage of this, but it is a definite step in the right direction for making Flash Lite development profitable. There is also promised to be another solution for distributing Flash Lite content released in tomorrows keynote, guess we have to wait a few more hours to find out what that is.

The first days keynote was kicked off by Ze Frank, who always delivers a great presentation, and this time was no exception. Macromedia then talked about the current state, as well as where they are predicting the industry is going. With products like Flex 2, Flex Builder 2, Flash Player 8.5, ActionScript 3, and a new product code named Apollo I am sure their predictions are not too far off. Also if you haven't heard about the new Macromedia Lab's by now, be sure to check it out. From here on out Macromedia will be providing all Alpha's and Beta's of each product on this site to the entire community... no more waiting and hoping you are chosen for the next beta of product X :) The sessions was end with a few words from the Adobe CEO, talking about how he thinks the merger is going to provide designers and developers with a great suite of tools that will be integrated even better then they are today making our jobs more streamlined and exciting. The keynote had me walking away feeling as if I was a kid at christmas. There are so many new things just around the corner I have no clue when I will have enough time to play with them all!!!

After lunch was Next Generation Flash-based Mobile Devices. If you can't tell this years MAX has a major focus on mobile devices. They talked about the current state of mobile devices, where things are heading, Flash Lite 2.0, and FlashCast (which should be sometime... lol). I am predicting that we are right in the mist of a huge shift in mobile content and as always Macromedia should be their leading the way. As users begin to request better user experiences and richer content on their mobile phones there is no better technology then Flash Lite.

Finally after 3 consecutive sessions on mobile device development I headed off to Photoshop and Flash: Optimizing Pixels and workflow. This sessions talked about taking your photoshop comps into Flash the quickest and best way possible. After seeing several different options of doing this I would defiantly suggest spending $89.00 on Media Lab's PSD2FLA. True their are other options that cost less (i.e. Free) but no offer such a quick and streamlined solution. This will be something I purchase in the near future.

Ending the day was a great session on Data Visualization Experiences. The session talked about old methods of visualizing data, graphs, to new methods using Web 2.0 technologies and Flash. I have to say that after attending this session I am not thinking of several data visualization tools I have developed in the past and how I got it all wrong. We shouldn't be providing our users with basic charts and graphs but rather full featured rich applications allowing users to querier and zoom in on data in the richest most usable way possible. The session also focused on some key tips for visualizing data such as the use of color, data grids, and how Flex will play a huge roll in this in the future.

The evening was filled with a Mobile 411 birds-of-a-feather get together and then after that I headed out to dinner with a few mobile developers, some members of the Macromedia mobile devices team, and a few people from Nokia. It was a great night of networking and talking about the future of mobile devices.

I am still dealing with the time difference form Atlanta to LA, been going none stop since I got here, so am about to turn in for the night but am looking forward to day two!