Unless you are a newbie, you have heard and probably used swfobject, an easy-to-use and standards-friendly method to embed Flash content. Simply add one small JavaScript file and it takes the worries out of everything. Well, it’s hosted at swfobject, but I just noticed they have an AIR “wizard” that literally writes the html for you. Handy when you don’t have the time to learn the differences and new features in swfobject 2.0. I highly recommend this.

Pretty sure i’ve blogged these already, but regardless Jonathan Snook provides a good starting Adobe AIR Resources for the Ajax Developer.

I looked over Adobe TV a little bit today and was impressed with the content there so far - especially a couple of the Photoshop related tutorials. Using any recent Adobe product? Worth a look. Of course, the site is completely done in flash which is ok except the SEO side of me screams when I see that.

The Adobe AIR Development Web Server: DARE is a local http server that makes it easy to create, test, and package AIR applications. It allows you to develop and test using your HTML/JS tools of choice and just a web browser. You can even use the “Refresh” button to test and package your application.

Beta now for the MAC. PC version “coming soon”.

SimpleViewer is a free, customizable Flash image viewing application. An alternative to slideshowpro.

Andre Michelle is leading a campaign called Adobe MAKE SOME NOISE that is calling for Adobe to take some action and fix a pretty big problem with the Actionscript Sound API in the latest Flash Player and also to rally together support to show Adobe that alot of people need/want more control over sound with Actionsript in the next version of the Flash Player. [ via FlashGuru ]

Adobe Photoshop Express is basically a flash version of Photoshop. Well, a really streamlined photoshop. Like John said, it’s a web app that should be compared to a “web-based competitor to iPhoto” then anything Photoshop. In other words, no where near as complex.

I’ve been playing with it for a few minutes only. I like how you can store photos (2GB?). I’m wondering if there’s an AIR app in the works.

The Adobe technology platform ActionScript reference for RIA development is a 50 paged Printable PDF which provides a complete ActionScript 3 API listing for Flash Player, Adobe AIR and Flex 3. [ via Brajeshwar ]

I might be playing with Adobe AIR soon, so I wanted to bookmark some interesting links.

Simple Zip Viewer with JavaScript and AIR (Kevin Hoyt)

AS3 Zip Library Release (nochump.com)

Drag and Drop Multiple File Upload (Merb on AIR)

Samples Updated for AIR Beta 3 (Kevin Hoyt)

This is a link about accessing the file system in AIR, but i’m really wanting to order that Beginning AIR book when it comes out March 17th.

I don’t post many Flex apps, but this Digg UFO app seemed simple, easy to use, and easy on the eyes.

JW FLV Media Player supports playback of any format the Adobe Flash Player can handle (FLV, but also MP3, H264, SWF, JPG, PNG and GIF). It also supports RTMP and HTTP (Lighttpd) streaming, RSS, XSPF and ASX playlists, a wide range of flashvars (variables), an extensive javascript API and accessibility features.

I never realized how much flash resources and code Yahoo offers. A borrowed the description from Coding Cowboys on what they’ve just come out with, but i’m wondering what happens if and when Microsoft buys Yahoo? Will this all go away or change into Silverlight?

Yahoo! Developer Network releases ASTRA, the ActionScript Toolkit for Rich Applications. A collection of Flash and Flex components, code libraries, toolkits and utilties developed by Yahoo! for ActionScript developers.

ASTRA Flash components comes with the Tree, Menu, TabBar, AutoComplete, Charts, AlertManager, AudioPlayback, and MenuBar components for Flash CS3.

ASTRA Flex components include AutoCompleteManager, ColorPlaneAndSliderPicker, ColorSliderPicker, DropDownColorPicker, IPv4AddressInput, TimeInput, and TimeStepper components for Flex.

Very nice list of Flex open source projects. Must bookmark for Flex-heads.

FancyUpload looks very cool. Basically a great graphical way to upload multiple files (there’s even a php script for the actual uploading and validation). Not sure if this is currently being maintained, but if you are looking for a decent uploader this might be the answer. Platform and server independent, just needs Flash 8+. Plus you can limit uploads by file count and/or file size.

I stumbled on betriebsraum’s blog lately and I wanted to bookmark his/her flash video tips.

• Flash Video Tip 1: Calculating an optimal buffer size
• Flash Video Tip 2: Syncing a FLV between two SWFs
• Flash Video Tip 3: Stopping a FLV from downloading

Mike Chambers shows how to use the as3syndicationlib actionscript library to parse RSS 2.0 Feeds in ActionScript 3.

Colin Moock has an article asking if ActionScript 3.0 really is as hard as people seem to think it is. Must read later…

The AIR iPhone is a desktop application created with Adobe AIR and Adobe Flex 3, it simulates the UI of the iPhone. Great solution for those wanting to build iPhone apps but can’t afford the actual device.

Smallworld is a “massive multiplayer game (really world) that was built entirely in Flex/Flash by the team at Outsmart” and I have to agree it’s one of the best Flex Apps I’ve read about (haven’t played yet though). Not too many Flex games, but this definitely qualifies although i’m not a “virtual world” type of gamer. Bookmarked to show others a cool Flex app. [ via riapedia ]

Brian Deitte points out some great links for those interested in the future of Actionscript 3. Thanks Brian!

Ryan Stewart has a really neat idea here. iPhone or iTouch iPod apps to Adobe AIR… “taking applications that are specifically made for the iPhone’s web browser using iui and turning them into AIR applications.”

I found this 10 Adobe AIR Must See Applications from webresourcesdepot.com, but lazycoder I think produced a more unique list of AIR apps here. I haven’t done an aggressive search, but I haven’t stumbled on much showcase sites/posts for AIR apps. If anyone has suggestions, drop a comment please.

I’m bookmarking this good summary on 12 Great Ways to Learn ActionScript 3 in Flash. Also stumbled on JoeFlash’s post on learning Actionscript 3 isn’t harder than learning Actionscript 2, and he also points to the “50 reasons AS3 Kicks Ass” over at gskinner.com. I’ve gotten away from Actionscript since version 2, so I’m bookmarking good “intro” links and tutorials.

Good question raised by Mark Walters on if we’ll see any upgrades or activity with FlashPaper in 2008 (AS3 anyone)? Now that Adobe has taken over, will FlashPaper support disappear in favor of PDF solutions? I don’t think FlashPaper needs much to improve upon, but still I would like to see it officially supported and polished a little.

I just thought this cool, and an example of a cool AIR app. It’s a car diagnostic system built entirely in Flex and AIR.

I’ve always wanted to play with Adobe’s AIR (used to be named Apollo). Bookmarking this from 24 ways: Christmas Is In The AIR, which is a nice intro tutorial. Dummies quick guide. This is also a good summarization of the tutorial and AIR in general. If anyone has any more good newbie AIR tutorials or links, please drop them here.

Adobe announced plans to release source code for its remoting and messaging technologies under a new open source product named BlazeDS.

This is important for me, so i’m adding to my database. Adobe’s new Flash Player (version 9,0,115,0) does not work with earlier versions of sIFR 2. If you use sIFR 2.0.3 and have a hover color specified for links, you are advised to upgrade immediately. No modifications have been made to the JavaScript, you only need to re-export the Flash movies. I’m also bookmarking this page about sIFR 3, which looks exciting. [ via JD ]

I thought this was pretty cool, and it’s being updated and maintained. FlashTracer is a Firefox extension that allows swf trace output while running any of the swf in a browser window.

Great set of coding examples of getting PHP5 and Flash CS3 (ActionScript 3) to work together.

Spotted this on Forta’s blog - Adobe Flex Builder 3 Public Beta 3 is now available. Bookmarking to hopefully play with soon.

DRM Demystified: Flash Video And DRM

Flex and Britney Spears… A unique marriage, but it’s related to Rich Internet Applications. Plus, this should get me some interesting hits from some search engine keywords.

Graphing Data with PHP/SWF Charts. No time to investigate now, bookmarking for later.