News Flash

Quite a variety of Flash tools, stories and articles to report on, so without further to do, it’s time for another round-up of Flash-related news with News Flash!

Open Source “Page Flip”

Last month I posted a roundup of “Page Flip” tools built in Flash that simulate turning pages in a book. Well, it turns out (yes, pun intended ) that there’s another amazing tool available developed by a German developer called Florian Nücke. It’s called Megazine, and not only does it look terrific, but it also features extremely well thought-out usability, deeplinking, page caching, image zoom, a full API, and one import thing: It’s totally free and open source! View the Megazine demo.

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SWFObject and Best Practice Implementation

For most Flash designers and developers, using SWFObject to embed Flash content on Web pages is a pretty straight forward task. However, understanding some finer details might help you to better understand the best practices of implementing SWFObject and to take advantage of some SEO techniques. Read TechLabs’ tips on implementing SWFObject.

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Reversing Audio in Flash Player 10

I’ve always (fondly) thought of Flash legend Lee Brimelow as one of those kids that dismantled all of his toys as a kid to see how they worked before putting them back together afterwards. In stark contrast, whenever I dismantled my toys, they were broken for good! Some things don’t change as Lee tinkers with audio in his latest blog post called Manipulating mp3 Speed and Direction and explores various ways to manipulate audio using Flash Player 10.

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Photo Diary

You know, you can never have too many photo galleries. Especially ones developed in Flash! Photo Diary is an interesting twist on Flash galleries as its PHP back-end allows visitors to add comments on each photo by attaching a sticky notes with a message on it. The gallery also features a useful admin console to manage all the image assets and comments. View the Demo or check out the admin console.

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De MonsterDebugger

If Web applications could be judged by name alone, then the De MonsterDebugger would win every time! Originating from The Netherlands in Europe, De MonsterDebugger is an open source debugger for Adobe Flash, Flex and AIR. The application was made in Flex and AIR and allows developers to debug their code in a more efficient manner. For a full set of the many features and to download the AIR app yourself, click here.

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Microsoft Silverlight 3 challenges Adobe AIR

No, Microsoft have still not given up chasing Adobe’s tail. Silverlight 3 promises to challenge Adobe AIR by now allowing Silverlight applications to run on the desktop. This infoworld.com article is a first look at the forthcoming version of Silverlight from Microsoft. Read more.