According to a news.com article Macromedia will anouce the new Flash Version on August, 8th and release it a few weeks later. Let’s stay tuned and be curious about the real-time photoshop-effects sites which will grow very fast ;). Skip intro!

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Flash inverse kinematics:
Check out the Crazy Rabbit and the Ragdoll.

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MTASC 1.09 is released.
It has some fixes and now Flash 8 support.
Check the OSFlash page to this topic.

There are already examples for the new Flash Filter and the MovieClip Blendmode made by LuminicBox.

If you are using FAME you can already go for Flash 8 by installing the Flash Player 8 for IE. The preview with Flashout will be with the new Flash Player 8 and don’t forget the “-version 8″ when compiling with MTASC.

But - test your old content while playing with the new feature thow Macromedia can fix backward compatibility problems.

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It look a long time but now SWF Studio V3 is available!
I was already part of the beta and it seems pretty stable and ful of new feature which I missed in V2.2(3).
I am using a Wrapper class with static methods to access V3 features:

Wrapper-class example:
[as]import mx.utils.Delegate;

class com.moglimedia.wrapper.Wrapper{

private function Wrapper(){
// only static usage
}

public static function fileExists(callTarget:Object,callFunc:Function,path:String):Void{
var callback:Object = {callback: Delegate.create(callTarget, callFunc)};
ssCore.FileSys.fileExists({path:path},callback);
}
}

// Then the method can be used like:
Wrapper.fileExists(this,onFileCheck,”c:\\autoexec.bat”);
function onFileCheck(r:Object):Void{
if(r.result== “TRUE”){
// …
}
}
[/as]

I will make a more detailed review within the next weeks.
There are of course many other Flash Projector Tools out there but I can recommend SWF Studio! What misses now is support for Mac!

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The Flash Player 8 Public Beta is available.

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Aral Balkan initiated a design contest for OSFlash.org.
OSflash.org uses DokuWiki which is very nice and a Wiki a would always recommend but we like to have a custom look and feel for this great community.
Until now there are only a few sponsors but I am sure that until the end of the contest there will wait a big package for the winner!

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Tomorrow is the day when the EU parlament will decide how the handle software patents in the future. Visit my index-page and participate until tommorow.

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Today I read a german news about an upcoming $100 Laptop developed by the MIT which should be introduced in Brasil in 2006. China and other countries, also in Africa, the middle-east and south-east Asia, should follow later.

Currently a computer is more expensive in Brasil than in the U.S.A. or Europe while the people in Brasil earn a fraction.

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I had to change the MediaController because a client does not want the Rewind- and Forward-Button to appear. Also the MediaController only has to show up horizontal.
The Forward-Button only works with MP3 and with FLVs streamed from the Macromedia Communication Server. This MediaController should be used with progressive streamed FLVs.

1. To change the component open the component FLA: C:\Documents & Settings\YOUR_USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash MX 2004\en\Configuration\ComponentFLA\MediaComponents.fla
2. Save the FLA under a new name e.g. MediaComponentsWithoutRF.fla
3. Open the library and double-click the MediaController
4. Remove the frames 4+5 because the vertical view isn’t needed
5. Select frame 3 and double-click the MovieClip “_buttons”
6. Change the layers “tostart” and “toend” to a Guide
7. Right-click the MediaController in the library and change the Properties
8. Change the name and the linkage identifier from “MediaController” to “MediaControllerWithoutRF”
9. Export the SWC (right-click on the MediaControllerWithoutRF in the library) and save it under C:\Documents & Settings\YOUR_USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash MX 2004\en\Configuration\Components\Media Components\MediaControllerWithoutRF.swc
10. Reload the Component Panel and the changed component can be used

With this workflow you can also change the look & feel of the complete component but in this case it was only a slightly change.

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