Timetoast makes PC Magazine’s “Best Free Software of 2009″ list

I’m honoured to have my Flex/Flash app, Timetoast, rub shoulders with such greats as Google Earth and eBay Desktop in PC Magazine’s “Best Free Software of 2009″ list.

Timetoast is an online tool that allows people to easily create timelines they can then share on their blog or website. It’s a fun app which will certainly be getting some neat revisions in the near future! Here’s a link to the Timetoast timelines listing. If you see any other Flash, Flex, AIR or Rails apps listed, feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to know.

For a nice example of a Timetoast timeline out in the wild, check out the RTÉ 2008 Year in Review feature.

Greenprint also made it onto the list. Greenprint is a great desktop application that saves ink and trees at the same time by allowing you to remove blank pages and unnecessary advertising from your print jobs. They recently added a Mac version which is great news for all you eco-conscious Mac users.

Timetoast featured on 37Signals product blog

Hurrah! My one-man web app, Timetoast, just got featured over on the 37Signals product blog. Their book ‘Getting Real‘ was a great guide while building my web app and I highly suggest you check it out before you start building your own!

Timetoast is a Flash / Flex based app that easily allows people to create and share interactive timelines on the web.

Loving the profile editor at the ADC introNetwork

Today was the day I wanted to log my first Flex bug on the Flex Bug and Issue Management System (crikey, that’s a mouthful). However, I got beaten to it by Ryan Gardner who posted it yesterday. (ahh, the power of open source!) Anyhoo, I started browsing the new devnet trying to find the ADC desktop so I could see how handy it would be in watching the progression of the bug (Mike Potter mentioned the new ADC desktop app during his recent talk at the London Flex User Group)

While trying to find the app I stumbled on the ADC introNetwork, a social network for members of the Adobe Developer Connection. I decided to check it out. This is when I discovered the profile editor while setting up my account. It’s a great use of Flex and Im sure we’ll be seeing this type of thing start to appear in other more “traditional” social networks. It lets you drag certain keywords to an area at the top of the screen and order them according to how important they are to you. It’s a great way of creating a custom profile that matches you with people who have the same type of skills or interests. Here’s a screenshot for your viewing pleasure:

The ADC profile editor (click for large version)

Post RailsConf Europe roundup

I had initally written a rather extensive write-up of the conference and proceeded to lose the whole thing while saving it. Great.

Here’s the slightly-late-and-rather-short-version instead:

RailsConf Europe was a completely different type of conference for me as I usually just go to Flash and Flex related conferences and events. One thing I can say up-front is these guys don’t know how to party; on the other hand the Flash community hits the spot pretty much every time.
You Flash peeps can give yourself a pat on the back for that, if you so please. It’s fine, nobody is looking.

This being a Ruby on Rails centered conference I was prepared to get a bit of stick for being a passionate Flash/Flex developer, but this wasn’t the case (well, except one guy who I’m pretty sure was still stuck in 2002, his hair certainly was.) Most people there were pretty interested in what Flex had to offer. I also blew a couple of minds with my 1 minute AIR demo’s. Flex 3 really does make it incredibly easy to create a simple AIR app in no time whatsoever.

The back of the conference T-shirt.

There were a couple of Flex sessions at RailsConf. One of them was during the tutorial days and was a half day session about using Flex and Ruby on Rails together. I must admit I was slightly dissapointed in this session as it only dealt with xml-rpc REST calls, something I’ve already been using for quite a while. I was hoping that the session would also show some examples of the other data-exchange possibilities such as RubyAMF and WebOrb which both use the Flash Player native ActionScript Message Format (AMF).

I almost didn’t go to Simeon Bateman’s Flex session which, in contrast, was a lot shorter weighing in at just an hour. I was pretty pleased I did eventually go as he gave an excellent overview of the different data exchange methods and even managed to sneak in a couple of examples for our viewing pleasure. Simeon did a good job of walking through the different options available to Flex and Rails developers covering RubyAMF, WebOrb and XML-rpc calls. The Flash Platform introduction could have been a little shorter, but I think he wanted to make sure everyone knew about the new AVM2 and the advancements the Flash Platform has made over the last year or two.

I’m not going to go into any of the other sessions. I think I’ll let Stuart Eccles take over from here as he has been a rather busy bunny indeed!

In some other related news, it looks like there is an early alpha version of RubySWX for you to play around with. It’s not ready for production and has some security issues, so you may want to wait a little while before you hop onto that boat. Aral’s SWX demos have been quite impressive, so I’m sure this will become a method you may want to evaluate in the future.

New London Flex User Group

It looks like London is a Flex User Group richer.

We already have a great monthly Flash Platform User Group in London which will likely retain its crown as the king of all things Flash/Flex/AIR in London, but it’s good to see a user group dedicated to Flex too.

The first informal meeting will be held in a pub (this is England after all) and is imaginatively titled “Flex in the Pub.” You can RSVP for the event on the London Flex User Group page on meetup.com. As this is the first meeting it’s difficult to say what the turnout will be, but it has been filling up quite quickly over the last couple of days.

Flex sessions at RailsConf Europe

 @ Although the RailsConf in Portland, USA seemed to concentrate on AIR sessions (then named Apollo), it looks like RailsConf Europe in Berlin, Germany (17-19 September 2007) is concentrating on Flex with not a mention of AIR in the program.There will be a general session on Flex entitled “Building Rich Internet Applications with Flex and Ruby on Rails” by Simeon Bateman, as well as an additional tutorial session “Using Adobe Flex with Rails” by Aslak Hellesøy which will most likely be a bit more in depth.If you’re interested in seeing what else is on offer at RailsConf Europe, I suggest you check out the conference sessions.

Apollo giving Flex 2 new traction

(a pic of my inbox this afternoon)

A couple of guys at the office have started getting into Apollo, and what’s the first thing they want to do? Thats right, they want to start using Flex 2.

My inbox had a bunch of new messages from colleagues this afternoon, all expressing interest in Flex 2 training after one of them sent off a studio wide email. (We have a mail account that forwards mail to our studio members)

Now I think I did a pretty good job of championing Flex and Apollo where I work, but I have to say this amount of interest still surprised me, especially as we dont really produce too many RIA’s.

I can also say, without a doubt, that Apollo is behind this new drive of interest in Flex 2 and, so it seems, Adobe’s Apollo strategy is already starting to work.

Apollo lifts off

The Apollo SDK is now available for download on Adobe labs.
I’ve had a quick look at some of the example Apollo applications (they’re tucked away a bit) and amazingly, I’ve already been able to use one at work this morning: the Pixel Perfect example.

I’ve also been on the lookout for a nice RSS reader as I haven’t been able to find a suitable Windows alternative for Vienna, my RSS reader of choice on Mac. I’ll be giving the Fresh RSS reader a go over the next couple of days.

Flex Builder 2 now for Mac

I was initially going to write a post on how I was expecting some cool things to start appearing on Adobe labs over the next couple of days, coinciding with the Adobe MAX event in Las Vegas; but it looks like I’m already a little slow out of the starting gates.

Not only does the Adobe Labs section on Adobe.com sport a new logo, there are also two cool new things to try out, the best of the two being, of course, Flex Builder 2 Beta for Mac. We’ve been waiting a little while for this one you see.

Next up is a digital e-book reader named Adobe Digital Editions, this allows you to view and read e-books. At first I thought it was an Apollo application, but the FAQ states “not yet.”

No special right-click for Apollo

Apollo, the Adobe desktop runtime environment currently still in development, will most likely not have a special form of right-click context menu functionality.Apollo applications are, in essence, a collection of your traditional web technologies bundled into an installable application. Examples of exisiting technologies you will be able to leverage are HTML, Flash, CSS and PDF. On top of that, you have Apollo specific functionalities that will allow you for example to access the file system or automatically search for updates.When a user right-clicks inside an Apollo application, they will see the context menu of the type of technology they are currently interacting with. If, for example, the application is built in Flash (and it seems most early Apollo examples are) they will see the Flash context menu. Right-click on an html link and you will see the context menu of the Apollo html rendering engine, a choice Adobe have yet to publicly announce. UPDATE: This functionality has since been added to AIR and allows completely customisable context menus. It’s a pity Apollo won’t have an across-the-board right-click context menu, even if it may be difficult to achieve. I think it will confuse some users and diminish the application-ness of the Apollo experience. Things are looking bright though. Apollo will usher in completely different types of applications and programs.