• Template driven design using XML/XSL
• Binding with XSL stylesheets
• Code Toolbar ala Homesite
• Drag and drop XML/XLS, including repeating regions
• Code collapse ala Homesite (4 years ago ;-)
• New zoom tool. Marquee selection allows marquee and zoom ala Fireworks

Problem is that both internal and external "customers" have a hard time finding things and sifting through content on macromedia.com.

What's coming:

• RSS feeds for almost everything -product tech notes, forums threads, etc.
• Guided search by specific topic types, starting with dev center content or technotes. More types to follow. Category based results - activity, symptom, product version, environment, etc. Also lists best bets in a highlighted area. Recognizes abbreviations such as UI, etc.

Breeze Live

• Conference call calls you as opposed to you calling into the conference call

Fireworks

• Improvements to vector path tool
• Automated text layer on text creation
• Simple, instant red-eye removal
• More Save As Options

If you haven't heard Hal speak before, he's an excellent speaker, presenter, and speaker (as well as an acomplished programmer). Much of what Hal is saying rings true for me. Things like 70-90% of an applications cost are in long term maintenance. Applications that often start off well written become messy after multiple additions and revisions at a later point. His contention is that object orientation can help with these problems.

This session is more about OO fundamentals, and Hal does a great job of taking those concepts and explaining them in simple terms.

I'd love to see do a follow on next year (or at a subsequent conference) where he takes these concepts and shows how to develop with them in CF (I know he has training classes on this, but I think an intro would work well in a conference format).

If you get a chance to see Hal speak at MAX (or any other time), it's worth checking out.

Live demo linking Don Norman (Nielsen's Norman Group) from Amsterdam with the conference in New Orleans. Audio quality is good. Camera (video conf) not too bad. Don spent most of his time talking about design and how the browser has set us back about 10 years in that area. Lots of good info on design stuff (which you can read in his book). The main point he makes is that Breeze and Flex and Flash make things possible today that really are set to take things to the next level.

Experience, experience, experience.

US Army using Breeze in the field for forward deployed SATCOM. Ma

In the beginning, eLearning was focused on developing skills and competencies. Now it's shifting more toward criticalknowledge transfer and information broadcast.

Various tools to do this, Breeze and Captivate (formerly Robodemo). Silke Fleischer goes on to dispell the commonly held misconception that Captivate is just for making software demos.

Silke demonstrated in real time how quickly you can put together an eLearning app. It definitely *looks* easy to use. The app wasn't a simple demo, it was more of a simulation. The simulation showed the user (Tom) how to insert a Flash movie into PowerPoint. It had audio instructions, and scored his compliance with instructions. This is just a small example of what you can do with Captivate.

Macromedia is pushing Breezr for Informational content and Captivate for Instructional content.

Web publishing challenges: frustrating backlog of requests, out of date, overgrown, and unused content.

CMS is traditional solution. Enterprise solutions are too expensive and take too long to implement.

Macromedia's solution here started with Contribute. As Contribute use grew (at a faster rate than Dreamweaver), organizations needed a better way to scale and administer. Enter the Macromedia Web Publishing System. It consists of Contribute (content contributers), Dreamweaver/Flash/Fireworks (designers and developers), and administrative tools that tie it all together.

University of Rochester Medical Center as a case study. 25,000 pages and hundreds of contributors. Publishing workflow reduced from days/weeks to hours.

System is fully extensible and can easily integrate with other Macromedia technologies, including ColdFusion.

Publishing system makes use of web services - web services based notification system is a central part of the system.

• mobile is bigger than the web and will grow at a much more rapid rate.
• Mobile companies already understand how to bill for services, something lacking on the internet.
• Kids growing up with mobile technology will soon be entering the workforce. This will represent a fundamental shift in technology expectations and how technology is used by that group.
• Current mobile experience "sucks". This is Macromedia's opportunity. Get Flash onto mobile devices. Flash has more to offer for the experience on mobile devices than Java.
• New mobile developer program, link on macromedia.com. Contest, newsletter, training, etc.
• Verification program for certifying mobile apps
• FlashCast CDK
• Current opportunities are mainly in Japan, but Europe is growing quickly. The rest of Asia is also poised. The US is way way behind (as in not even on the map behind).

One of the most impressive parts of the tool, besides the overall feature/functionality is the UI. It's a beauty.