Macromedia announces Studio 8 (Flash 8, Dreamweaver 8, and Fireworks 8)
Macromedia today announced Macromedia Studio 8, an updated suite of software for web designers, developers, video professionals, and graphic artists to design, develop, and maintain interactive online experiences. Combining the latest releases of award-winning Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash Professional, and Macromedia Fireworks, and key productivity tools Macromedia Contribute and Macromedia FlashPaper, Studio 8 offers a new level of expressiveness, efficiency, and simplified workflow to create websites, interactive media, and mobile content. For more information about Studio 8, read on or visit Macromedia’s web site.
Macromedia Studio 8 is expected to ship in September. Localized versions in German, French, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese will be available shortly thereafter. Pricing is USD$999 for a full license and USD$399 for an upgrade. Education, government, and volume pricing is available.
Dreamweaver 8 is Macromedia’s latest release their tool for designing and developing websites and applications. New Dreamweaver 8 features include expanded Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) layout visualization for easier design, drag-and-drop integration of XML data feeds, improved code hinting support for XML and XSLT, enhanced usability features such as zoom and code collapse to streamline the development process, and easier ways to incorporate Flash Video content onto websites.
Flash Professional 8 marks a significant release for Flash, the industry’s most advanced authoring environment for creating interactive websites, digital experiences, and mobile content. Improved graphics performance, new graphic effects capabilities, new animation controls, script editor usability, Flash Video features, and workflow integration with leading video editing and encoding tools allow the creation of rich, immersive content for the web that was not possible before. Flash Professional 8 is the professional authoring environment for the Internet’s most widely distributed rich client runtime, Flash Player.
Fireworks 8 offers many new and improved features. Graphic designers and web application developers can now create interactive CSS-style pop-up menus, experiment with more than 25 new blend modes, import new file formats, and experience improved roundtrip editing with Dreamweaver 8 and Flash Professional 8.
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Macromedia announced new video kit
Macromedia today announced a new video kit for Dreamweaver MX 2004 wtih Flash Professional that allows Dreamweaver users to publish Flash video files with very little work. Flash video is a way to publish video that all users with the Flash player (basically everyone) can play. The software comes in the form of a extension for Dreamweaver.
Starting September 1st, previous owners of MX Studio with Flash Professional can purchase the Flash video kit for $49.99–new owners that register by September 30th can download the software for free.
Read on for some details on Flash video given to us in an exclusive chat with Macromedia.
The idea for the Dreamweaver extension came out of a survey of web professsionals–an astonishing 70% of Dreamweaver uses wanted to embed Flash video files.
Included in the kit are several player “skins” that control the look of the video player. The neat part about these skins is that they are saved as Flash files that can be edited, letting you customize the look of the player to your site.
You can deploy your video three ways:
- Progressive download – no explanation needed
- Streaming – needs Flash Communication Server
- Flash Video Streaming Service Lite powered by VitalStream – An Akamai like service that hosts your video around the world. A 15-day trial is included, after that you must pay for this method.
A copy of Sorrensen Squeeze Lite is included so your video (in most formats) can be converted to Flash Video without the need of a video editor. If you use an editor, like Final Cut Pro, a plugin is included that lets you export directly to Flash video.
Samples of what can be done with Flash video are shown here.
When the video kit launches, a developer area will include many tutorials and examples, including the source of the above Flash video gallery site.
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Macromedia updates Flash MX 2004
Macromedia‘s free update for Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 improves stability and provides more comprehensive documentation. The update increases developer productivity by reducing initial launch and compile times and making the application lighter and more efficient to use.
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Macromedia Contribute 3 announced
By Jon Gales
Macromedia today announced version 3 of its popular Contribute software. Contribute ties in with Dreamweaver to allow users to update pages without the risk of changing elements they were not supposed to change. It’s a desktop based content management system. The new updates adds some interesting Mac-only features. That was probably thanks to the high adoption rate of Contribute for Mac users… About 20% of Contribute’s 200,000 users are on the Mac which is a higher percentage than other Macromedia software. MacMerc got an exclusive look at the software prior to the announcement–here’s what we found:
- Based off the newer Dreamweaver MX 2004 code base so there is better CSS support.
- Built-in image editor for on the fly minor edits.
- Quicktime savvy, users can now insert QuickTime movie.
- Probably the best new feature: an approval system. Set users that cannot actually change a web page, but must submit the page to be approved by a superior.
Also new in Macromedia Contribute 3 is WebDAV support so that it can tie in with services like .Mac.
Pricing for Contribute 3 is as follows:
- $79 for upgrades
- $149 for new users
- $699 for a Contribute six-pack
Contribute 3 should be shipping for both Mac OS X and Windows starting in August. A free preview release will be made available today.
Macromedia also updated Flash Paper, a product to make easy to view documents that use the Flash Player, which ships with Contribute. Since one of Flash Paper’s major features is being able to create PDFs (something OS X already does natively), you cannot purchase Flash Paper for Macintosh standalone–though it does come with Contribute. Flash Paper standalone normally retails for $79.
Some screenshots of Contribute 3:
Macromedia also created software to allow Contribute to scale for large operations (100s to 1000s of users). Called Macromedia Web Publishing System, the package consists of a full copy of Studio MX 2004, a Java server component (J2EE) called Contribute Publishing Services, and multiple licenses of Contribute. Contribute Publishing Services is written in Java so that it can run on multiple platforms, including Mac OS X. Pricing for the Macromedia Web Publishing System is as follows:
- $2,499 for the starter 10-pack
- $12,495 for the 50-pack
- $24,990 for the 100-pack
- A single seat is available for $229
Current Contribute users can upgrade to a Web Publishing System seat for $109.
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Dreamweaver MX 2004 Updated to v7.0.1
Macromedia has updated Dreamweaver MX 2004 to v7.0.1. This update includes performance and stability enhancements, as well as the return of the “Timelines” feature from Dreamweaver MX.
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FreeHand MX and FireWorks MX Updates
Macromedia has updated FreeHand MX to v11.0.2 and FireWorks MX to v7.0.2. Both updates focus on improving performance.
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Hot– Macromedia announces Director MX 2004
Macromedia has announced the latest version of its massive multimedia package Director. The newest version brings the package up with the other products in the Studio MX 2004 series which started shipping in the later portion of 2003. You should be able to snag a copy of Director MX 2004 in February.
Macromedia was nice enough to meet with us before the announcement, and we’ve put the full scoop in our exclusive Director coverage page. Several screenshots are included.
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Macromedia Releases Central beta
In my Freeloader Friday last week I took a look at web applications that go beyond the browser. In good form, Macromedia released just such an application today.
The Macromedia Central beta is available for download, though as of now it comes with only two modules.
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Activation and Studio MX 2004
Counting the days ’till the Studio MX 2004 arrives? Don’t let that giddy feeling be tainted by Macromedia’s new Activation system. Read the FAQ before you cry Big Brother and read my take on it on my blog.
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Macromedia re-charges Studio [exclusive coverage]
Macromedia Studio MX 2004 is making its official splash today. The flagship software bundle which features updated versions of Flash MX, Dreamweaver MX and Fireworks MX will be available in mid September. Also announced was a professional level of Flash, dubbed Flash MX Pro. Its focus is on video, but also has a different authoring metaphor. For more info on these products, check out our exclusive coverage.
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