Is Flash really dying?

It started with the battle between Apple and Adobe, which lead to Adobe releasing this statement: “Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.  We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook.” Some even see Google+‘s keen use of HTML5 as the final nail in the coffin. But is Flash really dying?

TheFWA recently decided to seek out the people who would really know the best—the industry professionals. There’s a variety of responses, which you can read for yourself here, but overall there seems to be one sentiment ringing true: it goes beyond the tools that are being used, it is all about what creatives do with those tools.

How To Hire A Web Developer

According to a recent article by Technorati, web developers are in extremely high demand Chicago. These highly-skilled individuals (some of them trained here at DBC) excel at taking a website from start to finish, choosing the back end and making the front end fit snugly over it.

But what can you do to prepare for your first meeting? You can plan. A web developer can only execute what he is given, and his success comes from both a sound structure and original content that has been carefully crafted by yourself or a copywriter. At the least, site maps and wire frames are a must. The site map allows the developer to not only build the site, but offer recommendations on how to trim the fat and save money. Wire frames are simple visualizations (often pencil sketchs or Visio boards) that tell the developer where you’d like menus, main content, ads, and images to appear. Taking the time to prepare these documents can save thousands of dollars of development time. If you’d like to know what classes we offer covering these topics, click this link and call or email Kendra at (312) 245-2900 and .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Final Cut Pro X: A Good Truth Is Hard To Find

The controversy surrounding Apple’s release of Final Cut Pro X has yet to die down, but finally some level-headed responses fighting their way up the crapladder that is the internet. David Pogue of the New York Times listed out the major complaints and answered them in what I feel is a satisfactory manner (ie. no vitriol, no style, no apologies). However, I don’t rely on the internet to cue my feelings. I walked over to the Apple Store on Michigan Ave. yesterday and spent an hour working with the program and an employee who edits video on the side. It was a pleasant time. Neither of us had used FCP X before, and while we were both baffled by some of their changes (eg. no handles overlay when rolling/rippling), we soon warmed up to the program. And we re-learned a fundamental truth: the interface follows Apple’s typical UX strategy of “hide the good stuff for the serious users.” If you don’t believe me, locate kerning in Pages. Once the pros remember that change hurts but can’t be avoided, they’ll find most of the things that they knew and loved from the pre-X days. Bottom line: it may be young again, but Final Cut Pro X is a better program.