We were recently approached by Adobe to build a simple set of demos for the Flash Player 10 beta. The concept was to deliver a set of very simple, feature specific demos and descriptions tied together by a consistent theme. We thought it would be fun to key the demos off of the Astro code name, and develop a fake product box with a retro-space feel.

The end result was released on Adobe labs today. You can check it out here:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/demos/

I often talk about the important role visualization plays in my work. I personally don't really understand things until I can see them. One example of this that I showed at FitC this year was the SparkTable tool I use to visualize and compare easing equations. It's very simple, but I've found it very useful when trying to choose between two similar eases, such as a quintic versus exponential ease. It's also very handy when developing custom easing equations.

Simply queue up a bunch of easing equations to test, then sit back and watch the results.

It seems like every UI design we are asked to implement these days has what I call "designer scroll bars" - skinny little tone on tone scroll bars that have no scroll arrows. While I'm not a big fan of these scroll bars for a number of reasons (not least of which is usability), they are still something we're required to do on a fairly common basis.

Luckily, in Flex 3 hiding the scroll arrows, and making the scrollbar thinner is a fairly simple task that you can accomplish globally with just a few lines of CSS.

We've been getting lots of questions about why gProject has not been updated to support ActionScript 3. Until now I have not been in a position to respond appropriately, but today I'm happy to announce that Adobe acquired gProject late last year. Since then, we have been working with the Flash team to completely overhaul the panel for AS3, add new functionality, and significantly improve the interface.

As a result of the Adobe acquisition, we will no longer be developing gProject and have deprioritized our support for gProject as a product.

We will continue to offer gProject for Flash 8 and CS3 for the immediate future, but it will not be updated further. The product page for gProject and panel pack will be updated immediately to reflect this.

If you purchased gProject in the past 3 months, and have any concerns, please contact us through our support form.