This year has seen Adobe release Creative Suite 5 (CS5) including updated versions of all of Adobe’s web and print packages like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Flash. We now offer a great HTML5 training course in Brighton, Sussex, for those who need to update their existing development skills. We summarised the new features in Photoshop CS5 on this blog.

Adobe is also making some exciting changes to in Flash CS5…

When is Flash CS5 being released?

No exact date has been confimed as yet by Adobe, but many speculate that Creative Suite CS5 will be released on 10th April

What’s new in Flash CS5?

Many of the new features in Flash CS5 are minor improvements to existing functionality – which we’ve summarised below.

However – the big news that’s got tounges wagging  is the new Flash Packager for iPhone.

What is the Flash Packager for iPhone?

UPDATE!! The information below was correct at the time of writing, however in updated version of their Software Development Kit (SDK) in April, Apple blocked any apps developed using the Flash Packager from being sold in the app store – rendering Adobe’s efforts useless!

A statement on the Adobe web-site now states that they have left the iPhone packager in Flash CS5 to “demonstrate the capabilities”. They are now concentrating on developing AIR for Google’s Andriod mobile OS and have declared that they will “shift our investment there and to other technologies”.

So that’s a big “up yours” from Adobe to Apple (and vice versa!)

And to start with it all looked so promising…

The exciting news for Flash developers is that the Adobe Flash CS5 comes with the Packager for iPhone allowing any application or game built using Flash to be exported for use on the iPhone.

This means that all the Flash developers out there who don’t program with Apple’s own Software Development Kit (SDK) will be able to start making their Flash games, apps and other content available to iPhone users.

There has been a lot written recently about Apple’s continued refusal to support Flash in its web browsers on the iPhone and the new iPad. This has meant that the 13 million iPhone users in the world can’t access Flash content, including games and videos.

Apple have cited many reasons for this, including the arguments that Flash is “buggy” and “not open source”.

More cynical observers would suggest that Apple are trying to prevent their users playing Flash games for free online because they would rather have them buy games from the App Store (and they’d be right!)

So – whilst Flash developers will now be able to sell their content with the new iPhone Packager in Flash CS5 - Apple will still get a 30% cut of the revenue!

That said – Flash CS5 is a very imporant update for Flash designers who finally want to get their content on to the iPhone and iPad, and Adobe are understandably making a big thing of this.

Here’s Adobe’s Adrian Ludwig explaining how it all works:

The argument for Flash’s continued use on the web (especially for video) in the face of HTML5 will continue to rage and is covered in our post about HTML5 on this blog.

However Adobe’s Packager for iPhone should go some way to preventing developers abandoning Flash for now.

What are the Other New Features in Flash CS5?

The other new features in Flash CS5 include:

• New Text Editing Capabilities that will allow more creative use of text in applications, including columns, threaded text blocks and other tools to allow more creative text use

• A Code Snippets Panel that will allow you to select pre-build chunks of ActionScript code rather than writing everything from scratch. This could include preloaders, menu creation, forms and a host of other code – although what will be availalbe hasn’t been confirmed yet

• Increased Integration with Flash Builder allowing you to use Flash Builder (a What You See Is What You Get editing tool and de-bugger) to edit ActionScript in your Flash Projects

• An Improved Native ActionScript Editor with better custom code hinting and auto-completion

Silicon Beach Training provide a 2-day Flash Course and a 2-day Advanced Flash Course.

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