On a more positive note, Lee Brimelow posted a video showing some of the new features of Flash CS5 including on-stage video playback and cue point creation tools, new Flash file open uncompressed format, code snippets, custom class code hints, Flash Builder integration, and the new TLF text format. You can view the video at GotoAndLearn.com.

Flash CS5 is expected to be released in the first half of 2010.

Using the new distribution service, developers of Flash widgets can use Adobe technologies to make it easy to share these widgets online across popular social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Widgets could also be used to link to alternative editions of the widgets like a Flash Lite version, an Adobe AIR version, or an iPhone app version of the widget.

The whole system would be managed through Gigya that offers an online portal that will allow users to track the number of downloads and performance of the widget. Gigya also offers a number of paid distribution methods which developers can use to promote their widgets and applications on the web.

The services will also include in the future a number of features for helping developers easily integrate social features from Facebook and MySpace in their actual widgets.

You can learn more about Flash Platform Services from Adobe’s website.

[via TechCrunch]

Squiggly could be used in with Flash Professional or Flash Builder, but currently the class relies on Flex UI components to underline the text, however, developers may write their own UI interface to be able to use Squiggly without relying on any Flex component. You can learn more about Squiggly and download it for free from this link.

• Integration of Flash Builder (i.e. Flex Builder) – Viper will be able to directly open and export Flash Builder.
• Simplified coding methods including ready-made code snippets for quickly adding functionality to Flash projects. For example, it will be possible to drag and drop a code snippet to program an object to move around the stage using the keyboard arrows.
• The ActionScript editor will show auto-completion hints for custom classes.
• Text Layout Framework will be supported through the Text Panel.
• The Deco-Brush will be improved.

You read more about these new features and check screen shots of these new features at the Flash Magazine.

You can down a 180Mb video of the session via this link – courtesy of Jon MacDonald.

Anyway, Flash developers should still check it out because it is a great example of a light-weight AIR application that has a nice simple interface and great web connectivity.

You can learn more about Adobe Wave at Adobe Labs.

The Google Chrome OS will probably not be for everyone as it will focus on web based applications which have yet not reached the stage at which they can replace specialist applications such as Photoshop CS4 or Flash CS4. It will be very unlikely for these applications to be ported to this OS, however the OS is clearly targeted at the mass consumer market through netbooks and not professional users.

In terms of project deployment, Flash developers should not worry about having their web based projects run on Chrome OS as the Chrome browser supports Flash, but the same could not be said about Adobe AIR projects which require the installation of the AIR runtime at the OS level. However, AIR is currently available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. As Chrome OS will open source and based on Linux, it is very likely for Adobe to release AIR for the Chrome OS as Adobe has supported other similar Google projects (i.e. Android).

You can learn more about the Chrome OS by checking the announcement at the Google Blog and TechCrunch.

I was personally not impressed at all with the implementation of Papervision3D in the previous version of Swif3D, so I hope the implementation of Papervision3D 2.0 is better.

v6 is instantly available for purchase for both the Mac and Windows at the price of $250. Trial versions are not out yet. You can learn more about Swift3D from the official website of Electric Rain.