Adobe recently release a public preview of BrowserLab - its upcoming online tool for testing websites on multiple browsers and platforms. Using the tool you can simply input the URL of any website to view the way that webpage would appear on a number of browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari on Windows and Mac.

The screenshots of the webpage take a short while to be generated, and then they can compared on side by side preview or an ‘onion skin view’ for which two versions of the page can be directly placed over each other.

The tool could also be used on Dreamweaver CS4 after installing a number of BrowserLab Extensions to test local and active content before publishing it on the web.

This service should be helpful to web developers as the difference in rendering between browsers could be massive. The list of supported browsers does not currently include Chrome, but as Chrome is based on the WebKit rendering engine it should have a very similar output to Safari.

This service will probably not be of great importance to Flash developers as the display of Flash content is not affected by the type of browser or its version as long as the same Flash Player version is installed.

You can test this service free of charge now by visiting its online portal.

Adobe released yesterday the public betas for Flash Builder 4 and Flash Catalyst. Flash Builder 4 is the new version of Flex Builder which got renamed as Flash Builder recently, it is the tool to use to create rich internet applications using MXML and ActionScript.

Flash Catalyst on the hand is a new tool aimed at designers to allow them to transform Photoshop and Illustrator file documents into rich internet applications using a number of actions and user interface elements.

You can download both betas from Adobe Labs. You can get a quick start with these tools by checking the introductory tutorials for Flash Builder 4 from Adobe and the new video tutorials on both Catalyst and Builder from gotoAndLearn.

 A video demo of the new mobile version of Firefox, Fennec, came out yesterday and showed, among other things, the capability of this very interesting browser to play Flash content on mobile devices. The demo was made on a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, on which Flash animation ran at a horrifying low speed, probably due to the low processing power of the device. 

Apple has recently changed its developer policies allowing 3rd party developers to make web browsers for the iPhone, it is unknown if Apple would allow a 3rd party browser to run Flash as it does not allow it on its main browser. Of course, Fennec will probably also appear on other mobile platforms such as Android.

Check out the video demo of Fennec which, though in early beta, already looks like a decent competitor to the mobile version of Safari on the iPhone.

Fennec Beta 1 walkthrough from Madhava Enros on Vimeo.

You can test the Fennec demo on your desktop by downloading it for Windows, Mac or Linux from Fennec’s homepage.

[video via TechCrunch]

 The 1.0 version of Internet Explorer 8 was made available for public download today. It is important for anyone in the web business to download and test that your websites do not break on IE8, whether or not you personally use it, because the majority of web users still use IE.

IE8 is only available on the Windows. Highlights of the release include a new address bar, WebSlices, and a feature called “Accelerators”. IE8 also improves its compliance with CSS and has a number of Ajax enhancements. You can download it from this link.

 Pretty Loaded is an archive of the most awesome Flash preloaders: from fancy movie preloaders, to high tech preloaders by Sony and the like, and ending up withe smart numeric ones. The website nicely rolls out one preloader after the other. Sit back and watch the site get “pretty loaded“.

[Thanks to Rimp for the tip]

 Aviary web based creative application suite finally came out of beta minutes ago. Aviary for those who do not know about it is a web based application suite built on the Flash platform that lets you carry out various creative tasks such as image editing, drawing, color palette creation, and filter editing without the need to install any special software on your machine by using their web applications.

Aviary has also uncovered its paid Pro service which lets users have unlimited storage space and access to additional applications such as Raven (Vector drawing tool).

I have tried Aviary in the past, but I thought that was too much of a hassle for doing simple tasks such as cropping an image and adding some text to it to use for a blog post (I prefer Picnik) , yet it was not powerful or fast enough to replace my beloved offline Fireworks application. However, some of your might still have a place for it in your workflow. You can try out Aviary and use its basic service free of charge by visiting their official website at Aviary.com.

Adobe recently released the Linux version of the AIR runtime making it now possible to run desktop based web applications created using Flex or the Flash authoring tool on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The install base of Adobe AIR is still nominal in comparison to that of the Flash Player which basically almost found on every single computer connected to the internet. The availability of AIR on Linux will help increase the potentional market base for those developing AIR applications. The new runtime can be downloaded from Adobe’ s website here.

The mobile version of Adobe AIR is also expected to be released sometime next year.

 A new design agency focused on the Islamic market is looking for Oman-based web developers experienced with Joomla. Successful candidates will be hired on a project-basis. You can read more info about this opportunity in this thread.

 One day after the release of the new Flash Player, Adobe is shipping Creative Suite 4. Adobe CS4 is shipping in seven bundles, Premium and Standard editions for Design, Web, and Production, and a Master Collection bundle. Check out the prices and bundle details over at Adobe. Those wishing to try out the applications will have to wait a bit as the demo versions are not out yet.

 Looks like we will not have to wait for the 23rd of September (or the 24th of September if you are on this side of the world) to see Adobe’s CS4 Event because all the information on the new Crative Suite is now available on Adobe’s website! CS4 has new version of Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Fireworks, After Effects, InDesign, and other members of the Creative Suite. New features of the suite include 3D painting in Photoshop and Bones and Inverse Kinematics in Flash. The demos of the applications are still not available nor are the actual release dates but they are expected to ship next month. The Suite is available in the same Design, Web, and Production bundles (Premium and Standard) that were introduced in the last release. Check out all the details on Adobe’s website.