Are you fond of Flash? Or electronic music? Even if neither, I think it'll be interesting for you to look at this amazing Flash guide.
A new version of Flash Guide to Electronic Music was published by Ishkur at techno.org. Maybe it's the most detailed guide to all electronic music genres. It contains examples of every music style described and a tutorial for newbies. Interface is intuitive and clear and... you'd better click the screenshot below and try it yourself! 
Flash news that impressed me this month:
1. FluidHTML - "a very powerful markup language that you can use to build most anything. Our intepreter reads instructions from the markup and sends instructions to Flash plugin." So, you can create Rich Internet Applications as easy as write a page in HTML. Very tempting, isn't it? One more benefit is that the problem "how to SEO Flash" can become the past with FluidHTML, because the new markup language will be searchable and indexable by search engines. The project is in private beta now, and I'm eagerly waiting for open beta to try this promising technology.
2. Adobe Labs Ideas for Flash Catalyst launched - "This initial launch of Adobe Labs Ideas allows Adobe Flash Catalyst users to vote on feature requests and share new ideas with the development team and user community".
3. Flash Websites Gallery - do you need ideas or inspiration for creating your new website. Or maybe you simply like to discover new interesting websites? Koflash.com Flash websites gallery is a nice place for both gaining inspiration and for satisfying curiosity.
4. 28 Interesting Flash Preloaders - "I am going to show some Interesting flash sites which will never bored you in the loading time; in fact, the loading time of these sites will amuse you".
5. Sonoflash Audio Flash Components - interesting Flash audio technology. "Unlike all other Audio Flash Components that still use mp3’s the Sonoflash AS3 algorithm allows developers to embed fully interactive sounds that generate real time sound in direct response to any movement by a user. ... The sounds available at Sonoflash are typically one tenth of the size of an equivalent mp3 file".
Happy discovering to you :)
The name says it all - today I want to review a nice freeware app for converting video files (AVI, MPEG, MP4, WMV, MOV, 3GP, DVR-MS) into Flash video (SWF and FLV formats).
Although you can google for lots of "freeware video to flash converters", after trying them out you'll see that good converters are not actually free, free ones aren't good. Free Video to Flash Converter is a rare combination of a really good conversion quality and zero price. This tool is sponsored by Ask.com and the only hassle you have with it is checking off two boxes if you don't want to make Ask.com your default search provider and a home page. It also installs Ask toolbar to you browser, but it can be easily uninstalled (if you don't know how to do that, check Help menu of the program).
Free Video to Flash Converter allows easy batch converting of video files. Select input file(s), set output folder, needed output format and video quality, click convert and get your flash file(s). That's it.
Great options:
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How to create whatever Windows screensaver you want easily, quickly and even... free? Take any flash video, animation, slideshow or whatever flash (.swf) file and convert it into screensaver installator with the InstantStorm tool. Instant Storm is extremely easy to use. If you are a newbie, New Project Wizard will guide you through the steps of screensaver creation. Still, the program interface is so intuitive that the Wizard is not needed.
All you have to do to create flash screensaver is to select a source swf file, and adjust screensaver and installer options. What's great: while the installer is fully customizable, you can keep it default and still get great result. In any case, that's no need to be an advanced user to customize anything, because customizations is as easy as editing text.
The result .exe installer allows you not only to use the screensaver on your PC, but share it, install to multiple computers, offer for download from your website, etc.
Great features:
The interesting flash'y things of August:
1. Search engine optimization for Flash - the new article by Todd Perkins is a must-read for everyone who cares about good search engine visibility of flash content.
2. Things every Flash developer should know - just the flash site I like by noted Flash guru Grant Skinner.
3. FlashEff 2 review - get acquainted with this great flash animation tool.
4. Flash Fun Pages - lots of fun and nice flash ecards and cartoons. For newbies - to save swf file you like, in Firefox simply click Tools > Page Info > go to Media Tab and save swf file to your computer. Then send it to your friends, view by yourself or publish to your blog\website (don't forget about copyrights :))
5. Cannonballz - the new dimension of flash games. "Cannonballz is the first ever Augmented Reality game using ZugMo Motion Capture Technology, Flash and Facebook to make both you and your friends the stars of the game". Now you are not just a player, you are the part of the game.
Do you want to enhance your PowerPoint presentation and add Flash object to the slide? That's easy - here are a few ways to do that easily and quickly.
Free tools
iSpring Free - insert Flash into PowerPoint as simply as clicking one button. Really great tool for both inserting Flash into PP and converting presentations into flash files (swf).
Insert Flash manually
Click Microsoft Office Button in the top left corner, click PowerPoint Options at the bottom of the menu. Click Popular on the left column of PowerPoint Options window and select Show Developer tab in the Ribbon on the right column. Click OK.
In the Developer tab, click the icon of hammer and nail in the Controls group for More Controls.
In the More Controls window, select Shockwave Flash Object in the list and click OK.
Then use your mouse to draw and resize the control. Right-click the control you draw and click Properties in the right-click menu.
In the alphabetic tab, click the Movie property and type the full drive path in the value column (the blank cell next to Movie), including the file name (e.g. C\:my.swf) or URL (e.g. http://www.mywebsite.com/my.swf)
To make the Flash play automatically when the slide is displayed, set the Playing property to True. To embed the Flash into PowerPoint, set EmbedMovie property to True.
Now close the Properties window and save your presentation.
On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, you can click Slide Show or press F5 to preview your presentation.
Commercial software
If you need something robust for extending your PowerPoint options, easy converting presentations and, as a bonus, easy inserting Flash objects into slides, you can try one of the following commercial tools - maybe you'll find one of them worth buying: iSpring Pro or Wondershare PPT2Flash.
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Adobe reported the release of security patches for Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Acrobat, and Adobe AIR. They were categorized as critical because the vulnerability can be used to take control of the affected system. The potential vulnerability of Adobe software was knows since the end of the last year, but exploits emerged last month only. Critical vulnerabilities have been identified in the current versions of Adobe Flash Player (v9.0.159.0 and v10.0.22.87) for Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems, Adobe AIR 1.5.1 and earlier versions, Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.1.2 and earlier 9.x versions.
Adobe Flash Player version number, can be verified on this page. If you use multiple browsers, perform the check for each browser you have installed on your system.
Find details and download patches here.
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