I’m really pumped! Today Adobe announced the Open Screen Project, lead by Adobe and supported by technology leaders such as Cisco, Intel, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba etc and content providers like MTV, NBC, BBC and more.

We drag around our devices with us every day, and these little things (media players, mobile phones etc) come out partying with us, sit in airport terminals with us, even sit at a lonely dinner table with us when travelling. So why is the experience on these devices not as good as the heavy laptops we carry around?

The good news is that its about to change. Adobe is lifting the restrictions on the use of the SWF & FLV file formats. This means that device manufacturers can easily embed Flash content designed by designers, not just coded by developers into their new products, leading to a great user experience!

We’ve seen some great examples of whats possible already.. iRiver have used Flash as the UI for their media players for some time, Flash comes with both the Sony PSP & PS3, and some mobile manufacturers are building the entire phone UI in Flash!

This is really big and I’m sure we’ll be talking about this for some time!

Greg Wilson, Enterprise Evangelist for Adobe has recorded a quick 15 minute developer focused overview of LiveCycle ES, digging into the nuts and bolts without the marketing fluff. Greg shows how to modify an existing process using LiveCycle Workbench in minutes.

http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/livecycledevoverview1/

Quick note to say that Adobe is now accepting registrations for those who would like prerelease access to the next version of LiveCycle ES, Update 1.
Interested? Click here: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=prerelease_interest

Improvements, improvements, improvements!!

The upcoming update to LiveCycle ES is on its way and it is full of improvements that long term users and those new to LiveCycle will appreciate. More detail will come in the coming weeks / months, but for now here is a high level look at some of the changes and new things to get excited about.
Read more »

Do you create PDF documents? Forms? Are you automating processes with LiveCycle? How about sending documents out to review with comments and attachments? Do you want to see what Adobe is up to in the next release of Adobe Reader?

Adobe is taking requests for entry into the Adobe Reader Prerelease program, allowing you a chance to see whats coming up as well as providing valuable feedback to the product team.

You can sign up here;

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=reader_prerelease_interest

SmallWorlds beta was opened up today and I was lucky enough to get an invite.

Mitch Olson and the rest of the guys over in Auckland, NZ have been flat out creating what I believe to be the best online interactive experience currently on the web.

So what is SmallWorlds? The best i can do to describe it is to think of a cross between “The Sims” and FaceBook. You create an avatar, get some credits and start looking around. Second Life also comes to mind, but unlike Second Life, you can be logged in and interacting with people in seconds thanks to the fact that SmallWorlds only requires Adobe’s Flash Player.

Interacting is fun, you can play pool with others, listen to music, watch TV (YouTube clips), look at art hanging on the wall (Flicker) and more.

It’s currently in beta but still loads of fun. If you want an invite, send me an email.

Hilarious YouTube clip from Donnie Hoyle, who btw shares my opinion of cats!

2007 is now history and it’s time to begin a new year. Before I share my personal goals for this 2008 I thought i’d share some interesting facts from last year;

• Ruth & I celebrated our 15 year anniversary
• Average reading one paperback per month
• 554 Tweets on Twitter
• 31,000 emails in 2007 (25,000 in 2006)
• 78 Flights (Domestic and International)
• 93 nights away from home (although 31 were for non work)
• 37 blog posts
• New countries discovered: Hong Kong & Dubai

Personal Goals for 2008 (in no particular order)

Weigh less this time next year.
I managed to lose some weight in 2007 but put most of it back on. This year i need to not slack off during winter!

Become a better husband & family member.
I need to spend more quality time with Ruth. I also need to be there more for my family, both immediate and extended.

Discover a new country
This is an annual goal that i want to maintain. This year i’m thinking either India or China.

Become a better manager
This crosses over into a work goal, but personally I want to serve the people that report to me better.

Join a new band
I’ve been playing Bass & Guitar for over  15 years and not being  in a band is starting to depress me. Time to fix this.

Keep up with technology
Not just Adobe related technology, I love geeking out with the latest innovations and that has to continue.

Be more adventurous and have fun
Most importantly, I want to get  to the end of 2008 and look back at the fun I had. Life’s too short.

I should have done this a long time ago, but i finally managed to get my iPod hooked up to my Mazda 3 SP3 factory stereo and it is fantastic. Great sound, great integration with steering wheel controls etc, the iPod is charged while driving and icing on the cake is the fact that the song names come up on the dash!! Read more »

A couple of weeks ago I presented a short overview of Adobe LiveCycle ES for the Queensland ColdFusion User Group.

In this presentation I showed

• an intelligent interactive PDF
• a Flash based form guide.
• LiveCycle Workbench tool within Eclipse
• AIR client interacting with LiveCycle ES
• Process Management using LiveCycle Workspace
• Applying security to a PDF using LiveCycle Rights Management

This session was recorded using Adobe Connect and is now available at http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p41893642/