Adobe Flash CS5 Professional Revealed!!

Actually, I could not wait to finish my review about the first day in Adobe MAX, but you will all understand me when i tell you it is the first reveal of Adobe Flash CS5 Professional and its features.

The following video is provided from the secret session that has not been revealed until yesterday in MAX. This session is meant to introduce the new Flash CS5 features as well as providing its Alpha version for public download in Adobe Labs.

The new Adobe Flash CS5 include the following features as mentioned in yesterday sneak peak on Adobe MAX live:

iPhone profile support that allows you to open a new flash document with iPhone presets for easily build iPhone applications in Flash.

Totally, improved text feature that support multi-language support including the support for RTL language as such as Arabic support. Also, the text feature will support multicolumn feature.

Improved codding enviroment and Flash buidler integration

Improved video feature

iPhone profile support that allows you to open a new flash document with iPhone presets for easily build iPhone applications in Flash.

• Totally, improved text feature that support multi-language support including the support for RTL language as such as Arabic support. Also, the text feature will support multicolumn feature.
• Improved codding enviroment and Flash buidler integration
• Improved video feature

The new Flash CS5 will also include other features and enhancements such as XML based Flash files. Finally, I hope you enjoy the recorded session.

Some of the new features include in CS5:

• Applications for iPhone — Publish ActionScript 3® projects in Adobe Flash Professional to run as applications for iPhone. Learn more.
• New text capabilities via the Text Layout Framework (TLF) — Get unprecedented text control and creativity with projects created in Flash. Advanced styling and layout, including right to left text, columns, and threaded text blocks, let you work with text in Flash like never before.
• XML based FLA files — Manage and modify project assets using source control systems and enable teams to easily collaborate on files.
• Code Snippets panel — Choose prebuilt code that can be injected into projects to increase interactivity and also reduce the ActionScript 3 learning curve.
• Flash Builder™ integration — Use Adobe Flash Builder software as your ActionScript editor within projects in Flash.
• Improved ActionScript editor — Improve productivity with custom class code hinting and completion.

NetVibes Gets Into Website Design

NetVibes, the startup that lets you assemble all your favorite widgets, feeds, social networks, email, videos and blogs onto a customizable homepage, is rolling out a new feature today that lets users create personalized widget-based web pages. NetVibes’s tool, called Theme Publishing, is a visual design editor that lets users personalize and edit every part of their page’s’ theme, from images to background.

The layout of the editing tool is fairly simple. Users “click and pick” on the page:, meaning they click which part they want to edit and pick options from a color palette and design option menus. NetVibes offers a directory of themes or you can create your own theme. You can also publish your theme to the gallery for other NetVibes members to use. Every change is shown live in a preview pane, making it easy to see how a particular design will look. Plus, users can add widgets, feeds, social networks and more to their pages. The bonus: it’s all free.

While the new feature is sure to attract users, it is also likely to attract the attention of brands. NetVibes says that ad agencies, including Ogilvy and Razorfish, are already using NetVibes’ theme design tool to create interactive, uber-personalized microsites for clients that are branded and contain customized widgets for social networks and feeds. NetVibes is also offering a new XML-based Theme API, which will enable web designers to create animated themes on their pages.

The startup recently launched “drag and follow” widgets for Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, making it easy to create custom widgets around followers or feeds. Although NetVibes was a pioneer in personalized widget homepages, it has since been overshadowed by iGoogle. At TechCrunch’s Real Time Stream CrunchUp in July, Netvibes previewed a new live feed reader and instant update architecture to make RSS real-time, which will be officially

Elance Hit By Security Breach

We’ve just gotten word that development-outsourcing site Elance has suffered a security breach, compromising some user information that included names, addresses, phone numbers, and location (no financial information was taken).

Multiple users have received the following letter:

It has recently come to our attention that certain Elance user information was accessed without authorization, including potentially yours. The data accessed was contact information — specifically name, email address, telephone number, city location and Elance login information. This incident did not involve any credit card, bank account, social security or tax ID numbers.

We have remedied the cause of the breach, and are working with appropriate authorities. In the meantime, please take extra precautions in protecting your Elance account. For example, do not provide your login information on any site that is not http://www.elance.com, and NEVER give out passwords by email, over the telephone or on websites that are not the Elance site.

We sincerely regret any inconvenience or disruption this may cause.

For more details and ongoing information about this, please visit this page in our Trust & Safety center: http://www.elance.com/p/trust/account_security.html

Michael Culver
Vice President
Elance

Elance’s security alert site reveals that the data was taken by hackers who discovered a security hole on the site:

The hackers discovered a security hole on an unprotected page that enabled them to access a data table that contained contact information including name, email address, telephone number, city location, and username, and that contained protected versions of user passwords, in an unreadable format called a one-way hash. Their attack did not access personal financial information such as credit card, bank account, social security or tax ID numbers.

In a bizarre twist Elance’s security site says that some of the stolen user data is now appearing on OutsourcingRoom.com, a competing service. Elance writes that it is working to have the data removed.

This is only the latest in a recent string of security breaches on major web services. It’s obviously nearly impossible to guard against every kind of online threat, but if we’re going to become comfortable having our entire computing experience in the cloud, things need to change.

Is social media backlinks really worth?

Social networking profiles

One of the fastest ways to build backlinks is to register on social media sites with high PageRank: Facebook, Xing, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ecademy, Twitter etc. These sites allow you to set up a user profile with information about you and your company, including a link to your website. The only catch is that not all of these sites’ links are ‘do-follow’ – which means your site will not always receive the ‘link juice’.

Links in Twitter posts

If you place a link to a web page in your Twitter post, keep in mind that all of Twitter’s outbound links are ‘no-follow’. Google and Yahoo do not pass the Trust or PageRank power through the ‘no-follow’ links. Thus Twittering has limited value for your site.

However, such links do have some value. In May 2009, we witnessed the launch of the Topsy site, a technology that transforms Twitter links into a searchable database. Topsy makes it possible for users to search for information (relevancy is determined based on the number of re-tweets). So, any Twitter link now has a chance to be found and followed by Topsy visitors. Remember, increased traffic is the main goal!

Social bookmarks forever?

Is it possible to get permanent links from social bookmarks? Well, yes and no. Most social bookmarking sites will retain your bookmark until it’s popular. But as your bookmark loses popularity over time, it will be moved into the archives. Ideally, a permanent link should stay on the same page with approximately the same PR forever, but in reality, most social bookmarking websites remove links after some time.

Nevertheless, social bookmarking sites are valuable for other reasons. If you have a quality article that becomes popular on social bookmarking sites, people will link to that article in their blogs, and post ‘do-follow’ links on forums.

You can search the Web for the keywords ‘do-follow social bookmarking sites’ to find the latest lists. Networkers have also created services like socialposter.com or socialmarker.com for automatic submission to bookmarking sites.

The truth about blog comments

Blog commenting is probably the most popular – and in many cases, most irritating (because of spammers) – technique of getting permanent links.

The Google PageRank algorithm implies that the more outbound links there are on a page, the less authority or power this page can pass to each of those links. That’s because the page’s PR is distributed evenly between the outbound links. If a webmaster wants to add an outbound link, but doesn’t want Google to follow that link or for PR power to be passed on to the linked page, then that webmaster has to add the ‘nofollow’ attribute to the link. Many bloggers do so to prevent their PR from flowing to the pages cited by commenters. However, this practice is no longer encouraged by Google.

A few weeks ago Matt Cutts blogged about a change in the PR algorithm concerning Google’s approach to passing PageRank through the links with the ‘nofollow’ attribute. Although no PageRank and anchor texts are passed through such links, they are also counted when sharing the outgoing ‘link juice’. The only difference is that it’s neither passed to the linked site nor kept on the page. This means Google disapproves of the practice of using the rel=nofollow attribute for the purpose of not sharing PageRank.

If you own a blog, setting up the ‘nofollow’ attribute to all comments means conserving your blog’s ‘link juice’ and getting fewer comments. The ‘do-follow’ principle can lead to more spam, but it’s a good way to attract webmasters to your site. On the other hand, if you are a webmaster trying to obtain more links by commenting on blogs, don’t rely solely on this method of link popularity improvement. Use a combination of methods, including the time-proven ways of press releases, articles and site submissions to relevant lists and directories, and the newer techniques for site promotion in social media.

Flash Gaming Payments Heat Up

Heyzap, the Y Combinator startup that offers an easily-embedded widget containing thousands of Flash games, is launching a major new product today that introduces the company to an entirely new source of revenue. Dubbed HeyZap Payments, the platform offers developers a way to easily integrate a microtransaction system into their games, which could be a boon for both developers and Heyzap alike.

Up until now one of the problems plaguing small-time Flash game developers has been monetization. These games are often ripped from the sites from which they originated, so aside from ads that are integrated into the games, developers haven’t had many good ways to generate revenue. Heyzap Payments may help change this: regardless of where a Flash game is embedded, its developer will be compensated for any in-game purchases through the HeyZap platform. Co-Founder Immad Akhund says that the platform is extremely easy for developers to integrate, with a “drop-in” set of code (he says it shoud require about as much effort as integrating Google Analytics would).

Once integrated, users will be able to buy a currency called Heyzap coins, which can be used with any game that has implemented the system. Gamers can acquire points either through Offers (surveys, etc.), Credit Cards, Paypal, or via billing to their cell phone. Points and game saves can be tied to both Facebook Connect and Twitter accounts, allowing the platform to keep track of the goods you’ve purchased in various games.

Heyzap is offering a 50/50 revenue share for developers, and will also allow publishers to receive a cut for embedding games. It’s also offering a $50 bonus to any developers who sign up as a means to jumpstart the program.

Given the addictive nature of many Flash games out there, this is a great idea, and established casual gaming companies like Zynga have proven how lucrative in-game microtransactions can really be. However, there are still a few obstacles Heyzap will have to overcome. The platform may be easy to integrate, but developers will still have to come up with in-game items or bonuses that users would be willing to actually pay for, so the process won’t exactly be painless. That said, many games already have logical places to implement payments (like in-game stores), so this may not prove to be much of a deterrent.

YouTube Mobile Uploads Up 400% Since iPhone 3GS Launch

If there was any question about the significance of the iPhone 3GS’s impressive video functionality, here’s your answer: YouTube reports that in the six days since the iPhone 3GS was released last week, the number of mobile uploads has increased by a whopping 400%. For a single phone model to have such a major impact on the site is simply phenomenal.

Even without the iPhone, YouTube is seeing major growth across the entire mobile space — the site has seen uploads go up 1700% over the last six months. It’s not hard to guess why. Video-enabled smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, as are high speed data connections. YouTube also attributes part of the growth to a streamlined upload flow (note how easy it is to upload a video from your iPhone to the site), as well as its improved sharing capabilities (you can now syndicate your videos to services like Facebook and Twitter).

As the still-nascent iPhone 3GS continues to take off and more people figure out how to use the video sharing functionality, these figures are going to skyrocket. Other phones are increasingly getting in on the action too, like Android phones, which introduce direct-to-YouTube uploads with the 1.5 Cupcake update.

The implications for this are huge. Lowering the barrier to uploading a video will probably result in an increase in the silly user-generated content that litters YouTube, but it will also streamline the uploading of more significant videos. As our commenters point out, an increase in mobile uploads could very well spur the ‘iReporter’ movement, as citizens upload video taken at the scene of a newsworthy event as soon as it happens (we need look no further than the protesting and tragedies in Iran for examples).