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As we have mentioned before, the Adobe Creative Suite will be released on April 12th and of course along with Photoshop CS5 we will see the latest version of Flash software – also marked CS5 (DUH!). There is no doubt that this software must be something really awesome as well as the highly-anticipated Photoshop. We’ve already reviewed the new features of Photoshop CS5 and everything looks kinda okay but most of our community has agreed that it’s more like an update to CS4 and buying CS5 as a standalone product looks at least irrational because of the price. So now the reasonable question to ask is will Flash CS5 really worth being paid for? Will we see the new development approach (because in case of Photoshop this very development approach is pretty much a deal breaker).

Plus, we all know the story of Photoshop CS4 updates that are twice cheaper than the new package. Also one of the most intriguing things about this release is that there was no beta release and actually there are no reasons for us to say for sure how good this new software is. This all is quite confusing, isn’t it? The only way to know the answer is to actually wait for the launch but hey, we’re Flash geeks here and we want answers now! That is why let’s try to review and analyse the new features of Adobe Flash CS 5 Viper (yeah, it’s actually called Viper, don’t ask us why).

Let’s get it on! New functions and cool options

• Ok, looks like this entire “iPhone situation” is partially solved because now there will be a Packager for iPhone – you can publish ActionScript 3 projects in Adobe Flash Professional to run as applications for iPhone. All applications will be available at Apple store. But it doesn’t mean that iPhone users will browse web content built with Flash technology on iPhone, it just allows repackaging existing content.
• Code Snippets panel is a very useful tool that allows using prebuilt codes that will increase interactivity of your project. This option makes life easier reducing deep learning of ActionScript 3.
• Text Layout Framework (TLF) has new API that promises to make this feature something really interesting. Main features are advanced styling and layout, columns, and threaded text blocks. Sounds like another awesome tool that makes life of Flash developers much easier.
• XML based FLA files – CS5 represents new default file format along with the backward compatibility of old FLA format from CS4.
• Improved ActionScript editor – you will be able to improve the productivity with custom class code hinting and completion.
• Improved Errors Compiler panel will have more informative elements such as various warnings and error icons, ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons, improved navigation system and many more.
• Live video preview component will allow the FVL Playback during the authoring. You will also be able to do a lot of different neat stuff with skins – not to mention the changes to the components’ skin that will also be ‘previewable’ immediately on stage.

Among other improvements we should also mention that CS5 Viper will support both ActionScript 3 and Action Script 2 (just like those previous versions that have both ActionScript 3 and ActionScript 2 support). Also developers have improved the Cue Point usability, Color panel, Info panel – all these components will be more functional and user-friendly.

Besides that, the launch of Flash player 10.1 has been announced just recently. The main thing about it (besides that it basically accompanies the the new Flash CS5 launch) is without a doubt the GPU acceleration support, this will surely rock. Besides, this also means that the Full Flash is coming to mobile platforms (not iPhone though), truly great news that make us love Adobe Flash CS5 even before the launch.

Really a salvation to the whole Adobe Creative Suite 5?

Let’s face it – even before the launch Creative Suite 5 already seems to be kinda messed up with the Photoshop CS5.

And well, to tell you the truth this new release of Flash Software looks really complete and full of great and useful updates and innovations. First of all we would like to point out this iPhone Packager thing again, that is a huge step towards Apple and iPhone users (especially if you know how the two giants feel about each other, check out more info on that in our HTML5 vs. Flash research which once again proved the war between Apple and adobe). So this step from Adobe really looks like a good sign for both communities – after all we’re sure communities aren’t very much after this war. And of course all those recent campaigns about war between Apple and Adobe have confused a lot of web users. One thing is certain for us now – the situation is not as dramatic as it may seem. Flash is a very powerful and popular technology and all those predictions that Flash will soon be obsolete are just predictionsm nothing more.

As for the other new features we can tell you that some of them are so new that it is hard to predict any results without any live experience with this software. Perhaps you guys know these new features will actually be popular? Is the Flash CS5 approach better than the development approach of Photoshop CS5 team? Of course we will be glad to hear all of your thoughts on this in our comments section.

Written by Edward Korcheg

Edward has been with TemplateMonster blog since 2009 and is a great fan of social media and web development trends (especially jQuery and HTML5). In fact, HTML5 along with retro trucks are his two biggest hobbies. He dreams of one day coding himself a retro truck using nothing but HTML5 Canvas tag.

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