14 DAY TRIAL // Adobe is not giving up on Flash, if anything, it's more committed than ever to push it forward, the new 3D graphics capabilities are testament to that, but the company is also working on alternatives, notably HTML5.
For Adobe, the premise is simple, it wants to make the best tools for whatever technology developers end up using, be it its proprietary Flash, or web standards such as HTML5, CSS and so on.
This is where Adobe Edge comes in. The tool aims to be the alternative to Flash for those wanting HTML5, CSS and JavaScript code.
It's in 'preview' mode, meaning it's not yet ready for mass production, but Adobe is advancing quickly.
Where as, so far, Edge could only do relatively simple animations, it is now adding a very requested feature, interactivity, enabling web developers to tie actions to events.
"In response to strong community interest, the third preview of Adobe Edge is now available, adding interactivity features and enabling a new level of visual richness with Web standards," Adobe announced.
The new interactive features in Adobe Edge Preview 3 are quite diverse, developers can add looping, links, access the Edge animation framework API as well as handle HTML DOM events.
Until now, Edge was only able to create static animations. Adding actions into the mix makes for a much more compelling proposition.
Developers can use some of the built-in JavaScript code for various common actions, but they can also insert their own code.
It's by no means a competitor to Flash just yet, but it shows that Adobe is interested in alternative technologies and the rapid iterations indicate that the company wants this thing to be ready to sell to developers as soon as possible.
And it couldn't be soon enough, while Flash is a nuisance on desktops, it's a much bigger problem on phones and tablets that support. As for those that don't, i.e. the iPhone and the iPad, it's case closed, developers need to use HTML5 and co. for any visually-rich website.