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September 22, 2004
It's been a busy week around here
It's been a busy week here for the Director/Shockwave team at Macromedia and I thought I'd take a minute and point out some of the highlights that folks might enjoy.
Director/Shockwave 10.1 Update Release
Since the initial release of Director MX 2004 English product we've seen more than a few subsequent releases offering a smattering of changes across a number of builds, this includes both Macromedia Director and the Shockwave Player. But now we've released a comprehensive 10.1 update for both in all languages that offers a good number of bug fixes and improvements as well as build parity across all languages.
I won't cite all the changes that went into this release here, rather I'd like to point everyone to some great starting points on macromedia.com:
Director MX 2004 Update - information/faq page
Director MX 2004 Release Notes
Bug Fix List
Documentation Corrections in 10.1
This release contains a ton of bug fixes and some nice changes to the Shockwave installer. For all users we're now using a "slim" installer which is nearly 2MB smaller than before. This was done along with some core player changes, all surrounding the Xtras downloading feature so that existing content continues to function without modifications. There are additional tech notes pending about these changes, how they affect developers and how folks will be able to point users to a full installer (one with all Xtras). On top of this we continue to pursue more agressive Shockwave licensing opportunities and now the free-license installer for fixed-media (CD/DVD) or intranet distribution is silent, meaning it has no Yahoo! Toolbar offer nor registration and the redirect. These are moves to make the installation an easier sell to your clients.
Sites of the Day
Today marks the second time in the past week that a Shockwave-based site has been chosen as the Site of the Day (SOD) on macromedia.com. Today's selection is the It's my style site developed by B-Reel for Esselte, a school supply company. Last week on the 16th the Site of the Day was BMW1derland, a Shockwave-based site advertising the new 1-series cars from BMW, the content was developed by the folks at Meme Digital, including a known Director-list participant, Toxi. I think both sites are worth a visit to see what types of content are being developed, even if those involve looking at content made by that "other" product of Macromedia's. :)
For reference, here is today's (Wednesday, September 22, 2004) Site of the Day URL:
And you can always check the archives pages to look up earlier Site of the Day entries:
A Director/Shockwave Case Study
In addition to getting some attention via the Site of the Day selections folks might also have noticed that a great new Showcase Feature has been posted about Director and interactive 3D being used to create educational content for Pearson Prentice Hall by Forge FX. The case study describes the challenges faced by the developers and how Director and Shockwave were used to meet those challenges. Hopefully folks will find it a good read that provides some insight into how they might use Director and Shockwave as well.
Like I said, there's been a lot going on around here and there's more on the go. Stay tuned as we're doing our best to kick up a little dust and get some attention, focus and action around our favorite tool and player, Macromedia Director and the Shockwave Player.
Cheers all!
Posted by thiggins at September 22, 2004 02:39 PM