Adobe MAX 2007: Day 1

October 1st, 2007 by Anil | Posted in Adobe, Developer && Designer |

*** Updated ***

Hello from Chicago!

So far, MAX 2007 has been an absolute blast.

As expected, I’ve met some great people, learned new things about Adobe apps, got some great coding tips and I got a picture with BONO, or so I thought!!!

I don’t think Adobe put this on, I’m guessing that one of the exhibitors hired a Bono impersonator to attract more people to their booth. It worked because there were a lot of people that really did think this guy looked like Bono. I guess when you don’t have the real deal there, you can’t really compare and judge properly. Anyway, all of us were fooled.

Alright, enough of the fake stuff, on to the great stuff!

Today was the first keynote. Kevin Lynch talked about the great things that people have been doing with Adobe technology. The one of I want to focus on is Buzzword, which was recently acquired by Adobe. Currently a web RIA allowing users a richer, word processing app than the other more conventional word processing app that we all use, I don’t see anything stopping Buzzword from becoming a great desktop application when it is married with AIR. It may not have all the doo-dads and thingamajigs Word has, but Buzzword showcases the strengths of ActionScript and how great of a language it is when combined with a rich user interface.

With the development of Buzzword already pushing ahead, it’s not hard to see what direction this is going. With AIR, Flash, Flex, PDF and other Adobe Technologies, the desktop RIA business is going to be a very strong one that is going to open many doors for Adobe. I wouldn’t put it past Adobe to create a “Buzz” office suite either. Sorry Microsoft, your chrome is just a little duller than Adobe’s. ;)

I need to go over my schedule and I’ll post some highlights from the sessions I attended as well. Stay tuned…