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New products for 2002
January 2002
Latest releases from Adobe and Macromedia strengthen their positions
as leading companies for multimedia development
It has been a long-standing tradition in the graphics
world that when Adobe releases a product upgrade, Macromedia will not
be far behind in following suit and vice versa. While this is not quite
yet the case in the world of web development and multimedia, both companies
have been active in the new year with a raft of takeovers and new releases.
Macromedia, which acquired Allaire ColdFusion software
last year (a popular compet-itor for technologies such as ASP and JSP)
has just announced a free version of the ColdFusion Server 5 Developer
edition, which means anyone will be able to learn the basics of this powerful
application before investing in a fully functioning server suite. The
non-expiring, fully-functional version will only work on one computer,
but is an excellent starting point for extending web developers' skills.
Other recent releases by Macromedia include Sitespring,
a project management tool aimed at web design teams, and the company has
updated its site to include a section outlining best practice techniques
gathered from hundreds of interviews with web professionals.
Adobe, in the meantime, has announced the release of
what it calls the 'most adv-anced web authoring solution' yet with GoLive
6, including the Adobe Web Workgroup Server to provide similar functions
to Sitespring. As well as including team collab-oration tools, GoLive
6 also features services for mobile web development and database connectivity.
Adobe has, in recent years, fallen behind Macromedia in the web design
arena when faced with Dreamweaver and other products such as UltraDev,
but the latest version of GoLive looks as though it will offer much more
in one package at a very competitive price.
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Adobe has also previously seen Macromedia pull
ahead in terms of web animation and vector graphics as the Flash
format has become almost ubiquitous. LiveMotion was the company's
response, a product in many ways easier to use than the original
application (now in version 5), and release 2.0 works with Quick
Time and SWF formats to create complex animation and interactive
sites.
As we have noted before, competition remains fierce
between these two multimedia giants, but it also promises exciting
new tools for 2002.
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Previous
stories
New Stuff for 2001
Adobe v Macromedia
Relevant sites
ColdFusion Server
Macromedia
web developer resources
GoLive
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