Web video never seemed so sweet. Macromedia is set to release Studio 8,
which brings together the latest releases of Dreamweaver, Flash
Professional, Fireworks, Contribute and FlashPaper. According to Jim
Guerard, vice president of product management, the suite is the
company’s "biggest release of Flash and Dreamweaver ever. It’s also the
driven by the most customer requests." What do Web designers want? More
ways to import and manipulate video tops the list, and users of Flash
Professional 8 get a lot to cheer about, namely a stand-alone video
encoder and support for alpha channels in playback (let the layering
begin!). There are also a lot of great new features in Dreamweaver,
including a new visual CSS layout and measurement tools (no more
holding rulers up to the screen). Studio 8, which supports both Windows
and Mac OS X, is scheduled to begin shipping this month. $999 (full
suite); $399 (upgrade).
www.macromedia.com