Marco Casario | RIAvolutionize the web

What's new in Flash Catalyst BEta 2 and what's ahead for Flash Catalyst 1.0

The first day of MAX has ended. I had great time following pretty interesting sessions. This year I'm very focused on Flash Catalyst and Flex 4's sessions.
Today the new beta of Flash Catalyst and Flex 4 has been announced and they're now available on the Adobe Labs.

Steve Heintz, product manager of Flash Catalyst, during his Flash Catalyst session has given us a lot of interesting information about the product and its roadmap.
These are some of the notes I've taken.

Adobe Flash Catalyst Beta 2's new features:

Easing for more fluid motion
Add sound effects
More interactions (go to URL and play video)
SWF Control (paly SWF from any frame)
New Filters (drop shadows, belev, glow, blur)
Image compression
Add video with custom controls
Increased performance
Create scroll panels
New Text tool
Round trip editing with Illustrator
Enhanced user interface
Export to AIR (in addition to SWF)
Working with Desing Time Data

What's ahead for Flash Catalyst 1.0

New design for the in.context HUD (Heads Up Display)
Font Embedding
Externalize images
Compressing Options
Quick interaction

Flash applications on iPhone now available with the upcoming Flash Pro CS5

That was the announcement done at the  today's MAX Keynotes. On theAdobe Labs site you can watch a videodemonstration of applications from the Apple App Store built using Flash technology.
Below there is the video that I've taken during the Keynotes:

From the Adobe Labs:

Flash Professioal CS5 will enable you to build applications for iPhone and iPod touch using ActionScript 3. These applications can be delivered to iPhone and iPod touch users through the Apple App Store.*

A public beta of Flash Professional CS5 with prerelease support for building applications for iPhone is planned for later this year