I just received the second issue of Flash & Flex Developer Magazine in the mail. This magazine is the only one that is devoted entirely to what we do. You can find the first issue in bookstores right now if you live in the US. This second issue is quite a bit better than their first attempt and contains some great tutorials and sample code.
Fellow Platform Evangelist, James Ward wrote an in-depth article on Adobe AIR which covers how to get started with most of the APIs. He provided lots of sample code for you to play with as well. Tyler Egeto wrote a beginners tutorial on the AS3 Display List which is a vital skill to master if you want to really understand the new language. Neil Bergman has a nice piece on using the Socket class to connect to an SMTP server to send mail directly from Flash. These are just a few of the great articles in this issue.
This magazine isn’t quite as polished as some of the tech magazines that come out of the US and UK, but the content is well worth the price. Another thing is that they are looking to you, the Flash community, to help them make it even better. They are actively looking for new authors and beta-testers. So if you have ideas and want to become a published author, let them know!
I will writing an article for their next issue as well as doing a video tutorial. Please show your support for this magazine as I think it is vital that we have a magazine devoted to our community.
Lee
Lee, It is a great magazine. I actually had the opportunity to write an article in this (2nd issue), but without too much plugging on that.
Overall its great to see the community coming closer together in paper form, no less.
Matt
Awesome! Although I sincerely hope the mag is better than their site. That thing needs help. And so do I after visiting it; all the blinking, flashing, scrolling, animating… gave me a seizure. LOL
@Matthew Keefe Yeah that is one of the articles I haven’t read yet. BTW I am currently loving reading your Flash and PHP Bible book.
Is this mag coming to the UK, or is it already here?
@Harry Good question. I think for now it is just in the US. Not sure if they plan to expand. Maybe you can mail order it.
Nice post, very excited you and others in the community are behind the magazine. I agree, this magazine is the first aimed at developers in our field and we should do what we can to help it reach our audience. I am currently a beta tester, and can tell you that they are very open to us providing them with ideas on every topic, so don’t be afraid to contribute with anything you think is worth covering. I know their website needs a lot of help, haha, but the magazine is well worthy.
Awesome! I’ll look for it tonight at Borders. Maybe though you shouldn’t give out a link to the website because its pretty bad…
“This magazine is the only one that is devoted entirely to what we do.”
I guess it depends on how you define “we”. Flex Authority, a quarterly print journal focused on Flex Development. The first issue came out at 360Flex last week and contained 100 pages ( ~14 articles ) of Flex Goodness. The second issue is targeted for a November release.
We don’t cover or plan to cover the Flash IDE or design in any way. Our focus is technical articles for Flex programmers.
I don’t know if they plan to sell / promote the magazine through retail chains, however I know that their sister publication will ship copies oversees for non-US based subscribers. I expect Flex Authority will too.
In full disclosure, if needed, I’m the Editor in Chief. We’re soliciting articles for the next issue right now; so if you have ideas, feel free to contact me directly ( http://www.jeffryhouser.com/contact.cfm ).
You can subscribe, find out more about the first issue at http://www.flex-authority.com
@Harry They have pricing in euro on there subscription page. It looks like a neat magazine I will have to subscribe when I get some cash.(That is if they will ship it to Canada) They also have a PDF subscription available.
Why do creative magazines have such horrible websites?
Sweet! Though I am over the “Air” puns. Pls. Stop. No more.
@Jeffry Good to know that Flex has a magazine now too!
Finally a magazine just devoted to Flash and Flex. I usually buy the Web Developer magazine which usually has at least 1 thing on Flash in it. The rest of the mag is good as well.
It would be great if the Flash & Flex Developer Magazine comes out in other countries though (like Singapore).
Just Subscribed,
, although i’m with Auby.. can’t breath will all this “Air”
Ouch! Maybe if you write an article it will be worth it, but I highly recommend people get their hands on an issue before simply subscribing.
I like the idea about supporting a magazine, but the HaXe issue wasn’t too stellar. For one, I nearly gave up on reading it on the issue of typos alone. Most of the article had grammar that implied the magazine was authored by someone who was learning English, and a few of the code examples seemed to defy so many of the best practices that we read about in blogs like this. When I picked up the mag, I was truly excited about getting my hands on a magazine for our industry, but somewhere between having read it front to back and taking a look at the contents on the included CD, I can honestly say that there wasn’t much value in the whole issue. I wanted to have something like this to recommend, but after sticking it out and reading through it, I can say I wouldn’t recommend it, based on this issue.
Maybe they will read your blog here and decide to (1) tighten up the editing to include grammatical review, (2) run the spell checking a couple more times, and (3) touch base with the general community to ensure that the content is more than simply semantically correct (ie. the class on page 18 of issue 1/vol 1, 2008, might work but it violates OOP with its public non-encapsulated variables.)
I am all for an industry magazine, but honestly I get way more value out of your blog. Now there is an idea! have them syndicate your blog content and turn it into a quarterly magazine with sample code on the CD. I would buy that!
Just a +1 for Jeffs comments. If you do any Flex (as opposed to pure flash Flex Authority rocks. The URL for the site is at http://www.flex-authority.com/
Just signed up – that site is a bit hard to navigate and place your order, but if you have issues email them and they will get right back to you. Thanks for the heads up Lee.
@Steve Yeah those are all valid complaints of the first issue. Issue 2 has much better content and is much better written. The main thing that still needs work is the design. Both the magazine and the site.
@Steve
I am currently a beta tester for the magazine and I made them aware of pretty much everything you mentioned. I agree, the typos were really hard to ignore. I was so upset with them when they put out the first issue in such condition.
However, I can assure you that the second issue will be much better (I have read it already). They are already working on the third one, which will be even better, remember, they are just starting and asking us to contribute. SOOOOO, if you have complaints or suggestions, I would recommend that you go to their website (I know it is not pretty) and email the editorial team, they are very open to new ideas. Also, I think Lee is writing a tutorial for their third issue, so the magazine is definitely trying to get the right people to contribute.
Cheers!
Maybe I’m drunk but I swear to god I see the blink tag on that website, cheers!
Hi,
I just subscribed, living in Glasgow and I emailed. Said they can ship to the UK it’s under ‘Great Britain’ for anyone trying to look for ‘United Kingdom’.
Cant wait to get my hands on it… Cheers for the heads up Lee.
Will let everyone know how long it takes to arrive and everything.
The polish site to pay is a little bit worrying but I emailed and its a fully legit site.
Hope everyone’s well
^_^
Is this magazine available in Australaia?
Hi all,
Just a heads up to say I recieved my 2 copies of Flash & Flex this morning. Issue 1 and 2, so from the day of purchase which was the 28/8/08.
Excellent service, and im itching to get in to reading them
Gareth
I ordered on Sept. 21, still haven’t received one issue. Emailed them Monday (3 days ago), still no reply.
So far, not so good…
Same here…I ordered on Sept. 18th and still no magazine.