We hope you enjoyed our recap of MAX 2009. In case you missed it or would like to dig deeper into the MAX sessions, the videos and links from the meetup are posted below.

• Flash Builder 4 Beta 2, Flash Catalyst Beta 2, and ColdFusion Builder Beta 2 are now available. To download, visit http://labs.adobe.com.
• Flash Professional CS5, with iPhone publishing capabilities, new text layout tools, and much more will be available as a public beta by the end of this year. Sign up to be notified at http://labs.adobe.com.
• ColdFusion 9 is now available. http://www.adobe.com/go/coldfusion/

Videos shown at the meetup:

• Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile devices, Smartphones and Netbooks
• Adobe Myth Hackers: Flash on iPhone!
• MAX 2009: Mark Hamill Talks to Ryan Stewart
• Sneak Peeks 2009 Legal Intro
• Sneak Peek: Flash Professional CS5
• Sneak Peek: Smart Paste in Dreamweaver
• Sneak Peek: Adobe ROME
• Sneak Peek: 3D Brushes in Photoshop

Watch all of the sessions from Adobe MAX 2009, including the two keynotes, for free! Sessions are divided into three tracts: Design, Envision, Develop. Find them all on Adobe TV. http://tv.adobe.com

Finally, congrats to Ken Seals, winner of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 drawing! Stay tuned for another big Adobe software raffle coming soon!

Thanks again to J.P. Stephens for his presentation on Lightroom 2, and Jed Schneider for his overview and demo of Flex 4 and Flash Builder. Both were excellent, well-prepared presentations, and if you missed them, they will be available soon on our Vimeo Group. Stay tuned to out Twitter feed for updates.

Lightroom Resources from J.P.:

The best site I've found, hands down, is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips. This site gets more in depth than any other I've seen and also includes downloads of tons of high-quality presets. It's a great place to start.

Additionally, Lightroom Galleries offers several downloadable gallery templates, offering even more choices when exporting one's photos for display on the web.

Flex 4 Resources from Jed:

• Sample code and slides: github.com/jedschneider
• Adobe Open Source: http://opensource.adobe.com
• Flex and Flash Builder: http://adobe.com/flex
• HTML/CSS Presentation Generator: http://webby.rubyforge.org
• FluTracker: http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/

September Puzzle!

This month, enter to win a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 4 by playing the online Flash game at windosill.com. It's a fun example of the kinds of interactions and animations available in Flash Player 10 by Vectorpark. To enter, simply play through level five, then either send a screen shot or a description of the final level to gregorylunn [at] gmail.com, or through the Adobe Groups site. If you enjoy it, why not register for $3 to play the full game? The drawing for CS4 will be held at our group meeting in November. Good luck, and have fun!

Thanks to those of you who could attend Thursday night! Hope to see all of you next time, and hey, why not bring a friend?

So you want to go to MAX 2009, but the travel and training budget just isn't available? Adobe is offering discounts on conference passes and airfare to help you get to MAX.

Conference Pass Discounts and Promotions

Group discount promotion - Register a group of three or more people from your company and save $400 per person, paying only $1095 for each full conference pass.

Student Discount - There’s also the special student rate announced last week ($199 for a FULL MAX pass if you have a valid student ID and use promo code STU691.

Preconference Labs - Enhance your skills in one of our all-day hands-on preconference labs on October 4. Choose from a wide selection of topics and products. Attend for only $595. Click here for more information.

Single Day Pass - Pack as much MAX as you can into a single day. The standard price for a one-day pass is $595 but if you use this discount code: DAY941 you save $100. This is the best deal available at MAX 2009. For maximum benefit, attend on either October 5 or 6.

Three Day Exhibits-Only Pass - If you are primarily interested in the Unconferences this is a really good option. $200 gets you three-day access to the MAX Exhibit Hall (home of the Community lounge, all Unconferences, vendor booths, and BoFs), as well as entry to the keynotes and the Sponsors Welcome Reception on Monday evening.

More information as well as airline, hotel and travel discounts can be found at http://max.adobe.com/saveatmax/. Hope to see you at MAX 2009!

Thanks again to our members who joined us for our "Photoshop vs Fireworks" discussion. I hope that you learned some useful tips and tricks for your favorite app, and that you are curious enough to try the other one!

This month's puzzle is ready for you. Remember, you'll need to find a secret URL and a passcode, and visit the URL to enter to win Creative Suite 4! Thanks to Jason Beaird for setting this one up.

http://tinyurl.com/n9xwel

Contest is open to active members of the Columbia Adobe User Group. Good luck!

Thanks for attending the Flash Platform User Group tour at CAUG in July! In case you missed it, our presentation on Flash builder and demo of Flash Catalyst will be available for viewing on our Vimeo channel very soon.

Another month also means another challenge on our way to the Creative Suite 4 giveaway! Remember, you must find a secret URL and passcode hidden within the puzzle, and visit the URL to be officially entered. This month's puzzle is waiting for you here:

http://tinyurl.com/l7qkdz

Contest is open to active members of the Columbia Adobe User Group. Good luck!

A big thank you to Micah Thomason and Bob Wertz for their great presentations this month! If you missed them, the video will be posted to our Vimeo channel soon.

For those of you interested in solving this month's puzzle to be entered to win a copy of Creative Suite, your next challenge awaits you. Remember, to solve the puzzle, you'll need to use Adobe software to find a secret URL and passcode. Enter the information in your browser to be entered into this month's door prize drawing as well as the grand prize drawing for CS4!

CAUG puzzle for June:
http://tinyurl.com/nl3sk3

Contest is open to all active members of the Columbia Adobe User Group. Good luck!