Introducing: Package Assistant (AIR 2 package utility built with AIR 2)
Update: A brand new version of Package Assistant is available. Check out this page for more info.
Two of the most requested features for AIR were the ability to create native installers and to launch/talk to native applications. Among other new features, AIR 2 allows you to do that. To build these native installers you have to use the command line compiler.
A while back I was thinking if it would be possible to write an AIR application that would talk to ADT (the command line compiler) and that would make it easier to compile a native installer. And here it is… Well… It’s not quite finished yet but it’s very close. I just couldn’t wait sharing this screencap with you guys because I think it’s a great example of how powerful AIR has become.
The wizard style application allows you to easily identify the files it needs and after just 4 steps you simply
hit the compile button. A lot easier than fiddling around with the command line ;-)
I should have this finished before the holidays so stay tuned!
The power of the Flash Platform part 4: Online gaming
There’s a good chance you immediately recognized the game in this screenshot. Over 28 million people played Farmville yesterday. Another 10 million played Cafe World. 6 million for FishVille Mafia Wars (Mafia Wars is not a Flash Game. Thanks Robert for pointing that out!). In fact, Zynga alone (maker of these games) serves 60 million players every single day… And all these games are built with the Flash Platform. I might as well stop this blog post right here because that’s a very impressive number.
There are also a ton of Flash games available on the web that are used to launch or promote a new product. Check out these games by Red Bull, Coca-Cola, and Cheetos.
There are many many many games like these out there. Know a cool one? Feel free to share the link in the comment section!
Other posts in this series:
The power of the Flash Platform Part 1
The power of the Flash Platform Part 2 – Augmented reality
The power of the Flash Platform Part 3 – Video
Native iPhone applications built with Flash – FailBlog Player Demo
Write once, deploy anywhere. Sounds nice, no? Sadly it’s not really a reality today. The currently available technologies are very fragmented and today there is no technology out there that makes that dream a reality.
I have a strong feeling that is going to change dramatically in 2010. Some will disagree or say that I am too biased but I really do think it’s going to happen… Want proof? Ok… You got it!
I’m sure you’ve all heard that the next release of Flash (CS5) will allow you to build native applications for the iPhone. Instead of having to learn a new language to built such a native app, you just build it with the tools and technology you all know and love. The demo video below shows an application that I’ve been building the last couple of days. A FailBlog video player that gets all the latest FailBlog videos and allows you to watch them on your iPhone or mobile device. It is completely written in ActionScript 3.0 and plays Flash Video (FLVs with On2 VP6 in this case. So no need to transcode your videos!) on the iPhone. And that’s not even the coolest thing about it! The coolest thing about this is that I can export this as an iPhone application, SWF file and AIR application with just one button click. At the end of the video you’ll see a sneak peek of the same application running on a Palm Pre in its browser with Flash Player 10.1! And that is the power of the Flash Platform! Write once, deploy anywhere? It’s finally becoming a reality!
If all goes well, you should be able to play with the iPhone version of this app before the end of the year. I still have some optimizations to do and have to clean up some bits and pieces but I’m feeling confident that that shouldn’t take too long. Keep an eye on my blog for more details!
Flash on!
Help shape the future of the Flash Platform
Although some people may/will disagree, Adobe does listen to feedback from the community. ;-) Obviously there’s only so much you can add in one release cycle and therefore it could be that your favorite feature didn’t make in a particular release.
There is an easy way to influence which features will be considered for Flash Player, Flash Builder/Flex SDK, Blaze DS and the ActionScript Compiler. Adobe actively requests that developers log bugs and feature requests using JIRA, which is hosted at bugs.adobe.com. The product teams review all the feature enhancements that are logged and pay particular attention to those requests that have community support, by way of the number of votes received. In other words: Make yourself heard! Remember the “Make Some Noise” campaign that Andre Michelle started to get raw audio APIs in Flash Player? The whole Flash community was talking about it… and Flash Player got the audio APIs.
To summarize: Make sure you add your feature/enhancement request to the open bug base and make sure you get lots of support. This is obviously not a guarantee that it will be added to the next release of a product but I can guarantee you that we do take the feedback you give us very seriously and that all feedback is used to shape the future of the Flash Platform.
If you haven’t used bugs.adobe.com before, you can find a quick guide to getting started here.
Microwave oven powered by Adobe AIR
Oh wow… Just last April Fool’s day, I joked about this… and now it’s real!
From Crunchgear:
Two researchers from Japan’s Keio University (which yours truly attended just until recently by the way) have developed a kitchen appliance aimed at the total web geek in you, a YouTube-powered microwave. The so-called Castoven [JP] is based on a conventional, unbranded model of “good quality” but sports a 10.4-inch LCD screen in the door panel.
The main idea is to display a YouTube video whose length depends on the time you need to heat up what’s inside the Castoven. Say, you want to prepare a lunch box that takes 3.30 minutes to be ready. The Castoven would then automatically pull a video from YouTube with that length and display it on the screen until the meal is finished
The oven is powered by an AIR application that runs on your computer and gets YouTube videos through its API.
This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure you can imagine this with cooking videos, news broadcasts etc.
Ok… So I joked about this a while back and it became a reality. How’s this for the next crazy idea: An AIR/Flash Player powered fridge. The application will suggest recipes based on what’s in your fridge and will tell you when items in it have expired. In the morning it shows you the latest news and weather updates and it can even tell you how much power/money it is using and how to lower the cost. It also tracks your purchases so that it can alert you of promotions in your local supermarket… And obviously all presented in a nice, user-friendly UI. You have 6 months… Go!
Flash on!
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