Number 1 on my wishlist: HP’s slate device

Posted by on Mar 8, 2010 in devices, Industry | 10 comments

I already blogged about how excited I was about HP’s slate device a few weeks ago. These two new videos make me want it even more!

The first one is a teaser ad from HP but make sure you watch the second video! Adobe’s Alan Tam shows the device in action! No CGI tricks here! Alan shows Adobe AIR and Flash in action on the device: Video playback from MTV.com; A Spongebob Squarepants game (most casual games on the Web run in Flash); photo editing at Photoshop.com and reading the digital version of the New York Times. Now that is the web experience I want on a slate device! I’m ordering this the minute it becomes available!

The HTML5 Flash Marriage: Geolocation source

Posted by on Mar 8, 2010 in Flash Player, html5 | 3 comments

Last Friday I blogged about how HTML5 and Flash could also just work together. A few people have asked if they could get the source files. I just packaged and uploaded the FLA, ActionScript class and HTML files. Download the zip file here.

A few people have also noted that the demo doesn’t work across different platforms even when using the same browser. While I wanted to demonstrate how Flash and HTML5 can coexist and even complement each other, it is (sadly) also a demonstration on how HTML5 is being implemented differently across browsers and operating systems. Feel free to post a comment if you know about fixes or workarounds in the JavaScript to make it work on more browsers.

The HTML5 Flash Marriage: Geolocation

Posted by on Mar 5, 2010 in Flash Player, html5 | 12 comments

I probably don’t need to tell you that there’s a lot of buzz (and fuzz) about how HTML5 is going to kill Flash. You probably know how I feel about this… I think the web is big enough for both of them… Even better… I think they could potentially complement each other!

Geolocation is a good example. HTML5 is going to get a geolocation API that works just beautifully even on devices with no GPS. Flash based applications will (currently) only get access to geolocation APIs when targeting the AIR runtime on mobile. Some browsers (I only know of Firefox 3.5 on Mac and the WebKit browser on the Nexus One) already support the HTML5 geolocation API… So why not use that to get geo information into your Flash based application?

It’s actually extremely easy to do…

But first a little bit of background as to why I was looking for this functionality. I’m actually building “this demo app” that needs the geolocation in order to have the functionality I was looking for. I want this app to work in as many places as possible. With the Flash Platform I can build this for my browser and my desktop. For the Apple phone I can export it as a native app and for the Nexus One I can use the device browser with Flash Player 10.1.

Now… How does it work? The HTML5 geolocation API is extremely easy to use and, like I said earlier, you don’t even need to have a GPS enabled device.

function getGEO()
{
	// First check if your browser supports the geolocation API
	if (navigator.geolocation)
	{
		alert("HTML 5 is getting your location");
		// Get the current position
		navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(position)
		{
			lat = position.coords.latitude
			long = position.coords.longitude;
			// Pass the coordinates to Flash
			passGEOToSWF(lat, long);
		});
	} else {
		alert("Sorry... your browser does not support the HTML5 GeoLocation API");
	}
}
function passGEOToSWF(lat,long)
{
	alert("HTML 5 is sending your location to Flash");
	// Pass the coordinates to mySWF using ExternalInterface
	document.getElementById("mySWF").passGEOToSWF(lat,long);
}

In my Flash application, I’m using ExternalInterface so I can communicate between JavaScript and my SWF. When my Google Maps component is ready, I call the GetGEO JavaScript method:

ExternalInterface.call("getGEO");

When the JavaScript method gets a result from the geolocation API, it will pass it on to the passGEOToSWF method. In my Flash application, I just listen for that method call and then call the code to update the map.

ExternalInterface.addCallback("passGEOToSWF", onPassGEOToSWF);

If you don’t have an HTML5 ready browser, check out this video of the application running in Firefox 3.6. Even cooler is that this also works in the browser on my Flash Player 10.1 enabled Nexus One (Please note that the network is slower on the N1 and thus it isn’t able to keep up with loading new map images. This has nothing to do with Flash Player 10.1 or the application.):

If you have Firefox 3.5 or newer installed, you can give it a try yourself: http://www.webkitchen.be/geolocation. I’m sure there are other browsers out there that also already have the geolocation API but this is the only one I tested on the Mac.

Hopefully this gives you a good idea of how HTML5 and Flash can also just work together (instead of killing each other ;-)). Flash on!

UPDATE: While writing this blog post, @robertbak pinged me on Twitter saying that he wrote a library to use in your Flex applications. Check it out on the Flex Exchange.

UPDATE: For the source files check out this blogpost.

The MWC 2010 Flash Challenge

Posted by on Mar 4, 2010 in Flash Platform, mobile | 3 comments

At the recent Mobile World Congress my colleagues gave me a map… and 10 minutes to find all Flash-enabled devices at Mobile World Congress 2010. You should know that there is 65.000 square meters of exhibition space at MWC and there are over 1300 exhibitors. You also need to navigate between over 50.000 attendees. I’m sure you get the idea… This was not an easy challenge… But… I’m always up for a challenge… So here’s the video…

3000+ reasons why Flash isn’t going anywhere soon

Posted by on Mar 3, 2010 in Flash Platform, Flash Player | 31 comments

The FWA is almost 10 years old (established in May 2000) and they started their 10th anniversary celebrations early by launching a brand new site (created by Belgian based Flash rockstars Group94). The FWA is one of the few sites I visit daily and a great inspirational resource. Every day they award the best site with their acclaimed and much wanted “Site of the Day” award. Winners proudly add the yellow ribbon to their site to show that they won.

The FWA has awarded over 3000 sites in the last 10 years… Less than 10 of those use a technology other than Flash. So… If you’re looking for great examples of why Flash isn’t going anywhere soon, The FWA is a good place to start! In just about every thinkable category from games to architecture to educational to fashion and more you can find inspiring examples that showcase the power of the Flash Platform.

If you have any doubts that Flash doesn’t have a future, you should just look at some of the amazing sites and apps showcased on The FWA!

Here are some of my favorite recent FWA winners:

Flash on!