YouTube: “Flash Platform will continue to play a critical role”
I’m sure you’ve heard that some people are saying that HTML5 is going to kill Flash and how that is already happening with the <video> tag. YouTube, the world’s largest video site, has just published a blog post where they weigh in on the whole HTML5/Flash debate.
In the post they highlight some of Flash’s strong points including robust video streaming, content protection, encapsulation, camera and microphone access, and many more.
Check out the post on YouTube’s API Blog.
Flash on!
World Cup visualizations powered by Flash
You’re probably not going to believe me when I tell you that this post has been sitting in my draft folder for a while. Especially so now that Mashable actually beat me to it. But it’s true… Honestly ;-) Anyway… It doesn’t really matter since this is just cool stuff that needs to be shown.
If you didn’t know that the World Cup is currently happening in South Africa you’ve probably been living on Mars for the last few weeks. It is one of the biggest sports events in the world and lots of people watch/follow it online.
As Belgium (my home country) is not competing in this year’s competition I didn’t really pay too much attention to the World Cup until someone sent me a link to this amazing World Cup calendar on Twitter. It allows you to look up matches by dates, location, teams and groups.
This is probably the first year that so many people are also tweeting about the World Cup. UK newspaper The Guardian created a stunning visualization for World Cup related tweets. You select a match you want to see the tweets for and the app will play back the entire match. It’s difficult to explain… You just have to see it for yourself.
It’s probably not easy to be in the oil business these days let alone link it with the World Cup but I think Castrol pulled it off. This app is sort of like a dashboard application. It shows you a bunch of stats about this year’s World Cup. For instance, it shows you how many times a whistle has been blown, how many yellow and red cards have been issued, and much more. It also has stadium webcams, the latest news and live tweets.
CNN is also using Twitter data for their World Cup visualization app. It shows you which player, teams or topics people are tweeting about the most. You can replay the past 24 hours or watch a live feed.
On their special World Cup blog the New York Times has an application that completely analyzes the match you select. It shows you the lineups, passes between players, a heat map and an overview of who had ball possession and more. It seems like a small app but there is a lot of data in it.
Last but certainly not least I want to highlight the FIFA website. FIFA not only uses Flash to stream the World Cup highlights, they also built their “Match Cast” application with Flash. Like the NYT app it also visualizes all the stats from a particular match.
I’m sure there are many more Flash based apps out there. If you’ve found one that’s not on the list, feel free to leave a comment. Oh… And ehr… Flash on!
Video tutorial: Create native installers in AIR 2
One of the many exciting new features in AIR 2 is the ability to create native installers. That gives your AIR 2 application the ability to talk to native code. In this video I’ll show you how to build native installers for Adobe AIR 2 using the command line, and I also explore how my Package Assistant app simplifies that process. The Package Assistant that I’m using in the video is an older version and I think you’ll find that the current version is even easier to use.
Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 released
Aaah… This is a great day! The Flash Player and AIR teams have been working on this for months and we’ve also been talking about it for quite a while. Today we’re upgrading the web with a ton of new features in Flash Player 10.1 and enable developers to build engaging cross-platform desktop applications.
Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 are now available for download.
If you haven’t been able to check out some of the new APIs before today then check out my “What’s new in Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2” presentation and sample code. We’re also hosting a series of free webinars introducing the new multi-screen development capabilities of the Flash Platform. Details and registration link online. Also check out the Flash Player Team and AIR Team blogs for more info.
One of the biggest new features in AIR 2 is the ability to talk to native processes and build native installers. To help you out with building those native installers check out my Package Assistant Pro AIR 2 application.
I can’t wait to see what you will build with these new capabilities! Flash on!
Adobe Flash Platform Summit 2010 – Bangalore, India
Last year I had the pleasure of speaking at Adobe’s Dev Summit in Bangalore, India. Over 1000 people attended the event and it was an amazing experience that I won’t soon forget. This year the event is going to be even bigger and better.
The Flash Platform Summit is now a 2 day event with over 40 sessions from local and internationally renowned industry leaders and Adobe experts. Sadly I won’t be able to be attend the event this year but I got a sneak peek at the speaker list and it’s already pretty impressive. Trust me… You won’t be disappointed! If you would like to be on stage at the Adobe Flash Platform Summit you can also still enter your session proposals.
If you register before June 25th you even get 60% off! If you’re in the region and are interested in the Flash Platform, you can’t afford to miss this event! Register today!
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