I’m happy to announce the official launch of a contest for EU residents: The Adobe Mobile Challenge. Adobe are challenging you to build a great AIR app and publish it into the Apple Store, the Android Marketplace and  the BlackBerry App World for a chance to win a trip to Adobe MAX in Los Angeles, California this October. The first prize includes a flight, hotel accommodation and entry to Adobe MAX. Runner up prizes include Creative Suite 5.5 and Flash Builder Premium 4.5.1.

This is your chance to show us and the world what you can do. Using AS3 or Adobe Flex you can now develop advanced mobile applications and run them on iOS, Android and on the BlackBerry PlayBook. So what are you waiting for? Get coding. That said, you don’t have to build a new or exclusive application for this contest; if you’ve already published an application, feel free to submit it.

This challenge is managed by Adobe Europe, that’s why the competition is open to EU residents only :Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden & United Kingdom.

The submissions end on the 1st of September. Then the members of the jury will elect the best applications.You just need to develop an AIR mobile application with or without the Flex framework. It can be a game, a pure artistic experience, a lifestyle application, or even a productivity application… there’s no restriction except that it be a useful and interesting app. If you have already developed an application, you can submit that as well. You are not forced to create a new exclusive AIR application for this challenge.

Visit the dedicated website of this contest to discover its rules, the prizes and members of the jury: www.adobemobilechallenge.com

Michael Chaize

Well… Picking a winner in my blog design contest was far from easy. I had multiple favorites and so I asked a few friends to help me pick the winner. We eventually narrowed it down to two and then did a final voting round.

The winner is Marten De Jongh, a freelance photographer/designer from The Netherlands. You’ll see his design appear on my blog mid-january.

I’d like to thank everyone who participated. You guys did an fantastic job!

Last week I realized that I am not 100% happy with the blog theme I recently installed. I like it, but it’s not quite exactly what I wanted. In all honesty, I don’t really like fiddling around with CSS and HTML. I hate having to navigate around different browser implementations and therefore never really got in to CSS and HTML. I also realize that there are people out there with much better design skills than me.

Last week I asked my Twitter followers if someone would be interested in designing/building a theme for my blog in exchange for CS4 Master Collection. I also asked if they would want to participate in a contest or if I should just pick one person based on previous work. The majority of the “votes” went to an open contest and so here we are…

What am I looking for?
A nice, fresh, clean and unique theme for my blog. You would provide both the PSD files and the WordPress theme files. The code has to be 100% valid and as SEO friendly as possible. The main content area must be at least 640 pixels wide. The theme would have at least 1 widget enabled sidebar on the right.

What’s in it for you?
Eternal fame ;-) and CS4 Master Collection (a €3300 value).

Moodboard
To get you started, I put together a little moodboard that should hopefully give you an idea of what I like. I like minimalistic and clean with nice typography.

I also like these designs (or parts of it):
http://www.fontshop.be/
http://www.engadget.com/
http://www.adobeusergroup.nl/
http://www.adobeusergroupxl.nl/
http://www.8020studio.com/
http://aigany.org
http://concentric-studio.com/work/

Deadline
To spare you from doing unnecessary work, I will judge this based on the static designs. You can add a link to the design in the comment section. The designs have to be in on December 18th 2009. I will pick and announce a winner on December 21st. The winner will then create the actual WordPress theme. The final theme has to be delivered on January 15th 2010. Don’t forget: delivering the WordPress theme is part of this contest! The contest is open to anyone anywhere.

More questions?
If you have more questions, feel free to leave a comment or use the “Get in touch” form.

Looking forward to seeing your designs!

2 weeks ago, I opened up the “Future of Flash Midsummer Giveaway”. I asked you guys to look in to your crystal balls and tell us where you see the Flash Platform in 5, 10 or even 20 years from now. I must say that some of you have a very vivid imagination ;-)

To be totally fair, I asked my colleagues Enrique Duvos and Andrew Shorten to pick the winners. Congrats!

Win a ticket for FOTB:

Wins a copy of Flex Builder:

And you know what… I’m in a good mood today so I’m going to send a cool T-shirt and Flex book to everyone who submitted an entry! ;-)

All winners will receive an email from me.

I have two full conference tickets for Flash On The Beach in Brighton (worth £359 each), one copy of Flex Builder 3 Professional, a bunch of Flex books, t-shirts and other goodies and I’m giving it all away!

How do you win? Easy! Take out your crystal ball and take a look in to the future of the Flash Platform. Where do you see the Flash Platform 5, 10 or 20 years from now? What would you add or change to the Flash Platform?

Be creative! You can use both the power of words and the power of pixels. If you want to create mockup of Flash CS10 or Flash Builder 10, then please do so. If you are better with words, feel free to type away. Leave a comment with a link to your image or just post your thoughts. Please enter your real name and email address.

Winners will be picked based on creativity, originality and/or interesting ideas. Winners will be announced on Monday, August 17th 2009 on this blog. Deadline: Sunday, August 16th, 2009 00:00GMT

Looking forward to hear your thoughts and ideas!