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!
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There’s no denying that Apple did a terrific job with the iPhone. After walking around with PDAs and smartphones, Apple really changed the market and it took a while for competitors to catch up. I honestly never thought I would think about replacing my iPhone any time soon. Even with all its obvious flaws… But today, a late Christmas gift arrived in the form of a Google Nexus One.
A shopping trip to New York City, a few new phones for testing purposes and a new home cinema setup. That’s probably how I would spend $30.000 ;-) I really wish I could enter an app in the Flash Lite Developer Challenge and maybe win up to $30.000 but sadly I’m not allowed to enter one as an Adobe employee ;-).
When I talk to developers about mobile application development, they all seem to think that Apple’s App Store is the only outlet where you can make money with mobile apps. Sure, Apple has done a terrific job making it easier for the consumer to buy and install apps on their iPhone but that doesn’t mean this is the only way. The iPhone market is also only a fraction of the total amount of mobile devices out there and people have been making money from mobile phone users for years now.
Number 1 on my wishlist: HP’s slate device
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!
Preparing for Mobile World Congress
Believe me when I say that Adobe is going to rock at Mobile World Congress next week! I wish I could tell you about all of our announcements today but you’re gonna have to wait a little longer…
If you are in Barcelona for MWC, please come and say hi! The Adobe booth is located in hall 1 (stand 1D45). We’ve teamed up with lots of content and device partners and we will be showing lots of cool stuff at the booth!
Keep an eye on my blog and the Flash Platform blog for more info throughout the week!
Hope to see you there!
My first hours with the Nexus One
There’s no denying that Apple did a terrific job with the iPhone. After walking around with PDAs and smartphones, Apple really changed the market and it took a while for competitors to catch up. I honestly never thought I would think about replacing my iPhone any time soon. Even with all its obvious flaws… But today, a late Christmas gift arrived in the form of a Google Nexus One.
I had heard and read about it and really wanted to get my hands on one to see if it was really as fast and good as the reviews seemed to suggest. Today I finally got that chance and yes… the reviews are right. The Nexus One certainly feels very fast, the screen is gorgeous and the camera is a serious upgrade from my iPhone 3GS. It also feels a bit lighter than the iPhone and also looks thinner. The most obvious plus is that it has Flash Player 10.1. The same Flash Player that you are used to on your desktops and laptops will soon be available for your smartphone.
I’m going to try and not use my iPhone for a few days, a few weeks, … as long as I can. I have become pretty accustomed to using my iPhone for just about everything but I really do feel that the Nexus One may be a very good competitor.
Things I like so far:
- It has Flash Player 10.1 therefore I finally have a full web-experience in the palm of my hand.
- The camera. The quality really is better and it comes with an LED flash making the camera usable even in the dark.
- Most of the apps I use daily (like Tripit or Twitter) are also available in the Android Market or have a decent alternative.
- I love the fact that you can organize your home screens exactly like you want them.
Things I don’t like:
- The Android Market is not fully available in Belgium. Therefore I only have access to free apps. This will potentially become a real problem for me and it sorta already is. The Exchange client that I want to use is not a free app and therefore I can’t download and install it. I hope I can find a workaround soon because this is a serious deal-breaker… If you happen to know a workaround, I’d love to hear it.
- Are there really only 5 home screens? I currently use 9 screens on my iPhone… This may become a problem although you do have access to all your apps in the application menu. I guess it’s just a different way of launching the apps.
I’ll keep you updated on how I get on with the Nexus One, on which sites I visit/use that I couldn’t before and on any Flash development experiments I may have time for in the next days/weeks. Stay tuned ;-)
Adobe at Mobile World Congress
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is just around the corner and you can already feel the excitement building.
2010 is going to be an amazing year for Flash developers who want to create mobile applications. Not only did we announce the Flash CS5 iPhone compiler but we’ve already demoed Flash Player 10.1 on a variety of devices from Android to WebOS to Windows Mobile. At Mobile World Congres in Barcelona we will be demonstrating uncompromised rich web experiences in Flash on the latest smartphones, netbooks, and smartbooks with some of the Open Screen Project partners. If you plan to attend the show, come visit us in Hall 1 and experience them firsthand.
We’re also offering Flash Platform developers a limited number of complimentary exhibition visitor passes (a value of € 599 per person) on a first-come, first-served basis. Email us with your name, company name, and email address (for each pass) if you’re interested. For more details, visit http://www.adobe.com/go/mwc2010.
From the evangelism team, Mark Doherty, Tom Krcha, Enrique Duvos and I will be there to answer your questions. Hope to see you in Barcelona!
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!
Multi-screen development session at Flash On The Beach
Although Flash On The Beach is only 4 years old this year, it has already become a highlight in the Flash community. There something about FOTB that makes this one of the “must-go” conferences of the year. And it seems to be growing year after year!
This is going to be the first year that I’m actually doing a session at FOTB. “I’d better come up with an appealing session”, was my first thought when I got accepted as a speaker. After all, I am sharing the billboard with Flash rock stars like Keith Peters, Mario Klingemann, Mike Jones, Grant Skinner, Joa Ebert, Colin Moock and many more.
But… I think I have an interesting session lined up. With multi-screen development becoming increasingly important, I thought it was a good idea to do a session about that. Even more so because we have some interesting announcements lined up around the MAX timeframe which coincidentally happens to be just 2 weeks after FOTB… So… I’ll show you how to build an application that runs on multiple screens sharing the same code-base and using the capabilities available in the different runtimes.
Can you read between the lines…? “Same code-base across the different runtimes…” Anyone? ;-)
Early bird pricing for FOTB ends on July 24th and FOTB did sell out the last 2 years… So… What are you waiting for? See you in Brighton!
More info and tickets on http://www.flashonthebeach.com/
Flash Lite Developer Challenge deadline is getting closer
A shopping trip to New York City, a few new phones for testing purposes and a new home cinema setup. That’s probably how I would spend $30.000 ;-) I really wish I could enter an app in the Flash Lite Developer Challenge and maybe win up to $30.000 but sadly I’m not allowed to enter one as an Adobe employee ;-).
However, it’s not too late to enter your mobile Flash application. You have until May 31st to submit it on http://flashlitedeveloperchallenge.com.
Making money with mobile apps outside Apple’s App Store
When I talk to developers about mobile application development, they all seem to think that Apple’s App Store is the only outlet where you can make money with mobile apps. Sure, Apple has done a terrific job making it easier for the consumer to buy and install apps on their iPhone but that doesn’t mean this is the only way. The iPhone market is also only a fraction of the total amount of mobile devices out there and people have been making money from mobile phone users for years now.
Here’s a little test. Turn on your television and tune in to any music channel. (Try to) Leave it on for half an hour and count the commercials for ringtone and application subscriptions you see. I’m pretty sure that after half an hour you’ve seen at least five for companies like the Ringtoneking, Jamster and Jamba. All of these (worldwide) providers allow users of just about any mobile phone to buy, download and install mobile applications. All it takes is a simple premium SMS that returns a download link. People have been doing this for years now and the Ringtonekings of this world are obviously making a ton of money from it.
Sure, it’s not the most ideal solution and again, Apple has done a fantastic job with the App Store. However, if these ringtone/app providers have been making money for so long, that means that people have been buying and installing ringtones, games and apps way before the iPhone was even conceived.
Conclusion: If you want to make money from mobile application development, why not do it for the broadest possible audience? And if you’ve made that choice, look in to Flash for mobile devices. It’s available on more than 400 650 (source: Device Central CS4) different mobile phones from just about all manufacturers including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, HTC, LG, …
