Lots of exciting announcements at CES! Here are my favorites!
Oh wow…Is it just me or does the tech world look very different this morning? I’m talking about the many exciting announcements coming out of CES. I was able to catch a few minutes of the Nvidia press conference last night so let’s start with that.
Jen-Hsun Huang (Nvidia’s CEO): When you put great engineers [from both Nvidia and Adobe] together this is what you’re able to achieve.
When I heard him say that it immediately stuck in my mind. Just because it is so true! Nvidia’s Tegra 2 really is a game changer and such an achievement would not be possible without strong partnerships. Check out this video segment from Nvidia’s press conference showing the performance of Flash on a Tegra 2 enabled device.
The LG Optimus 2X will be one of the first Tegra 2 enabled devices and it looks damn sexy!
The Motorola Xoom (also powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2) looks like another amazing device. The 10.1 inch display has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which makes watching video on it a lot less awkward than on the iPad’s 4:3 screen. Especially since most of today’s video is widescreen video. I never got why Apple went for the 4:3 screen… The Xoom looks great and yes… Motorola offers the full web…
Melissa Gardner (Motorola VP of consumer and product marketing): When you add Adobe in and the fact that they provide an internet experience that is exactly like the internet experience you have at home… That’s the magic.
The Motorola Xoom runs on Android Honeycomb. Honeycomb is optimized specifically for tablet devices.
There’s also lots of excitement about the BlackBerry PlayBook. Engadget got to play with one and here’s an example of the PlayBook’s very impressive multitasking.
Engadget: If you can’t tell, we’re very impressed. Overall the device is blazingly fast, comfortable to hold, and intuitive to use.
Oh… Just to make sure you got the message: All of the above run Flash! Did I not tell you that this was going to be an amazing year for Flash developers? Flash on!
Rob Ford: “Will iDevices be left in a wilderness and possibly be the only devices not to support Flash?”
Rob Ford (the man behind the one of the industry’s most coveted web awards site TheFWA.com) started an interesting discussion on LinkedIn this morning. With all the exciting announcements coming out of CES (blog post with my favorites coming later today) he asks if the iPhone and iPad will be left in a wilderness and possibly be the only devices not to support Flash?
Rob Ford: “Tablets look set to hog the headlines at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Industry watchers expect 100 or more of the portable gadgets to be shown off at the four-day technology extravaganza.”
It seems that one key feature people look for with a new tablet is the ability to run Flash, I know I certainly do.
It also seems that every tablet coming to the market does.
So, will the iPhone and iPad be left in a wilderness and possibly be the only devices not to support Flash?
Flash on mobile is still incredibly new and we are still waiting to see exciting new mobile optimised content. We are pretty much back at Flash 2/3 in terms of the web. To illustrate that point, look at these old Flash sites on your Flash enabled smartphone or tablet, they all work perfectly:
Gabocorp http://www.thefwa.com/flash10/1996_7.html 1997
EYE4U http://www.eye4u.com/home/ 1998
NRG.be http://www.nrg.be/archived/flash.php 1998
Matinee http://www.matinee.co.uk/site2/fr_nmd.htm 1998
Who’s We Studios http://www.whoswestudios.com/flashsite.html 2002
tokyoplastic http://www.tokyoplastic.com/tokyoplastic1.swf 2003
Agencies are definitely working with Flash and AIR for mobile as we speak.
The iPhone is my most used device but I miss the lack of Flash. A friend of mine who is outside of this industry recently told me the only time he fires up his laptop is when he tries to access a site on his iPhone that requires Flash.
I am still looking at tablets but will only buy one that does support Flash.
I also feel the app store is a “boys club” network, especially after publishing an iPhone app for FWA Photo. It was a long and painful process and aftersales was useless. I prefer the freedom the web gave us and hate to see it taken away.
I believe that 2011 will see many of us moving away from the need for Flash on Apple’s devices. All that energy wasted on trying to change Apple’s stance is better focused on getting creative on devices that work.
I don’t want to hijack Rob’s discussion so I closed the comments on this post. You can share your thoughts on Rob’s LinkedIn discussion thread.
I wish I was at CES. Get ready for a ton of new devices!
It’s probably every gadget freak’s dream to go CES in Las Vegas. Last year I “happened” to be in Vegas as a tourist during CES and so obviously I also visited the Consumer Electronics Show. While last year was mostly about 3D and Internet connected TVs this year we’ll see a whole range of new tablets being introduced. Some analysts are even saying that no less than 70 new tablets will see the daylight at CES.
We already saw teasers from Motorola and Vizio. Various techblogs are reporting on rumors about new tablets from Toshiba, LG, HTC, HP, Samsung, and more… You can already feel the buzz, can’t you?
Now wouldn’t it be cool if there was this one technology that could work on all those different tablets? Well… As it turns out, there is! No no… I’m not actually confirming anything here. I’m just saying that there is a technology out there that does run on multiple devices. You’ll have to wait and see which new devices will support the Flash Platform… That said… You do know that just about everyone is part of the Open Screen Project, right?
It’s going to be a great year for Flash developers! Flash on!
Motorola teasing a new tablet
2011 is going to be an interesting year! Apple has undoubtedly done an excellent job with the iPad but it has it’s obvious flaws. While they are currently the market leader in tablets the game is changing rapidly. With CES just a few weeks away big brands are starting to tease some of their announcements. (Man… I wish I could be at CES this year! So much cool stuff coming!) Motorola created this interesting teaser that doesn’t really say anything and yet says so much…
BTW… I’m doing a little bit of research on tablets and tablet applications. If you have a few minutes I would really appreciate it if you took the time to fill out this short survey.
Research: What’s your favorite tablet app and why?
The holidays are always a good time to do a little bit of research and since tablets are obviously going to be the next hot thing I thought about doing some research on tablet apps. I need your help though.
What I’d like to find out is what your favorite tablet apps are and why. I’d also like to hear from you if you currently do not own a tablet. To make this as easy as possible I created a Google Docs form. It would be a great help if you could take a few minutes to share your thoughts. Thanks in advance!
Think multi-screen
When we talk about apps for devices these days we are no longer talking about one device. Today we are talking about a multitude of devices and device platforms. The multi-screen story is also no longer about just different smartphones. We’re also talking about tablets, netbooks, set-top boxes, and Blu-ray players. Building applications for all of these can be a bit challenging to say the least. Dealing with different operating systems, device features, and screen sizes can be a bit of a nightmare.
In previous posts I already talked a bit about how the Flash Platform can help you with that. Flash was originally designed to run on multiple platforms and adapt to different screen sizes. This post is not about that though. I wanted to write down some thoughts about multi-screen applications from a user’s standpoint.
First of all, when you start thinking about building an application for devices it is a very good idea to make sure you have a multi-screen strategy. It’s not just about iOS devices anymore! “If we have two more quarters like this past quarter, Google will have 37% market share, RIM will be at 29%, and Apple will be at 26%“, Fred Wilson (a VC in New York) recently said in a blog post about where mobile developers should focus. He ends his post with this: “One thing I am sure of is that developing solely for iOS, which is a very common thing I see out there, is not the right strategy unless you only want to serve 25% of the market.”
Now building your apps for multiple devices is one thing… But what about the app’s content?
Evernote is a great example of a multi-screen application. I can run the app on my smartphone, on my tablet, in my browser or as a standalone application on my desktop/laptop. The best thing is that it keeps my notes in sync. It doesn’t matter where I am or which device I use. I always have my notes with me. Once I create new notes they automatically get synced with all the other apps when you are online. Simple concept, right? I really love this approach and would love to see this in all my apps. I try to mimic this by using Dropbox. I save all my project files on there so I can use them on both my laptop and desktop. Kindle by Amazon is also a good example (Thank you Chris Pelsor for pointing that out). There are Kindle apps for multiple devices and they all use the unique features that each device has to offer. You also have all your books available to you across all apps.
Like many of you I am also addicted to Angry Birds. I have it installed on my smartphone and on my tablet… But they are not connected to each other. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just open up the app on your tablet and continue playing the same level you last played on your phone? And maybe later continue playing the same level on your desktop? Or on your TV?
But I want even more… Wouldn’t it be great if one day you get a new computer, type in your credentials, and all your apps and content will start syncing automatically? I guess that is what Google is trying to do with ChromeOS. I must say that I really like the idea of not having to be tied to one machine. Obviously there are some privacy issues that we must conquer but I really like the concept.
Anyway… What I want to say is that when you start building your multi-screen applications stop and think about these things for a second. If your game has different levels or your application saves notes you may want to offer the user a way of syncing that across multiple devices. I’m sure your user will appreciate it!
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