The set consists of a button component, contacts list component, list component, media data component, popup component and scrollbar component. They’re all very easy to use and also customizable.
Kudos to Nokia for releasing these! Flash on!
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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.
Palm is showing off 3rd party applications running on the Pre. I have to say, the more I see this phone, the more I want it. The iPhone has changed the mobile game but I’m sure Palm can shake things up again with the Pre!
Back in February, Stefan Richter, Mike Jones, Dave Williamson, James Whittaker, Bola Roibi and Andrew Shorten met up in London to discuss the power of the Flash community and the new challenges the Flash Platform faces (as featured in .net Magazine May 2009 issue 188). The highlights of this round table discussion are also featured in this month’s Web Design TV podcast (subscribe in iTunes).
Facebook and Adobe have just released an ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for the Facebook Platform API. This will make it a whole lot easier for Flash developers to build applications for the Facebook Platform using Flash, Flex and AIR.
Nokia releases Flash Lite components
I can’t believe I missed that but a few weeks ago Nokia released a free set of Flash Lite components on Forum Nokia.
Google adds external resource indexing for Flash sites/apps
Exciting news resonated through the Twittersphere today as Google announced that they’ve now added the ability to index external resources for Flash sites and applications.
When your Flash based site or application loads content from another file (text, HTML, XML, script, another SWF, …) Google can now also index that external content.
While Ichabod – the headless Flash Player that Google uses to enable this – offers even more functionality than what Google offers today, this is obviously really exciting news. If you want to learn more about Ichabod, definitely check out Jim Corbet’s session from Max 2008.
Read more about Google’s implementation on Google’s Webmaster Central.
Flash on!
Update: According to Google’s blog, it seems that this is now limited to AS1 and AS2. I’m trying to find out more about that. Will keep you posted.
Update: Google confirmed that they also index AS3 based content. They also updated their blog post.
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, …
Mobile for Flash Developers free eSeminar today
Atlantic Records have been working with AgencyNet on a fantastic multi-screen application called Fanbase. The team used Adobe AIR and the Flash Lite Distributable player to bring the application to consumers.
Working on Fanbase among others is David Brown, an extremely talented Flash developer. He’s been working with us for some time on the Distributable Player, and in fact his Bacardi application may well have been responsible for the new security model.
Today (Thursday, April 30, 2009 11:00 A.M. PST), David Brown from AgencyNet will host an eSeminar and uncover the key factors to consider when developing and deploying content to multiple devices with Adobe’s distributable player solution. Topics include Multilingual content, multiple input types, and consistent user experiences across screens.
mTwit progress update
I know, I know… everyone is doing Twitter clients these days. It’s the new “Hello World”! With this “Hello World”, I want to show the possibilities of the Flash Platform for mobile phones. I am building “mTwit”, the Twitter client for all recent Flash-enabled phones. I decided to publish it with our new distributable player. Right now, that gives me a potential install base of 27 million users… Now, if they all donate $1, that would make me very happy ;-)
Right… about the app now. I basically started from scratch after I found out that I completely over-architected the app and that I was stuck. After reading up on a few best practices, I decided to use the Feather Framework. Although I did need to tweak it quite a bit, this framework and its components are an excellent starting point. I am also building this application so that it automatically and optimally uses the available screen size. Below is a screenshot of the app running on a Nokia E71. You can see that the components automatically adapt to the wider screen size.
I also recorded a quick sneak peak of the current build of the application. I recorded this from a Nokia N95 and I hope that it gives you a bit of an idea on the performance.
The application is far from ready though. There’s still a lot to do, but I think I am making good progress. Some people thought I was going to release it today… Now don’t get me wrong… I do appreciate your enthusiasm! However, I don’t want to rush things. I want to make sure that everything works and that the user experience is just as good as other Twitter apps you may be using. So… stay tuned! I will update you on my blog when I have more…
mTwit sneak peak: Flash Lite Twitter client
UPDATE: I’m making good progress but it’s far from done… Check out the follow up article for a progress update and sneak peak video.
Eating our own dog food is a big part of being an evangelist. I also like to challenge myself every now and then and so I started building a Flash Lite Twitter client that can run on most Flash Lite enabled phones.
This is just a quick sneak peak and it’s far from ready but I’ll update you on the progress through my blog. I don’t really have a deadline. However, the sneak peak you see here is the result of just 2 days of work so I should be able to finish it soon.
I hope Jonnie from DestroyToday doesn’t mind me using the DestroyTwitter color scheme. I really love how clean that design is and I’m trying to bring some of that to my mobile client.
Stay tuned!
Palm showing off 3rd party Pre apps in Las Vegas
Palm is showing off 3rd party applications running on the Pre. I have to say, the more I see this phone, the more I want it. The iPhone has changed the mobile game but I’m sure Palm can shake things up again with the Pre!
Developers can build applications for the Pre using nothing but web technologies like HTML and Javascript. You also get complete access to all the APIs. So all Pre developers will have access to the same functionality as Palm does. Oh and… You may have missed this announcement but Palm is also a partner in the Open Screen Project. And since all OSP partners only have one goal, that can only mean one thing……..
“Flash Player 10 will be the perfect extension to Palm webOS,” said Pam Deziel, vice president, software product management, Palm, Inc. “With this next-generation platform, people expect the same engaging experiences on their phone that they’re used to on their desktops. Together Palm and Adobe are dramatically changing the mobile web, providing the richest experience on the most web-connected platform available.”
CrunchGear.com recorded a bunch of 3rd party app demos.
Man… I really can’t wait to get my hands on one of those.
Adobe opening “Flash City” stores around the world
UPDATE: This article was posted on April Fools day. But while I was writing this, I realized that this may not be that far off. Check out the follow up article for more.
Today, Adobe announced a partnership with Media Markt for Europe, Dixons for the UK and Best Buy for the US to launch the Adobe Flash City stores. All three chains are opening up stores in 68 cities all over the world today. Adobe has started production of a “Flash City” branded consumer electronics line that ranges from mobile phones to set-top boxes and from refrigerators to toasters.
“We are doing this with our Open Screen partners. It made sense to not only work together on getting Flash on to these devices but also combine our marketing power to build a new world wide brand,” Adobe’s recently hired Itsa Notru (VP of Consumer Enablement) said. She continued: “This is just the beginning. While we are releasing consumer electronics today, we are also looking at creating more advanced applications of our technology. You will soon see Flash enabled X-ray machines and even Flash enabled airport security scanners.“.
The BBC has already announced the availability of the iPlayer to run on the Flash City toasters. The BBC’s Anthony Rose said: “Our marketing team identified breakfast television as an emerging market segment for on-demand viewing and asked the iPlayer team to see if we could come up with something new in this space. Developing the iPlayer Toaster Edition has been hot and demanding work and our test team is glad it’s done – frankly they’ve had it eating burnt toast, even though they did manage to catch up on the entire MasterChef series.“.
I’m still in the process of getting the complete list of stores that are opening today and will update this post when I get that. Meanwhile, don’t hesitate to go to your local Media Markt, Dixons or Best Buy and ask them about the Flash City stores and products.
I’ll be visiting the Flash City store in Antwerp later today. Hope to see you there.
5 UK Flash experts discuss the Flash Platform and Flash community
Back in February, Stefan Richter, Mike Jones, Dave Williamson, James Whittaker, Bola Roibi and Andrew Shorten met up in London to discuss the power of the Flash community and the new challenges the Flash Platform faces (as featured in .net Magazine May 2009 issue 188). The highlights of this round table discussion are also featured in this month’s Web Design TV podcast (subscribe in iTunes).
The discussion is quite lengthy but it’s definitely interesting to watch. Apologies for the squeaky floor sounds though. Chester Chipperfield was nice enough to lend us his apartment for the round table discussion. But when you start walking around on authentic floor boards, they tend to squeak a little bit. ;-)
Building Flash applications for Facebook just became a whole lot easier
Facebook and Adobe have just released an ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for the Facebook Platform API. This will make it a whole lot easier for Flash developers to build applications for the Facebook Platform using Flash, Flex and AIR.
If you have already built a Flash based application for Facebook in the past, you’re probably wondering what is so new about this release. While there are some unofficial libraries out there, many of these struggle to stay up to date with the rapidly evolving Facebook Platform. Today’s release makes ActionScript one of three officially supported languages of the Facebook Platform. The new AS3.0 Client Library is fully supported by Facebook and Adobe. Both Facebook and Adobe are committed to making sure that this library is kept up to date and provides the best experience for developers building on both platforms.
Danny Dura published a quick start video tutorial that will get you building Flash apps for the Facebook Platform in no time. We’ve also created a dedicated area on the Adobe Developer Connection that has everything you need to get inspired and get started.
Flash on!
