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 sessions: Help wanted!
With Flash On The Beach and MAX fast approaching, it’s about time to start prepping my multi-screen development session and lab for both events.
Before I can get started though, I need to come up with a good idea for a multi-screen application and I need your help in deciding which direction I should go.
So… What type of application would you like me to build for this session and lab? Entertainment? Food? Travel? Video? Photo? It can basically be anything as long as it has an in-the-browser version, a desktop version and a mobile version. I do have some ideas in my head but can’t decide on which one to use… That’s why I’m asking for your help!
Now, I’m not asking you to come up with a complete concept (but you can if you want to ;-) ). I’m just asking you to tell me what type of app you would like to build in the BYOL-lab at MAX and have me explain/show in my session at FOTB. I’ll reward the best idea with a goodie bag ;-)
Feel free to post your thoughts as a comment or use the contact form.
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/
Adobe and HTC Bring Flash Platform to Android
There’s been a lot of buzz about Flash on mobile devices the last couple of days and today HTC announces the release of the first Flash enabled Android phone. This HTC Hero delivers a more complete Web browsing experience and provides access to a broad variety of Flash technology based content available on the Web today. Users can browse and discover a broad set of Web content and applications not supported by mobile phones in the past. People can also view YouTube videos using Flash technology, and enable full screen viewing mode by simply double tapping the screen.
The HTC Hero delivers powerful, compatible video playback performance using Flash technology, and interactive content enabled by ActionScript 2.0. Users can enjoy and navigate through Web videos using intuitive video controls. With progressive streaming of large MP3 audio files from a Web server and the local file storage, the HTC Hero provides a seamless audio experience. Support for Sorenson and On2 VP6 codecs enables higher quality video and playback of existing Web content.
This is also a very important step towards full Web browsing with Flash Player 10 on mobile phones in the future.
Check out a demo of the HTC Hero on http://adobe.com/go/htchero. I can’t wait to get my hands on one!
Read more on Mark Doherty’s blog.
Flash on!
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.
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!
Flash Lite Distributable Player now available in 29 countries
The Flash Lite Distributable Player solution is now available in 29 different countries. This enables you to use the most recent Flash Lite 3.1 player with the Adobe Mobile Packager.
By using the Mobile Packager, you can package your application with a Flash version checker. When you install the application on your device, the version checker is going to check whether or not you have the correct version of the Flash Lite player installed. If not, it’s going to prompt the user to download and install it.
Up until now, this solution was only available in a few countries. As of now, it is available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UK and the USA.
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