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Auto update API for AIR Native Installer Apps

by Serge Jespers on 25. Aug, 2010 in AIR

If you’ve played around with native installers for AIR 2, you probably already found out that you cannot use the update framework. My fellow evangelist Piotr just released a solution for that.

Piotr’s NativeApplicationUpdater library works in exactly the same way as the update framework you use for AIR applications. When your app starts it loads an XML file that has all the update information. If an update is available you will be prompted to download and install it. Piotr actually uses another AIR 2 feature to launch the downloaded native installer. By opening the package with openWithDefaultApplication() the installer launches and installs the update.

I’ll definitely add this to the next release of my Package Assistant application (an update is coming soon!).

Check out the video where Piotr explains how it works and download the library from Google Code.

If you haven’t played with native installers for AIR 2 and want to learn more, then check out my video tutorial.

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New on Labs: Adobe AIR Launchpad

by Serge Jespers on 24. Aug, 2010 in AIR, labs

The Adobe AIR Launchpad has to be the easiest way to learn some of AIR’s more advanced features. If you want to learn how to use the auto-update framework, drag-and-drop, sockets, native processes, and more then go and grab this application from Adobe Labs right now.

I think the app is also very useful for experienced developers. With just a couple of clicks you can set up your AIR project without having to rewrite some of the things you probably have in every app. Things like centering the main window for instance or detecting network capabilities and much more.

The Adobe AIR Launchpad spits out clearly written and well commented code that makes it easy to learn the APIs if you’re new to AIR and makes it easy to take a quick shortcut if you’re an experienced developer.

Go get it now on Adobe Labs.

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Confirmed: Apple’s “Magic” Trackpad works with AIR 2.0

by Serge Jespers on 29. Jul, 2010 in AIR

Yesterday I saw a Tweet from Ralph Hauwert who was wondering if Apple’s Magic Trackpad would work with AIR 2.0. You probably already know that AIR 2.0 supports multitouch and gestures. The trackpad on a recent MacBook Pro supports gestures and these work nicely in AIR 2.0. So… My hunch was that the “Magic” Trackpad… I’m sorry… I just have to put that in quotes. With all these magic products I’m starting to wonder why Steve doesn’t have a show in Vegas yet ;-))) But back to my hunch… My hunch was that the “Magic” Trackpad would also just work.

Earlier today I happened to be walking past the Apple Store in Ginza, Tokyo and I went in and bought one. When I got back to the hotel I updated the trackpad drivers through Apple’s Software Update and paired the trackpad with my MBP. I already had DestroyTwitter running and tried the three-finger swipe on it. Oh… In case you didn’t know… the latest version of DestroyTwitter has support for the swipe-gesture to switch between different canvases. The “Magic” Trackpad worked perfectly with DestroyTwitter. I also tried some of my demo applications and they all worked as expected.

Now that I’ve used it for a while I think I like the “Magic” Trackpad. Especially in “lean-back-mode”. I can definitely see this replacing my mouse on my Mac Mini back home. I have it connected to my TV and use it to watch video content from the web.

So… To summarize: The “Magic” Trackpad does work with AIR 2.0. (Note: Like the trackpad on a MacBook, the “Magic” Trackpad only supports gestures. So no raw multi-touch points).

Now go build some cool touch-enabled apps (and send ‘em to me when you’re done)! Flash on!

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Monetize your AIR applications with Melrose

by Serge Jespers on 22. Jul, 2010 in Flash Platform

Melrose – the monetization service previously known as Shibuya – is now live on Adobe Labs.

If you were at MAX last year you probably remember the demo I did in the keynote on day 2. With literally just a couple lines of code you can add a complete license manager and payment solution to your AIR application. You can even create time and feature based trials.

Melrose works exactly like all the other application stores out there. We don’t charge any monthly or yearly fees but we do take a percentage of your earnings (obviously there is no charge for free apps). In return we’ll provide a safe and secure way to monetize your AIR applications. That means you don’t have to worry about things like credit card processing and hosting your license manager logic. Your private dashboard will tell you how your application is doing. You can view charts on number of downloads of your apps, number of trials, number of purchases, revenue, number of activations, and trial to purchase histogram (i.e. conversions from trials to purchases).

Developers and publishers in 47 countries can use Melrose to distribute and monetize AIR applications.

Melrose is still in private beta but you can already sign up today. You can find all the necessary info on the Melrose Labs page.

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Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 released

by Serge Jespers on 10. Jun, 2010 in AIR, Flash Player

Aaah… This is a great day! The Flash Player and AIR teams have been working on this for months and we’ve also been talking about it for quite a while. Today we’re upgrading the web with a ton of new features in Flash Player 10.1 and enable developers to build engaging cross-platform desktop applications.

Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 are now available for download.

If you haven’t been able to check out some of the new APIs before today then check out my “What’s new in Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2” presentation and sample code. We’re also hosting a series of free webinars introducing the new multi-screen development capabilities of the Flash Platform. Details and registration link online. Also check out the Flash Player Team and AIR Team blogs for more info.

One of the biggest new features in AIR 2 is the ability to talk to native processes and build native installers. To help you out with building those native installers check out my Package Assistant Pro AIR 2 application.

I can’t wait to see what you will build with these new capabilities! Flash on!

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5 Flash applications that will blow your mind

by Serge Jespers on 08. Jun, 2010 in Flash Platform

Yell.com Maps
“A 3D map? We’ve seen that before!” Trust me… This is 3D mapping like you’ve never seen before! It’s hard to explain when you look at this static image so just check it out yourself! Hat tip to Jerome who posted this in a comment on my blog.

UJam
I already blogged about UJam earlier but they’ve added a bunch of new videos to their YouTube channel. The video below completely blew me away. There’s no doubt in my mind that UJam ~~is going to democratize~~ has a good chance at democratizing music making. It’s made in Europe (Germany to be precise) and would not be possible without the Flash Platform!

The Land of Me
This is a pretty amazing AIR application built for children. It’s an interactive storybook like no other. The graphics look stunning and I’m sure kids will love this. The main characters take you on an adventure where kids are encouraged to be creative and playfully learn new words and skills. The video below is a demo of the first chapter in the app/book. A demo version is available on madeinme.com. It runs in AIR and thus runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

IS Parade
Ok… Maybe this won’t immediately blow you away but it’s pretty cool nonetheless. This is probably the sexiest Twitter visualization I’ve seen so far. You just enter a keyword and the app will create your own personal parade with cute looking characters that are based on the people tweeting about that keyword. The server may be a little bit slow (located in Japan) but it’s well worth the wait. Check it out!

FreeYourDance.com
Video on the web is no longer just about playing a video. It’s also about personalized and interactive video. FreeYourDance.com (created for Jabra) is a lot of fun. It uses your webcam to track your movements as you try to follow the dance moves shown by the dance instructor. It’s a lot of fun… especially the unexpected surprise at the end! (Hat tip to FWA)

Liked these? Then go check out http://swfhead.com/flash for more cool Flash stuff!

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Android week: On switching to Android

by Serge Jespers on 18. May, 2010 in android

When I first saw the iPhone I immediately fell in love with it. After walking around with an iPod, a PDA and a mobile phone I could finally have all of these things in one device. I was worried that when I switched to Android I would need to go back to using 2 devices instead of one. I was worried that the Nexus One wouldn’t play nice with iTunes and that I’d have to go back to using a separate device for listening to my music. But I was wrong…

doubleTwist as an iTunes alternative
doubleTwist is to my Nexus One what iTunes is to an iPhone. I just plug in the USB cable, open up doubleTwist and start syncing. doubleTwist taps in to your iTunes library and can sync all your music (if it’s not protected with the iTunes DRM) to your Android device (and not just Android devices). doubleTwist will also sync your photos (the Nexus One’s camera is amazing) with your iPhoto library and your movies if you want to. As an added bonus you can also purchase new music from the Amazon MP3 store right within the application. The most recent release of doubleTwist also includes the Android Market. You simply browse the Android Market or search for your favorite apps. You can read the reviews, take a look at the screenshots and if you want to install the app you just point your camera at it and take a photo of the QR barcode.

Android Market
This is also where you potentially get stuck. The Android Market is only available in a couple of countries and even then chances are that the app you want to buy is not available in your country. In Google’s defense: This was the same in the early days of the App Store and while the App Store is currently available in more countries than the Android Market some countries still don’t have access to it. Heck… You still can’t buy movies or TV shows on iTunes in Belgium. That said, this is seriously annoying. There is no technical reason why this wouldn’t work but I guess it has to do with different laws in different countries etc… There are ways to enable the Android Market on your device but I’m not sure on the legality of doing that. It’s a little bit insane that you have to “break the law” (and potentially void your warranty) in order to be able to buy an app in the Android Market. Luckily there are a ton of free apps in the Android Market and some developers even allow you to purchase a license on their site and then upgrade the free version. It’s definitely not ideal and I hope this changes soon…

Apps.. Apps… and more apps…
With ~~65000~~ 59430 (UPDATE: I thought I read that number somewhere but AndroLib is currently reporting 59430 apps. H/T Thomas) apps currently in the Android Market it’s definitely not as big as the App Store. That said… I think that in both stores the quality of the apps varies a lot. Most of the apps I regularly used on my iPhone are also available on Android. Apps like TripIt, Twitter, Dropbox, Facebook, Evernote and WordPress are also available on Android. Like I already mentioned yesterday, I feel that some of these apps look/feel better on Android. The official Twitter for Android app is just beautiful and very easy to use. The WordPress app allows you to get notified when new comments arrive. There always seems to be that little extra in the Android versions of these apps. I also like that these apps can also “plug in” to the operating system. When I’m in my photo gallery on my Nexus One and press the “share” button I can immediately send that photo to Twitter, Evernote or WordPress in exactly the same way as I would send it using email. When I’m in my Twitter app and click on contact I immediately see this user’s Twitter info but if that user is also in my contacts (as shown in the image on the right), I can directly call him or send a text message right from within the Twitter app. This type of cross-application operating system integration just makes Android feel very slick and fun/easy to use. And as Android already has multi-tasking, switching from one app to the other is just a breeze.

Flash Player 10.1: The cherry on top
I’m sure that by now you know that Flash Player 10.1 is coming to mobile devices. Android is one of the first mobile OSes that will get Flash Player 10.1. I’ve used the iPhone for a good 2.5 years and, in all honesty, I had become used to seeing the blue legos. On numerous occasions I thought “Aah yes… That won’t work on my phone. I’ll watch that later.” and ended up not using the mobile browser and forgetting about that link to that video. Now that I have FP10.1 on my mobile device, I catch myself using the mobile browser a lot more. As a news junkie I want to stay up to date with the latest news wherever I am. The first sites I visit in the morning are the local news sites, the BBC News site and then I open up Google Reader. While writing this I realized that I’ve probably used my mobile browser with FP10.1 a lot more than I realize. When I open up a news site and want to watch a news clip, I can just do that now. I’ve also already used it to watch live newscasts streamed with Flash and also already played games when I was stuck in traffic or waiting in the airport. It’s very refreshing to have ALL the content you are used to having on your desktop right there in the palm of your hand!

Conclusion
My switch to Android hasn’t been as scary or hard as I thought it would be. Even though I’ve been using prerelease versions of the Android OS with the usual alpha/beta quirks, I’ve been very happy with it. I’m still using the same apps and I’ve been able to sync my iTunes/iPhoto library in almost exactly the same way as I was used to. Having Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 on it are just the cherries on top of an already delicious “frozen yoghurt”.

PS: Don’t forget to sign up to be notified when the public beta for Flash Player 10.1 for Android is available and sign up to be notified when the beta release of AIR for Android is available.
PS2: Did I already mention that I am giving away a Google Nexus One on my blog this week? ;-)

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Package Assistant Pro

by Serge Jespers on 13. May, 2010 in AIR

A few months ago I released an early version of my Package Assistant application. The application made it easier to compile native installers for AIR 2. While it was a lot easier to use compared to using the command line the application wasn’t very user friendly. A few weeks ago I started working on a brand new version and I think you will like it!

When you first launch the application, it will ask you to enter the paths to ADT and your code signing certificate. When you have access to the AIR For Android Beta you can also add the AIR 2.5 ADT to package native Android installer packages. AIR For Android is currently in private beta but you can sign up to be notified when it is publicly available. When you have set your preferences, you are ready to go. Just point Package Assistant Pro to your application descriptor XML file and it will read and set all your parameters from it. Package Assistant Pro will also check if you correctly entered your code signing certificate password.

If you don’t mind playing around with beta quality software then check out http://bit.ly/papinfo for the downloads (available for OS X and Windows) and more information. If you run into an issue, have feedback and/or have a feature request, feel free to get in touch or leave a comment on this post.

Package Assistant Pro would not be possible without AIR 2. To learn how to use native processes in AIR 2, check out this article on Adobe Devnet.

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AIR2.0 RC available on Labs

by Serge Jespers on 12. May, 2010 in AIR

The Adobe AIR 2 Release Candidate (RC) build is now available on Adobe Labs. Please be sure to download the latest AIR runtime and, if you are an application developer, SDK. If you run into any issues, please let us know by using our feedback form to send us a bug. Please be sure to include all relevant information necessary to reproduce the issue.

Important: Applications built against Adobe AIR 2 beta 2 *will not run* using the AIR 2 RC runtime. In order for an AIR 2 beta 2 application to run on the AIR 2 RC runtime, the namespace of the beta 2 application descriptor file must first be updated to “2.0″ and compiled against the AIR 2 RC SDK.

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Talking breaking news application

by Serge Jespers on 08. Apr, 2010 in AIR

Hi… My name is Serge and I am a news junkie… While there are a lot of breaking news services on Twitter, you can’t always leave your Twitter client running to get the latest breaking news updates (for instance at work or while presenting). In some cases you may still want to stay up to date on any breaking news which is why I started creating this little app last night…

It’s not quite finished yet but almost. I’ll release this when we release AIR2 and will also try to build a Windows version of it (although I am not sure if Windows also has a command line tool for their speech synthesizer).