Tag Archives: applications

Native iPhone applications built with Flash – FailBlog Player Demo

by Serge Jespers on 09. Dec, 2009 in Flash Platform, devices, iPhone, mobile

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!

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5 Adobe AIR apps I use every day

by Serge Jespers on 03. Jun, 2009 in AIR

adobe_air_logo.pngYes I know… I work for Adobe and some of you will call me (and have called me) an Adobe fanboy. I’m fine with that. However, I honestly think that Adobe AIR has greatly changed the way people think about application development. I’m sure most of you know that Adobe AIR allows you to build applications that run across Windows, OS X and Linux based systems. The fact that you can build them with web technologies like JavaScript and Flash really opened up this market to all web developers. As a web developer, you don’t have to learn anything new to build desktop applications — applications that you build once and run on all the operating systems that AIR supports.

But this post was supposed to be about AIR apps I use on a daily basis. So here we go…

destroytwitter.jpgDestroyTwitter
There are a bunch of Twitter apps out there that are built on AIR and everyone has their own favorite. DestroyTwitter is my favorite. I like it for the uncluttered interface and its small footprint. One of the most common comments about AIR apps is that they use a lot of memory. DestroyTwitter shows that the opposite can be true. Just the other day, my Finder was actually using double the amount of memory that DestroyTwitter was using.

empdir.jpgAdobe Directory (internal only but source available)
With over 5000 people working at Adobe, getting information about a colleague was really challenging before we started using this app. It has all the important information like phone numbers, email, location and manager name but it can even look up the person’s Exchange calendar to see if he/she is available at a certain time. The app actually uses ColdFusion to get the information from the Exchange server.

By the way… Did you know that ColdFusion is a full Exchange client? With just a couple lines of code, you can get a person’s calendar, contacts, emails, …

espresso.jpgEspressoReader
EspressoReader is an RSS reader built on AIR but it syncs up with your Google Reader account. Next to my MacBook Pro, I also regularly use my EEEPC to catch up with blog posts and by syncing up with Google Reader, my EspressoReader apps on both machines are always up to date with where I left off.

polaris.jpgPolaris
This app is the new brainchild from Nicolas Lierman. I’m sure you remember the Google Analytics AIR app that Nicolas built.

Just a few months ago, Nicolas started DesktopReporting.com, his own company in which he is building a bunch of apps on top of Google Analytics. Polaris is the first app he released and is a widget style app that allows you to keep up to date on your webstats.

Application X
This is an app that I can’t talk about :D It’s still under heavy development but is already one of the apps I use daily. I’m not sure when/if this will see daylight but I will blog about it if it does.

This is just a small list of apps that I really use every single day. There are a bunch of other apps that I regularly use but listing those would make this post like an AIR app directory and that’s not what I wanted ;-) You should definitely check out Refreshing Apps and the AIR Marketplace for more cool apps.

I’m also interested to know which apps you use every day… Feel free to leave a comment!

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Palm showing off 3rd party Pre apps in Las Vegas

by Serge Jespers on 03. Apr, 2009 in Cool stuff, Flash, mobile, open screen project

pre.jpgPalm 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.

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Weekly blend – The out-of-office-high-speed-photograhy-CNN-AIR-Canon edition

by Serge Jespers on 08. Nov, 2008 in Weekly blend

The weekly blend is a collection of links I came across during this week.

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Weekly blend is back: The Photoshop-AJAX-Analytics-iPhone-AIR edition

by Serge Jespers on 25. Oct, 2008 in Weekly blend

A couple of weeks ago at Flash On The Beach, someone Paras Sheth asked why I dropped the “Weekly blend” posts. I promised him that I would pick them back up and so here’s the first one. Instead of going for a weekly theme, I decided to just post links to cool sites or articles that I come across every week. Hope you enjoy it.

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