Tag Archives: Flash Player

Flash Player 10.1 and battery life on mobile devices

by Serge Jespers on 25. Feb, 2010 in Flash Player, mobile

It’s great to see all the excitement about Flash Player 10.1 coming to mobile devices! Though some people need to learn to get their facts straight before jumping to conclusions.

One of the biggest improvements in Flash Player 10.1 is the memory and CPU consumption which obviously also has a big impact on the battery life. Battery life on mobile devices is very important and thus always top of mind for the engineering team!

There was a lot of commotion around the video that my colleague Michael Chaize published. He showcased a number of Flash based apps to show off the performance of FP10.1. Some of the applications he showed are CPU intensive and thus also potential battery drainers.

Mark Doherty posted a great follow up post with some background information on how we test battery consumption and performance internally. He also recorded a 17 minute YouTube video which resulted in a 6% battery drain. That results to being able to watch over 4 hours worth of YouTube video over WiFi using Flash Player. I can’t even do that on my brand new MacBook Pro (which is supposed to be able to give me 8 hours of battery life)… I’m not even sure I can do that on my Apple phone using their native YouTube app…

Today, Michael posted a follow up video where he plays a 26 minute video and plays a Flash based game for 12 minutes.

He noted a 10% battery drain after the playing the video which calculates down to 4.3 hours of video. Playing the Flash based game for 12 minutes resulted in a 4% drain which boils down to 5 hours of continuous gaming in the browser using Flash Player 10.1.

Those numbers are pretty impressive to me! Especially when you consider that this is still a pre-release version of the Flash Player running on a pre-release version of Android.

Kudos to the Flash Player team! Flash on!

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Flash Player 10.1 and AIR coming to BlackBerry devices

by Serge Jespers on 17. Feb, 2010 in mobile

For me, day two of Mobile World Congress started with a demo on how to build Flash based applications for BlackBerry devices. Since RIM is one of our Open Screen Partners you will soon see Flash Player 10.1 and AIR on BlackBerry devices. As a Flash developer I am obviously very excited about that. BlackBerry has traditionally been an enterprise platform, one that uses Java as its core developer platform. Bringing Flash Player 10.1 and AIR to these devices opens up a whole new world for Flash Developers but also for BlackBerry users.

At today’s BlackBerry Developer Day we showed some of the new workflows between Adobe’s creative tools and both RIM’s and Adobe’s development environments. With the upcoming BlackBerry plugin for Illustrator, it’s incredibly easy to create assets for different screen sizes. It also simplifies communicating with the developer as he only needs to import one file in to the BlackBerry development environment he’s comfortable with. We’ve also demoed how you can soon build Flash based applications for BlackBerry phones and how Device Central makes it easy to test those applications as if you were using it on the actual device. Developers can use Device Central to test and tweak different screen resolutions and test the application as if it was running on the phone. The next version of Device Central will even allow you to test features like the accelerometer and multi-touch.

I talked to a number of BlackBerry application developers (video will be available on Adobe TV soon) who were at the keynote this morning and it was great to see their enthusiasm. Not only are they very excited about the improvements both RIM and Adobe are trying to make to streamline the communication between designers and developers but I could definitely feel the excitement about Flash Player and AIR coming to these devices as well.

I really like how RIM and the BlackBerry community are embracing the idea of being able to include Flash content in their mobile sites and applications. I can’t wait to see which types of “super apps” the BlackBerry community is going to build once they have Flash Player and AIR on the devices and to see what types of apps the Flash community is going to build for BlackBerry devices.

Make sure you keep an eye on the BlackBerry developer blog. A video of the keynote will be posted there as well as a bunch of information on how to build apps for BlackBerry devices.

Flash on!

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Help improve Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2.0

by Serge Jespers on 08. Feb, 2010 in AIR, Flash Player

Adobe engineering is headed into the final stretch of development of Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2.0. We need community help to identify quality issues with your deployed and in-development content. While both Flash and AIR are tested extensively internally, every beta we receive valuable feedback from the Flash community and beyond.

Here is how you can get involved:

  1. Download and install Flash Player 10.1 Beta 2 and AIR 2.0 Beta 2
  2. Test the new beta runtimes with your content and applications.
  3. Log bugs at bugs.adobe.com. Engineering teams use your bug reports to reproduce errors and improve the runtime quality.

As far as beta timelines, beta 3 releases are a few weeks away and release candidates are expected within 60 days. Your involvement and assistance during this critical development window are really important and will only improve Flash Player and AIR quality.

Please also help spread the word about the beta process via Twitter:
Improve Flash 10.1 & AIR 2.0 via Beta 2 http://bit.ly/aN4Qk0 READ & RT #Flash #AIR #QUALITY

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The iPad’s browsing experience

by Serge Jespers on 29. Jan, 2010 in Industry

My fellow evangelist Lee Brimelow created an accurate view of  the browsing experience on Apple’s new iPad. Sometimes a picture does say more than a thousand words… Go check it out on Lee’s blog.

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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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A peek behind the scenes of Avatar

by Serge Jespers on 26. Nov, 2009 in adobe

avatar

I’m sure it won’t shock you when I say that Adobe software is used extensively in Hollywood. Avatar, James Cameron’s new movie, is no exception. So which Adobe software did they use and how?

PHOTOSHOP was used during the early conceptual stages to create art for getting the film green-lit by FOX. In addition to being a core production and design tool, it was also used to create many of the ultra-high resolution matte paintings and textures that were used as finished artwork passed along to the 3D pipeline for CG environments, vehicles and creatures.

LIGHTROOM was used by artists in the previsualization (previs) animation department to organize and catalog the thousands of set and lighting reference images.

AFTER EFFECTS had a multitude of uses as you can probably imagine:

  1. In the early stages of production, AE was used to place flowing camera moves on still artwork for concept art reels.
  2. On the live and mocap sets, AE was used to quickly create test composites to see if the live-action and “simulcam” green screen shots were lining up with the virtual animation and backgrounds. Within a few minutes of each take being shot, artists were able to mock-up composites for James Cameron to look at and approve or re-shoot.
  3. Automated rough comping of the video of the facial performances of the actors (recorded head via mounted miniature video cameras) into CG character face textures for the previs portion of the production. This allowed Jim a quick and easy way to know if the actor’s facial performances were going to be OK or if a take needed re-shooting.
  4. AE is being used by some of the vendors hired for VFX work to create 3D stereo composites for finished shots, to create complex motion graphics for use in the 3D holographic screens in the various control room scenes, and to create “heads-up” displays for various high-tech vehicles in the film.
  5. Adobe provides documentation to write complex procedural scripts for AE, and the AVATAR artists took full advantage of this. They created an automated rendering pipeline for comping the previs shots using AE’s scripting capability.

PREMIERE PRO was also used in different ways:avatar_cameron

  1. Each time Jim Cameron does a review/critique of VFX work, an HD recording is made of the session. Premiere Pro is used to take the edited recording and format into various packages for digital distribution. The process is automated, with typically 8 hours or more a day of reviews that need to be processed.
  2. Premiere Pro was used extensively on set in combination with AE to check rough composites in playback context with animated sequences. A/B comparisons of VFX vendor work are easily set up and reviewed.
  3. Although the creative editing for AVATAR is done using an AVID based system, Premiere Pro is able to read in cut-lists and other important metadata using its built-in AVID “AAF” import feature. Rather than bog down AVID editors with having to render out updated sequences for the animation department, the AVID editor can export the virtual “recipe” for the new cut to a small file that Premiere Pro then uses to automatically assemble the cut to match the AVID. Digital video files of the shots that are online in the master shot database are sourced as clips by Premiere Pro.

ACROBAT CONNECT was used for collaboration throughout the making of the film. In one example, it was even used by one of the Digital Supervisors to remotely connect to the computer of one of the interns on-set to to take control of her desktop and help her get through the temp composites that Jim Cameron (the director) needed ASAP.

FLASH PLAYER is used to deliver the movie’s website with high quality images and high definition video.

And to top it off the movie also has a very slick AIR application that provides exclusive content to fans including video interviews with the cast. In addition, the interactive trailer provides a way for fans to track official updates posted to Twitter,YouTube and Flickr.

If you were lucky enough to be in the MAX audience during the Avatar sneak peek, you’ll agree that the visual effects in Avatar are absolutely stunning. It’s great to see that Adobe software made some of it happen.

Avatar opens worldwide on December 18th, 2009.

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Raising the bar… again: FP10.1 & AIR2 betas on Labs

by Serge Jespers on 17. Nov, 2009 in AIR, Flash Platform, Flash Player, labs

Wohooow… It’s always great to wake up to new toys to play with! Flash Player 10.1 and AIR2.0 are now available on Adobe Labs.

This is a very exciting release for Adobe. Not only is it the first time that we sim-ship Flash Player and AIR for all 3 major operating systems (Mac, Windows & Linux), Flash Player 10.1 is also the first runtime release of the Open Screen Project. While we’re only releasing the beta version of Flash Player 10.1 for the desktop we do plan to roll out additional betas prior to the release with more features, performance improvements, new tooling options and support for mobile platforms. I’ve been lucky enough to play with some smart phones that already have Flash Player 10.1 and I am absolutely amazed to see the performance on these devices. It’s also great to finally have FP10 in the browser on a mobile device. It’s great to see you can now have the full web in your mobile browser!

We’ve already talked about and demoed some of the new features at MAX. Check out the feature page on Labs for a complete list of new features in Flash Player 10.1 and Christian Cantrell’s blog for a comprehensive list of new features in AIR. Christian also has a bunch of code samples on his blog demonstrating the new features. Also check out Adobe TV for more demos and tutorials.

Don’t forget… These are pre-release BETA releases. While the Flash Player and AIR teams do their very best to maintain backward compatibility, things may break. And that is exactly why we do these public betas. If you do come across an application that doesn’t work, make sure you tell us about it!

I can’t wait to see what you guys are going to build with this new set of building blocks… Flash on!

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The day the web went dark

by Serge Jespers on 04. Nov, 2009 in Flash Platform

Rob Ford’s Tweet this morning caught my attention. “We need 1 day when the Flash player is disabled just to appreciate how it lights up the web“, he said. I completely agree… We’ve become so accustomed to Flash just being there that we no longer realize how much it is used and how it “lights up the web”.

So it got me thinking: “What if Flash Player was disabled for a day?”.
First of all, advertising on the web would be a lot less interesting and thus a lot less appealing to advertisers. How many sites do you visit on a day to day basis that rely on advertisers to pay their bills? Sure… Some people would have a field day if sites would show less advertising but the reality of this world is that bills have to be paid.

Would you miss using Google Street View? Would you miss listening to your favorite artists on Pandora, Finetune or Last.FM? What about video? Would you miss not being able to just click the play button to watch a video on YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr or Facebook? Would you miss playing casual games on the web? Would you miss not being able to IM your friends on the Yahoo Webmessenger? Would you miss checking out the website for the latest movies and games? Would you miss watching a free episode of your favorite TV show on Hulu? Would you miss using free web apps like Picnik, Aviary, Photoshop.com and Sumopaint to edit your photos?

Yes… I know… I’ll say it again: Adobe pays my paycheck. But I’ve been a supporter of Flash for more than a decade now (long before I joined Adobe). Flash made the web a lot less dull. We’ve long passed the early skip intro days of Flash and it is now a mature platform that allows developers to build engaging sites and applications. Sites and apps you probably use every day…

Flash on!

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Flash Player 10.1 & AIR 2.0: It’s not just about new features…

by Serge Jespers on 16. Oct, 2009 in AIR, Flash Player

fp_air_logoRecently I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the performance and stability of the Flash Player and AIR runtimes. I got another one just this morning and thought it would be a good idea to write a quick blog post about this.

Let’s talk about Flash Player first. In all honesty, I also encounter the occasional Flash Player crash in Safari on Mac OS X. Many times this seems to be caused by an uncaught exception. Some of these crashes could have been avoided if the developer had written the code to catch that exception. Flash Player 10.1 will make this a lot easier with a global exception handler.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to push this back in to the developer’s shoes but it is something to think about. And just to be totally clear: Flash Player shouldn’t crash on an uncaught exception. That said, you should know that the Flash Player team is aware of some stability issues and is working on that. They are also constantly monitoring our public bug base so if you do encounter a crash, make sure you log it in the bug base! You can rest assured that stability and performance are always on top of the agenda of the Flash Player team.

I also keep hearing people say that the AIR runtime uses too much of the available system resources. Obviously this depends heavily on what the application is actually doing at that time. If your application is suffering from this symptom, make sure you read these blog posts. Soon after reading these three posts, your AIR application will use less than 1% of CPU while idle. In AIR 2.0 the target is to reduce the idle CPU usage to 0%. Early tests with AIR 2.0 show a 30% memory reduction and a 50% reduction in JavaScript CPU consumption. We’re also targeting a 40% reduction in runtime size.

We haven’t announced any specific dates for the release of Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2.0 but make sure you keep an eye on Adobe Labs and our blogs.

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Why I love the Flash Platform…

by Serge Jespers on 16. Jul, 2009 in Flash Platform

flash-platform.jpgBefore we start and just so we get this out of the way… For 2 years now, Adobe pays my paycheck. That said, I “saw the light” of Flash more than 13 years ago. Because of my long history with Flash, I feel I can say that this is an unbiased post.

Everywhere
First of all, Flash is everywhere. I’m not just talking about its ubiquity but also about the variety of devices it is available on. It’s not just a browser plugin anymore. The Flash Platform now extends from desktop to mobile to consumer electronics. There are already more than 1 billion devices in the market today that support Flash content. While this is a “lighter” version of the Flash Player, it already has a lot of its bigger brother’s features and is already used for lots of mobile applications, games and promotional content. Together with the Open Screen Project partners, Adobe aims to bring the same consistent runtime that you’re used to in your browser to a broad variety of devices. In the not too distant future, you’ll be able to repurpose the code base across multiple devices. I’m actually doing a workshop about that very topic at MAX this year!

Consistent
With Flash, you never needed to worry about how your application will look in browser X or on operating system Z. And you still don’t have to worry about that. If Flash Player is installed, the application works and behaves consistently across all browsers and operating systems. Even applications/sites built with Flash 1 still work as designed. If you want to use any of the new features that are available with a new release of Flash Player, you (as the developer) can use express install to transparently upgrade the Flash Player. The same thing goes for desktop development with AIR. A single AIR application installer runs on Mac, Windows and Linux machines without having to worry about operating specific settings or features.

Community
Even back in the early days of Flash, the community around it grew every day. Just about all of the early community sites around Flash are still alive and kicking. Ultrashock and FlashKit, for instance, are still going strong. If you get stuck somewhere, there’s always someone around to help out. If you’re looking for a particular ActionScript library, chances are that someone has already created one. Some of these ActionScript libraries have even caused some amazing innovations on their own. Papervision 3D and FLARToolkit are just a couple examples. Many sites and applications like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter even have dedicated ActionScript 3.0 libraries.

Open
Yes… Open! Not only is Adobe very open about what it’s doing and future roadmaps, the file formats used by Flash Player are also open. The specs for the SWF and FLV file formats are open as well as the specs for AMF (the binary format for exchanging data used by the Flash Player) and RTMP. Adobe also uses and supports many open source projects like Eclipse and WebKit and also contributes to the open source community.

But the most important reason is actually pretty simple. The Flash Platform is just a lot of fun to develop for and it’s very clear that the future is looking very bright for Flash Platform developers. Flash on!

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