Multi-screen excellence: Giroflex
This has to be the one of the best multi-screen apps I’ve seen to date. It is absolutely gorgeous and the story behind it is even more impressive. Thanks to the Flash Platform they were able to build an application that runs on multiple devices in record time.
Giroflex is a leading manufacturer of ergonomically designed office furniture. They asked Publicis Modem to create an application for the Orgatec trade fair taking place in Cologne next week. The application needed to be built for multi-screen purposes. The client wanted a microsite, a multitouch application to run on the HP TouchSmart 600, and the application needed to run on the Samsung Tab. In their booth visitors can experience the new chair in a dynamic modern way on the TouchSmart PCs, representing the company’s spirit. The Giroflex sales executives will all have a Samsung Galaxy Tab at hand to show the same app to their customers. The choice for the Flash Platform was an obvious one.
Thanks to the Flash Platform the team at Publicis Modem led by Marcel Vogt and Tiago Dias was able to produce an application that runs as a microsite in the browser and as a standalone application on the TouchSmart PCs, the Samsung Galaxy Tab’s, and even any other Android device. In just 2.5 weeks they created a multi-language, rich, easy to use and intuitive application with AS3 and utilizing AIR’s local SQLite database and multi-touch features.
They started out with the microsite which is built based on their own AS3 framework. The entire UI is customizable via XML files. They finished the microsite in just 1.5 weeks. When the microsite was done they only needed to add multi-touch capabilities and update the graphics and layout so it would fit on the Galaxy Tab and the TouchSmart PCs. It only took them an additional 6 days to “port” the app to the Galaxy Tab and the TouchSmart PCs. As a little extra they also wanted to see how long it would take them to port this app to an HTC Desire. It only took 2 hours!
I’m also really happy that I was able to help them a bit. They used my Package Assistant application to create the APKs ;-)
This is a great example of the power of the Flash Platform and how easy it is to build multi-screen applications using it!
Here’s application running on a Samsung Galaxy Tab:
The application running on the HP TouchSmart PC:
And on the HTC Desire:
Marcel and Tiago will be at MAX next week so if you see them around make sure you ask for a demo! Great work guys!
Confirmed: Apple’s “Magic” Trackpad works with AIR 2.0
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!
The power of the Flash Platform part 5 – Multi-touch
Multi-touch is only just gaining grounds in the tech world. While it’s pretty common on mobile devices these days, you don’t yet see a lot of multi-touch devices in people’s homes. Sure… A lot of trackpads on laptops also support multi-touch these days but they usually only support the common gestures for zoom and rotate.
One of the key advantages of the Flash Platform is that Adobe can innovate and add new features rapidly. As Flash Player is one of the fastest adopted technologies on the web developers can use those new features in their applications almost instantly. Multi-touch is a very good example. When Adobe saw the uprise of multi-touch technology, it immediately started working on adding multi-touch capabilities to both Flash Player 10.1 and the AIR 2 runtimes. With public betas being available to developers, they can immediately start to experiment with these new features and start adding them to their applications.
That said… Developers have been doing multi-touch applications with Flash for years thanks to community driven ActionScript libraries. Check out these videos to get an idea on what people are doing/have been doing with multi-touch and Flash.
CES summary: E-Readers, 3D TV and internet-connected TVs
E-Readers, 3D TV and internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. That pretty much sums up CES 2010.
E-Readers
I have a Kindle and I absolutely love it. But I love it because it is so easy to use and even easier to buy books straight from the device. The same goes for the Nook, which directly taps in to the Barnes & Noble store. At CES, there were dozens of companies introducing their E-Reader… But I wonder if they can survive. None of them are connected to a certain store, which is both positive and negative. Like I said, I really like the fact that my Kindle makes it so easy to buy new books straight from the device. I don’t have to be near a computer to do so. All these other E-Readers don’t have that advantage.
The Entourage Edge E-Reader did jump out though. With its two screens (one e-ink and one color LCD) it definitely stands out.
3D TV
This was all over the place… All the big manufacturers were showing their versions of 3D TVs both with and without the awkward glasses. The ones I saw that didn’t need glasses failed to impress me though. I found it very hard to find the sweet spot to get the best picture and it wasn’t anywhere near the picture you get with the glasses. Panasonic showed a 3D version of the Avatar trailer on one of their new TVs. While you did need to put on the 3D glasses, the image quality was really amazing. I can see this technology working for movies but I’m not sure about “regular” TV shows and I’m not even sure this would work with sports. DirecTV is teaming up with Panasonic to offer a 24/7 3D pay per view channel focused on movies, documentaries, music and sports.
Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes
These were everywhere… And I can really see this working. I wouldn’t mind having a news widget on my TV that pops up whenever there is breaking news. Or how about a Twitter widget that shows relevant Tweets of whatever you are watching? How about a weather widget that pops up when you switch on your TV/set-top box? Or maybe even live stock quotes while watching your favorite TV shows? Or how about making it even easier to watch YouTube or Hulu videos on your TV? This is exactly what interactive TV platforms have been promising for years. Sadly, the interactive TV platforms have failed to bring this type of interactivity and/or information to my TV. I believe this is partly due to the fact that these platforms are closed. With Internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players, you as a developer would be able to build your own widgets or applications and distribute them via the application stores or catalogs available on those devices. By allowing you to build those applications with web technology like HTML, JavaScript and yes even Flash, it’s a lot easier to build these types of apps and we may finally see interactive TV taking off!
Personal highlights
Boxee Box
I’ve been a user and fan of Boxee for quite some time and was really excited to see the Boxee Box in real life. It’s amazingly small and the new interface has made a giant leap forward. I’ve used a DLink MediaLounge and Apple TV before but they don’t even come close to what Boxee has to offer. The hardware specs look amazing and it even runs Flash Player 10.1 with hardware acceleration so it has no problem playing HD Flash Video. I’m not sure about the Boxee Box form factor though. While it may look great as a standalone device, it certainly would not do well in a rack setup.
Sony Dash
The Sony Dash is basically a Sony branded Chumby. The screen is a lot bigger though and it certainly is more polished than the Chumby but the idea is exactly the same. It even runs all the Chumby apps. I’d love to see this running Flash Player 10.1 in the future though.
Intel Infoscape HD wall
This was very impressive. These 2 meter tall multi-touch high resolution screens were displaying hundreds of Tweets, photos and other information with 3D graphics. According to Engadget, “The entire installation was powered by a single Core i7-based machine with Intel’s own graphics, and it was seen rendering 576 links of live information.”
The future of magazines?
I came across this video on Ubergizmo and I wish this was real today…! The video demonstrates a multi-touch tablet to read magazines in full color with video, audio and online capabilities. The video is created by The Wonder Factory and other than that, there really isn’t any more information out there. While it’s only a concept today, I really do hope we’ll see some of this in the future. Maybe we’ll even see it on an Apple tablet in the not too distant future?
UPDATE: Wow… I’ve just read that this is actually a real product. They’ve even showed a working prototype to the press last week. What’s even cooler is that it’s built with AIR & Flex!
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