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December 14, 2006
Custom Holiday Cards from Adobe
I blogged about this last week at RIApedia.com, a new blog that I've started that covers rich Internet applications built with Adobe technologies - namely Flash, Flex and Apollo, but I thought it would be of interest to the wider Adobe popluation as well... A very creative team here at Adobe (not sure who it was) has created a Flash based online Christmas card creator. Using the site, you can create your own customized Flash based holiday greeting cards. You can customize the images, borders, text color, size, and music, and then send out your cutomized greeting card to friends and family. Something fun in time for the holidays.
technorati tags:flash, riapedia, christmas, christmascards, adobe
November 13, 2006
Flash Based Webtop - YourMinis.com
The team at Goowy Media is at it again. The same team that bought you Goowy Desktop, has launched a new service they call yourminis. According to their website, its a personalized dashboard of widgets. Give it a try and let them know what you think.
Michael Arrington appears to be the one that gave these guys the publicity they were looking for. Read about YourMinis on TechCrunch.
I like the fact that you can integrate videos and podcasts right into the page, and the use of tabs to seperate pages is a great feature as well.
It reminds me a little like JamJar, which Adobe launched a few months ago.
technorati tags:flash, goowy, yourminis, techcrunch, webtop
November 09, 2006
FlashLite Game Contest
ActionScript.it, an Italian focused ActionScript website, is running their 2nd mobile game contest. The deadline for submissions is January 29, 2007. Games must be developed in FlashLite or J2ME. The complete set of rules are available online.
Prizes include FlashStudio 8, an iRiver and some O'Reilly books. Last year's winners are online, and look great.
For those of you looking to enter the contest, the FlashLite developer center may have some good tips for development, as well as the Mobile and Devices developer center.
November 08, 2006
Sudoku in Flash
If you're a big fan of Sudoku, like I am, then you may find this Sudoku site cool. They use Flash for the game display, with a cool pop up for selecting the numbers, and a custom right menu to change from using pencils or pens. Nicely done.November 07, 2006
What does today's Mozilla announcement mean for developers?
Frank Hecker, executive director for the Mozilla Foundation, has a great write up on what today's announcement means for JavaScript developers. A few things to note:
"Finally, the Mozilla project will gain yet another major corporate contributor in Adobe, one that's made the largest single code contribution to the project since Netscape originally released the Mozilla source code in 1998."
"For Adobe, Mozilla, and others who might join in future, the Tamarin
project represents for client-side web technology what the so-called
LAMP
stack does for server-side web technology: a move to
not only centralize development around key specifications (ECMAScript
for Tamarin, HTTP, SQL, etc., for the LAMP stack) but also to jointly
develop and promote high-quality open source implementations of those
specifications.
If you develop web applications using JavaScript, you should read the entire posting on Frank's blog.
Brandan Eich also has a posting on it, and will be chatting on IRC later today to discuss the announcement.
technorati tags:adobe, actionscript, tamarin, mozilla
August 16, 2006
Internet Connection Speed Test Using Flash
Speedtest.net is a service that allows you to check the speed of your Internet connection. Rather than use Java to do this, as I've seen so many others do, this one uses Flash and has a much nicer interface than any others I've seen. Thanks to Alistair Lee, a fellow Adobe employee who really should be blogging, for the link.August 14, 2006
Google Maps + Flash = Google Maps Flight Simulator
What do you get when you take Google Maps data and add a Flash interface? Try the Google Maps Flight Simulator game here. Use the arrow keys to navigate the plane. If you're thinking of developing a Flash based site or need help with creating a o, you should think about hiring the creator of that site: Mark Caswell-Daniels. He's looking for work and you can get his email address from his site.technorati tags:flash, flightsim, googlemaps, adobe
July 27, 2006
Another Flash based online video site
For those of you wondering if Flash is really the best option for online video... Well, add another top site that has chosen Flash for showing video to its users. CNET TV is up now, in beta format, and is using Flash as the format, not only for video, but the entire application. Its a fairly advanced Flash application, incorporating rich Internet application functionality as well as rich media (video).
This joins YouTube, Google and other popular sites that have chosen Flash as the best way to deliver video to users. Google is actually using Flash to deliver videos both via Google video and on their advertising network. No wonder, since the Flash player is on more computers than any other video player.
technorati tags:flash, richmedia, cnet, onlinevideo
Blogged with Flock
June 29, 2006
Why open source developers can be excited about Flex
The goal of open source software has always been to create software that can be free, not in price but in terms of restrictions for use. The availability of source code and the the ability to modify that source code, are important parts in the free / open source software movement.
There is lots of good news with respect to today's Flex launch for open source developers. First of all, the free Flex SDK includes the source code for the Flex components, and allows anyone to compile a Flex application at no cost. You are free to modify the Flex components as you need to. As a developer, you can now build a Flash application in VIM, run it through the compiler in the SDK, which works on Linux and Mac OS X, and build a .swf file. (In fact, if you're using VIM, you might want to check out actionscript.vim by Manish Jethani to highlight your ActionScript source code in VIM). For debugging, you can use fdb, part of the Flex SDK.
The Flex Builder tool is built on top of Eclipse, and we have published the source code for Flex Builder that is derived from Eclipse.
You can create open source Flex applications, and host them over at osflash.org. As a Flex developer, you can enable users to see your source code when they right click on your application ("View Source"). (To enable this, in Flex Builder, choose Project -> Publish Application Source...).
You Flex application will work well with a Java backend system or PHP backend system. For PHP integration, you'll want to download and use the open soure project AMFPHP. You can read my tutorials on how to integrate Flex and PHP on the Flex Developer Center.
Once you've built your application, you can then deploy the file as you would any other web application (likely to an Apache web server), and end users can interact with that application using the free Flash player. Now, the story would be much better if that Flash player was available on Linux (and if it were open source), but its not, at least not yet (available on Linux that is). However, there is a team of talented engineers working on Flash Player for Linux, and you can follow their progress on their blog. Apparently a beta version of Flash Player 9 for MacTel machines should be out soon, with a beta for Linux sometime later this year.
One of the benefits to web applications for Linux enthousiasts has always been the fact that web applications are not tied to a specific operating system - they simply need a web browser to work. The main problem to this model has been the the client: web applications today cannot replace desktop applications, there are too many limitations: local file access, no vector drawing APIs native in the browser, rich media integration isn't supported, JavaScript execution speed isn't the same as compiled code... Flex applications solve most of these problems (a drawing API is available in the Flash player, it can integrate rich media content easily, and it now has a JIT compiler for better performance), and we hope to have a better solution for local file access when we release Apollo (a beta version is expected later this year).
The development of more advanced web applications will continue to help adoption of operating sytems where the Flash Player is available, including Linux. And yes, some developers are working on an open source Flash player.
No, the story isn't perfect, but I think its pretty good. The Flex SDK includes the source code to Flex components, you can build and debug Flex applications on Linux, those applications can interact with an open source backend system (PHP), and end users can interact with those applications at no cost (and in a little while on a free operating system).
BTW: I'm always interested in your feedback on how Adobe can contribute to the open source community.
technorati tags:opensource, php, adobe, ria, flex, web2.0, flash, eclipse, flexbuilder
Blogged with Flock
June 28, 2006
Flex 2 and Future Web Application Development
Flex 2 has been released (CNET coverage here, TechCrunch coverage, Digg the story). You can buy it from the Adobe online store for $499, or $749 with the charting components included. The SDK for Flex is free, as in beer, and there's a free version for Flex Data Services included as well.
This release marks an important milestone for Adobe, as my colleague Bill McCoy has discussed in his blog. Some great web applications have been built with Ajax, but increasingly a number of them are using Flash in areas that the browser cannot handle: rich media integration (You Tube, Google Video and others use Flash to stream video), saving data locally (using the Flash Shared Object), applications that demand higher performance from the client (Flash code is compiled as opposed to Ajax / HTML code). Google Finance is a great example of using Flex and Ajax together, and using Flash where it makes sense (rich graphics drawn on the client).
Yes, you can do some very cool things with Flex right now. However, future development looks even brighter from an Adobe perspective. Apollo will provide additional APIs to web applications that will allow them to integrate into the operating system - users will launch web applications just as they would a regular desktop application (with icons on the desktop / dock / taskbar), the ability to save large amounts of data on the local machine (not limited to the 100K default for the shared object), and perhaps most importantly the ability to develop an application once and then have it run on multiple operating systems (we've committed to making Apollo cross platform). Watch a developer week session about Apollo.
Take that view of the future along with the ability to create mobile applications that run on FlashLite using the same set of technologies. Plus, unlike other languages, building a mobile application for FlashLite will work across a variety of devices - anywhere that the FlashLite player is installed. (Did you miss the announcement of the FlashLite deal with Verizon?) Can you see why JD was so excited about this deal earlier this year?
Here are a few other links about the release:
The source code derived from the Eclipse code is available for download.
A version of Flash Player 9 for Linux is underway. Follow the Penguin.swf blog for more information.
Flex.org is a new site that launched today as well, with resources for the community related to Flex.
FlexCoders.net has a list of Flex developers, if you're interested in building out a Flex project and need some help. If you need work, register there.
For historical Flash designers / developers, Adobe Labs now has a preview of Flash Professional 9 with ActionScript 3.
technorati tags:adobe, flex, ria, ajax, opensource, flashlite, mobile, apollo
Blogged with Flock
June 23, 2006
Sys-Con Announces Real-World Flex Seminar in August
Sys-Con will be hosting and producing a day-long event about Adobe Flex. The event will take place in New York on August 14th. If you're interested in Flex or building applications with Flex, this is definitely something that you'll want to attend.
From the webpage, "The list of topics at the Real-World Flex Seminar includes:
Registration for the event is only $395, and includes breakfast, lunch, a 12 hour DVD of the seminar, a t-shirt, a laptop back-pack and future access to on-demand video presentations of the seminar.
technorati tags:flex, ajax, seminar, adobe, actionscript, coldfusion, apollo, mxml
Blogged with Flock
June 22, 2006
Install Flash Player 9 Beta in Flock
For those of you interested in viewing Flash 9 content in Flock, you'll need to copy over a single file from a Mozilla installation... Currently the Flash 9 beta installer doesn't install the plugin into the Flock browser. To get it working, simply copy C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins\NPSWF32.dll to C:\Program Files\Flock\flock\plugins\NPSWF32.dll.
Note: This is obviously not supported from Adobe. I urge you to back up your C:\Program Files\Flock\flock\plugins\NPSWF32.dll before copying over the new version, so you can revert back to it if this doesn't work for you.
technorati tags:flash, flock, flex
Blogged with Flock
May 26, 2006
Drupal with Flex Using Flex / Ajax Bridge
I'm a big fan of Drupal, and one of the things that I've wanted to do lately is create a better UI to some of their elements. In particular, the watchdog module that shows you all the activity in your site really annoys me. To sort the elements you need to refresh every page.
Ever wonder what it would look like to use Flex components instead of an HTML table? Well, probably something like this:
May 23, 2006
Google to distribute video ads with Flash
In case you missed the announcement, Google will now be deploying video advertising to sites using Flash for the video format. A small item to be sure in a hectic news day, but something to keep in mind when you're thinking of the format for your next Internet application. If you take a look at the top web 2.0 video sites, you'll see that most of them are offering video in Flash format. And now, Google joins them as well. This should mean a few things:
1) The rate at which the most recent Flash player is being distributed should increase, with these leading edge companies driving quick adoption of the most recent version of Flash player.
2) Large companies are validating the fact that Flash is the most widely adopted format for distributing video (and that the number of people with "Flash blocker" software is so low that its irrelevant)
3) With Flash video use expanding, more people will look at Flash as much more than a way to make simple animations, which should help the use of Flash as a delivery mechanism for the next generation of rich Internet applicaitons.
April 07, 2006
Live Scoring on Masters.org Using Flash
I was looking for scores on the Masters today, and headed to the official site at masters.org. (Go Mike Weir!) I was pleasently surprised that they have gotten rid of their Java scoring applet for one built with Flash. Head to the front page, then click on "Scoreboard" on the left hand side. And didn't I see Flash being used over at ESPN for scores as well the other day? Combine those changes with news that Flash is now available on mobile phones, and the future looks very good. If anyone at the Masters wants help in getting their scores onto mobile phones, I'm willing to help drive that relationship in exchange for a pair of tickets to next year's event. :)
March 01, 2006
Curling and Flash Together?
As some of you know, I'm a big curling fan... Yes, the sport where people of all ages throw rocks down a sheet of ice and then use brooms to control the rock. In fact, I've even got a great website dedicated to curling that I run in my spare time. In any event, I love curling, and I'm loving Flash based applications, so what could be better than a Flash application that updates scores automatically so users don't have to constantly refresh the webpage. Thanks to the great people at the Canadian Curling Association, its now live. I bet they're saving a ton of money on bandwidth, sending only small XML files back and forth as opposed to entire page layouts.
January 16, 2006
Flash / JS Integration
This is a great example of integrating Flash and Javascript, in a way that enhances the experience for end users. If you're interested in doing something similar for your site, check out the instructions on how to do it, and then add a comment to this blog with a URL to your sample site. It just goes to show you that Flash and Javascript can live together happily, side by side. I think I'm safe to say that a similar experience for end users written entirely in Javascript would have been much more complicated, and time consuming, to write.