Flash Lite 3.1 Distributable Player - No need for Flash Lite player downloads, installs and updates…

0 | November 19th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Adobe, CS4, Device Central, Devices, Flash Lite, Max 2008, mobile

Yes, the news is true.

Yet another awesome announcement made during the Adobe MAX 2008, San Francisco conference was the Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 Distributable Player for developers to distribute over-the-air (OTA) along with their content. This means, an end user will no longer need to check for the presence of Flash Lite on their handsets. The content itself (when installed as a .SIS or .CAB file) will check for the player version, download and install it using network connectivity. It couldn’t get simpler than this.

“Flash Lite 3.1 has the same functionalities as Flash Lite 3.0, such as support for Flash Player compatible video, with some enhancements including improved security model for SWF file access. Please note that at this time h.264 video is not supported. Adobe’s goal is always to provide the latest version of Flash Lite for over-the-air (OTA) download through the distributable player solution. Flash Lite 3.1 Distributable Player will work on supported S60 and Windows Mobile devices. The Distributable Player is integrated with Adobe AppZone.”

Currently this is supported on limited devices, namely the S60 3rd Edition, 3rd Edition feature pack 1, 3rd Edition feature pack 2, Windows Mobile 5 for Smartphones, WM6 Standard and Professional platforms (check the complete list).

UPDATE:

You can now download the Flash Lite 3.1 update for Adobe Device Central CS4 to author, test and publish Flash Lite 3.1 swf files.
Download for Windows here
Download for Macintosh here

Mariam

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Flash Player 10 on Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian

1 | November 19th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Adobe, Devices, Flash, Flash Lite, Max 2008

Flash Lite has evolved greatly over time making way for bigger and better opportunities for development. Beginning with version 1.0 to version 3.1, Flash Lite has come a long way. And demoed recently during MAX 2008 in San Francisco was the actual Flash Player 10 (not subset) on the Symbian OS, WiMo and the Android.

Symbian and WiMo are platforms that Flash Lite developers have worked on in the past, so having the complete Flash 10 functionality working on mobiles will be only be a boon. However I still am skeptical with a couple of questions like

  1. will the Flash 10 player on mobiles support the complete AS3 API including the 3D Effects, Custom Filters, Advanced Text etc,
  2. would the player be implemented in a browser, standalone and the others,
  3. will it support backward compatibility with Flash Lite version etc.

I guess we’d know this, as more information will be made available by Adobe with the player development.

But what took the cake for me was the announcement of supporting Flash on the Android platform. It is great because Adobe is realizing its goal of supporting Flash on so many different platforms, thus escalating the Open Screen Project to a success. Adobe demoed on the the Android G1 features like full zooming, panning and interactivity, which means the users saw a whole segment of web content typically inaccessible to mobile browsers till now.

Of course like the other platforms Adobe did not provide a proper release date for this too, but the very fact that their developers had a demo to showcase during MAX leads us to believe Flash on Android will be a solid reality in the very near future.

So as Kevin Lynch said “We need to start thinking mobile first, rather than as an adjunct to the big screen experience… “, which is so true..Cheers to Flash on Mobiles.

Mariam

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New Sony Ericsson W705 supporting Project Capuchin

1 | November 12th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Devices, Flash Lite, Project Capuchin, Sony Ericsson, mobile

Sony Ericsson announced their third device supporting the Project Capuchin API. The device which is the SE W705 Walkman phone is designed to deliver an enhanced mobile entertainment experience and is expected to be available during Q1 2009.

The device specification include a 320×240 pixel 262K TFT QVGA display, 120MB internal memory, Wi-Fi, an accelerometer and a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) server to connect to compatible devices.

Flash specification on the device include -

  • Flash Lite version 2.0
  • Flash colour depth, 16-bit (536 colours)
  • Flash in Screensaver
  • Flash in Wallpaper
  • Flash in browser
  • Heap size for Flash per content type (MB) 2
  • Language support for device fonts and input according to i-mode specifications
  • Enabled sound formats for Flash: Midi

Sony Ericsson now has a total of three phone models with Project Capuchin – thus increasing the addressable market for developers – as the new W705 joins the previously announced C905 Cyber-shot™ and G705 phones.

Mariam

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Nokia Developer Conference 2008 in Bangalore next month

1 | November 11th, 2008 by admin | Posted in India, Nokia, Series60, mobile, series40

Forum Nokia today announced a Nokia Developer Conference to be held on December 10th, 2008 in Bangalore, India.

It is a one day conference with presentation on Java, Symbian, Web 2.0 and Adobe technologies for mobiles. The speakers are said to include leaders from the Mobile VAS Industry, with opportunities to hear success stories, see technology showcases and meet and interact with peers from the industry.

As the website says “Nokia Developer Conference ’08 is a must attend event for Application Developers - Mobile and IT, Aggregators, Operators, Media, Music and Content Houses, Games Publishers, IT Companies, Internet Companies, Retailers, Analysts and anyone and everyone with an active interest in the business of mobility.”

You can read and register at the conference on this link.

Hoping to meet a lot of my friends and colleagues from the Indian mobile industry.

Mariam

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Flash Lite Development with Adobe CS4 and Nokia Platform Services API

2 | November 7th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Adobe, CS4, Device Central, Flash Lite, Nokia, Series60, mobile

Earlier this week, I attended an online webinar hosted by Forum Nokia and Adobe and learnt in depth about the new opportunities that will soon to be available for Flash mobile developers with the release of the Nokia Platform Services API.

Adobe’s presentation by Peter did a fine job of describing the features and workflow within Adobe Flash and Device Central CS4 with demos from their partners (coincidently the CS4 Design/Web/Production launch event in Mumbai happened on the same day, with no discussion on mobile designing/development :( ).

But the most interesting part of the webinar was Nokia’s presentation of their newly announced Platform Services API for Flash Lite technology. This Platform Services API was introduced with the S60 5th Edition platform, and the first device to support it will be the eagerly awaited 5800 XpressMusic.

Nokia mobile services such as the Application Manager, Calendar, Contacts, Landmarks, Location, Logging, SMS/MMS Messaging, Media Gallery, Sensors and System Information will now be enabled from within Flash Lite using the new set of APIs. These will definitely extend Flash Lite capabilities on devices and stimulate more ideas and flexibility in the creation of mobile content. And finally, these will be accessed directly from ActionScript with no dependencies on other programming languages.

There are various resources available to follow up on for this platform and API -

Mariam

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5th IMGAwards Nominees Announced - “Gear Wager” nominated in the Best Casual Game Category

4 | October 27th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Flash Lite, Flash Lite Asia, Games, IGameStudio, India, mobile

Announced today were the nominees for the 5th IMGAwards, and I am happy to say that IGameStudio’s Flash Lite game - Gear Wager makes it amongst the top 5 in the Best Casual Game Category.

Gear Wager is a fun casual arcade game woven around a story on the Flash Lite platform. The game is unique in various ways (you have to wait for it to launch :) ), but I’d like to say that with this game, I’ve tried pushing the boundaries of the technology and platform. Gear Wager is expected to launch early next year, but before that I hope it emerges a winner in this award show.

IMGAwards are prestigious and being a part of their nomination is definitely an honor for any mobile game development company, including mine. This year IMGA received hundreds of entries out of which 26 are selected in 5 different categories. The nominations are extremely competitive this year with the best in the industry being chosen by a jury from the wireless industry.

Read the IGameStudio press release here.

Read the IMGA press release here.

Mariam

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Adobe Device Central CS4 Interactive Videos and SDK available on Dev Center

1 | October 15th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Adobe, CS4, Device Central

The Adobe Mobiles and Devices Dev Center today released the Adobe Device Central CS4 interactive videos in collaboration with lynda.com.

Introducing Adobe Device Central CS4
Automating testing of mobile content

The Adobe Device Central CS4 SDK is also now available.

The Adobe® Device Central Software Development Kit (SDK) allows you to create custom plug-ins that extend the tasks provided as part of Device Central’s project feature. The Device Central SDK is based on ExtendScript and XML.

The October 2008 release highlights the following: Enable developers to add additional export options to Adobe Device Central’s project feature.

Download the Device Central CS4 SDK here

Mariam

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Challenges & Opportunities In Creating and Distributing Mobile Games - Videos of a Panel Discussion at the New York Games Conference

0 | October 15th, 2008 by admin | Posted in General

With the mobile games industry currently being valued at $3.3 billion and forecasted to increase to $10 billion by 2009, there are challenges that still need to be overcome so that the industry can progress to a mass market phenomenon. Discussing this was an experienced panel at the New York Games Conference in late September this year.

The panel consisted of key decision-makers in the mobile games value chain such as Kay Gruenwoldt, Head, N.A. Mktg, Nokia Games Publishing, Justin Kubiak, VP Marketing, Glu Mobile, Sean MacPhedran, Director, Creative Strategy, Fuel Industries, Michael Temkin, CTO and EVP of Ops, Hands-On Mobile, Chris Phenner, SVP, Business Development, Thumbplay, Michael Chang, CEO & Co-Founder, Greystripe, Dan Scherlis, CEO, Etherplay.

I came across a set of videos of the panel discussion -

What Makes a Good Mobile Game

Future of Flash Lite

What about Adver Games on Mobiles (iPhone and iPod Touch)

Best Mobile Game… Facebook?

Mariam

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Nokia 5800 XpressMusic launching in India in November

11 | October 13th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Devices, Flash Lite, India, Nokia, mobile

Nokia plans to launch it’s first touch screen device - the 5800 XpressMusic, in India before the end of November (tentatively third week) and is most likely to be priced at Rs. 20,000 ($425). According to news, this phone is initially planned to launch in selected 7 countries by the year end before a seeing a launch in other countries.

Says Nokia India’s MD, D Shivakumar for the launch, “What iPhone did was to bring the touch element to a multi-media converged device. Since we are already the leader in converged devices in India, Nokia 5800 will be a revolutionary launch from our stable“.

For the uninitiated, 5800 XpressMusic is Nokia’s first offering to run on Symbian S60 5th Edition OS and has 8GB memory, stereo loudspeakers, 3.2 megapixel camera, motion sensor and GPS.

For the developers, Forum Nokia recently launched the S60 5th Edition SDK with APIs to extend and support various runtimes.

As a developer, i seem to be a little concerned, because the 5800 is said to support Flash Lite 3.0, but the product page in India makes no mention of it! I hope Nokia won’t disappoint us with the launch, because we need to see more Flash enabled handsets entering the market in India, thus enabling us to prepare and present a stronger Flash Lite user statistics chart.

Mariam

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Adobe Dev Center launches Mobiles and Devices Cookbook (beta)

0 | October 9th, 2008 by admin | Posted in Adobe, Flash Lite

The Adobe Mobiles and Devices Dev Center has made their beta version of the Cookbook available to the community. I had blogged about this a couple of weeks back, and now I am glad to see it go live.

Mariam

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IGameStudio