Archive for April, 2009
Adobe Mobile Packager Beta 1.1
Posted by Mark Doherty in Conference, Distributable Player Solution, Flash Lite on April 29, 2009
At the Nokia Developer Summit my colleague Andrew Shorten showed attendees the new Mobile Packager Beta 1.1. We intend to release it up on Adobe Labs very soon and I thought it would be nice to give you all a sneak peak of the new features.
In this release we focused our efforts on created a cleaner installation, creation and signing workflow for the tool. We received a lot of feedback regarding the difficulties in getting setup and producing your mobile applications, and I’m really excited to see those answered in this upcoming release.
Installation
Many users found it difficult to install the various SDKs and associated technologies to enable them to build SIS and CAB files. This was due to a number of issues, for example the Microsoft CAB SDK ironically is distributed as a zip file. In Mobile Packager 1.1 we have integrated this SDK completely so alleviate these difficulties. To make the installation of the S60 SDK and Perl easier we have linked directly to those distributions, and we’ve provided a useful “Test Configuration” button to provide feedback on your setup.
Creating a Package
One of the great things about the Flash community is that many of you are great with interaction and design. The Create Package workflow is a direct result of your input, it’s now easier than ever to create a package for S60 or Windows Mobile quickly.
You simply pick a platform from the selector, select and Main SWF and the fields shown below will pre-fill with your project data. If it’s a new project then they will pre-fill with defaults based on the file name of the Main SWF, you can easily change the defaults. Notice that you no longer have to create a self-signed certificate or specify UIDs until you’re ready to sign.
Symbian Signed Ready
One of the biggest concerns from developers is getting through the signing processes. So in the new Mobile Packager 1.1 we focussed on simplifying the steps before you go through Symbian Express Signed. This step is where you apply your developer certificate and assigned UID to your application. We’ve also provided helpful links to help you get UIDs and these and your Publisher ID will be remembered for the lifetime of your project.
note: Experienced developers will see that we don’t use CER and KEY files, but simply the Publisher ID, exactly the same as Adobe AIR signing.
I think this is huge help for productivity and for new developers who would find it impossible to create CER/KEY combinations. Though as well as driving these new features I have been quietly working with the Symbian Foundation to streamline their workflow. Those of you that have been through this will notice the changes, there are more to come later in the year that can only be described as game changing.
Preparing for SymbianSigned
Once the Packaging process has completed all you have to do is zip up the SIS file, pkg file and a Readme.txt. You can simply rename the metadata file for that purpose since it holds all of the relevant information.
Finally you click on the SymbianSigned button on the Packager and you’ll go to their website for the final online signing steps.
As before our reigning packaging queen Liz Myers is hard at work producing video tutorials on our new workflow. In these new tutorials we’ve focused on covering all the nasty (and boy were they nasty) unknowns like attaining Publisher certificates. We’ll also have a really interesting video on icon production and design with Adobe Illustrator, and ideas for marketing your applications.
Like I said, it’ll be with us soon and 40,000 of you need to remember to update.
New Customer Videos at Adobe.com
Posted by Mark Doherty in , Devices, Flash Lite, Industry News on April 28, 2009
We’ve just finished adding some new customer success stories focussed on our recently launched Distributable Player Solution. You’ll hear from David Brown at AgencyNet who created the Barcardi application, Dario Di Zanni and Gianfranco Cordara from Disney Worldwide, Mikka Kukkosuo from Digital Chocolate, Peter Austin from Apocope who worked on the Nespresso application and Douglas Edwards from UClick.
You’ll hear how the Distributable Player with Flash Lite 3.1, has enabled them to reach their customers with a consistent experience across devices.
Upcoming session by AgencyNet: Mobile for Flash Developers
Posted by Mark Doherty in , Flash Lite on April 27, 2009
In case you missed it Atlantic Records have been working with AgencyNet on a fantastic multi-screen application called Fanbase. The team used Adobe AIR and the Flash Lite Distributable player to bring the application to consumers.
Working on Fanbase among others is David Brown, an extremely talented Flash developer. He’s been working with us for some time on the Distributable Player, and in fact his Bacardi application may well have been responsible for the new security model 
I’ve asked him to come and present a session on his experiences and thankfully he’s accepted.
AgencyNet: Mobile for Flash Developers
Thursday, April 30, 2009 11:00 A.M. PST
In this session David Brown from AgencyNet will uncover the key factors to consider when developing and deploying content to multiple devices with Adobe’s distributable player solution. Topics include Multilingual content, multiple input types, and consistent user experiences across screens.
Flash Jobs up for grabs at the BBC
Posted by Mark Doherty in on April 21, 2009
Nick has posted about Flash Jobs at the BBC currently, needless to say you’ll need to be knowledgeable and know your way around AS2.
Did he really just describe Tish as a legend though? ppphhhfffff
Announcing: Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home
Posted by Mark Doherty in , Devices, Flash Lite, Industry News on April 20, 2009
Today we announced the Flash Platform for the Digital Home one of the most exciting products I think we’ve produced in the devices space. We’ve been working on this flat out for many many months, and finally all this hard work has resulted in an incredible new product.
It should be no surprise that the Digital Home player is built on Flash Lite 3.1 (same as the Distributable Player). Though of course the major challenge has been to create a player that can survive on a set-top box. Think about it, an average set-top box or TV sits in the home for about 5-7 years, these devices are rarely turned off and they are expected to consume little power. Although to be fair, many are very bad at saving power in the off state including my box.
I remember sitting in an engineering training session (a year ago) watching a Flash Lite game playing on a television. The team informed us that the challenge ahread was similar to plugging an HD TV into a mobile phone and attempting to go on youtube. Think about it, a 300mhz CPU playing 1080p H.264 video; it just shouldn’t be possible.. but with the magic of Flash Lite and very clever engineers, it is
The results have been incredible and it’s pretty clear now that there’s a real opportunity to bring the web to your TV. As usual we haven’t done this alone, we’re working with partners across the industry including Broadcom, Intel, Comcast, Disney Interactive, Netflix, New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors, Sigma Designs, STMicroelectronics, Atlantic Records. Of course there are others, but that would be telling 
But these days we’re all about “multi-screen” so let us consider that for a moment. Just think of all those users sitting in front of their TVs every night, and every single one of them fiddling with their mobile phone. You see, interactive TV may have been around for some time but this changes the market and opens up a huge opportunity.
To give you an idea of what has been considered here at Adobe, enjoy!