Yesterday we pushed out the first Release Candidate of AIR3 and Flash Player 11, and with that, we’ve outed another new feature of AIR – Native Extensions.  This represents a further opening up of the Flash Platform in that you will finally be able to add new features to the runtime.

History of Native Extensions

The origin of Native Extensions actually goes back all the way to Flash Lite in 2005 and were in fact part of my first engineering project at Adobe.  Back then we had the idea to enable a man machine interface (MMI) to the Flash Lite runtime to enable complete device interfaces to be built in Flash, the Samsung D600/D900, LG Prada, LG Cookie etc were the result of that effort .

The feature later evolved to become part of an OEM runtime called Adobe Mobile Client which was integrated into the BREW MP Platform to enable low-end devices to be produced with advanced interfaces and at much lower cost.

More recently we started working on “StageCraft”, the code name for a project to bring AIR/Flash support to the TV ecosystem.  With the first iteration it was apparent that remote controls were all different, it would be impossible to create a completely consistent API for all of the various pieces of consumer electronics out there.  With that, Native Extensions were reborn and redesigned to enable OEMs to build these custom APIs with ease.

Which brings us to today’s announcement, the opening of the Native Extension feature for all to use.

What are Native Extensions for?

From a high level this feature enables you to:

• Achieve deeper integration with target devices
• Incorporate legacy native code in your applications
• Achieve maximum performance for critical code

As I see it, we built the Native Extension feature originally to enable access to platform or device specific features that don’t form part of the platform today.  Just to give you some context here, we always have debates about adding new features in the runtimes, many are community sourced, some OEM focused and some are internal like Flex etc.  Imagine what happens when the Acrobat, Photoshop and Runtime engineers are free to finish their pet projects

Here are some thoughts on deeper API possibilities for devices today:

• Notifications
• Gyroscope
• Bluetooth
• Advertising
• NFC / Payments
• USB Accessories
• Media FX/Encoding
• Text to Speech
• Contacts
• Calendar
• Alarms

Of course let’s not ignore the various possibilities that are now open for desktop developers that want to access provide new interfaces for legacy products.

The benefit is that now customers conversations shouldn’t end with “Can you support XX with AIR on XX platform?”, from this point on the answer will always be yes, assuming you have the technically capability to implement it, or can acquire the extension from someone who can.

Using a Native Extension

From Actionscript, the use of an already built Native Extension couldn’t be simpler.  In the example below you can see the first iteration of the Native Extension that I’ve been creating for Android Tablets with multiple displays.

            import flash.external.ExtensionContext;

            if(!extensionContext)
            {
                extensionContext = ExtensionContext.createExtensionContext("com.android.MultiDisplayInfo", "");
                return extensionContext.call("getInfo","getCount") as int; 
            }

Get Started

Today we’re announcing an exciting new Adobe AIR App Challenge for two upcoming Sony Tablet devices.  It’s available to those of you in Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and USA.

There are lots of prizes ($200,000 USD) available for various categories of applications, as well as early access to the devices and Adobe AIR 3, and a paid-up trip to Adobe MAX for finalists.  All that and more for optimizing your applications for Sony’s new devices.

Let’s take a look at the devices..

Sony Tablet

Both tablets come with Sony quality design and hardware, most importantly, with incredible quality screens.  Each of the devices has a Tegra 2 chipset from NVIDIA and will be “PlayStation Certified”, so expect some of the best quality games seen on the 1st-gen PlayStation and Xperia PLAY smartphone.

The tablets will ship with Flash Player pre-installed, but interestingly the Sony Tablet devices will ship with a new Sony Web browser.  With that, we can expect better performance for Flash and browsing the web, compared to the stock browser.

The Sony Tablet S1 (codename) which has a stunning curved body designed to feel lighter in the hand, like when you fold a magazine.  It comes with a 9.4 inch display, so will be great for Entertainment and reading.  As many of you have heard me say, 10″ screens feel too big for my little Irish hands, so it’ll be interesting to see what it’s like.

Sony Tablet S2 (codename also) is quite different as it comes with two screens.  The underlying technical specs are identical between the devices, but this device is going to be great for building applications that long for unique interfaces that make use of the dual-screens.  I’ve got my sights set on a mixing deck idea, but it’s also going to be a nice way to play games; Battleship anyone?

The Challenge

Adobe and Sony are challenging developers and content publishers to build breakthrough mobile apps optimized for the Sony Tablet S1 and Sony Tablet S2.  We have a panel of some amazing judges, both Sony, Adobe and industry experts picking finalists and winners across four key categories.

Each category has a cash prize of $20,000 USD and promotion on the Sony Tablet devices, with a $100,000 USD Grand Prize awarded for the best overall application.

• Entertainment
• Lifestyle and Community
• Gaming
• Business and Productivity

Our team of judges will be reviewing applications throughout the process, and will look favourably at applications that span across different platforms.  Maybe your application works on Sony Vaio PCs, or Sony Televisions with GoogleTV?

If you get in early enough, before September 16th, you’ll have the chance to be one of the 10 MAX Award Finalists.  So get in early and you can get a free trip to Adobe MAX in LA!

In addition, $10,000 USD will be awarded for the following applications:

• Most Innovative Application
• MAX Public Favorite – awarded by community vote

The top 80 finalists in the contest will get pre-release access to the devices for a 4 week period, the Adobe AIR 3 runtime, and access to the very latest tooling to complete your application.  You’ll be on the leading edge of Flash development and innovation.

Adobe AIR 3 Beta

You will use Adobe AIR 3 Desktop Beta, released soon for the desktop to optimize your applications for both devices.  So you can start to consider how your existing or new applications would make use of the dual screen, be as novel as you like!  (cough, mixing desk, cough)

For the Sony Tablet S2 you will use the upcoming Native Extension feature in AIR 3, one of the most exciting features in the upcoming release of the platform.  Native Extensions give us an easy way to optimize applications for dual screens, that’s because we can now access any API on a host Operating System!

All applications should support both the Sony Tablet S1 and S2.

Key Diary Dates

• Sept 16: Deadline for MAX Showcase App prizes
• Oct 1-5: MAX Public Favorite Vote & MAX Showcase App winners attend Adobe MAX
• Oct 10: Deadline for Entries
• Nov 11: Final App Submission for Finalists to the Android Market
• Nov 17: Winners Announced

Submit your app or app project now at airappchallenge.com

This summer we’re running an Adobe Mobile Challenge for developers, designers and agencies around the EU territory.  What’s really exciting is that you’ll get the chance to win a trip, including flight and hotel, to Adobe MAX in LA this October.  We even have a few copies of Creative Suite 5.5 and Flash Builder Premium 4.5.1 for runners up, so lots of you will have a chance to win big.

We’re looking for applications that reach across different mobile platforms and that are published widely, on the Apple AppStore, Android Market and of course the Blackberry AppWorld for the PlayBook.

You’re application can be a game or branded content, anything goes really as long as your application is available in each store by the deadline below. Here’s my colleague Michael Chaize to tell you more, with his cool French accent..

DEADLINE:  September 1

It has been a while since I have had time to update you all on the amazing traction that we’re seeing for AIR across devices.  I’ve spent a week touring with Motorola and next up it’s RIM, for Meet the Playbook.

I know that many of you have already attended the Western Europe events, and given the cool apps that are starting to pop up on the App World, it was certainly worth the effort!  The whole Evangelist team have Playbooks now, and we’re working on our own apps to show off the platform.

Check out the video, incredible performance.  Laughing in the face of HD video..

Next up, I’ll be joining Sanyu Kiruluta and the rest of the RIM team in Johannesburg and Dubai.  These are two of the most exciting dates on the calendar for this half of the year.

Hopefully I’ll see you there, in the baking 40 degree heat

Yesterday at the Imagination stand we spotted Brendan Iribe from Scaleform, one of the most amazing SWF rendering engines available. I actually heard of Scaleform about three years ago through our Korean team, it’s taken this long for us to connect.

Above, you can see a 3D game using the Unreal engine and looking great.  What’s interesting is that the control system, which floats in the air in 3d is actually created in Flash Professional.  The power of the Scaleform tools means that these SWFs can be tessellated (vectors to triangles) and run directly within the 3D engine.

It just makes so much sense, why on earth wouldn’t they use Flash to create this type of UI?  I’m also starting to wonder just how much more Flash content is created out there and played back on a “custom” SWF Player.

Update – Scaleform announced that they have been acquired by AutoDesk.

The QNX Neutrino OS is of course the underlying platform used by the Playbook as well as huge range of server, industrial and automotive products, all with “space-grade reliability”. QNX has of course shipped Neutrino in a huge array of different products in various configurations, making it one of the best choices for industrial, automotive, transport and consumer devices.

Interestingly, with the QNX Car, automotive OEMs can leverage Flash in a very unique way.  Merging highly available OpenGL rendering with Flash components, and blended together using some special sauce.  So with QNX Car, it’s possible to produce dashboards that are highly available and safe, yet dynamic and easy to produce in Flash.  To enable this, the Neutrino OS employs a number of distributed processing techniques that ensure the safe running of key components – all while offering amazing multimedia and connectivity features.

Throughout 2010 we’ve all been thinking about the huge range of new devices, tablets, televisions and mobile phones that have begun to change the digital landscape.  As part of my investigation into the automotive space, I started to think about the interactions between these devices.  Do passengers want their tablet to be the control hub for their car of the future?  What can we learn about our driving “expertise”, or green credentials using applications?

Imagine all of the opportunities for great integrated applications, think of all of the information at your disposal! We could have personalized and theme’d dashboards, mood sensors, and with 4G connectivity options on the horizon, we could see vast amounts of telemetry data help with the ever increasing congestion on our roads.

Well the good news is that the folks at QNX are already putting these concepts together. Let’s take a look at this demo shown at CES, integrating the RIM Playbook directly with the QNX car control systems…

This year I’ll be missing Adobe MAX in person, heading to Ireland tomorrow for a family wedding, so it has been an interesting experience to watch from afar.  I guess the most obvious thing to point out is that “I can” – that is, watch it from afar.

The keynote this year is being approached differently, it’s all about solutions.  You’ll notice that ‘devices’ don’t have a predictable section of their own, instead they are presented together across a set of five innovation vectors, Web Development, Video, Digital Publishing, Enterprise Applications, and Gaming.  The dynamic has shifted from technologies to solutions, as presented by Kevin Lynch and guests Martha Stewart, Mark Goldberg of EPIX, Joe Simon of Condé Nast, Mike Lazaridis of RIM and David Nuescheler of Day Software (soon to be an Adobe company).

The conference this year is powered by Akamai and distributed using Flash Player to desktop computers, mobile phones and tablets and all major browsers.  In addition, this years MAX is also streamed using Peer-2-Peer technology, found in Flash Player 10.1 – which is now available on 74% of desktop computers and just 3 months after launch.

These changes sum up our ongoing strategy to enable the creation of applications that are fit for purpose, expressive and multi-screen.  As part of this we re-organized our teams at Adobe, folding the Flash Platform business unit into the Creative Suite Business Unit.  Together our new group is called CIBU – Creative & Interactive Solutions.

Web Development

Earlier in the year at Google IO we showed a new HTML5 extension for Dreamweaver CS5, created to enable the production of web properties across screens.  Within this new HTML5 pack we have added support for CSS3 and media-queries that allow your web pages to be easily transposed to different screen sizes.  Simply run the Adobe Updater to get started.

Kevin also showed a new prototype, codename “Edge” that is effectively Flash Catalyst for HTML and uses the popular JQuery JavaScript library.  Using Edge you will be able to create HTML5 applications and sites with animations and media, drastically shortening the development time for web properties, widgets, and not to forget, great prototypes that run across screens.  I can’t wait to start creating AIR applications and mobile websites with Edge, it’s going to be huge.

Finally, with our recent acquisition of Omniture we also showed NetAverages, an amazing product that forms part of the suite of applications including analytics, optimizations, conversion and acquisition tools.  With NetAverages you can now gain access to a wealth of data around HTML5 support, devices, platforms and various technologies – all of which is presented in a stunning Flex interface.  Statistic are gleaned anonymously from a large range of the worlds most popular websites.

Digital Publishing

This year we’ve seen the introduction of the Tablet form factor, which is a great leap forward for the publishing industry – enabling a new distribution and monetization model for the publishing industry.  As part of this great work we’re going to ramp up our contributions to webkit, delivering improvement in layout control – including precision text wrapping around shape/images and enhancements for dynamic rendering of content for different form factors.

Today, almost all major publishing houses use Adobe InDesign to create their print pieces and deliver these to consumers at news stands.  So it makes a lot of sense for this workflow to be enhanced to encompass the packaging and delivery of Digital Publications.  We’re calling this solution the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, a set of tools, deployment and SiteCatalyst reporting services that make it incredibly easy to target these new devices in a sustainable way.

Publishers create “stacks”, which are essentially articles/pages/ads in InDesign CS5 in portrait/landscape/both and publish these individually.  Each stack can include interactive elements, buttons, links, scrollable frames and slideshows to enable rich experiences and drive innovation in their digital pieces.  In addition, you can also use the Interactive Overlay Creator to produce 360° views, panoramas, image pans, audio, video, and web views.  Web view is very similar to StageWebView, described in my previous blog posts

Video and audio are added very easily and use the H.264 format in addition to standard mp3 formats.  You can integrate audio as part of the experience, maybe clicking sounds or swoosh effects – although I hope you can be more imaginative!  Each interactive element has associated parameters to enable you to control the interaction for the user, such as looped slideshows, handling swipe events, fading, hightlights, transition timing and delays.

Finally, you can use the Adobe Digital Content Bundler to take the stacks and create an issue of your publication by simply adding each of the publication content folders and stacks.  Publications can then be viewed in a generic viewer application and later deployed in a custom viewer for each publication.

From a publishers perspective, managing the technologies, deployments and interactions is pivotal to success in this new multi-screen world.  With the Digital Publishing Suite, content creators can spend more time driving their content and brand – instead of worrying about the ever increasing costs of reaching their users across devices.

Enterprise Applications

For the Enterprise we are now focused on “Customer Experience Management”, a new set of solutions that are targeted directly to enhancing the productivity and experiences for our largest customers.

At MAX we announced the availability of Flex 4.5 “Hero”, the latest version of Flex that has been highly optimized to enable the creation of mobile applications for Android, Blackberry and of course desktop computers.  This new framework includes additional mobile components and skins to speed up the production of multi-screen apps and deliver new experiences on devices.

Flash Builder Burrito / Flash Catalyst Panini

Attendees received a DVD with a new version of Flash Builder, with some amazing new features for creating mobile applications.  These include device debugging for Android (inc. USB support), integrated Android SDK tools and simulation for a host of supported devices.  Flash Builder Burrito ships with Flex 4.5 embedded and you can download the trial here.  Among the many new features are improved coding features, performance improvements and much improved support for working with Flash Catalyst Panini.

The Catalyst team have also been hard at work improving the workflows for designers and developers using Flex.  With “Panini”, the team have focused on delivering the first steps towards full round tripping between Photoshop and Illustrator and Burrito.  The results are looking great, enabling resizable applications and components, custom skins, code generation improvements and improvements for animation control and styles.  You can download the trial of Panini here.

Day Software

Earlier this year we announced that we are to acquire Day Software, a Swiss company with offices in Boston.  Day are a global leader in content management with customers like Audi, Nissan, Volkswagen, MTV, Virgin Media and McDonalds.  David Nuescheler was on hand to show CQ5, an amazing solution for managing content in multiple languages and for multiple screens.  Customers can simply drag and drop assets and pages, type content directly into the pages and leverage approval and localization workflows directly from the tooling.  I can’t wait to see more of our new EMEA team

Video

Flash is now enabling the playback of 120 Billion megabytes of video every month, an astounding number that presents huge challenges for the Flash Player team.  Today Flash supports numerous formats, resolutions and audio codecs being mixed together and delivered using DRM, encrypted streams, the open RTMP and it’s variants.  In the latest player we also support playback over HTTP and RTMFP for P2P distribution of large events, thus driving the industry forward.

So what’s so big about video on a TV?  – Well, what we actually showed is DRM protected and encrypted video running across the internet in HD format to a television.  We’ve all sat at home watching video on our computers with 30″+ televisions in front of us, it’s just annoying.  Today we showed that EPIX can leverage the Omniture analytics suite and industry approved Token based DRM (Flash Access) to present high-value content from the studios directly into the home.  This signifies an industry change, for the first time you can deliver video across screens, whilst protecting it, measuring it, and enabling users to gain access to a full web of video currently missing from the living room.

At MAX we announced two things, Flash and AIR for TV and a new way to display video – StageVideo.  StageVideo enables the use of hardware decoders, much like VLC does today, and this results in huge improvements in the CPU usage – but with limitations.

The API enables video to playback on a graphics plane, delivered straight to hardware, as opposed to being pipelined back into the Flash Player.  Because of this, videos rendered with this API cannot support transparency and objects will not render behind the video.  Flash content, such as overlays for video controls are rendered on top of the video in a separate graphics plane.  In fact, on TV this will be the defacto rendering method and all video objects will render this way.

Moving forward, all devices using the Flash runtime will have access to this new API set.  The Blackberry Playbook is the first tablet to implement this support to deliver an incredible video experience on their hardware, demonstrated for the first time at Adobe MAX.

AIR applications can now be built for TV using AIR2.5, the applications runtime deployed for Android and desktop platforms.  These applications are typically video based, although we do see some great opportunities for gaming and social connectivity moving forward.

Flash Player and AIR on TV are supported on Samsung TVs and Blueray Players, Google TV and BBC Youview hardware.

Gaming

The most exciting piece from the keynote today was probably the advancements in gaming and 3D support planned for an upcoming Flash Player release.  On the top of the tick list is game controller support, the ability to simply plugin your USB joypad or steering wheel and start playing games!  I’m so excited about it

Needless to say, gaming on the web is set for a omplete overhaul, with 3D capabilities that use leverage GPU hardware and rendering millions of triangles per second.  What’s more incredible is that the demo below uses 0% CPU, and if our current stats hold true, we can get this out to 3/4 of the online world in three months after launch.

Check it out…

Last week we published a new Facebook SDK for creating Flash and AIR applications that incorporate Facebook connectivity using their new Open Graph API.  The design of their API is really great and uses Open Authentication version 2.0, so it’s easier than ever to connect your applications – and help them go viral.

Creating an application couldn’t be simpler, just go to this link and fill in the details to retrieve your Application ID.  You’ll only need that to connect your new application.

Admittedly I was a little surprised to see that AIR on Android wasn’t supported, although the full source is published and so it was easy to start adapting it for use on Android.  In the video above you can see how simple it is to connect your applications.

Below you can download the full source and step through the application.  Maybe you can add a feature that supports status updates?

FaceCard Download

FacebookMobile Download

Radar

In addition, I have been adding support for Facebook and Twitter connectivity to my Radar application – currently available on the Android Market.  This application has become much more complex as a result, but I think it’s now looking really great.

You can download the application on the Android Market, or for the Desktop here.  If you are feeling brave then you can find the source for this application below.

Radar Source Download

Today I published my P2P video application, “Radar” on the Android Market for free, it took about 15mins in total.  You can now all go and download the application and rate it five stars minimum

Serge is also going to try and keep a list of the current applications here.

Installation

We have worked closely with the Android team to ensure that the seamless AIR runtime installation from the desktop is mirrored on devices.  This isn’t a simple process and as you will notice, it’s not perfect.  Today, the first AIR application that gets installed will ask the users permission to download the AIR runtime – this comes from the Android Market.

To be clear, on mobile devices there is a very clear security process for 3rd party installations.  We don’t intend to break that model for the time being as it comes with a number of benefits – like updating the runtime for example.

Get Started

This is obviously a very exciting time and there are already some Flash based games and applications sitting on the market from Flash developers around the world.  I tried playing with a few of them and it’s exciting to see so many of you jumping at the chance to go live, arguably a few jumped too soon.  Please Please test your applications thorough and ensure high quality!!

Submission process

Set yourself up as an Android Developer, it costs $25 and you can use Google Checkout.

Certificates

Once you’re all signed up, you only need to submit your application APK, created from Flash Professional or using the wonderful command line.  In either case, you will need to ensure that your certificate is valid for 25 years.

Go to the AndroidSDK\tools folder using your Terminal or Command Prompt.

adt -certificate -cn flashmobileblog -ou markadoherty -validityPeriod 25 2048-RSA ./androidCert.p12 somepassword

Once completed, you can now compiled your APK as before – selecting this new certificate. Android publishers are free to use self-signed certificates created in this way, however it is advisable to use a proper certificate. The Adobe AIR certificate is well recognized (Verisign based) and works on Android, Mac, Windows, Linux and more to come.

Icons

You will need icons, 48×48 and 72×72.  Google have provided a very detailed set of guidelines on icon production, so I suggest you drop by and ensure that you’re following the best practices.  Liz Myers has a great video session on icons and how to stand out over here (note that this was for Flash Lite, but the concepts are the same).

Screenshots

In addition, in the Android Market there are usually some marketing screenshots.  These help users decide whether they are interested in your app or not and so I suggest that you spend some time making them great.  You can submit two of them at 320×480 or 480×854.

Lastly, you will want to submit a promotional graphic for use on websites and other materials at 180×120 portrait.

Marketing

In these early days I recommend adding Adobe AIR into your description for the application.  This will ensure that users are aware that they need a Froyo device and you can also benefit from free marketing moving forward as users will be able to search for “Adobe AIR”.

Last week I visited Toronto in Canada for the second FITC Mobile event, part of the Mobile Innovation week held in the city.  As always the event was a great success and it was nice to meet up with old friends, and hear about the exciting new ideas in the mobile industry.

Samsung were a sponsor this year again, and thankfully the team had brought along a couple of Samsung Galaxy Tab devices for the attendees to play with. The device is very nice, light in the hand and with a beautiful bright screen – the whole experience is very fluid. Something that I missed at the launch was the inclusion of a phone, so it was great to see added functionality and play with the browser.

With a little arm twisting I managed to install the very latest AIR2.5 beta for Android and test out my application, Radar.

On the way to Canada I have been playing with dynamic layouts, and trying to figure out how the application will scale for different screen sizes. At the time I was only thinking about the desktop, Nexus One and Droid 2 – but hey, why not a tablet

The video below shows the experience running well, although the demo gods were circling…

Terry Ryan, Paul Trani and Brian Rinaldi were also at the event, it was great to catch up with the US Evangelists. In fact Paul also recorded a great video demo of Flash in the browser on the Samsung Tablet here:

I am also provide the update source files for this demo below, maybe you can think of new features and play around with the UI?

DOWNLOAD SOURCE