Archive for category Devices
Helisso – A Packager for Symbian devices
Posted by Mark Doherty in Android, Devices, Distributable Player Solution, Flash Lite, Industry News on March 3, 2010
As some of you know, learning about AIR, AS3, Flex, Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder has been my side-project for a few months now. As I mentioned in a previous post, it is essential to prepare for the future and invest now in learning new skills.
For me, the best way to learn new things is to create a project that’s difficult, yet cool enough to keep you interested. So my first few steps revolved around learning how to use Fireworks, then Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder and ultimately distribute an application using Adobe AIR.
AIR 2.0
One of the amazing new features of AIR 2.0 is the ability to embed and execute native code from right inside Actionscript, an API called NativeProcess. This means that you can safely run existing services over the command line, as well as install your own native service components. AIR 2.0 is in beta right now on Adobe Labs, and is mobile ready as designed so it’s a great time to get started.
So what would a Platform Evangelist for mobile and devices create?
Introducing Helisso
What is it?
- A packaging utility that can produce SIS packages for Symbian devices
- It targets the Flash Lite 3.x runtime for Nokia’s S60 devices
- It runs on PC and Mac OS, all versions
Details
- The tool has embedded Python binaries inside, compiled versions of “Ensymble“
- For signing purposes the tool also includes OpenSSL for certificate signing
- It is unsupported and without warranty
How do I use it?
How do I install it?
I have been hugely impressed with the capabilities provided by AIR, in this only my first AS3 project. Looking back on all of the technologies that I have used has really got me excited about AIR applications on Android, and even sprouted a few iPhone applications in advance of that. Seriously, imagine having all of the power of AIR and this toolchain on mobile phones?
Lastly, a big shout out to Steve Hartley of Oppian, Jussi Ylänen creator of Ensymble, without whom this wouldn’t have been possible.
iPhone stats from the Flash Player download center
Posted by Mark Doherty in Devices, Flash Player, Industry News, iphone on February 6, 2010
A little while ago I blogged about our new iPhone page at the Flash Player download center, the same site where hundreds of millions of users download and upgrade Flash every year.
We were amazed by the numbers of hits received from iPhone OS devices, from users seeking the Flash Player to play back rich content from their favourite sites. Users that, before we created the special page, had no idea that Apple do not want them viewing the Internet as they see it today.
It has now been reported that over 7 million attempts were made by users to download the player by December 2009, that’s up from 3 million attempts in June 2009.
Incredible numbers I think you’ll agree!
CES 2010: Light Blue Optics launch “Light Touch”
Posted by Mark Doherty in Conference, Devices, Flash Lite, Flash Player, Industry News on January 12, 2010
CES 2010 in Las Vegas saw a very interesting device launch from UK based Light Blue Optics. The great news is that they’ve received really positive press and comments from users that are eager to get their hands on the Light Touch.
So what is it? Effectively it’s a projector for rich media, but it’s laser based which gives it the ability to project onto different surfaces while maintaining a sharp focus and bright colours. LBO used the Flash Platform to provide a rich user interface engine for applications, games, photos and even H.264 video playback. The device is also multi-touch enabled using infra-red, but employs an invisible grid projection onto the surface, which enables much more accurate and speedy response times.
As a user you can envisage a huge array of different use cases, maybe your calendar projected onto your desk, or video playing on your bedroom wall. We saw a huge array of 3D TVs, ever larger, thinner and brighter televisions this year at CES. Could the future require no screen at all?
Just think of the options for this kind of device in the auto-industry, gaming and entertainment. The great news is that the device spec’s make it capable of running Flash Player 10.1 in the future, reaping the benefits of our consistent Open Screen Project runtime for all platforms.
Specs:
- Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 on WinCE 5
- ARM11 CPU @ 600Mhz
- 10-inch touchscreen with WVGA resolution
- Laser based pico projection
- Infrared multi-touch detection
- WiFi and Bluetooth radios
- 2GB of on-board storage (+ microSD)
Check it out in action:
Flash Player 10.1 on the Google Nexus
Posted by Mark Doherty in Android, Devices, Flash Player on January 5, 2010
There has a been a great deal of attention in the past week around the upcoming Google Nexus One device, the latest in the growing line of Android devices. Interestingly this new phone has increased support from Google in both sales and marketing, something that arguably is much needed for Android to succeed with the masses.
The Nexus One ships with the incredible Snapdragon processor, as well as a host of hardware features that set this device apart. Running Android 2.1, the Nexus has an amazing web browsing experience that enables you to browse a more complete web. I’m very pleased to be able to show Flash Player 10.1 running on the Nexus, created with our Open Screen Project partners Google and HTC, enjoy.
Adobe and RIM to simplify the delivery of rich content and applications
Posted by Mark Doherty in Conference, Devices, Flash Player, Industry News on November 9, 2009
Today our Open Screen Project partner RIM kicked off their annual Blackberry Developer Conference in San Francisco. This year we’re seeing a central theme from the conference and that’s Blackberry as a web platform, and announced more details around the support that you can expect for the Blackberry platform within the upcoming tools in Creative Suite 5.
This year Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen was there to talk about our upcoming support in Creative Suite 5 for the Blackberry platform. This builds on the vision for our joint collaboration in the Open Screen Project and the work we’re doing to get Flash Player 10.1 running in the Blackberry browser.
Today RIM & Adobe also announced that we’ll be optimizing Adobe AIR and the Flex Mobile Framework for the Blackberry platform , making RIM the first OEM to announce support for Adobe AIR and Flex Mobile.
From developers the most obvious integration point will be in Adobe Device Central CS5, which enables the easy development and testing of content for Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects and Fireworks CS5. These new tools aim to enable the production of content for use in Blackberry’s Java Plug-in for Eclipse, BlackBerryWidgets, and the BlackBerry Theme Studio tools. In fact the new Theme Studio supports Flash and Photoshop files through its handy import mechanism, so you can easily create themes alongside SVG support in Illustrator.
Additionally, for consumers we’re also going to enable use of our Photoshop Elements and Photoshop.com products for sharing and editing videos and photos taken on Blackberry phones.
(The BlackBerry Bold runs a 624Mhz Marvell CPU)
So let’s have a look at Blackberry in more detail to give us an idea of where the opportunities are. Recently we’ve seen the launch of Blackberry App World back in April, the addition of a new Widgets SDK, the Blackberry Theme Studio tools and of course the continued work on their Java platform for applications. These strides toward a more open web platform have enabled users to access rich Internet content like never before, and as you’ll see below; they love content.
From an addressable market view, Blackberry devices are sold in vast numbers in the US market. So let’s look at some key stats from Comscore on their behavior there, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised:
- 14.2m devices
- 50/50 male and female audience
- 25-34 age range
- 43% earn over $100k
- 64.7% of RIM users are browsing the Web
- More than half a million are using dating services
- 15% are interested in Tech news
- 20% are accessing Maps (they travel more than most users)
- 14% are downloading games (triple the norm!), with card, casino and arcade prevalence
- 20% have changed their theme or wallpapers, 3x higher than normal
- 1/4 are using online media storage / facebook etc
So on average a Blackberry user earns, spends, travels and browses the Internet about 3x more than users of other platforms. This makes them a high value target in your development of applications and services, and important customers for niche and business oriented content. With the Blackberry App World growing steadily (200,000 developers) in partnership with Verizon I can see a clear opportunity there with their joint customers, and one really nice feature is the $2.99 minimum price for a paid application!
You can watch the Keynote recording here, and yes it’s done with Silverlight for some reason 
Why not drop on over to www.adobe.com/go/blackberry to learn more and see some videos previewing the upcoming tooling integration announced today.
Creating Graphics Optimized for BlackBerry in Adobe Creative Suite
Further to the announcement of the alliance between Research In Motion and Adobe, this video illustrates the creation of graphical assets optimized for BlackBerry smartphones using Adobe Creative Suite. (6:17)
Building BlackBerry Widgets Using Adobe Dreamweaver
Further to the announcement of the alliance between Research In Motion and Adobe, this video illustrates the creation of a BlackBerry Widget using Adobe Dreamweaver, the industry-leading web content authoring tool. (2:38)
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