Archive for category Industry News
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.
Flash Player 10.1 – Installations and updates
Posted by Mark Doherty in Android, Flash Player, Industry News, Mobile World Congress, Palm on March 2, 2010
Flash Player 10.1 will become available in the first half of 2010 for all supported platforms. In fact, the desktop beta 3 is already looking incredible and proving to be a huge hit with developers testing their content.
One of the most important parts of our work with our Open Screen Project OEM partners is to enable the seamless discovery, installation and update of Flash Player 10.1 on device platforms. I know that some have asked questions on this, and so I’m glad to bring you some responses, if a little late.
Extending the reach
In the “marketecture” diagram below you can see that Flash Player 10.1 is extending it’s platform reach, doubling it in fact. It’s worth noting that recent reports around minimum spec’s for Flash Player 10.1 are alluded to here also, because working with our partners, we are targeting the latest chipsets available.
To explain, smartphones have a typical lifespan that is less than half that of a desktop computer, and so hardware choices are made by planning for the future. Over the past few years we have shipped over 1.5Billion devices with Flash Lite using this simple rule.
Therefore the choice to target the ARM Cortex-A8 chipsets will result in greater efficiency, and most importantly a wider range of consistent experiences as uptake grows. To be clear, that uptake is already happening, and it will expand rapidly just like it does every other year.
It’s like a Moore’s Law of mobile phones 
Yet some devices will not be able to support the full Flash Player 10.1 due to low hardware capabilities, and for many of those devices we have a new version of our optimized runtime, Flash Lite, to fill the gap. In fact the alpha version has already been spotted running Farmville on Android Eclair here.
Driving the Distribution
Working with our OEM partners we have enabled the Flash Player to be installed in a manner consistent with the desktop experience. When visiting websites that have Flash content, users can click on the “Flash Player required” images/links provided by content developers to begin the installation process.
As with the desktop, the browser then redirects to the Flash Player Download Center, and in the case of mobile phones we pass these requests to the requisite device application stores such as the Android Market. Today’s application stores have extended abilities to correctly identify devices, and to manage the update of applications and plugins like Flash Player. Users can of course visit their application store directly if they wish.
In addition, those users purchasing new devices from a retailer may already have Flash Player pre-installed, made available in over-the-air software updates or through the browser directly.
Delivering Enhancements
As with the desktop install process, with each version of the Flash Player various updates are applied throughout it’s lifetime to ensure a high level of quality. Users can expect these updates to be provided automatically on some platforms via their application store update process, as well as through over-the-air software updates.
In the example above you can see the update notifications that users are familiar with on Android devices, and it is expected that this will be used for Flash Player 10.1 during it’s lifetime. Though I should point out that Nokia have been providing their own update mechanism, directly in the browser for some time now with a huge user uptake.
During the past few days Palm have also begun to lay the ground for Flash Player 10.1 support by delivering their software update.
Player Detection
On the desktop today developers use a combination of methods to detect the Flash Player and version. Recognizing the need for a consistent approach, these same methods can be used on mobile phones in the future. Adobe recommends SWFObject2, an open source project that provides cross-browser support. It is also supported fully within our Creative Suite tools. SWFObject works across browsers and device platforms to detect the Flash Player and it’s version. Should an update been required, the tool can enable the ExpressInstall experience or provide fallbacks as required.
Historically I know some have invested considerable time and energy in device databases such as WURFL, which helped us to accurately distribute application installers to devices. With Flash Player 10.1 we need only be concerned about the browser use case, and so I would argue that we do not need to continue this effort long term.
I hope this information will help you build a picture of the huge efforts that our engineering and product teams have made. The mechanisms for discovery, install and update of the Flash Player 10.1 are a fantastic achievement, even though for some of you these may seem rather obvious.
With the Open Screen Project partners we are literally changing the ecosystem, enabling a more complete and consistent web experience on devices, and driving the industry forward with the Flash Platform in 2010.
Acrobat Connect Pro is now on the AppStore
Posted by Mark Doherty in Flash Player, Industry News, iphone on February 25, 2010
One of the tools that I use almost every day at Adobe for screensharing, video conferencing and presentations is called Acrobat Connect Pro. It has been around for quite some time and today it’s used globally by organizations to help reduce the travel burden, as well as enabling teams to work together.
Today it is available for the Mac and PC and is created using the Flash Platform, with the addition of some extra features for screen sharing built into the Connect Addin for the desktop.
The great news is that yesterday the team launched their first version of Connect on mobile devices, starting with the iPhone. It is available for free now on the AppStore, although of course you will need an account and you can sign up for a 30 day trial for free over here.
Features:
- Attend Connect Pro Meetings with integrated conference call or Voice over IP audio.
- See who has joined the meeting, and their role (host, presenter, or attendee)
- View presentations, PDF documents, videos, and screen sharing provided by the meeting organizer.
- Rotate, pan, and zoom to choose your personal ‘best view’ of shared content
- View webcamera broadcasts from unlimited live camera feeds provided in the meeting
- Participate in Chat conversations throughout the meeting.
- Join meetings attended by users on virtually any computer system: Mac, Windows, Linux, Solaris and now iPhone.
Built using Flash Professional CS5
Acrobat Connect for the iPhone was created using the Adobe Flash Platform, and specifically with AIR 2.0 APIs. The team were able to create their contextual application using Flash Professional CS5 and simply package the application using the upcoming tool!
I know that many of you have wondered about building out complex applications such as this, and so I think this is a great demonstration of what you can achieve using both AIR and the new Flash Pro tool.
In addition, we have already shown Acrobat Connect running on Android devices and that was achieved by simply repackaging the code. The team made some great choices with regards to their design that have made it possible for the UI to lay itself out dynamically for different screen sizes and orientations. Some of the mobile developers among you will probably have played with these concepts before, and the rule has always been to ensure that you bake these into your design and development from the start.
As you can see the experience is really fluid and great for the end user. I’ve been able to connect seamlessly to the Connect session and broadcast my iTunes library in coverflow view
Redmond Pie and the “Farmville Test”
Posted by Mark Doherty in Android, Flash Player, Industry News, Mobile World Congress on February 23, 2010
Many of you may have read that the HTC Desire ROM has become “available” via Modaco Forums and their chef Paul. As reported Taimur from Remond Pie has uploaded a video demo of the HTC Nexus running Farmville within Facebook, and as he discovered, it wasn’t quite baked for mobile devices.
The story is a little more complex than simply being an alpha build running content that hasn’t been optimized for small screens; although that’s true as well.
At Mobile World Congress Adobe demonstrated the full Flash Player (Flash Player 10.1) running on Android, Palm webOS and other smartphone platforms. As a high end smartphone, the HTC Desire will ultimately support Flash Player 10.1 when it becomes available in the first half of 2010. As a user you will be able to upgrade the free player over the air with a simple software update.
Currently however, the HTC Desire ROM (shown below) is running a new alpha version of Flash Lite that supports AS3, it is not Flash Player 10.1.
Though as you can see from this early preview, crops can be sewn and sheep can be bought none-the-less.
Mobile World Congress 2010: Roundup
Posted by Mark Doherty in Android, Flash Player, Industry News, Mobile World Congress, Palm, iphone on February 23, 2010
I arrived back from this years Mobile World Congress far more exhausting than normal, hence the complete lack of blogging during the event; apologies for that. So here I will aim to roundup the various announcements and hopefully add to the huge amount of blogging and articles written during the event.
In general this years event had a more positive mood with attendees and exhibitors all looking to the future of mobile and devices. New this year was the inclusion of Tablet and Netbook devices in the show many of which use the same hardware as high end smartphones. Our goal is to enable the Flash Platform to extend to these devices too, and so it should be no surprise that we had many partners previewing Flash experiences on their hardware, more on that later.
Open Screen Project Update – “Connecting Developers with Consumers”
At the conference we announced that we now have some 70 partners, with new additions like Burda Group, RTL, Stern, Addicting Games and EPIX on the content partner side. New technology partners include Freescale, MIPS, Vizio, Symbian, Imagination Technologies and Sonic. In terms of scale we have created one of the largest initiatives in the mobile ecosystem to build a foundation for the distribution of the Flash Platform across devices. Of course for the community much of this will appear like marketing, but rest assured that there are many hundreds of engineers working globally to bring Flash to a huge array of platforms.
As we begin to wrap up the Flash Player integration efforts our focus has widened to include enablement for web content. In total we’re working with over 140 content provider partners, owners of the largest and most popular sites that use Flash today. At MWC 2010 we showed applications and websites optimized for mobile viewing from the following:
Animation – Angry Alien Productions
Branded – AOL Mobile, BBC iPlayer, ESPN, Sony Pictures, TBS, TNT, Warner Brothers
Gaming – Addicting Games, Armor Games, Kongregate, Miniclip.com, Nick.com, South Park Studios
News – BBC News, The New York Times Reader App, The Wall Street Journal Online
Video – AlloCiné, Amazon.com, AOL Moviefone, Canoe, Dailymotion, Disney, Epix, GMX, IGN, Kid Rock (Atlantic Records), Lavanguardia, National Geographic, Mobile YouTube, Studio1290 Mobile, STV Player Mobile, Ustream, Vimeo, Yahoo! Movies
As you can see the list is HUGE and this represents a small part of the overall efforts to bring the full web to devices using Flash Player. For the Open Screen Project to be truly successful we need our content providers and developers to play their part, as you can see, this effort is very much underway.
Of particular note we also joined the LiMo Foundation to deliver the Flash Platform on their Linux based devices. It’s an exciting announcement because it demonstrates that the Open Screen Project and other industry initiatives are aligned with a goal to the delivery of consistent and open platforms for developers and consumers.
Flash Player 10.1
On our stand at the Mobile World Congress we showed a beta version of Flash Player running on the Motorola Droid, Palm Pre and the Google Nexus One. The applications above were running incredibly well and attendees were very impressed with the performance and fluidity of the experience, Flash was built for the web and on devices it just makes sense. The most important addition to the mobile experience was the ability to playback Flash content in full screen mode, enabled by these powerful webkit browsers.
Of course the fun part for attendees was in visiting their own sites to understand the sheer power of the new player. In all, the thousands of attendees that visited our stand were extremely excited about being able to browse more of the web on their devices. For many the call to action was “How can I get started?”, well Thibaut has been crafting a great set of resources with our engineering teams here. The first step however is to create a plan of action, begin to plan a suitable user experience for mobile devices; and in particular those based on touch.
With Flash Player 10.1 we have worked to enable the same web content to run using less memory, yet with higher performance. The results are really incredible and should see a significant improvement, not only for the mobile devices but also for desktop computers and application running on Adobe AIR 2.0. Remember, we can only do so much and as a Flash Developer you have a role to play in ensuring that your content works well on these new devices.
For fun, my colleague Michael Chaize has created his own tour of the web on the Nexus One, he even pushes out all the stops by visiting a site based on Papervision!
In terms of availability we have required some significant patches to Android and to the Web OS to support the installation of the Flash Player over-the-air. We expect these new updates to become available soon to end users, at which time the Flash Player will become available either via their respective Application Stores, within the software updates or both. In either case the installation of the Flash Player will be seamless and ongoing we expect to see significant traction as we move forward.
Adobe AIR on devices
One of the big pieces of news at Mobile World Congress was the announcement of Adobe AIR on Android, and the tie-in with our Adobe Packager for the iPhone. At MAX 2009 we demonstrated the creation of iPhone applications using the upcoming Flash Professional CS5, and the twist is that these applications are based on AIR 2.0. To demonstrate the possibilities we showed some of the same applications created in Flash Professional CS5 that are available on the AppStore today, running on Android devices using Adobe AIR. The workflow couldn’t be simpler, it’s simply a repackaging effort with a little UX tweaking for basic layout and hardware capabilities.
Here is a nice video from Kevin Hoyt showing off Adobe AIR for Android:
Write One Run Everywhere? – In many ways the answer is yes, given a few measured choices. We have made it fantastically simple to reach across devices and platforms with Flash and AIR, and so the same code can now run on a huge array of phones, desktop computers and consumer electronics. Using the same assets and principle it will be extremely simple to tweak applications for varying screen sizes, input methods and user experiences.
So now our “marketecture” diagram for Applications looks like this (2010 is on the right):
Note that I’ve called out iPhone OS separately, this is because you will be required to use Actionscript 3 to target the iPhone. Once you package an application it will not be possible to process additional SWF files containing actionscript, such as those stored on the web, due to Apple’s restrictions around interpreted code.
Android, by comparison, is totally open and AIR runs beautifully on the platform; and dare I say a little faster on the Moto Droid, a device with iPhone 3Gs hardware. We plan to bring AIR to Android devices later in the year, and in the meantime you can get started by creating you content for Flash Player 10.1 for the desktop.
When Flash Professional CS5 comes to market you will be able to create iPhone applications that can easily be packaged for Android!
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