Posts Tagged Sony Ericsson
$200k – Adobe AIR App Challenge for Sony Tablets
Posted by Mark Doherty in Creative Suite 5, Flash Player, iphone, Mobile Content on July 12, 2011
This summer seems like one for Flash and Mobile, so it’s great to be able to tell you that Sony, one of our long term partners in mobile, are joining the Open Screen Project and will be a platinum sponsor of Adobe MAX in LA.
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
Sony Ericsson UI AS2 Components Beta 2
Posted by Mark Doherty in Devices, Flash Lite on August 19, 2009
As you saw in my previous post our friends at Sony Ericsson have been hard at work creating UI Components. Today they are announcing Beta 2 of the set and published a huge array of different components, in particular these are well suited to use with their Capuchin devices.
The list is really extensive and enables an array of different applications to be created, with drag and drop development. Here are some of them:
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Sony Ericsson release Flash UI Components in AS2
Posted by Mark Doherty in Flash Lite, Mobile Content on July 29, 2009
A few days ago the team at Sony Ericsson released their first set of UI components for the Flash Player on mobile devices. Written in AS2 and fully integrated with Adobe Flash Professional CS4.
Each of the controls are fully customizable use the Component inspector, enabling you to change the look and feel for your applications. Everything from background colors to text values and icons are supported across the components, it’s ridiculously easy to make them fit with your apps look and feel.
The beta set includes 8 new components ready for you to use:
- Checkbox
- List – Single Row with Icon
- List – Two Rows with Icon
- Progress Indicator
- Push Button
- Radio Button
- Softkey Bar
- Wait Indicator
How to Get Started
Once you’ve downloaded the MXP file here, you can install the components by simply double clicking on the file. The Adobe Extension Manager will install the files and add them to the Components Panel in Flash Professional, you can open it using the Window Menu within the tool.
As you see it’s then possible to start dragging the UI components onto the Stage here on the left, which in my case is set for a Sony Ericsson C905 device at 240×320. By default the components come with a nice Sony Ericsson look and feel, and if you’re like me then a little help in the UI department always helps (as you’ll see later).
Using the component inspector (shown here in the middle) you can then start to customize the look and feel of the list. Check out just how much you can configure the components simply by clicking a few options, it’s really very nice indeed.
Ok, so I said about that my design talents need some work but I’ve played around with the various options and come out all blue. Additionally, since the list component is using live preview, you can see your items directly and the active scrollbar on the stage.
Of course you can configure these options with Actionscript too, which is pretty much required for anything other than static lists. Yet for colors and sizes there’s a real value in having live preview components, particularly for the designers among you.
In the image above I’ve added a softkey menu to enable me to buy some Star Fruit, which is shown selected at the top. Using the component inspector I can set each of the items too, and so disable items that may be unavailable. I can also change their color for highlighted, selected and disabled items directly in the tool.
Now that I’ve completed my list I can add a simple shadow fill and the Wait Indicator component (in circle mode) to animate when the purchase is taking place. Again it’s configurable so that I can make it fit in with my application, and of course control the spinning of the circle in Actionscript.
Then I’m ready to test in Device Central CS4 to ensure that everything looks great, before a bit of testing on the Sony Ericsson C905 
Remember that it’s possible to begin using these components along with the extensive list of MXP files for Project Capuchin. Targeting Capuchin devices enables you to deliver standalone applications that have full access to JavaME apis on the JP8 platform, there are seventeen devices already.
Don’t forget the PlayNow Arena available on 38 devices, 17 countries and 200million users!
Capuchin releases – Packaging tool and Sony Ericsson C905
Posted by Mark Doherty in Devices, Flash Lite, Industry News on July 25, 2008
Sony Ericsson have been doing a lot to update the look and feel of their site, what a great job particularly the mobile device Gallery. Today saw the launch of the Capuchin Packaging Tool to add to the release of the first supported device the C905 which has received great reviews already.
The device includes a huge array of features including aGPS, WIFI and an 8.1MP camera. I can tell I’m going to like it already due to my camera being stolen at Heathrow 
Update, here are some pictures taken 28th July and reduced in size by 50%:
The Capuchin Tool is Windows only at this stage, simply install the exe file and this will place the relevant packaging piece into your chosen install path. From there all you have to do is launch the little batch file.
Check it out..