Oct

2

Flash Lite 3 released

October 2, 2007 | 1 Comment

The marketing guys are saying that this is the biggest release Adobe has ever done for mobile. Not sure, I agree. BUT, this release could have a major impact. The number one reason is mobile video. Flash Lite 3 supports Flash Video. Nokia is paying attention. That is great. I will have to update the MediaPlayback example I created that shipped with Flash 8 as a Flash Lite 2.0 example. Congrats Adobe!

Mar

1

I have been a T-Mobile subscriber for probably 5 years now. The main reason I started with T-Mobile and have stayed with them is the unlimited data plan, and the fact that I can use unlocked phones. Because of my mobile development (Flash Lite, J2ME, etc…) I need some flexibility and a decent unlimited plan. According to today’s news however, T-Mobile may start banning data of third party apps. This means the apps that I create and test. This means Opera’s browser. This means Skype. This means any news reader. Google Maps and Gmail Mobile. HUH? No idea why they would do this other than to free up the network for their in-house offerings like Blackberry mail, etc… If this is the case, it makes my decision of jumping over to Cingular for the iPhone all that much easier. I hope this is not the case. Their relatively “open” network was the reason I have been a customer for this long and was making my decision to jump to “the other GSM carrier” all that much more difficult. Might have to add this to the list of stupid things done by carriers to drive customers away.

Feb

12

This is something that I have been waiting on since the release of Flash Lite 2.0. This is game changing. One area, where I felt, J2ME beat Flash Lite was in the area of multimedia. J2ME has an add-on called Mutlimedia API. It allows you to control audio and video on the handset the way that Flash Lite is announcing it will be able to do. This really levels the playing field in my eyes. Flash Lite had supported video in the past, but relied on the handsets default video playback runtimes. This meant that the handset had to switch applications in order to play the video. Not the greatest user experience.

When I authored some of the Flash Lite 2.0 example files that shipped with Flash 8, I included a video playback example. In it, I had to do MIME checking on the client side for each video the application wanted to show. That will still have it’s place, but FLV support is awesome.

I can’t wait to play with this. Awesome work Adobe engineers!

Dec

20

Ajit, over at Open Gardens had a great post the other day about how Flash Lite stands against the open standards and what that means for market strategy. I left a comment and am reposting here so more of the community can share their thoughts.

<snip>
I understand and agree with your reasoning on Flash Lite not being an open standard. I think it could move along at a faster pace if it were, however it may very well become splintered which doesn’t help developers at all. Things as simple as UA-Prof have proven this to be a nightmare.

With that said, Flash Lite is not an apples to apples comparison with SVG and WICD. It is more comparable to J2ME, simply because it is a runtime, but even then I am not sure if it is apples to apples. I think the confusion comes, because we all think of it is the desktop browser plug-in. Flash Lite isn’t the same thing. For one, on the majority of phones it is a standalone application, not even related to the browser. You simply run SWFs off of the phone, the browser has no part. On some handset platforms it can be used as a browser plug-in, but for the most part it is a standalone runtime, much like Python on Series 60.

Also, when people think of Flash, and Flash Lite, they immediately think of graphics rendering (like SVG) but that doesn’t do it justice. Because it is a runtime it goes further than just the presentation layer. The runtime actually provides a logic layer that SVG, and WICD, do not. Things like access to local persistent storage, video playback, audio playback, etc… make it different than the open rendering languages. It also doesn’t have the limitations of being confined in a browser.

So, now onto the whole notion of the ‘go to market’ strategy. Someone earlier in the comments pointed out that Adobe has changed their strategy recently and is offering the player for free. This is great news for developer adoption. However, much like you pointed out earlier. There still needs to be a carrier and/or OEM licensing deal. How many consumers will go to the Adobe site, download an installer, get it on their phone and install the runtime?

The adoption in Japan has proven that Flash Lite can be successful if placed on the phone and services are created around it. The runtime is rich and presents a lot of opportunity where other technologies fall short. Game development is one area where Flash Lite shines. Simple game play, but still, that is a huge market. Widget applications also shine. On the mobile paradigm I define these widget apps as ‘companion apps’, because they are probably used for granting access to commonly used desktop Web services. They are not full blown, but a companion to what you do on your desktop. Flash Lite is great at these. J2ME can be great at them as well, however J2ME needs something like SVG integration to be able to compete at the presentation layer. And the authoring workflow is completely different. This is in part to Flash Lite not being an open standard and being owned by one party. So I guess the argument goes both ways.

Back to market strategy, the Nokia deal was great for the future of Flash Lite. This places Flash Lite out there. Should developers embrace it and start to create engaging content and services around it, other OEMs will be forced to take notice. This will mean Flash Lite becomes ubiquitous, or the other OEMs put some effort being competitive technologies, both have benefits to consumers.

However, despite Adobe’s salesforce and licensing deals, Flash Lite is only as good and valuable as the content that is created with it. This goes for SVG, WICD, J2ME, etc… Until there is a ‘killer app’ made in one of these technologies, they are all just great bases that no one has built upon yet.
</snip>

Oct

26

I wasn’t able to attend MAX this year, but have been following the announcements via a far. The biggest for me has been the Verizon announcement that they are starting to populate their deck with games made using Flash Lite, which means distribution of the Flash Lite runtime via BREW. Any distribution will have the potential of exposing Flash Lite as a good technology for mobile devices. The graphical UI that can be achieved is simply on another level compared to other widely used technologies. And the development workflow is simply the best in class.

Awesome right? Hold on. I’ve written about this before. The very last comment is very informative. As is this information on BREW at Wikipedia. As stated in that entry, the steep cost of entry is a barrier to most hobbyists and independent developers. Which accounts for a high percentage of the Flash Lite developers currently, myself included.

Sure, I have lots of ideas for Flash Lite games and apps, have some built or in the process of being built even. Mostly I build for my own use and amusement. I simply am unwilling to foot the upfront costs needed to get my content on the decks. Perhaps others will be willing, however I don’t see that happening.

When I first heard of the relationship between Verizon and Adobe (then Macromedia), my hope was that Adobe would work out a deal that their development community could have an easier method of entry and one that doesn’t have the upfront costs. Apparently that wasn’t worked out.

If anyone from Adobe is reading this and is privy to the details regarding entry costs, I am sure the community would like to hear them, because right now it is looking like the least expensive route has us paying $400/year for 100 application licenses. And that doesn’t include testing and certification costs which will be over $750 each run depending on the apps abilities and use of any APIs. Nor, in the end, does this guarantee whether or not Verizon will actually like/approve the app and put it on their deck. Tis risky.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the technology. It’s the cost to the developer that I don’t like. And I guess in the end, this isn’t Adobe’s fault either, it is simply a result of Qualcomm charging too much for BREW so they can monetize at least some off of the carriers that are reaping all the rewards. At least that is the way it looks to me, I could be wrong, and would be willing to hear the facts if someone wants to present them.

Aug

11

Via MocoNews, I see that Viacom and Adobe have entered into an agreement on using Flash for online video distribution (didn’t realize that needed an agreement), but the deal included FlashCast. Obviously, I’m interested.

My first question is, did Viacom come into a licensing agreement to distribute the Flash Lite player (which enables FlashCast)? Otherwise, how would the MTV generation get the client installed on their phone? Viacom MVNO perhaps? I’m interested in hearing more details on this one. The only other FlashCast deployments that I know of went through the carriers, which control the handsets. Viacom doesn’t own/control any handsets so I am interested in hearing how the player is going to be distributed.

Jul

18

The recording for the Breeze seminar I did about two weeks ago regarding the MediaPlayback API for Flash Lite 2.0 has been posted. Check it out here if you weren’t able to attend: http://seminars.breezecentral.com/p61583106/

Jul

18

Congratulations to Smashing Ideas and BlueSkyNorth on their merger! I’m sure both teams are very excited about this combining of efforts. I expect we’ll see some great Flash Lite developments come out of this.

I look forward to seeing the work come out of this.

Apr

13

With my recent move back to the midwest I’ve missed the meet and greets of San Francisco and even Cincinnati. I like having other developers to geek out with face to face rather than everything being through email or IM. Lately I’ve been learning everything I can about the .NET CF. I have it installed on my Pocket PC Phone finally and want to build a few things. It would be nice to have some local folks to show things to and get ideas from. So luckily for me I was checking out blogmap and found Adam Kinney’s blog here in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Adam had a link to the NUFW. Curiously I looked and it is a .NET User Group for Ft. Wayne. Great! I’m a member and should be able to attend the next event. This is great. Who would have thunk that in this mid-sized midwestern town there would be an advanced technology group like this. This brightens my day for sure.

Mar

18

T-Mobile has reposted a revised installer for the Windows Mobile 2003 ROM update. See my previous post about last week’s installer going awry. I haven’t had a chance to re-try the install yet. But will sometime today (maybe at lunch while watching the tournament games). Finally I can try out some code I’ve written for the .NET compact framework.

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