Pocket Flash

Look what I got in the post just before the weekend, an alpha prototype Chumby yay. After a weekend of playing around my head is spinning with ideas for widgets. Unfortunately half of which have already been developed, I think I’ll stick with the magic 8 ball idea first and make use of the motion sensors you can access via flash.

I’ve also had it in my mind to upload my 20Gb music collection and write an Air app that plays my music over the air (no pun intended) I’ve just had BE broadband pro installed so I have a 24mb line so speed shouldn’t be an issue. I can then also access my music from home too, without having to carry back and fourth. So what’s stopping my writing a Chumby widget that does the same? Well, time for one, but in theory there’s not a lot else. It would only be about 20-30 lines of PHP to spider the folder structure and write it into XML then you could have all the fun you like with a nice little UI. Unfortunately I have no idea how to rip get the album art from Amazon or even from iTunes, but the fact coverflow did it independently, before it was swallowed by Apple means it’s possibly right?

I’ve just nicked this straight from Alessandro (Biskero.org) though I’ve been on the Chumby site a bit over the past week or so.

Chumby’s now on sale $179.00

Available in three colours, Latte, Black and Pearl, this little-widget-running-wireless device is the first device to ship with Flash Lite 3.0. One of the things I love about this device is that it’s completely open to developers, from all angles

Okay I’ve banged on about this enough, it’s time for a show of hands.

Q1, If a service were available that would take your Flash Lite content (including a menu icon bitmap/vector) and return to you a fully tested Symbian Signed .sis file, would you be:

1. Very interested in this service, please contact me now
2. Interested in this service
3. Not interested
4. Are you mental, I can self-sign

Q2, Would you expect to pay

1. £10 - £50
2. £50- £100
3. £100 - £200
4. More than £200

Q3, If this service were available to you, which S60 edition would you most likely require:

1. 1st edition
2. 2nd edition
3. 3rd edition
4. 2nd and 3rd editions
5. All of the above

Q4, If a service were available that would deliver to you, a keyword and shortcode for example “TEXT ‘pocketflash’ to 60999″ which would then deliver your content Over-The-Air, would you be:

1. Very interested in this service, please contact me now
2. Interested in this service
3. More interested in this service if it could detect whether the end user had a version of Flash Lite
4. Not interested

I really should have posted this when I first watched it, but here you are a video taken from the Adobe Max conference, showing some new features for the new player. Notably there’s now a Z rotation property for sprites.

I am now available on a freelance basis, for anyone needing a hand with their Flash Lite projects. I’ve got nearly three years experience with Flash Lite 1.1 and a fair bit of experience with 2.0 too. And I’m sure I’ll also be posting about 3.0, as soon as it’s in the public domain for us to get our hands on.

I know from being on the other side, what a nightmare it can be trying to find decent Flash Lite freelancers, so I thought I’d write this post and big myself up a bit.

There’s a couple of projects here:

http://www.pocketmarketing.net/demo/

Youtube video of Google’s CEO Eric Schindt schwiped straight from abduzeedo, check it here.

I think if Adobe can nail a realistic distribution model for Flash Lite apps that would enable developers to get content out there, then Flash developers (and by that I mean Flash, Flash Lite, Flex and AIR) can really define “web 3.0″ apps in the way Eric mentions in this video. I’ve always thought that Ruby on Rails and Flash (of any sort) make absolutely beautiful partnership for developing RIAs as Rails offers a low entry for such a powerful set of technologies.

On another, note Flash has always been synonymous with viral marketing and as I truly believe, Flash Lite one day find itself hand in hand with mobile and therefore viral marketing.

At last the gap between Flash / Flash Lite developers and a professional .sis file has been bridged. Orison have just announce Swf2go, the all in one package that enables developers to create a .sis file from one application, including:

· Professional SIS Installer and SWF Launcher toolkit
· Supports versions 1.1, 2.0 and 2.1 of Adobe Flash Lite Player
· Supports Symbian S60 platform editions 1st, 2nd & 3rd
· Auto sign SIS installer with provided certificate
· Supports developer certificates
· Built-in Intelli-Launch Technology
o Automatically detects and starts SWF with the latest on-device Flash Lite player
o Shows an info-note with URL to download Flash Lite from adobe’s website, if Flash
Lite is not detected on user’s cellphone
o Allows to launch multiple Flash Lite applications simultaneously *
o Flicker free SWF launch
o Guaranteed launch with Flash Lite 1.1 (on S60 1st & 2nd Editions)
· Command-Line compiler support
· Supports build automation by XML project files
· Quick compile SWF2Go Project file with right-click context menu

Interestingly there is a place for a readme.txt file which could be substituted for a privacy statement required by symbian signing if you application uses and of the following features:

Bluetooth to connect to other Bluetooth-enabled devices
Sending SMS messages
Sending MMS messages
Making phone calls
Making a connection to the Internet
Allowing you to add or edit contacts
Reading existing information from your contacts database
Recording sounds using your phone’s microphone

Criteria CON-02 -
“Mode 1: Privacy Statement is displayed at the first ever launch of the application and after user confirmed the statement, it will not prompt again for subsequent runs.”

The app generates .sis for s60 1st 2nd and the all important 3rd edition, for Flash Lite 1.1, 2.0 and 2.1

It’s official, Mobisite is being developed on Rails. In fact it’s being built on one of Media Temple’s shinny new Grid Containers

In short
Ruby on Rails Rocks
David Heinemeier Hansson is a legend in his own lifetime
(just don’t tell him I delevloped early parts of Mobisite in a live production environment… well you can’t pull a feed from a Rails app onto a mobile unless it’s on a server, I really had no choice)
Mobisite is mobile blogging, by mobile users, for mobile users.

“What is Flash Home and who is it for?
Flash Home is a solution for the creation, discovery, and delivery of rich, Flash based home screens across multiple devices. The solution benefits mobile operators and OEMs alike.
Sold as a white-label solution to mobile operators, Flash Home combines customizable home screens with live data services to provide subscribers with a personalized, engaging experience. Flash Home is easy to promote, discover, and use and provides operators with an opportunity to both extend their brand and generate new revenue opportunities.”

I always wondered how Adobe managed to receive incoming sms notification, and call logs when there is nothing in any of the Flash Lite 1.x and 2.x documents, shown in this MAX 2005 video (Day two mobile UI - Josh Ulm)

News from 3GSM is that Flash Lite 3.0 is on it’s merry way.

The main focus of the press release is video, with the .flv format in particular “delivered by the Adobe Flash Media Server”. You could speculate other potential opportunities, such as multiuser environments that would open up all kinds of intersting avenues for developers, though we’ll just have to wait and see.