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I just finished uploading a new tutorial that shows you how to use the ByteArray class to parse and display images in formats that Flash doesn’t natively support, in this case BMP. In the tutorial I explain how to read a file specification and translate that into ActionScript 3.0 code. If you need an introduction to the ByteArray class you can check out my slides from the recent workshop I did in Amsterdam. |
Lee
There are bunch of small things that I’ve wanted to blog about so I will just do them all in this post. They are listed below in no specific order.
FITC Amsterdam Workshop Files
Thibault Imbert and I delivered a full-day workshop in Amsterdam on using the ByteArray class. I have already posted the slides from this workshop but I procrastinated a little on uploading the finished ActionScript files. I have finally gotten my act together so you can now download the workshop files. Thanks everyone for coming!
Two Flash Camps in Asia
In two weeks time I will be departing for Tokyo for the first of two Flash Camps in Asia. The second will be in Seoul, Korea. If you are just hearing about this now I regret to inform you that both events sold out within hours. Now I wish I could say that they sold out so quickly because I was speaking, but it is more likely because of the other top-tier Flashers who are presenting. The official speaker lineup is myself, Mike Chambers, Ralph Hauwert, Mario Klingemann, and Erik Natzke. I’m really looking forward to hanging with these creative mofos for a couple of weeks.
I Won’t Be Recording a New Flasher Magazine Soon
I’m trying a little reverse psychology on myself here. I have promised a new issue for a long time and have not delivered. People often come up to me at conferences and ask me when I’m going to do a new tutorial. But people are downright angry with me for not doing another Flasher. I have just purchased a new Canon EOS 7D just for this purpose so hopefully I will get my act together.
Flash Player Gets a New Product Manager
A couple of weeks ago, Justin Everett-Church left Adobe to start his own company, leaving a gap in the Flash Player product management team. I’m very excited to announce that my good buddy Thibault Imbert has accepted this position. Thibault is an ActionScript master and will make an awesome addition to the player team. He will be relocating to San Francisco sometime soon so things are going to get very French around here.
Latin Flash Tour 2010
Yes I know it is early to be discussing this but I just wanted to let all my friends down south know that we are already planning things. We will be adding a stop in Brazil, most likely in Rio de Janeiro. There are rumors of big name special guests that may be attending as well. Look for more details soon on cities and dates.
Lee
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I just finished uploading a new tutorial explaining how to create applications that respond to multi-touch gestures like zoom and rotate. This example creates an Adobe AIR 2.0 application as it is currently the only solution that will work cross-platform. I show the application running on both a MacBook Pro and an HP TouchSmart computer. Look for more tutorials on multi-touch once I get some better hardware. |
Lee
There was so much exciting news to come out of Barcelona this week if you are a fan of mobile devices. We saw Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR both announced on the Android platform. As I’m sure you have seen from the demos, not only are these technologies running on Android, but they are running extremely well. There was also the announcement that Flash Player and AIR will be coming to Blackberry devices as well. It’s great to finally see some results from all the hard work Adobe and its partners in the Open Screen Project have been doing.
The example that really blew me away regarding the potential of AIR on tablet devices was the new magazine reader created jointly by Adobe and Wired Magazine. This amazing application allows for a state-of-the-art digital magazine experience and includes things like a multi-touch UI, 3D views, and fully integrated social media and video content. It also utilizes the Text Layout Framework, which provides amazingly rich text capabilities that far exceed what is possible with any other runtime. Check out the video below to see the new reader in action.
If you want to check out an existing AIR application that uses some of the elements shown in the Wired Reader, I highly recommend downloading the New York Times Reader application. This is one of the slickest AIR applications I have ever seen.
The creative community that designs and develops content using Adobe tools are legendary for creating unique interactive content. Through Adobe AIR, this community will be able to easily turn design ideas into finished applications that run across virtually all operating systems and mobile devices. They will even be able to export these applications for the iPhone and iPad using the new packager coming in Flash CS5. As a side note to that, no single individual, regardless of how many tantrums they throw, will ever be able to stifle the innovation of the Flash community.
Lee
There were some great polished keynotes at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona this week. While they did an awesome job showing off Flash Player 10.1 in the mobile browser, I put together a low-budget video showing some of the stuff that wasn’t shown. Enjoy!
Lee
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Right about now at Mobile World Congress, Adobe is officially announcing Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR for Android. I truly believe these technologies will redefine the mobile experience. Kevin Hoyt recorded a great video overview showing some demos on the Motorola Droid, which I have embedded below. I have also been testing a selection of mobile Flash sites, created by key partners like YouTube and ESPN, and I am very excited about the future of Flash in the mobile browser. |
These technologies, combined with Flash CS5, will revolutionize how developers create mobile applications. It will be easy to create a single application and deploy it to the iPhone and also to other devices via Adobe AIR. You can also use the same code and assets to deliver a mobile browser version using Flash Player 10.1. Google has made a great choice partnering with Adobe and I believe consumers will benefit by being able to choose whatever type of content they want to view.
Expect much more information about developing for Adobe AIR and Flash Player 10.1 here on this blog and over at gotoAndLearn(). If you want to get busy right away learning about the low-level details about how to optimize content for mobile devices, check out this beta version of a white paper created by Thibault Imbert. Seriously this white paper should be printed out and kept by your side as you create Flash content as it is chock full of secrets for getting the most out of the Flash Player.
Also for more details straight from the AIR team, please visit the Adobe AIR Team Blog. These are exciting times!
Lee
Now many of you are expecting this post to be about the lack of Flash on the iPad or about the future of HTML 5. While those issues are important, there are actually much larger issues facing the web development community. These issues are not necessarily negative, but they will change the way we all work.
My first real job in this industry was doing DHTML at AOL/Netscape. Now this was during the peak of browser-compatibility headaches. There was IE 5, Netscape 4.7 along with the new Netscape 6 (yes they skipped version 5 to catch up with IE) and Mozilla browsers. Adding to the madness was the AOL client application, which contained a modified version of IE 4. I credit this job for getting me interested in Flash. I was fed up of dealing with browsers and just wanted to create a single experience that would work everywhere. Well those days are quickly coming to an end, regardless of whether you use Flash or do HTML development. Below are some of reasons why things are shifting.
Mobile Flash is different than desktop Flash
You often hear people talking about the idea of developing once and deploying to every device. That sounds nice but it isn’t realistic. The real story is that you can create 80% of your application once, and then spend the remaining 20% of your time creating UIs that work well on the various devices. For instance, mobile devices obviously do not have as much horsepower as your quad-core tower. So once you get Flash Player 10.1 on your phone, don’t go to the FWA and expect those sites to run like they do on your desktop. Because of that you will need to do a lot of optimizations that you wouldn’t ordinarily worry about with desktop Flash. The UI of your application will also have to be optimized for smaller screens and will have to be touch-friendly, meaning not relying on things like roll over. Luckily Flash now has full support for multi-touch and gestures so you will be able to create some really innovative experiences. Adobe will also be disseminating some great resources about how you can best optimize content for mobile devices.
The app revolution
I always talk about how revolutionary I think the iPhone has been, but not necessarily because of the technology. After all, multi-touch has been around for a long time. But the concept of having apps for everything you do versus doing them in the browser is something that has caused a real shift in the way we interact with the web. Personally I love this approach for the iPhone, but I’m much less excited about that approach for the iPad. I buy apps for my iPhone like it’s a bodily function. I have never been convinced that having Flash on the iPhone would really cut into the app store business, although I think Apple strongly believes this. Browsing websites on a phone is never really a great experience unless sites have created mobile-optimized versions. But even then, they are usually a lackluster version of the full site with a subset of the content available. Android is also a very app-centric environment. So what does this mean for web developers? It means that in addition to your full website, you may be asked to create an iPhone application, an Android application, and a version for mobile browsers. This will be made slightly easier as tools like Flash CS5 will have the ability to export a single application for multiple devices.
Cutting edge browser plug-ins are here to stay
Over the past week I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of ridiculous statements about Flash being dead or that it will be replaced with HTML 5. That is pure nonsense to put it mildly. If those people actually read some of my earlier posts they would understand that I believe HTML 5 will eventually be able to fulfill certain roles on the web that Flash has traditionally been used for. But during the time it takes for that happen, Flash will continue innovating and pushing the envelope of what is possible on the web. Flash has always been the environment of choice for developers who want to create the experiences that will become the standards of the future. Open web standards are a great thing but they move at a very slow pace. The advantage of plug-ins is that they can rapidly add new features and innovate without the need for waiting for the browser manufacturers to get their act together. This is not just true for Flash, but also for other plug-ins like Unity3D and Silverlight. So there will always be a huge demand from companies for cutting-edge content as they attempt to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Just look at all the companies creating augmented reality applications now. This will create the need for some developers to create a cutting-edge experience site using Flash, a standards-based website using HTML 5 for devices like the iPad (assuming Apple doesn’t come to their senses), and standalone applications for devices like the iPhone and Android.
The explosion of web-connected devices
For me, the iPhone has literally transformed the way that I interact with the online world. I pay my bills, moderate my blog comments, track my workouts, and interact with social media from my phone now, rather than my laptop. Now of course I still need my laptop as well for countless things that aren’t appropriate for a mobile device. But in addition to that there will be a whole slew of other devices that will be coming like tablets, internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes, and gaming consoles. All of these devices will consume web content and may require using a host of different programming languages and graphics technologies.
If I had to give advice to young people who are thinking about getting into this field, I would warn them upfront that they will need to spend countless hours keeping up with all of the new technologies that will sprout up, seemingly overnight. To put it mildly, this is not a field for lazy people. The positive side of all of these changes is that none of us should have a problem finding jobs in the future, regardless of what technology you specialize in. Unless of course you do stupid things like posting screenshots of porn on your blog 
. As the internet permeates itself onto every surface imaginable, there will be an increasing need for developers who understand this certifiably insane industry in which we all work. So no matter what role you play in building the internet, things are about to get more and more challenging.
Lee
Lee Brimelow is a Platform Evangelist at Adobe focusing on the Flash, Flex, and AIR developer communities.
