Happy Holidays

I'm starting to wind things down for the holidays and wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas. Thanks to everyone who has been in contact with me through this blog this year, it's been great to get to know many of you at some events this year around the world. It's been a very big year for Moket in many ways, and 2007 looks like being even bigger.

Some of the Moket highlights of 2006 have been:

• Moving into our new office with i.Lab (and into a bigger one for 2007!)
  
• Seeing our content preinstalled on a Nokia phone in Singapore
  
• Making some great relationships in the US with Smashing Ideas and FunMobility
• Travelling to Seoul for FL Instructor training, then travelling to Manila and London to be an instructor for Adobe
• Speaking at MAX and webDU
• Doing the Total Training FL DVD (due out sometime in Jan 2007!)
• Starting the Australian Adobe Mobile and Devices user group
  

It's interesting to look back on the past 2 years of working with Flash Lite and to see where we're currently at. It's picked up so much momentum in the past 12 months but we have a lot further to go before I think we're all happy :) But after spending some time with the Adobe guys this year I'm sure that Flash Lite will grow very quickly from here into what we know it can be. And Flahs Lite has quickly gotten itself a pretty core developer community as well, which has been a great source of inspiration and friendship this year.

Special thanks for stuff in 2006 goes out to Alessandro, Scott J, Bill, "Kim Chi" Talbot, John Koch, Luciano, Marco, Adam Abranksi, Paul "Aces High" Lamonby, Brian "Tony Hawk" Burke, Geoff Bowers, Rocketboots-Robin, Ed Sullivan, Cherie Lee, Dawn and Kerian, Anne-Marie, Peter, Danny Z, Shauny-boy ... and of course my beautiful wife Tanya who supports me in this crazy life of running a start-up company. Thanks darling!

Season's Greetings to everyone, and a happy new year!

Bond's mobile of choice

Saw the new "Casino Royale" 007 movie last night with my mate Dan ... and while not being a Bond-ophile, I have enjoyed quite a few of them over the years (enough to know that Sean Connery will always be the ultimate Bond!). Daniel Craig was a very good choice I think, but the choice I noticed (and this is my geek side coming out) was MI6's choice of Sony products :) In particular the K800 Sony Ericsson mobile Mr Bond was carrying.

You don't have to be a mobile developer to know that the app he was running on his phone (that mirrored the exact same functionality on his VAIO laptop) could be for real, but I'm sure it's not far off. You know what people say about life imitating art ... perhaps the next Bond installment will have James playing a casual game of the latest Flash Lite game while waiting for this martini (maybe of he uses Nokia next time :)

Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' is You

If you've ever contributed to a blog, responded to a post, added video to You-Tube, or become someone's friend on MySapce ... congratulations! You have just become Time magazine's Person of the Year. Apparently they feel that the effort that we have all gone to in changing the information era through user-created content is amazing, and they want to give us all a big warm fuzzy.

** REMOVE RANT HERE **

I actually just wrote a whole bit here about how crap I actually think sites like You-Tube and MySpace are (for many reasons) but I decided to leave it out since it may have come across a little hypocritical that I was raving on about my angst over most user-generated content on a blog!

So instead I will simply say that this Time Magazine Person of the Year would like to thank God, his mum and dad, his wife and kids, the many fans out there, and of course Tim Berners-Lee for without whom none of this would be possible.

Flash Lite Friday Digest #14

Alessandro has posted the latest Flash Lite Friday Digest - a summary of the latest news and links regarding Flash Lite.

Hold onto your Wiimote People!

Reports are appearing from disgruntled Wii owners who don't have Wii-cover on their home and contents insurance policies :) Seems that some people get a little excited playing the Wii with the whacky-do new remote controller that is motion sensitive - so excited in fact that they have a hard time holding onto the controller.

Check out www.wiihaveaproblem.com for some posts from gamers who have lost their grip!

UPDATE (Dec 18) : Nintendo to replace 3.2 million Wii-mote straps following reports of damaged televisions

My 5300 finally arrived

Finally, my Nokia 5300 arrived today ... sweet :) Since it's one of the first Flash Lite 2.0 phones out there I thought it was important to get one and try out some of our apps and screensavers on there. I don't actually think it runs as fast as my 6131 but it's still not too bad. The form and build of the handset itself is nice and it feels solid enough even with the slider out. Looking forward to showing it off over Christmas to all my gadget-addicted friends and relatives.

New Flash Lite BLog

David Mannl from Mobizines has a new blog. Worth a read for insights from soneone whose had a lot of success with Flash Lite.

Bring on the Ashes

It's every Aussie cricket fan's dream to see an Ashes series game (or is that play in one ... anyway), and this Saturday I'll be going along to the Gabba to Day 3 of the first test between Australia and England. To get me into the mood, my good friend Luciano has forwarded me this gem of a Flash game - The Ashes. Have a go and see if you don't get hooked! And to all my friends in the UK - sorry fellas but this is going to get a bit nasty for you Poms down here :)

Are the garden walls starting to crumble?

It's been one of the main gripes against telcos (at least here in Australia) - that the walled garden approach to controlling the customer is too restrictive and has hampered the uptaked of mobile content and services. So too has been the over pricing of these services in am emerging market where lower consumer costs might have helped the small number of 3G users actually try and get more from their devices.

But it seems that at least one Aussie telco is starting to move towards a more open and competitive mobile playing field.

It's long been the opinion of many of my colleagues that once the walled garden approach to customer control .. uh .. relationship management .. comes down, then we'll really start to see some of the promise of the 3G networks realised. I'm sure there are plenty of Flash Lite developers out there who would like to see the carrier cut out of things a little more, since they're reticence to adopt the Flash Lite platform has been a major hurdle to the development of the next generation of Flash mobile applications.

Time will tell of course, but perhaps we're moving in the right direction. Read more here

The Human Nature of Console Gamers

I'm sure this report isn't indicative of all gamers out there, but man can these guys get worked up over a new console! The launch of the PS3 in the US has been met with everything from long lines, crooked politicians and gun fire. Just your average product launch at Wal*Mart ?! Read the report here

Vote for Flash Lite

This post is a little late but hey I'm still jet-lagged! For those of you who haven't already seen on the many other blogs and forums, Flash Lite has been nominated for a Developer.com Award in the category of Wireless / Mobile Development Tool / Add-in of the Year.

When you have a moment, please vote for Flash Lite plus pass it on to your friends and spread the word. The deadline is Nov 30th and the winners will be announced in Jan 07.

It's a Wrap on Total Training for Flash Lite 2.1

Well, today was my final day at Total Training filming the Flash Lite 2.1 training DVD. It's been an exhausting 2 weeks since MAX, so a VERY exhausting 3 weeks since I left home on this US adventure. The guys at TT, especially John, Jason and Ryan have been so great to work with. They really made a long and intense job become quite fun and I had a ball hanging out with them and the rest of the gang. I'm looking forward to seeing the final result, from here all the editing and post production is done - it's a really slick process they have there and some very talented people all doing their job to create these great training resources. By the way, there's an excerpt of John Ulliman's recent Total Training for Flash DVD on the Adobe Mobile and Devices Developer Centre, demonstrating some techniques for creating mobile content.

I've now got a day left to do some gift shopping and sight seeing in Manhatten before heading back. When I arrived the leaves were all turning and now most of them are bare - I think Mother Nature is telling me it's time to go home before it gets too cold ... oh no ... wait on ... that's my wife :) I can't wait to get home!

I've been upgraded

For those who don't know I'm here in New York recording the Total Training DVD for Adobe Flash Lite 2.1. Since I've been basically "teaching" the course (while being recorded at the same time), Adobe have kindly upgraded my Instructor certifcation to now be able to teach the 2.1 courseware. So look out, you never know where I'll popup next :)

Well wookie wookie what do we have here?

Today was my first real day off in New York and I decided to head into town and check out the local sights. I soon realised that where I'm staying is quite a way from NYC, so after finding out that the local train doesn't run on the weekends (!) I had to drive about 25 mins across the Hudson to another town where I could get a train into the city. No way in hell I was going to be driving in! So after 3 hours of failed train attempts, driving and then a 45 min train ride, I finally hit Grand Central Station - cool! Since I'd wasted the morning in transit , I figured I'd just take the casual approach and just have a walk around, see what was close by, and then come back next weekend and do one of those hop on - hop off bus tours around all the main sites.

In my travels I came across a costue shop having a post-Halloween sale. And the thing that caught my attention the most ... the full size Chewbacca costume in the window, and going for the bargain price of only US$199. At first I thought I was dreaming. Then my brain shifted immediately into "how do I justify a couple of hundred bucks for a Chewie suit to my wife ... and how will I get it on the plane?" Fortunately for me I think, my brain then switched into "dumb boring reality mode" and I had to admire the Wookie Wondersuit from the window. Laugh it up fuzzball.

I'm in a New York State of Mind

What a change from the west coast! I flew the red-eye last night from LA to Newark to begin the east coast leg of this epic US adventure I've been on for over a week now. Arrived (very) early in the morning to brutal winds and a temp somwhere down in the "wickedly cold" region of the thermometer. I then started what could have ultimately ended this NY odessy before it had started - I picked up my Ford Taurus rental car and drove through New Jersey to get to the hotel! All I can say is thank the heavens above for GPS and talking directions! I changed the GPS directions voice to be "Australia Jill" and changed miles to kilometres, so I felt a little more like a friend was with me in the car on the "other" side of the road (not the "wrong" side as James has pointed out to me). But I didn't hit anything, kill anyone (inlcuding myself) or any of the squirrels I saw running across the roads, so I thought I did alright for an Aussie on the "other" side of the road.

So now I'm in the hotel which will be my home for the next 2 and a bit weeks, going though material for the work I'll be doing while I'm here. I'm going to be presenting for the Total Training Flash Lite Application Development DVD - into the recording studio for a whole new recording experience :) I've been prepared for a very full schedule over the coming weeks, but I'm hoping that it'll be a good resource for all those budding Flash Lite developers out there. Will post more soon as more details are released.

Bucket O Nuts

Something that I just thought was very funny. And I even had seen this before I left for the States, so I can't blame Las Vegas bending my sense of humour or anything :)


Click here if the video's not playing for you

New Article in Mobile Dev Centre

There's a new article in the Mobile and Devices Dev Centre from Stefan Wessels / Breakdesign (Sth Africa). I've had the privillage to meet Stefan at MAX and sitting in on his session - they're tackling Flash Lite in a different way to many others in the FL community so check them out.

New Flash Lite Contest on Adobe.com

The Flash Lite contest that we're supporting has been added to the Adobe.com website, as well as a direct link to the Moket Content Network information. This is some great publicity - thanks to Ed and George and the Adobe mobile guys for adding it :)

I got me a Chumby!

Yesterday I met the guy from Chumby at the Adobe MAX conference, and then last night attended the Birds of a Feather meeting for the Chumby device. Duane was very generous and gave me a Chumby for myself was very cool and I'm looking forward to getting home and building some widgets for it.

For those who don't know, the Chumby is a Flash Lite 2.0 enabled Wi-Fi device that is kind of an intelligent alarm clock - but so much more. It has direct "squeezable" and motion sensors that can be accessed by the Flash player, it has in built in web server, Wi-Fi connectivity, possible Bluetooth support and a touchscreen for user input. It's also completely open source (apart from the Flash Lite player) and the concept is for a device designed for the connected teen market, but in a anti-iPod form factor. Way cool and my kids are going to love it when I bring it home!

Mobile takes centre stage

This morning's MAX Keynote session was dominated by Flash mobile. Yesterday had more glitz and glamour about the show, but today was Adobe's big mobile announcement that Verizon Wireless, as of today, has Flash Lite 2.1 content available for purchase through the "Get It Now" content deck. This is a big things for Adobe and Flash Lite, and they have been really trying to push the angle that developers can make money through selling content. While it's not as easy as what they're making it out to be, it is a significant step forward for Flash Lite and a milestone for content developers in North America.

So, away from the nerdy stuff, there's so much happening here at MAX (although you never completely get away from nerdy stuff at a MAX conference). There are parties run by different groups and companies just about every night, and last night I wound up at the Myspace.com party at one of the nightclubs here in the hotel. Great to have a few drinks on the house from a company who's website I actually don't like :) and ended up hanging out with the guys from Smashing Ideas so it was a good night.

I have another session this afternoon on S60 Flash Lite games, and then there's the official MAX Party at the Palms Casino tonight ... more blogging and pics to come!

A real rock show for geeks

Well, MAX 2006 has proven to be the place where the mega-stars of the Adobe world are given the red carpet treatment. No, not me, but this morning's keynote session was more like a rock show than a developer conference. We started with The Blue Man Group doing their thing (which was v cool) followed by Kevin Lynch hosting the stars - Mike Downey, Ben Forta, etc. Considering I gave up U2 tickets to be on this trip, at least I saw some big video screen action.

Conference has been great on lots of levels and looking forward to the next few days. Let's just say there's some stories to tell once I leave this freaky town!

Oh ... and I found Elvis. He's been here the whole time.

US Adventure Part 1 - The sights and sounds of the Hollywood Hills

Here in the US and just got a moment to make my first travel post. So many things have already happend, it's hard to know where to start. Well, to begin with there was my memorable day in LA with my tour guide and host James Talbot (and his dog RJ).

After arriving at LAX from a 14 hour trip, James thought it would be good to go grab some lunch down at Manhatten Beach (nice) and then go for a leisurely stroll up in the Hollwood Hills to blow the cobwebs out. Plus of course I was trying to stay awake after the flight to get into the US timezone. He assured me it was just a short walk - but little did I realise that fitness-freak "Sargent Pain" Talbot's idea of a short walk was a 5km hike up steep ridges and through rough bush tracks. Granted it was a great view of LA, the Hollywood sign ... it's just I hadn't walked that far in one go for about 5 years, let alone along mountainous bush tracks. End result - Dale bringing his lunch back up on the side of the trail, much to the embaressment of myself for all the other joggers running past me at the time. Enjoyable? No. Memorable? Absolutely. Pictures are yet to be added here, but you'll see when I do that I kept a smile on my face at least :)

In Vegas now for the conference and meeting up with some friends for dinner. More on the early stages of Vegas next time!

On my way to MAX!

In the aiport lounge at the moment waiting for my flight to LA, and the start of my US odessey :) First stop is LA to meet up with my mate James "Kim Chi" Talbot and his dog RJ ... we're going to drive down to Las Vegas together and head to MAX for about a week of nerdy fun, Flash Lite sessions, networking and photo opportunities (I promised my wife I wouldn't get an Elvis haircut while in Vegas, but we'll see ...) Going to be a great trip and I'm looking forward to meeting so many of the Flash Lite community that I have been getting to know online. Regular blogging during MAX will be attempted but not guaranteed :)

Flash Lite Contest 2006

The Adobe Mobile and Devices User Group of Boston, Australia and Brazil have launched the second Flash Lite Contest.

The contest is open to anyone who is interested in developing content using Flash Lite 1.1, 2.0, 2.1 technologies for mobile devices, phones and iRiver PMP.

Use your imagination and experience to create your content. The application should be localized in English, but if you want to create it in another language feel free to do so. Please include any release note and instructions.

Prizes:

• Best Overall Flash Lite content: A Nokia of your choice (up to 500 US$)
• Best iRiver Flash Lite content: Adobe software of your choice (up to 2000 US$)
• Best Application: iRiver
• Best Animation: Adobe software of your choice (up to 2000 US$)
• Best Flash Lite Site: Adobe software of your choice (up to 2000 US$)

All submitted content will have the chance to be evaluated for distribution through the Moket Content Network

Flash Lite categories:

• Mobile phones: Applications /Animations: Wallpaper, Screensaver /Flash Lite 1.1 Web Sites
• iRiver:Flash Lite content for iRiver (games and applications)
  

Valid Flash Lite applications need to respect the following guidelines:

• Must run on Mobile Device and iRiver PMP
• Flash Lite content must be new and not publicly available before beginning of the contest.

The Flash Lite content will be judged using the following criteria:

• Usability
• User Experience
• Performance
• Uniqueness
• Functionality

The content will be judged by staff from the Adobe Mobile and Devices department and by the managers of the Adobe Mobile and Devices User Groups from Boston, Australia, and Brazil. (Judges are excluded from the contest)

Deadline
The deadline for submitting applications is 11 PM EST on February 28th 2007.

Submissions:
You must submit your Flash Lite content between 1st February and no later then 28th February. Flash Lite content must be in a zip file. Please include a readme file with instructions and anything you might think is relevant. Specify the Flash Lite version of the Flash Lite content. A developer/company can only submit one piece of Flash Lite content per category. So a maximum of 4 Flash Lite content can be submitted by a developer/company. For the Flash Lite 1.1 web site content, please submit a readme file with a link to the site.

To submit your Flash Lite content, please send it to all of the Adobe Mobile and Devices User Group emails:

• Boston: flashmobilegroup at gmail dot com
• Australia: ozmad at moket dot com dot au
• Brazil: brmad at i2tecnologia dot com dot br

Winners announcement:
The winners will be announced the second week of March 2007.

Rights:
You as the developer/company retain all the rights to your application/content and you are solely responsible for the Flash Lite content.

Online Help:
If you need help, or want to ask questions you can post on the following forums:

• Adobe Flash Lite 1.1 forum
• Adobe Flash Lite 2.0 forum
• Yahoo Flash Lite User Group
• u10do.com for iRiver

There are many Flash Lite developers always willing to help and give suggestions. The groups are also helpful to test your content on different mobile phones since people are willing to test applications on their devices.

Also check the Flash Lite capability database for performance statistics and the Flash Lite development Checklist (to be found in the Yahoo Flash Lite User Group).

Contest questions:
If you have any specific questions regarding the contest please email to the Adobe Mobile and Devices User Group of Boston, Australia and Brazil (email all) or post a comment on the above forums.

Back in the Studio

Last week I got to go back to my previous life ... I took two days off to go into the recording studio to track the drums for a new CD my wife Tanya is making. Before IT and web and mobile and stuff, I was a professional drummer, playing full time with my band and touring Australia. It's been a while since I have been in a studio like the one we went to (Studio 301 in Byron Bay) but it was fantatstic to get back there. It was my perfect day off - kids were in school, daddy goes to the beach and plays drums for 10 hours, loads of Nacho Libre references ... awesome! Here are some pics from the session ... hope to have something for everyone to listen to in the next couple of months. Caleb James, our producer, is the MAN in the studio, such a great guy to have in there when need to get the mojo flowing after 9-10 takes of the one song :)

So many microphones for so few drums ... all to capture the mojo of the moment ... NACHO!!!!!!

Feeling the moment in one of the tracks ... the fairy lights helped though.

Trying to convince Caleb to let me play guitar on the album as well - it didn't work

Obi Wan never told you what happened to your cashbox ...

The Force was not with him. He is Darth Idiot, a local who decided that it might be a good idea to rob some petrol stations early one morning. Rather than pull a Jedi mind-trick on the shop assisstant, he thought that simply showing up in his Sith t-short and shorts would provide all the distraction he needed.

One shop assisstant suggested later that he and his colleagues should come to work dressed as Luke Skywalker to make it more of a challenge for the Dark Lord of the Cashbox.

Read full story - http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20544084-2,00.html

Distributing Flash Lite Content throught the "Moket Content Network"

Today, Moket launched an initiative for distributing mobile content for Flash Lite developers who are at the smaller end of the development food chain. It's been a topic of much discussion throughout the FLash Lite community - how to get your content out there earning some money. Well Moket has decided to use its powers for good rather than evil ... creating the Moket Content Network to act as a simple distribution mechanism for content through its growing global network. If you're a developer who has some great content but no way of getting it out there, then this is for you.

It's all pre-launch phase stuff at the moment. If you're interested in finding out how to get involved, read the email invitation to developers, or just email mcn@moket.com.au to get the ball rolling. The basic MCN website launches October 18, with future features being added as the network grows.

The Gig In A Rig

Feeling really good at the moment - next week I'll be heading back into the recording studio for the first time since 2004. My wife Tanya is recording a new EP and we're laying the drum tracks down in the great 301 studio in Byron Bay which will make my part sound awesome (assuming I play ok!). But UK artist Katie Melua has set a new world record for the deepest concert performance - 303 metres under the ocean on a gas rig in the North Sea. What a trip! I've played in some cool places before but nothing like that. Closest I've come was a scaffold rig that was about 15 metres high on the stage, with the drum kit at the very top!

A Greener Apple

I got this from my mate Wayne's blog - a new Greenpeace marketing campaign to get Apple Computers to create a more "green" product. Seems that while the whole First World is going iPod mad, the Third World is getting iPod poisoning ... Apple still use highly toxic chemicals and products in their systems which are eventually exposed not to the people with cash who buy them, but to the kids on the scrap heaps who scavange for parts to try and sell. Apple also recently rated very poorly on the Greenpeace scorecard.

I don't personally use a Mac, and this isn't a Mac-bashing whinge or anything like that. Just seems dumb to me that a company that sells itself as the "innovator" of the computer industry finds itself in the stone-age of corporate responsibility ... or is it just me? If not, then why not see how you can be involved. There's also a cool little video e-card you can send around (published in Flash Video of all things!)

Portable Film Festival is underway

I really should have posted about this a lot sooner than this (sorry Andrew!) - The 2006 Portable Film Festival has opened in Australia. The festival is showcasing 60 short films made for the small screen by film makers from all over the place. Some great talent is being unearthed and will culminate in 2 major awards which will then be videocast. Voting for your favourite films is done via registering on the website.

Moket is a sponsor of the event, and is working on a Flash Lite 2.0 festival program through which you'll be able to watch videos and interact with the festival. We'll be sure to post about it when it's done (very soon I hope!)

In the meantime, go to www.portablefilmfestival.com and check out some different mobile content.

Most UK 10-yr olds have a mobile

From AustralianIT, some interesting results from study into mobile usage amongst young UK'ers

More than half of the UK's 10 year-olds have a mobile phone, according to a study for the The Carphone Warehouse and The London School of Economics.

The Mobile Life Youth Report found that 51 percent of 10 year-olds own a mobile phone, rising to 91 percent for 12 year-olds.

Read the whole article here

London Wrap-up

Should just blog quickly to wrap up the recent trip to London. Had a great time meeting a lot of new developers and instructors as part of the Flash Lite readiness event I was running at the Adobe UK office. Really hope to stay in touch with you guys and I'll be seeing some of you again very soon in Vegas for MAX (Paul, I'm going to come and watch a couple of hands of poker with you!). I had a chance on the day before I flew home to have a look aroud London and take in some of the sights. The biggest thing for me coming from such a "young" country was that there was just so much history everywhere. People talked about King someone from 1256 like it was just yesterday ... and the Roman ruins throughout the city just blew me away. Since we're only just over a couple of hundred years old, we don't have anything like this in Australia - in the way of European history that is ... there's Aboriginal history and remnants from 10's of thousands of years ago which is pretty special.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who made the trip happen and made it so enjoyable. Can't wait to go back :)

View some travel pics here on Flickr

Flash Lite again at Mobile Monday Melbourne

Flash Lite 2.1 for Windows Mobile Smartphones will be showcased at Mobile Monday Melbourne next month. Brian Chau from Adobe will be taking attendees through the new platform and how to best develop and test applications. Should be a good one - Brian's a top presenter!

Mobile TV channel in Australia

Just read this news article regarding a new digital TV channel being made available in Australia for new media and mobile TV services.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20398870-2,00.html

Will be interesting to see who the mainplayers are that come out of the woodwork to bid for the license (especially from a mobile TV perspective) - will it be the media magnates (Packer, Murdoch) who already control a large portion of the Australian broadcasting and digitial content rights already, or will we see others start to leverage the new medium?

Being an Aussie in the UK

Started our training sessions in London (well, the Adobe offices at Heathrow) yesterday with a great bunch of trainers and developers wanting to get into the Flash Lite courseware. But I've quickly learned a couple of things about being an Aussie visiting the UK.

1. Steve Irwin is everywhere - As someone who lives only an hour or so from Steve's Australia Zoo, it's amazing to realise that this guy really was loved the world over. We hear about how the whole world reacted to his death, but you don't appreciate what that actually means until you're on the other side of the world and people are asking you about him all the time. I was glad to hear that they're going to use the 50,000 seat Suncorp Stadium (best rugby stadium in Australia) in my hometown to have Steve's public memorial service.

2. Don't talk about the cricket - I have no problem (now) talking about England's win over us in the last Ashes series. It happened, end of story. It's one thing though to talk about cricket with Brits ack in Australia, but over here, well, let's just say the Barmy Army (the fanatical English cricket supporters) is a lot bigger here :) I've been reminded of our defeat only about 10 times since landing in the country about 36 hours ago :) Mind you, it might have been worse to be here as an Aussie cricket fan if we had actually won! My blog post though about my photo op with Glen McGrath though did go down quite well - after all, even English cricket fans know a true champion when they see one. C'mon Aussie!!!

3. The Tube looks nothing like the map - The map of the London tube that appears in most travel material and pocket guides does NOT look anything like the real Underground transit system. Now this has just come as a warning so far - I haven't travelled on the Tube as yet - but apparently you shouldn't attempt to use a Tube guide to get your bearings. The system is so big and complex that it just couldn't be realisitically represented on a small piece of paper, so it's design is a little misleading, particularly when it comes to determining distances. I'll tell you more once I do some trekking around later in the week, but perhaps Alen's Flash Lite Tube guide might come in useful for me now :)

Ooh Ahh Glen McGrath

OK, so I'm on my way to London. I get to Brisbane airport on Saturday morning and check-in, only to find that some of my long-time sporting heros are on the same plane. The entire Australian cricket team (one-day, not test teams) are on my flight, heading towards their warm-up tournament in Malaysia! Ponting, Clarke, Haydon, Martyn ... I even went through the metal detector with Georgie Hogg! For most of you this probably doesn't mean much, but here in Australia cricket is big, and we're coming up to a big test series where we play England over the summer! For cricket fans, this is like the holy grail of test cricket ... and I've got tickets to the Brisbane game ... and ... sorry, I digress ...

So I'm in the departure lounge and I see one of my favourite players in a duty-free shop - Glen McGrath - fast bowler, all time leading fast bowler wicket-taker, all-round legend. I plucked up the courage to ask him for a photo ... and the rest they say is history. What a way to start the trip :) Love your work Pigeon.

Off to London

After a couple of weeks at home since my last jaunt, I'll be flying out tomorrow morning for a week of FL training in London. I've never been to the "mother land" and I hope to get some time off suring the week to have a quick look around and find some good photo opportunities :)

Stopping over in Singapore on the way to meet up with some Adobe guys there and to get a good night's sleep before the rest of the journey to the UK.

Once I get back from London it'll be build up time to MAX in Las Vegas which I'm really looking forward to. There's going to be some cool stuff happening at the conference and, as they always do at big events like this, some announcements from Adobe as to future releases across their products. Moket will be taking advantage of being there as well with some announcements of our own :)

So tally-ho and off we go ... Grand ol' England awaits ...

New Mobile Dev Centre Article

I've been lucky enough to have the chance to write a couple of articles for the Adobe Dev Center this year - the latest one having just been published yesterday.

There's some changes coming to the Mobile and Devices Dev Center in the near future, so make sure you keep heading back there as it's always full of great content for guys starting out in Flash Lite, and also those who have been into it for a while. There's always some little nugget of wisdom you can learn from people!

My (training) mission is complete

Well almost ... I still have to sit in on a certification tomorrow and have some other meetings, but the main job for me here in Manila is now done. Today I completed the FL 1.1 course - spending 2 days to conduct what was really 3 days worth of course. The guys from Forum Nokia are running some additional days now for developers to learn what's happening in the technical space from Nokia's point of view, so we had to kind of fit in with the schedule of the overall program for the week. Cramming it into 2 days was a little full on for everyone, but I had a group of very enthusiastic and keen students who really wanted to learn as much as they could.

Tonight I went out for dinner with guys from Adobe and Globe (one of the carriers here in the Phillipines) - to a Brazillian BBQ place! I'm not sure what I was expecting, being in Manila and eating in a Brazillian resturant, but hey when in the Phillipines, do as the Brazillians do! It was really good fun ... when they brought around the BBQ'd bananas, followed by ckicken, then corn, then pineapple, then more meat ... well yeah ... I guess it was good fun :) Good local beer here to :)

So I have a couple more days in Manila, some work but mostly trying to find presents now to take home to my daughters!

Aussie 80's rock makes the world go round

Forgot to post this last night when I got in ... When I arrived in Seoul in January, I got in the taxi from the airport and the first song I heard on the radio was INXS "Listen Like Thieves" - a classic from the era. I think later on in the trip I also heard Midnight Oil ...

So last night I get in the hotel car at the airport, and the first song I hear on his radio is from one of the pin-up just-about-one-hit-wonder bands from the 80's in Oz ... Southern Sons "Hold Me In Your Arms". What a spin-out!

80's Aussie rock never dies ... it just gets more airplay in south-east Asia.

Thriller in Manila - Travel Diary of an Adobe Trainer

Arrived on the ground last night in the Philipines for a week of Flash Lite training and meetings with mobile and Flash developers from around the region. From my previous posts, you'll no doubt remember that 2006 has seen my first overseas travel, so right now I only have Seoul to compare this place to. Well .... it's very different!

First interesting encounter was with the body temprature scan done at the arrivals gate at the airport, checking to see if passengers have a fever, and therefore a suspect for bird flu. You just walk along a corridor and they have these screens that show up the camera feed of the people walking through - looking something like the heat-vision of the alien Predator back in the jungle kicking Arnie's butt. OK, no worries Dale ... just don't eat any chicken.

Then took the taxi ride of my life from the airport to the hotel, which I thought might have been the LAST ride of my life at various points. And this was in what was deemed to be "average" traffic at 9pm at night - traffic that would have been considered gridlock back home. At one point, another taxi (that looked like it had been in a few conference calls with other vehicles) overtook us and the name of the taxi company put me in the right frame of mind - Heavenly Father Taxis. Well, I guess if you're going to go, then at least you had a head start on the passengers from the other car!

The next big difference I noticed (and this may be again due to my lack of international travel experience at all, let alone post 9-11) was the bomb detection squad checking out the taxi as it approached the hotel grounds (barracaded off some distance away from the hotel entrance). It was a little unnerving having a dude with a machine gun put his special under-carriage mirror under the car and walk around before letting you through. Then the body-frisking, sniffer dogs and metal detectors at the hotel door itself was just the icing on the cake. But to be honest, in the end it made me feel quite safe.

So today is a public holiday here, which gives me a chance to relax a bit before work starts tomorrow. Plus I'm meeting up with a colleague from Nokia later on this afternoon to discuss some of the strategies for the training this week. Should be fun!

Oh and yeah, I'm adding in a trip now to the UK for a Flash Lite readiness event in early September. If you're in that part of the world, you may have already gotten an email about it (and I know some of you have already registered so that's cool). Looking forward to meeting many Euro-Flash Liters that I have emailed and chatted online with :)

More passport stamps for me - hello MAX 2006

This is turning into quite a year for travel for me. After never having used my passport previous to 2006, it's getting a good flogging now, and for the remainder of the year. There's been a break at least from the first trip in January to Seoul. In a couple of weeks I'll be off to Manila (Philipines) for a week with Adobe Flash Lite Training and taking in whatever sights I can. There may be something else in September, but then I'll be off to MAX 2006 in Las Vegas giving a hands-on workshop for creating Flash Lite games for the Nokia Series 60 phones. I'm really looking forward to meeting a whole bunch of you guys who I have only known through email, Skype and Breeze, and getting hang out with some of the local Adobe-dudes. It'll be my first MAX conference also, so hoping for great time all round.

Pixel Drips - Artist Signature Mobile Content

This week Moket released some information on a new brand of Flash Lite content it has been working on lately. It's called "Pixel Drips" - Flash Lite content designed around the artistic stylings of world-renowned artists. Guys like Jon Burgerman (UK) and Jeremyville (AUS) have contributed so far, with more to come. We wanted to create some fresh visual experiences for mobile customers, and use art that has already proven itself as world-class. We've done 2 games so far but are hoping to provide some other types of content as well under the Pixel Drips brand.

Pixel Drips is a partnership between Moket and UK art studio and exhibitor - TDP Studios. Tom at TDP has been responsible for developing the relationships between PIxel Drips and the artists, and also the taking of the raw art we're sent and developing initial Flash elements for use by Moket in development later on.

So keep your eyes peeled for more on the Pixel Drips front.

http://www.moket.com.au/pixeldrips

JT presents Flex 2 DVD training course

Hey everyone! Many of you will be thinking that I've dropped off the face of the earth - it's been a long time since I've had a chance to blog about anything in particular. There's been quite a lot happening on the Moket scene which will hopefully result in a flurry of announcements over the coming months, so then you'll see where I've been spending all my time!

Anyway, in the meantime I wanted to let all you Flex-dudes out there know about a DVD training course that has just been released through Total Training. The smmoth stylings of Mr James Talbot can be found all over the "Total Training for Adobe Flex 2 Rich Internet Applications" DVD, available through Total Training. I can personally vouch for the huge effort James put into this DVD, on top of the authorised Adobe Flextraining courseware. If you're looking for some personal style training in Flex in the comfort of your own home, then check it out - this is good stuff!

http://www.totaltraining.com/prod/web/flex2_ria.asp?mscsid

Kids with mobiles do the darndest things

I loved this story when I read it this morning through MocoNews.net - a device that creates an annoying mosquito-like tone, which is only audible to under 20's (used as a "teen repellant" by adults for various reasons), is now being turned against the age-ist population. Teens have recorded the sound and are using it for ringtones and message alerts so that they can use their phones in class where the teacher can't hear it (and presumably in other scenarios where they don't want adults to know they're using their phones). Ha!

In the immortal words of all Scooby-Doo villains, "And I would've gotten away with it to0, if it weren't for those pesky kids!".

OZMaD underway

Last night we had the opening meeting of the new Australian Adobe Mobile and Devices user group (OZMaD). I was really happy to see 9 people at our first meeting, and they were great people too. All types of backgrounds, current interests and future dreams ... but all keen on seeing Flash mobile become part of what they do. Managing user groups is not something I set out to do when I started Moket, but we did have a mandate to be active in the developer community so this is a great way to fulfill that role in the local Brisbane and wider-Australian region.

And it was a very un-developer type meeting too ... no beer and pizza ... mainly wine and cheese (and ok, there were a few beers). We had quite a few people turn up from a multimedia training college here in Brisbane which was very exciting. They're all learning Flash Lite in their semester course so this group will be a great source of information and support for these next-gen FL developers.

If you haven't already, check out www.ozmadgroup.com and sign up if you're interested! And yes ... next time I'll remember to pass out some Adobe schwag :(

... how's a first time UG manager supposed to remember everything on the first night!?

The ultra mobile personal computer

Australian IT reports today on the next "small" thing - the Ultra Mobile Personal Computer (UMPC).
It runs Windows XP Tablet Edition, has a touchscreen but no keyboard or pointing device. Pretty sexy little thing, but I find it hard enough sometimes working on the laptop I've got, let alone something that you could leave behind in a taxi. I've seen the Sony Vaio that Bill Perry uses, but I think this thing would make his look like a boat anchor. Specs are a little light-on, but it looks very interesting anyway. I'm not sure if tablet PC's have really taken off the way people thought they might, so the UMPC might have some further hurdles to get over ... we'll wait and see I guess.

Read more ...

My ugly mug in the Flash Mobile Dev Centre

My friend and colleague James Talbot and I have just had an article published in the Adobe Mobile and Devices Developer Center. It's an excerpt from the Flash Lite 1.1 course that James developed, and that I'm an instructor for. it's a good introduction for those of you wondering what the courseware is like - if you can get past the two outstandingly good looking presenter photos on the first page ;)

iPod to go Mobile

Oohhh baby, talk about the killer app ... According to Australian IT, Steve Jobs has met with Japanese internet and telecommunications group Softbank and stiched up a deal to create mobile phone handsets with inbuilt iPod funcitonality.

They're talking about the handsets coming out "sometime this year", but as early as next year, the iTunes Music Store will unveil a new service that will let users download songs directly to compatible mobile phones, which the two firms will develop.

Look out Sony Ericsson Walkman phones, things are going to get a whole lot more crowded in the mobile music space!

Read more ...

Pocket Charlie World beta now open

When I was last in Melbourne I spent some time getting to know Alex Young, the CEO at Mostyle. He's a great young guy with tonnes of experience on mobile content and applications, and has just recently announced the beta program for their new "mobile community media portal" - Pocket Charlie World. Check it out and if you want to participate in the beta, you can download the application from a WAP site and join in. They'd love feedback on the application during the beta so if you join up, make sure you tell the guys what you think.

Move has been made

I think we're all up and running now under the new domain and blog URL ... if you experience any dramas just let me know!

New blog location

Just to let you all know, I'm going to be closing down DRDblog and reopening it as just my own personal blog at www.dalerankine.com/blog. If you have any hassles leaving comments or anything during this time, I apologise and will try and make the switch as quickly as I can.

Since Moket has actually become the main focus of my time and energy, I'll be transitioning away from DRD over the coming months so this is just one of the early steps I'm taking. The new blog should be up in the next day or so and will pretty much be business as usual - just with a new name and URL.

Please update any links you may have to this site to reflect the new location ... and please, keeping coming back and reading whatever it is that interests you :)

Thanks DRDblog, you've been great ...

"Whack Attack" available on new Nokia 6131 in Singapore

Moket is pleased to announce that an updated version of its popular "Whack Attack" game is going out preinstalled on the new Nokia 6131 in Singapore.

The Series 40 phone features the new 16 million colour TFT screen, delivering exceptional display qualities for a clamshell-design handset.

Moket made some variations to the original Series 60 version of the game, mainly to accomodate the larger 240x320 screen resolution, and also adding sound (both digital/MP3 and MIDI versions).

This is a great step forward in Moket's relationship with the world's largest handset manufacturer, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. There are now plans for further content to be supplied for preinstallation on other models where possible.

An Update from the World of Moket

Well, there's been a lot happening around the Moket office, and not much blogging. So I thought I'd do a bit of a Flash Lite Friday style round-up of some of the things happening so people can catch up.

We're working on some new titles and content at the moment which has been good. Sometimes it's hard to balance business growth with production speed when your team is small, but we're getting there. We're launching a new series of games under the brand name "Pixel Drips" with local art-studio TDP Design. These are going to look very different to your normal mobile-game so stay tuned for news on our first releases. Stay tuned also for some details on a game of ours that is being pre-installed on a device in the near future!

We're currently working on relationships in Singapore, Korea and the US to help with distribution of this new content.

Our work with i.lab has been proving invaluable in helping me move this company forward. We're getting close now to being investment ready and are looking forward to shifting into top gear. Business plans and spreadsheets can be hard for creative people like me to sustain interest in, but this has been a great process and has preally helped me to clarify what my vision for Moket really is, and how I'm going to achieve it.

Our Flash Lite 1.1 training courses are filling slowly. We may not run all the courses we had booked due to numbers, but Brisbane and Sydney look like coming off at this stage. It's a hard sell at the moment - trying to get current mobile guys interested in Flash Lite when there's still no phones on the market here yet. I'm sure once there is, and more phones are available globally, interest in Flash Lite training will grow. We're also in talks with Adobe to offer the upcoming Flash Lite 2.0 version of the courseware.

We're hosting the very first meeting of the Adobe Australia Mobile and Devices Usergroup (OZMaD) on the 29th of May. Details are on the OZMaD site, and I'm very excited to finally start the group. We have a handful of people already coming along which will be great. We'll discuss the forward motion of the group and see what people are interested in covering, and I'll also be presenting a short slot on the current state of play in the Flash mobile world. If you're in Brisbane on the 29th of May, you're more than welcome to come along and see what it's all about. Contact me if you'd like to come.

On a different creative front, as many of you know my wife and I have had a band going for the past few years called "Farlow Star". Well we've decided to wind the band up and set Tanya on a solo-artist path. Tanya was a solo artist/singer/songwriter when we met and it's something she's always been meant to get back to. So ten years, a husband, 3 kids and 1 band later, she's finally getting there! Watch www.tanyagordon.com for a new website shortly.

Well that's about all (at least with regards to things that you may find the least bit interesting - we're getting a new fence down the side of our house, but I didn't think that was very newsworthy in the blogosphere!). There'll most likely be some changes as well with this blog's location and name in the next little while also, but we'll let you know all about that when the time comes. Change is good! Cheers.

PS. Since this is a very long post and I've got to go and get the kids ready to go out, I'm going to ignore spell checking this thing ... please excuse any typos you find :)

Bono Fatigue - It could happen to U2

A satirical site that has just become my favourite of recent times - www.bonofatigue.com

Very funny, although I'm still looking forward to seeing them in November :)

Website translation made easy

Ever gotten a link to a site from a friend overseas only to find it's all in another language that you can't read? Happens to me all the time when dealing with the Asian mobile guys ... well ...

My mate Thomas at Flash-Mobile in Taiwan just put me onto this little tool which I think is great. It's called Mojolingo and will translate entire websites on the fly to Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese and English, and keep the session going as you browse through the site. A very handy tool indeed. Thanks Thomas!

Flash Lite links of the week: Flash Lite Friday Digest #5

Flash Lite Friday Digest is a condensed and organized set of links that help users to get a weekly overview on the Flash Lite mobile world ... and this week it's my turn to put it together. Yes I know for some it's probably still Thursday, but we get around the world a bit quicker down here in Australia ;)

• The upcoming Nokia 6136 is Flash Lite enabled for browsing.
• Protohaus showed some great explorations into Flash-based UI for mobile phones - or what Scott has successfully labelled as F.L.U.I (Flash Lite User Interface)
• The Nokia N91 support page went online.
• The CTIA Wireless conference has been running, with lots of Flash talk going on from Adobe and other mobile partners. Amongst other announcements, there was Nokia's debut of the Nokia 6126 Series 40 3rd Edition phone.
• Bryan Rieger from Mobile Moday Van posted his Flash Lite presentation from the April meeting.
• Marco posted an interesting article looking into creating Captivate mobile tutorials for Flash Lite 2.
• Moket's Flash Lite Training courses are taking registrations - first sessions are in Melbourne in May. Places are filling so hurry to book your spot!
• Nokia head office in Helsinki posted a new Flash Lite Job - Summer Trainee - Flash Lite Multimedia Application Demo Implementation.
• Nick Gerig gave us all an insight into some debugging / trace techniques for Flash Lite
• No, not nightmares ... but there were Flash Lite dreams happening over at the s60 User Experience blog.
• Alessandro posted on some more Verizon news - plans to use a FLUI for their new handsets. Also there's this cool video of a FLUI phone at CTIA.
• And finally, I just received an email from Noka saying the 3250 is available in Australia :) Guess who's going shopping after Easter holidays?

That's all from me. Have a great Easter!

Report shows mobile marketeers targeting under-10s

Interesting or disturbing ... guess it's the way you look at it. But a study by a Sydney university has found the age at which children are becoming first-time mobile users is dropping.

Now as a parent and a mobile-geek, I can see both sides of the coin here.

But when you really look at it, what does a 9 year old need a mobile phone for? If it's the need for a hand-held device that entertains, get them a LeapFrog or something - geez my 7 year old loves playing games on my iriver u10! A mate of mine has even used his Nokia N70 as a portable video unit for his kids - loading full quality (albeit well compressed) episodes of the Simpsons onto it!

It's very interesting to see how the marketing companies are pitching the phone really as an entertainment device only to this age segment. Then when the mobile-kids get into their teens, they start spending up to $600 / month on phone bills.

I don't mind young kids entertaining themselves with hand-held units / game devices, but perhaps the mobile phone ain't the device to do it. That's just Mr Dad talking.

Flash Lite finds a home in the US with Verizon

I know a million people will be blogging about this announcement, but hey the blogosphere is full or repetition anyway. What the Verizon deal means for companies like Moket is kind of two fold. Firstly, it means of course that there'll be more opportunities for content distribution into the US market, and wider audiences for Flash Lite content. Secondly though, it helps in our marketing of the our services and ideas, in the pitching we're doing for investment, and in the overall confidence of those supporting us (not to mention MY confidence!) It's a timely announcement and one that I'm sure will be widely discussed and held up as proof that the mobile space is progressively jumping onto the Flash Lite bandwagon.

Thank you Melbourne!

Just gotten back from Melbourne where I presented Moket and Flash Lite to the Mobile Monday Melbourne group - one of four MoMo meetings that looked at Flash Lite this month. Had a great time statying with some good friends of mine from when I lived in Melbourne with my band, and catching up on things that have happened around the place since I moved to Brisbane.

The MoMo meeting was excellent, with Keren and Tamia (no idea how to spell that really mate - sorry!) from OMG.tv doing a great job with organising it. The venue (Horse Bazzar -Digital Art Gallery Bar) is also top notch and very Melbourne. Am looking forward to being down there more often. We had some very good questions on the realities of Flash on mobiles, and some very positive feedback on the work we've done to date, and the possibilities for new styles of content with Flash. Keren also interviewed me for her podcast show, which you may be interested in (some have said I have a face for radio - but now for podcasting too it seems :)

I also met up with Alex Young from Mo-Style, who are about to release a public beta of their Pocket Charlie WAP community services. Keep ann eye out here for details as it would be something good to help them with.

The Sound of Cymbals

OK, here's a sob story for all you who secretly harbour desires to rock'n'roll on tour and trash hotel hotel rooms (c'mon, you know who you are). For those who don't know, or who haven't flicked through the Random Image down the bottom of this blog, I was a full-time drummer back in the mid-late nineties ... before I ever got into all this web stuff. About 5 years ago, I was playing some shows with a friend of mine here in Brisbane, and one night came home from a practice and left my gear in the back of my car outside my house. Well of course, I never had stuff stolen when I was playing in the seedier parts of some Australian capital city, but this night some kids thought they'd break into my car and rip me off - right outside my suburban Brisbane home. AND my insurance didn't cough up ... bugger!

I managed to scrap together enough stuff to hock and buy a new kit, but my cymbals were gone, and you just don't replace them over night. I'd been building my cymbal setup since I was 15 and there was some good stuff in there. Anyway, ever since I've been borrowing a mate's cymbal rig when I've had to play or record. This year I'm getting into more music than I've been in the past few years (having babies and starting businesses ain't very rock'n'roll!).

AND TODAY I GOT MY NEW CYMBAL OUTFIT STARTED AGAIN!! All really nice Zildjian A Customs - 8" Splash, 16"/ 17" Medium crashes, 20" Ride and 14" Hats ... sweeeeet.

You can't believe how good it feels to have my own gear again, and nice sounding gear too. I've got a gig tomorrow night with the band I have with my wife (Farlow Star), and then at a music festival over the Easter weekend, so I'll get to give them a rip very soon :)

Anyway, next post will be back to something tech related ... but hey ... I can't be a nerd ALL the time !?

New Australian Mobile and Devices Usergroup

I've just launched the website for the new Mobile and Devices usergroup in Australia - OZMaD.

We're going to be supporting the local Australian Flash and Flash Lite development community as the mobile space starts to open up and the demand for Flash Lite development starts to grow. It's obviously very small at the moment, but we're getting in on the ground floor to create a good solid support base as the market grows. We're open to remote members also who can watch live or recorded sessions through Breeze Live.

Drop me a line at ozmad@moket.com.au if you're interested in becoming a member of the group. The details of our next meeting are still to be determined, but keep watching the OZMaD website for more details.

Catching my breath

When I started Moket in July 2005, I gave it 12 months before Flash Lite was going to make my life busy. Well, it's been busy for some time now, but the past month has really seen an overall life in intensity with Flash on mobile devices. Of course a lot of people aren't convinced that all the buzz and hype around at the moment is fully justified, or that it'll actually translate into a (commercially) successful transition into a fully realised content platform. Time will tell, but we're still running with it!

I've been both amazed and encouraged by the level and quality of interest we've received since posting news of our impending employment opportunities - "If you post it, they will come!" I'm still taking the company through a growing business-planning phase right now, but we're very close to being able to actually grow the Moket team reasonably quickly to cater to the opportunities we're creating.

There's also been keen interest in our Adobe Flash Lite training courses being offered from May - September. If you're in Australia and want to know more, just ping me for some details.

And I'll be off to Melbourne at the end of this week for the Mobile Monday Melbourne networking event, where I hope to meet some new friends.

Finally, if you're also in Australia and would be interested in joining a new, soon to be created, Adobe Australia Mobile and Devices Usergroup (tentatively called "OZMaD"), then please drop me a line. We're in the final stages of working out some of the finer details and are hoping to launch in the next few months. Watch this space for more details anyway.

Moket's Flash Lite training schedule released

We're pleased to announce our upcoming schedule for the delivery of training in the Adobe Flash Lite 1.1 for Mobile Application Development courseware. We'll be visiting Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane between May and September this year, bringing the 3 day course designed to introduce mobile developers to Flash Lite and the Flash authoring environment. If you're a non-Flash mobile developer and would like some hands-on training in Flash and Flash Lite, this is a great opportunity to get into it. Check out the Moket website for more course and registration details, or email training@moket.com.au and we'll let you know what's going on. The training program is being supported by RocketBoots.

It's not the Moket you think ... just a little trademark infringement

Scott Janousek has pointed something out to me which I thought I'd tell everyone about so there's no mistake. Seems that when Scott was looking at some new u10 Flash Lite content, he found it referencing a Korean website - http://cafe.daum.net/moket

This isn't Moket. They're using our name and even advertising the same source words for the name - "mobile" / "pocket". Now I know we don't have a monopoly on those words, but it certainly seems to be on the surface an infringement of our trademark and copyright. We're investigating how our trademark stands up internationally as it stands at the moment, and may need to look at going further with the protection of the name.

I wouldn't be as concerned if they weren't distributing Flash Lite content for the u10 - that's just a bit close for comfort. Anyway, if anyone can read Korean and can help find a way to contact this website for us, please let me know.

Google in Space

Google has taken its mapping to another level on another planet: Mars. Google launched the new service in cooperation with NASA and Arizona State University. There are three ways to look at Mars on www.google.com/mars, including "an elevation map shows colour-coded peaks and valleys, a visible-imagery map shows what your eyes would actually see, and an infrared-imagery map shows the detail your eyes would miss," Chikai Ohazama of the Google Earth team said.

Moket at Mobile Monday Melbourne in April

I'll be in Melbourne from the 2nd-4th April to deliver a presentation on Moket to the Mobile Monday Melbourne network meeting. This is a great opportunity for us to showcase Flash Lite in front of traditional mobile content developers and industry people, so we're really looking forward to going down. If you're in Melbourne and are interested, then check out the MoMoMelb website for more details or email me. Also if you're a traditional mobile developer or company in Melbourne and are interested in a meeting, then we can also arrange a time.

New careers section on Moket

Sorry it's been a little while since my last post. Ever since I got back from webDU, things have been moving at a frantic pace. The washup from webDU has been a whole stack of new opportunities that we've been racing out to meet, plus the start of our business development program with i.lab.

We're currently gearing up Moket for some expansion in staff and resources to start meeting the needs of the development opportunities we've been taking on. As part of this, I've created a new Careers section on the Moket site. While we're not hiring today, we are in the process of looking for people who can fill some of the positions mentioned on the site at the moment, sometime in the next few months. Other positions will be posted there as well, and certainly details of when positions are officially open for application, but if you think there's something you're interested in, or just want to send us your CV, then please email your details to jobs@moket.com.au

We can offer you an exciting new business place and creative environment to work in, doing lots of cool stuff with Flash on mobile phones and devices. Oh and yeah we'd pay you too :)

The all conquering webDU Flash intros by Nectarine

For those that haven't been to webDU in Australia before, the guys and gals at Nectarine have been producing some very clever Flash introductions for each day before the keynotes. They've just posted this years if you want to have a look (no skip intros on these bad boys). As my wife has just pointed out, this is pretty much "geek humour", but hey, she loves me for who I am. Well done Nectarine.

Hacking the U10 Flash UI

Justin Evertt-Church has been posting some interesting experiences with hacking the Flash UI for the u10 device. Seems there hasn't been much trouble with getting inside the u10 SWF's ... wondering how much harder it might be when phones like Samsung and LG start coming out with Flash UI's?

webDU winding down ...

It's been a big couple of days, and while it's not actually over yet, the conference is starting to wind down. Yesterday we had keynotes from Mike Chambers and Bill Perry on the Flash Platform. Lots of very cool stuff with Flex hitting Labs now, and from what we saw of the new 2.0 framework, it's going to be a killer app making machine!

We also had Flash Lite sessions from Bill (Flash Lite 2.0 video) and Chris Blair from New Zealand (mutliplayer campaign based games for 2.0). Both gave people a great look at Flash Lite and certainly started a flood of questions (people started hammering Bill half way through his session).

Last night, as is now webDU tradition, was the conference banquet. Silly games and pre-dinner fun lightened the mood (was that Bill Perry in vampire teeth and a pirate sword? I don't know, I couldn't see from under my afro wig and lightsabre ...). The party just got started with the banquet, with just about everyone wandering downstairs to the casino to take advantage of Microsoft's (now annual) open bar tab. Hey, they've got the money ... so if Bill's paying (that's the Gates variety now, not Perry), then I'm there.

Day two of the conference is always a little light on numbers because of the previous evening's "activities" as Mark Blair put it in his Cold Fusion keynote. This is the second year that I've spoken on Day 2, and I think next year I'll be really pushing Geoff for a Day 1 slot (which I think most guys must do now). My session on the life cycle of a Flash Lite application went very well for the people that were there. Thanks to all my friends for coming along and sharing the love (and for not heckling too much). You can download the slides from my preso here if you're interested, but basically it was covering the big gap in Flash developer's knowledge where the development ends and they wonder who anyone with a phone is going to be able to buy what they just made. Hopefully it shed some light on the realities of creating Flash Lite content for commercial gain.

I'll make some more posts later on ... the final sesssions are just starting, then the speaker "roundtable" Q&A session. I'm staying with a mate tonight and am looking forward to an early night! More soon ...

Celebrity Head now for iriver u10

The webU 2006 Celebrity Head conference game is now available for the iriver u10. A pretty easy port in the end, mae a lot easier by Scott Janousek's unofficial u10 template for the Flash 8 mobile emulator (thanks mate!). We actually found that without the ability to test properly in the emulator, developing for the u10 is a little cumbersome. The USB data conneciton to the deivce isn't that great as far as transferring files AND testing in the one hit. All it means though is that the sooner Adobe can get the official u10 device profile out to developers, the better :)

In Sydney for webDU

Well I've arrived in Sydney now for this week's webDU conference ... it's going to be great. Met with an old boss and workmates of mine today who now work in Sydney, and then had a great meeting with the guys from Tigerspike, talking about Flash Lite and the potential there. I even tried out some of my session content on them for practice :)

I'm staying at Star City during the conference which is both handy and very nice digs. Tonight is the ANZ user group meeting downstairs, so hoping to make it to that or see who else is skulking around the place who might want to go and get a drink or something.

The webDU mobile game has been getting around very well and getting some nice feedback from it, so thanks everyone.

Anyways, more webDU updates as they happen. My broadband network card hasn't been working since I got here (could be the actual network as it turns out!) but the conference has wireless connectivity anyway. I was going to say I'll blog from sessions, but that's poor conference etiquette I think - standing up the front and seeing people typing away at their laptops rather than listening to you speak ... it's a modern day scurge I tell ya! So instead, I'll do a daily wrap up! Later ...

Play webDU Celebrity Head

Our latest Flash Lite 1.1 offering is a roll call of the who's who of the web-world (well, those speaking at webDU anyway!) ... webDU Celebrity Head.

We took a different approach to the "conference companion" application this year ... made it a bit more fun. Nectarine have become famous for their webDU (and previous MXDU) Flash animations and characters, and our game is based around the caricatures of the speakers from this year's conference line-up. Thanks to Steve for providing the Flash "heads" for the game, and to Scott and Alessandro for helping me test it :)

Countdown to webDU

The webDU 2006 conference is on this week, and things couldn't be busier! Why is it that when you have time away from the office planned, and work has been slow, that it suddenly picks up with short turn-around jobs!? Can't complain about the work but it has made the last week or so very hectic, and the couple of days before the conference this week even crazier.

I'm really looking forward to meeting some guys who haven't been to webDU (or MXDU) before, as well as some guys who have become quite good friends. I'm sure Geoff and the crew have an awesome couple of days planned, which all kicks off with an Australia/New Zealand Adobe/MM user group meeting on Wednesday night. My Flash Lite session is on Friday, but I'm looking forward to Chris Blair's session on Zodal's mobile products and how they're tackling Flash Lite.

I'm putting the finishing touches on our annual webDU Flash Lite app as well. Last year we did maybe one of the first ever Flash Lite conference guides which went down very well. And without big-noting ourselves, we did see a LOT of Flash Lite conference apps starts appearing shortly after that! This year we did something a little more fun while still delivering some practical conference info. Will post it up shortly ...

Moket now an iriver u10 reseller

If you're in Australia, then Moket is your new supplier of the Flash Lite enabled u10 multi-function player. Many of you will already know of the u10, or at least heard of it's Flash Lite 1.1 capabilities. We at Moket decided that it would be a good option for us to also stock and resell niche devices that can play our content, and the u10 was a great place to start.

Watch out for more u10 content and online content services from Moket this year, as we look to expand the range of customers our content is designed for. While we get some of the ecommerce finalised, if you're interested in knowing more or purchasing a u10, then just email sales@moket.com.au and we can help you from there.

Flash Lite gathering pace

Having a chat with Alessandro this week about the recent spate of announcements from majot handset manufacturers regarding their adoption of the Flash Lite player. There have also been numerous reports of game developers working on Flash Lite versions of their products in anticipation of the seemingly imminent landslide of FL compatible phones and devices.

It certainly seems that the Flash Lite boat is finally setting sail, just as we all hoped it would. Sure, there are still various issues and arguments surrounding timings, implementations and restrictions on different devices, etc. But hey, at least it's getting out there right? Even just the "chatter" amongst industry people, even here in Australia, has gone up a notch ... it's getting very exciting!

There's some news brewing with Moket also that we're looking forward to hopefully releasing shortly, plus the webDU 2006 conference in only a couple of weeks ... it's all happening folks.

The new Monkey has an Aussie connection

The cult-hit Japanese TV series "Monkey" has be reinvented and re-released for a new generation. "In the world before Monkey, primal chaos reigned," but kids these days didn't know that before now. Apparently the new Monkey is a blinde-haired punk rocker ... I wonder if Pigsy and Sandy will get similar make-overs?

And apparently they shot some of the new scenes in Australia ... cool :)

ABC News: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1573069.htm

LG and BenQ jump on the the Flash Lite express

Let's cross now to Bill Perry, reporting LIVE from 3GSM in Barcelona ... Bill?

"Thanks Dale. Well we've had some extraordinary events here in the past 24 hours. On just the first day of this conference we've witnessed 2 big players in the mobile handset manufacturing industry announce that they're launching handsets this year, and even as early as April, with implementations of the Flash Lite player. LG Electronics and BenQ took advantage of a frenzied audience to make these announcements, and Dale, I'm sure you're just as excited about it as we are here. This is Bill Perry live at 3GSM in Barcelona. Now back to you in the studio..."

> LG Electronics Signs Licensing Agreements With Adobe for Flash Technology

> BenQ Mobile Licenses Flash From Adobe For Integration Across New Handset Business

Feeling creative?

For the past couple of weeks I've been heavily involved in lots of business meetings for Moket. We're moving into a period where we'll be preparing the company for it's next step in evolution (more to come...), and so I've been spenindg a lot of time selling the Moket vision. Since I'm pretty excited about the future of Moket and what we're going to achieve (talk it up Dale, talk it up!), the more I talk to people about the whole thing, the more excited I get. And I find that the more excited I get about it, the more creative I feel. Now for some creative types, just the thought of managing the growth of a business would be enough for them to run to the hills, but not me for some reason.

So the other day, after many meetings and discussions on the business, I started to feel very inspired to do something I have always wanted to do - author a story for a Phantom comic. It helped that I had been working with some guys in the US on the Moket Comics business plan (again, more later ...). I had this quick thought of a story line, and within an hour or so I had a synopsis and detailed outline of the general story and characters. Very cool!

Don't expect it to be hitting the shelves in the next month or anything though ... I have to try and find a publisher who can look at it for me and hopefully won't tell me that maybe I should stick to Flash :) But the moral of the story (this story, not my Phantom story) is when you're feeling creative, or an idea pops into your head - get it down! Grab a dictaphone or leave yourself a voice mail. Write something down or sketch it out in a notebook. Find some way of recording that creative thought because you just don't know what it could become.

So, if there's anyone from FREW or Egmont, or any other publisher of The Phantom that wants a rip roaring story of rock'n'roll, secret societies and stolen government secrets, you can send an email to comics@moket.com.au and we'll talk ;)

For those wondering where Mossyblog had gone!

Scott's asked me to blog this for anyone interested, and so he can get the word out re: Mossyblog's recent (temporary) demise

MossyBlog went down a couple of weeks a go, due to the fact that it was hosted on an internal machine within a company I once worked for. Now, as a favour for displaying BestRates.com.au logo on the site, it was hidden as a "sponsorship" style site. MossyBlog gets actually a lot of hits per month, which suprisingly enough justified the "sponorship" i guess... that or it was a favour. Since two of the my old team at Tourism Queensland left, in return so did the site as basically there isn't anyone there to protest its deletion. I currently have MossyBlog on disk here (backedup thankfully), and will get around to putting it online again ASAP.

At present, I'm in a new career path (Management) which has me running around looking after a few large projects (worth millions). As a result, my coding capabilities have had to ride in the backseat for a while, simply due to the fact that my time has been consumed as of late.

That being said I had hoped to have it up online tonight / kill some more of my tasks etc.. Sadly though, the company I work for (Qld Rail) went on Strike this morning and as a result, my workload become crazy again (as I work in the Marketing side of things).

So, fear not, it will be back online and I have a tonne of rants I wish to blah about, but at present time is just not there. In fact, shock horror, I haven't yet had a chance to see Flex BETA... now everyone who knows me, knows that clearly illustrates how busy I am.. as if I let something like that slide.

Scott Out.

I had like a butt-load of gangs at my birthday

One of the many highlights of my 32nd year was the discovery of Napoleon Dynamite. So for my 33rd birthday, I decided that it was time to gather some friends and allow the Napoleon in all of us to come out. Who said being 33 meant you had to have a boring birthday party? I mean, I had a superhero costume party for my 30th! Maybe it's just that I've never grown up or something ... it's my Peter Pan complex ... whatever :)

So last night over some tots, nachos and beers (including a wicked dark ale home-brew created by my mate Dan ... hooyeah!) we had a very Napoleon time, including a mythical beast drawing competition. We were going to have a karaoke-style dance off later on but time just got away from us. And we even forgot to have my "Pedro for Presidente" birthday cake! That's okay though, I'll have it on Sunday (my real birthday) with some other mates.

So in the immortal word of Mr N. Dynamite, "Just listen to your heart. That's what I do."

Phil "Napoleon" Slade ... uuuuhhhhhhhhh

Pedro "Dale" Sanchez offers you his protection

Tanya "Deb" Rankine - I liked her sleeves, they were real big.

"I might build her a cake or something"

Turning 33 with my 3 little ladies (and my main lady taking the picture - love ya babe!)

Strongbad finally goes Flash Video

I always find that levels of respect for your work in the online world is often tied with being able to name the "old days" through references to versions of software you started on (like, "I've been using Flash since it was called Future Splash"), tools you once used (or, "I begain programming websites with BBEdit, Notepad and Corel Draw v1.0"), or online phenomenons you know about from way back. Let's see, how about Joe Cartoon (and more specifically the Frog in the Blender), or Battlemail (I recently found another Battlemail warrior - ahh the memories) ... am I sounding cool(er) yet?

For me the ultimate has to be Strongbad and the Homestar Runner site. For years now you've been able to track the growth of the Flash tool with the increasing production quality in the Strongbad email cartoons. And now, Strongbad has included Flash video in the latest installment. Now don't get TOO excited, it looks more like video converted to a SWF or just embeded in the main movie, not FLVs or anything, but hey, it's a look they're going for ... you'll see what I mean anyway. And apart from the video, it's a pretty classic Strongbad.

Rock on Strongbad.

The Mobile DTV Alliance

From IT News: Mobile phone giant Nokia has teamed up with other technology firms to promote the DVB-H technology standard for mobile TV, Nokia said on Monday.

... The Mobile DTV Alliance said more than 10 DVB-H network trials are under way or have been completed, including in Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States.

Mobile TV has been in Australia this summer, with the international cricket series being braodcast live on the 3 (Hutchison) network. Steps towards creating open standards for mobile TV will surely bring the common mobile handest closer to the mobile entertainment and communication "hub" we've been looking forward to!

Moket Sponsors Mobile Monday Melbourne

Moket has just organised to become sponsors of the Australian "chapter" of the Mobile Monday global community - Mobile Monday Melbourne. Keren Flavell of OMG.tv was kind enough to get in touch with us and invite us to participate. Sponsorship of such an event seemed liked a very good idea, since the audience that gathers is just the right mix pf people Moket needs to be getting in front of to not only promote our products but also evangelise Flash Lite as a platform for the next generation of rich mobile applications. Plus Marco always raves about his times at Mobile Monday Rome. Thanks Keren - looking forward to the first meeting we can attend.