Flash-less iPhone causes advertising to be pulled

Maybe it was a Flash developer, maybe a Java guy, or just a web-browsing Joe Bloggs, but it seems that someone has taken offence at Apple's claims that "all parts of the internet are on the iPhone".

Seems a complaint to the UK advertising standards board mentions the fact that it doesn't have Flash or Java, which are two key ingredients to the internet. And as a result, Apple have been forced to pull the ad. It would be interesting to know if the lodger of the complaint was a developer (who is probably watching the App Store downloads and wishing they could get a piece of that action), or a consumer who knows enough about browsing and interacting with the web to know that these two pieces of the "experience puzzle" really do run a hell of a lot of the web, despite what Apple are seemingly willing to admit. I suspect thought it was the former rather than the latter.

But, as Scott blogged recently, if recent patent filings are anything to go by, there is a future coming where this oversight could be rectified.

Photoshop.com Mobile Beta available in September

Via Bill: Adobe have announced a new Flash Lite consumer-orientated product for a number of Windows Mobile devices in the US - Photoshop.com Mobile.

Today we announced a new addition to the Photoshop.com family, Photoshop.com Mobile beta, which is a rich Adobe Flash based mobile application that offers camera phone users an easy way to upload, view, and share photos using their Photoshop.com account.  Photoshop.com Mobile runs in the background on the phone and allows consumers to take photos, send messages and run other applications while pictures are being uploaded to their Photoshop.com account. Photoshop.com Mobile is the mobile companion application for the new Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Adobe Photoshop.com.

Congrats to the mobile team at Adobe for delivering (what will be) a publicly-available Flash Lite application that demonstrates the power of the platform. And as BIll mentions, also quite interesting that there's a couple of Palm Treo devices thrown in there as well ...

Moket's own "Made in China"

It was brough to my attention over the weekend that Moket had become the target of the ultimate form of flattery some would say - having a product pirated by the Chinese.

A number of people in the Flash Lite community spotted what looked "kind of like" one of our MoCarbon Flash Lite wallpaper products on the Nokia Software Market. You be the judge though - Moket's original (designed by the talented Matt Pollitt) and the pirate rip-off version by Shanghai Jibiao Info Tech Co. Ltd. It's also popped up on a number of other "free mobile software portals" around the place.

Close but no cigar Shanhai Jibiao!

A number of people have asked me in recent times about piracy in the mobile market and what we do about it. The simple fact is that mobile "content" has such a short shelf life, that it's basically not economically viable to spend money on patents or trademarks for everything you release. Therefore, the idea is to release and make your revenue from the short "burst" of activity, and then let it join the "long tail" of available products (well, I could argue that 99% of mobile content is in the long tail already anyway). Of course if it was a larger mobile application or tool then of course you would be protecting it - but for wallpapers, screensavers and casual games, the cost of protection would nearly always be greater than the revenue from the single asset.

Anyway, with all that said, if you see any more dodgy versions of content that you know has been ripped off from someone else, it can be nice to drop them a line just to let them know. Thanks to Scott and Johnny for alerting me to the bizarro-Moket content out there already.

Who talks about mobile gaming in the sauna?

Over at N-Gage Insider, there are some new video interviews being posted up which some may find interesting, if not a little disturbing. Your N-Gage host Arnold Faber introduces us to "Sauna Talk", a new show that promises to deliver interviews with leading N-Gage platform experts, dressed in towels and relaxing in the sauna. First up is Miikka Skaffari, Head of Developer Product Management for N-Gage. What next, Symbian Babes? There are some Flash Lite panel sessions at MAX this year, maybe they should get the presenters to all do them from a hot tub? Err... maybe not.

My latest toys

No, I don't mean an iPhone or the Nokia N96 ... I mean TOYS. Recently I was at Singapore's Changi Airport waiting for a connecting flight on my way home, when I discovered a new toy shop with a great collection of one of my favourite "subjects" - Star Wars. In this collection was a newly released series of "Mighty Muggs" figures - large scale figurines made from recycled materials. These are seriously cool - there's a series from Star Wars and Marvel comics, and also a line of Indiana Jones characters coming soon. The shop in Singapore only had a few from the Star Wars range, plus Iron Man and Wolverine, so I picked up a Luke Skywalker (EpV edition with removable hand!) and a Lando Calrissian (I don't have any other Lando stuff, so this is my first one). And good news - I have two more trips that go through Singapore in the next couple of months, and the shop keeper said he'd have more of the series by then! I'm such a freakin' nerd sometimes.

Sun sheds light on GUI tool for mobiles

Interesting news regarding a new release from Sun for Java developers - a GUI toolkit for rapid development of Java mobile applications.

Here are some interesting quotes from the article (do they sound familiar at all?)

"By creating LWUIT, Sun is reaffirming its commitment to the mobile development community and by open sourcing the LWUIT code, we are enabling mobile developers to quickly and easily create rich, portable interfaces for their applications," declared Craig Gering, Sun's senior director of embedded Java software.

"This software will also help address the mobile industry's fragmentation issue by enabling developers to create a single interface that will work anywhere Java is found."

The future of Mobile, today: Harnessing the 4th Screen

The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) are presenting an event titled "The future of Mobile, today: Harnessing the 4th Screen". Come and see how leading innovative Brisbane companies are engaging locally, nationally and internationally in this space. You will hear from:

• Google Mobile (keynote)
• Locatrix (my good mates from the incubator where Moket has been housed)
• Moket (of course)
  
• my247.com.au
• Mercury Mobilty
• Liquid Interactive

Event Details
When: Thursday 28th August 2008
Where: Grant Thornton Brisbane - King George Square, Adelaide Street (entrance), Brisbane

Times:
9.30am Registration and Coffee
10:00am start
12.30pm end

Cost:
AIMIA Members, $50
Non-members, $100

Register now

Project Capuchin Webinar

A little late to post, but nevertheless ...

Join a one-hour online seminar and learn how Project Capuchin is empowering Flash Lite and Java ME developers to leverage their expertise to quickly and securely create highly engaging mobile content.

Bonjour

Just finding my feet in Paris after what seemed a very long flight and a tough first 24 hours of battling jet lag ... but feeling good now and starting to settle in. I'm here doing some Flash Lite 3 training for Adobe, and have about 20 students starting 3 days of hands on training tomorrow at the Adobe Paris offices. This trip is a little different in that I've been able to bring my wife Tanya along for the week, so I've got someone to share the experience with. It also means I'll have more photos with me in them because I have someone to take the photos other than myself!

Anyway, looking forward the class tomorrow and getting to meet some Flash Lite developers on this side of the world. While I'm here I'll also be giving an eSeminar for Adobe Pacific - "Persistent Data with Adobe Flash Lite". It'll be 6am here for a 2pm Connect meeting, so hopefully I'll be making sense :)