ActionScript Support Matrix for Flash Mobile

Via Scott: Adobe have published a document (work in progress?) that outlines the various class, function and API support for various versions of the Flash Lite and Flash Mobile Client players that exist on devices today.  I know the documentation guys at Adobe are currently working on how to improve this information for developers as well as for future Help docs, etc (for current and future Flash mobile run times), so I guess this is the first step.

March Poll Results + New Poll

Been interested to see the amount of traffic that has come though my blog based on the post made about the App Store approval process (i.e. a lot!). [expression="zoolander blue steel"]It's so hot right now![/expression]. That being said, it seems from the people who voted on March's poll question, there's also some interest in Nokia Ovi and also the opportunities surrounding Adobe's Flash Lite Distributable Player. I understand that most readers of this blog are Flash Lite enthusiasts, but there is a large section of the Flash mobile communmity who are equally interested, and active, in iPhone development. Unfortunately it's been noted that Ovi will not distribute content that uses the Distributable Player solution, which I think is a massive opportunity lost for all parties involved (especially developers). Anyway, onto the results ...

"What app stores / distribution channels are you interested in selling (Flash and non-Flash) mobile applications through?"

• Apple App Store - 2 votes
• Nokia Publish to Ovi - 3 votes
  
• Android Market - 1 vote
• FL3.1 Distributable Player Aggregators (Thumbplay, Zed, GetJar) - 3 votes
• GetJar Ad-funded downloads - 1 vote
• Operator Portals - 2 votes
• Web-based Portals - 2 votes
  

And so now for this month's new poll question ..."Do you expect that ActionScript libraries such as the new AS3.0 Facebook Client Library will increase the amount of social mobile apps built with Flash?" Your time to vote starts now!

Haven't you heard? It's easier to build Flash apps for Facebook now!

This had to have been one of the more coordinated releases that I've noticed through the blogosphere/Twitterverse - it seems just about everyone on the Platform team at Adobe as either blogged or tweeted about Adobe's announcement today regarding the new ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for the Facebook Platform API ... and did so very quickly.

Either this means that a lot of these guys had some spare time today, or that they're all very excited about the announcement. Facebook is arguably one of the biggest social media sites in the world (in case you've just crawled out from under that rock!) and so Facebook officially supporting an ActionScript library in collaboration with Adobe is a pretty big deal.

I've tried a few Flash-things in Facebook before and it's been a little tricky. And while I haven't cracked open this new Library yet, from all accounts this has made the jump for Flash devs into the world of Facebook apps a whole lot easier. In particular, I see this being a major announcement for the many game studios who are investing heavily into social casual games for Facebook - and many of them are using Flash to do it.

Danny Dura from the Platform Evangelism team has done a quick intro video you can check out, which is is the newly created Facebook DevNet section on Adobe.com.

Some recent Flash mobile stuff!

I've been in the tail end of a couple of projects recently and have just realised how long it's been since I last blogged! My Toy Tragic site is also in need of some new content, but that one will have to wait for the time being. Thought I would just link to some recent stuff that's been in Flash Lite recently and that's been making its way through the blogosphere ...

• The Flash Lite Developer Challenge is still open for entries but you don't have heaps of time left to submit your entry, so if you're interested in sharing in $100k proze money, you better get crackin'
• Pasi has posted a quick sample application for the new Nokia S60 5th Edition devices that run S60 Platform Services with Flash Lite - taking information from the Contacts list and opening a Google Map for that Contact's address. Nice simple app to take a look at if you're getting started with Platform Services.
• Darren has been at GDC Mobile in San Francisco (following on from Evan's wedding!) and I'm looking forward to hearing some news from him.
• Matt Pollitt, now of ustwo fame, shared some details on their recent exploits on the iPhone AppStore, and the results may suprise you ...

I also have some some news to share shortly about a new Flash mobile developer community project I'm going to be working on ... stay tuned :)

YouTube Improves Mobile Video Site with Flash Lite 3

Via All About Symbian: Flash Lite 3 has gotten some favorable feedback via a recent upgrade by YouTube to its mobile internet site.

YouTube has finally, finally, done something about their low-grade 176 by 144 pixel mobile video interface. For Flash Lite 3-compatible phones (which means most S60 phones made in the last couple of years, provided firmware is kept recent), videos are now served up from the mobile YouTube interface in Flash format. Once the video starts playing, you tap to bring it up full screen in Flash Lite's video player. Most significantly, the quality's miles better than the original QCIF version - 480 by 320 pixels for many videos.

Go to m.youtube.com in S60 Web (on a FL 3 device of course) to try out YouTube Mobile.

Adobe Mobile Client running on the LG "Cooky"

Via Mark: Weird nickname for a phone (especially following up names like Prada and Renoir), by the LG KP500 touch screen device is running some cool stuff, including Adobe Mobile Client. Mark explains how this runtime is different from Flash Lite - basically the same reason we needed Flash Lite MMI (may ring some bells for some of you other long-timer Flash mobilists out there).

There's a tonne of work that goes on between Adobe and OEM partners that the general developer community never sees, and will never get a chance (or really have a need) to play with directly. Many OEMs need custom solutions for particular devices and use cases, and the on-flow effect of this for the wider community is that, as Mark mentions, Adobe learn more about how to solve particular problems and are able to bring new features or enhancements to the main Flash Lite client and subsequent technologies such as Flash Lite Distributable Player.

Great to see OEMs like LG continuing to invest heavily into Flash as the presentation layer for new and more powerful devices.Cool video of the device on Mark's post also.

Reminder - Mobile Monday Brisbane Tonight

Quick reminder that Mobile Monday Brisbane is on tonight. See my previous post for all the details. Along with other info and demos from other members of the MoMo family, I'll be doing a quick overview of Adobe Mobile Packager and the money that's being splashed around at the moment for Flash mobile developers. Beer and mobile - what a great way to spend a Monday night!

New Nokia Devices with Hands-on Videos

Head on over to the Nokia Conversations website for some new hands-on "marketing" videos of three new XPress devices - 5730 XpressMusic QWERTY (S60), 5330 XpressMusic slider and 5030 XpressRadio. You can also follow Nokia Conversations on Twitter.

The Credit Crisis - Animated

It's fairly safe to say that many of use have been affected in one way or another by the current economic downturn. Whether it's through loss of jobs, slowdown in customer spending or shrinking marketing budgets, or just paying more for a loaf of bread. Well, if you've never had the whole situation explained clearly and in basic, easy to understand language, "The Crisis of Credit" animation is for you! A very well produced story of why the world economy is in the toilet :)




The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Mobile Monday Brisbane on next week

Mobile Monday Brisbane is on next week!

• When: Monday the 16th of March, 6pm
• Where: i.lab - 80 Jephson Street, Toowong. Click here for a map.
• Featuring a review of Mobile World Congress
• I'll be presenting Adobe Mobile Packager, as well as discussing the Flash Lite Developer Challenge and Open Screen Fund opportunities
  
• Open floor for demos, discussions, and Q&A about all things mobile. 
• RSVP to rsvp@mobilemondaybrisbane.com so we can manage numbers
  

Afterwards, the discussions can keep going downstairs in the Jaz Bar. If you’d like to demo or profile a specific mobile product, please drop us a note before the meeting!

We also have a new website, so check out www.mobilemondaybrisbane.com for all event information and ways to keep in touch.

Hope to see you there!

App Store approval process a nightmare for developers - an opportunity for Ovi?

Via The iPhone Blog: The rumblings and grumblings over Apple's App Store approval process are growing louder with the news that the recently submitted update to the Tweetie Twitter client was rejected for returning offensive words in the search results of the public Twitter "Trends" rankings.

There's been a lot of complaining about the quality and consistency of the approval process for new and updated apps in the App Store, but this one seems to be potentially very damaging to the lure of the App Storefor developers. The business model is the best thing going for it - 70% cut of the sale price with no additional charges from telcos being taken off, but with the glut of content already in the App Store (see Mobclix' stats on the makeup of the 27,000+ apps now online) time-to-market is very important for developers.

Having an uncertain approval process only makes it less enticing for developers to have a go. When some apps get approved and similar ones don't, or when updates to previously accepted apps are rejected because of functionality that was already there, or content that is brought in from the web and not controlled by the developer (nor could it be by Apple with it's own tools like Safari!), it makes new developers particularly more cautious.

This is a message that Nokia and Ovi should be listening to. The business model for Publish To Ovi looks similar to the App Store, but because customers can still pay by SMS, the operators are still entitled to a slice of your 70% rev share. Given my experience with Nokia Download, I have some idea as to what operator involvement can mean to the end revenue for developers, but I'm going to give Ovi a go regardless.

As Ovi's publisher approval process has yet to be completed, I can't comment on what that looks like, but if I were Nokia right now, I would be making sure that the message I was sending to developers was reassuring them that the approval process was a lot smoother than "some other app stores" out there. After investing blood, sweat, tears and in some cases real cash, developers don't want to be tripped up in the process of just getting it our to customers through these types of channels.

Who knows, perhaps we'll see the same trend with Ovi, Android Market and other OEM-driven app stores that we saw with the iPhone App Store - those who got in early were the biggest winners because content discovery for them was easier with less content cluttering up the deck. Perhaps with the wider variety of devices (and sheer greater number of devices compared to the iPhone) Ovi publishers will find it easier to cut through and achieve some "real" sales and generate a reasonable return on investment. Time will tell ...

Full Version of Series 40 6th Edition SDK Now Available

The Series 40 platform SDK has been updated and is now available from Forum Nokia. This latest version of the SDK provides developers with additional support for Series 40 6th Edition platform features. Also, a greater proportion of testing can now be undertaken using the emulator on a PC.

The full version of the Series 40 6th Edition SDK adds many new features, including:

• Flash Lite Player 3.0 in the emulator — an update to the Flash Lite Player 2.1 of the initial release
• Content Packs, including collections of copyrighted wallpaper, screensavers, and themes
• Update of the Advanced Multimedia Supplements (JSR-234) API to v1.1
• Support for NetBeans 6.5 with Java™ ME pack and Eclipse IDE 3.4.1 with EclipseME 1.7.9 or Eclipse Mobile Tools for Java (MTJ) 0.9.1

Download the new SDK here.

Symbian Signed moving to Symbian Foundation

For anyone who has signed Flash Lite applications for Symbian S60, this is something you need to know.

Symbian Signed will soon be managed and owned by the Symbian Foundation. As part of the transfer, all services currently provided by Symbian Signed will be transferred to the Symbian Foundation, and all users will need to allow their account data to be transferred to the Symbian Foundation. To do so, log in to the Symbian Signed site, and select the big button that says 'Consent'. This will ensure that your data remains available through the Symbian Signed site. All your account data will continue to be available when the changes are made. Then, following the transfer of Symbian Signed to the Symbian Foundation, you will need to accept a new set of Terms and Conditions.

The iPhone. Will It Blend?

Via Mark - "Will It Blend?" is a great YouTube series but this particular one you'll get a kick out of ...

webDU 2009 - It's like a rock concert for geeks

My only suggestion would be that these guys don't look much like the rock stars most geeks want to be ... but that's just me :) Watch for new videos as we get closer to the big event

Update for Device Central CS4 Now Available

Hopefully if you're a Flash Lite developer you know by now that the Online Library in Device Central CS4 contains device profiles that can be updated over the internet (rather than the old way of having to install a patch file). There have been some new profiles added recently, including the Nokia 5800 Music XPress touchscreen device, which will come down to your system the next time the Online Library is updated.




In the Preferences dialogue you can set the Online Library to check for new profiles each time you start Device Central, or else you can manually do an update as well from the actual Online Library panel itself.

February Poll Results and the new March Flash Lite Poll

The regular monthly Flash Lite poll has finished up for February, and here's what the voters had to say on the question "What aspects of the Flash Platform on mobile are most important to you?"

• Compatibility with the desktop Flash player (AS3/FP10) - 2 votes
• Performance - 1 vote
• Cross-mobile-platform compatibility (build once, play everywhere) - 1 vote
• Frameworks for monetisation of products and content - 5 votes
• Access to device APIs - 2 votes
  

Seems it's clear what is really important here, and it's not necessarily the technology itself. I think over the past few weeks we've seen some good steps forward by the mobile ecosystem to improve this monetisation aspect of the business for developers, since certain other late-comers to the party seem to have demonstrated that it's very doable now with more devices accessing data and services away from the operator-controlled portals. If you haven't checked out what's been announced recently, you can read more about Flash Lite Distributable Player here, and don't forget the cash that flowing through the Flash Lite Developer Challenge and the Open Screen Fund.

So to follow up on the obvious winner from the last poll, let me put to you this month's poll question ... "Which app stores /distribution channels are you interested in selling (Flash and non-Flash) mobile applications through?" Give us your answer in the form down on the right hand side of the blog!