A new video has been added to the Developing with Flash Lite series – “Performance Optmization Checklist for Flash Lite“.

The reality of working with Flash Lite is that you’re creating applications to run on non-PC devices with limited power compared to what you have to work with in the web and desktop Flash environments. This is a simple checklist of some core performance optimzation techniques for helping to make your Flash Lite apps run as smooth as possible.

For those of you who have been developing with Flash Lite for a long time, there might not be any new tips here that you don’t already know (let’s face it, the list has pretty much stayed the same for a while now), but it’s good to be reminded of some things that can slip through the cracks.

It’s been a busy production week this week (actually there’s a few weeks like this coming as I wind up this initial set of videos!), with a new video just having been added to the “Developing with Flash Lite” series – “Flash in the Mobile Browser“.

More and more web traffic is being generated from smartphones and mobile devices, so it’s becoming increasingly important to consider how Flash content is consumed through the mobile web browser. In this episode we look at the ways Flash exists in various mobile browsers and what implications it has on how consumers interact with your Flash content.

In upcoming episodes we’ll be looking at Platform Services with Nokia devices, Flash Lite performance tips, Flash for the Digital Home, and even a sneak peek at Device Central CS5, so stay tuned.

I’m back in the office this week adjusting to life after the 2009 Adobe MAX conference in LA, and coming to terms with everything that was announced and demoed. There was certainly the feeling that this year ended up being all about mobile, which has been promised in the past but never fully delivered on. I think this year though, some of the Flash mobile haters would even have to concede that things are looking pretty interesting for the space. Here’s some thoughts I’ve had since returning home from MAX on the mobile-related announcements and the future of Flash on devices …

Flash Player 10.1

The Flash Player 10.1 announcement was (I think) the most significant, for the simple fact that it filled in more pieces of the puzzle. I mean, what has been the most argued point by Flash devs for the past 5 years? “We don’t want to have to code for a different runtime, especially if it’s a backwards step”. How great is it then, that the new runtime for Flash devs and AS3 programmers will be targeting for desktops and the browser, is actually the one that was developed for mobile devices! The Flash platform has a lot to thank mobile for, and more specifically the Open Screen Project. It’s because of the work done by the Adobe engineers on the mobile space that all Flash devs will have a runtime that renders and performs so much better than previous versions.

FP10.1 does NOT solve all of mobile’s fragmentation – this is something that comes with the territory and needs to be understood by Flash devs coming to the platform. There’s also the reality that it will still be a long time before there’s a large enough segment of the device ecosystem that has the FP10.1 runtime embedded, and therefore a segment of target devices that represent an investable market for those companies (be they app development, entertainment, consumer brands, etc) who would spend money on mobile. And this is why I think the “other” mobile announcement at MAX was important …

Flash Apps running on the iPhone

(Full announcement) Let me start by saying that there is a long way to go before what we saw demoed on stage and through the App Store with the current crop of Flash-developed iPhone apps becomes a fully-fledged product. Right now, the product known as “Notus” is working just enough to create some demos for some people who are working with un-releasable code bases and command-line-esque tools. What it looks like once we get to the stage of a checkbox in Flash CS5 “Publish Settings” that says “Export for ARM devices” or “Export for iPhone” is still being worked on.

But going on from my comment leading into this section, I think this solution is powerful for Flash devs because it’s a fact of life that what you can charge for an iPhone app is much higher than what you can pay for a Flash application for other mobile devices. And it’s not hard to understand why. Despite the obvious lack of marketshare compared with other leading smartphone manufacturers, the iPhone carries with it the force of “Steve’s Amazing and Unstoppable Magic Marketing Machine”, that has turned it into the device of choice for any brand that also wants to be cool by association. Can I make a game now and distribute to 100,000,000’s of Nokia devices and even monetize that through the Ovi Store? YES! But so many brands are investing in the device that only reaches tens of millions because they want to be “on the iPhone”. So, while FP10.1 is opening doors to every other open-minded smartphone manufacturer through the Open Screen Project, getting Flash apps to run on the iPhone is filling the gap and will allow developers and businesses to take advantage of the interest that Steve’s media machine has built up amongst their clients and provide solutions for that single device as well – all without having to retool.

That all being said however, I’m yet to be convinved that Adobe’s solution will be suited to all possibilities on the iPhone – perhaps it’ll best suited towards casual games and those that make up compents of marketing campaigns, more than data-intensive, location-aware applications? This will be answered in time, but for now I’m happy that Adobe have been proactive in this area and done everything that can. The rest, as always, will be left up to Cupertino.

The Flash Mobile Community

It’s fair to say that we were pretty thin on the ground this year. Many who have attended regularly in the past were missing through various acts of economic recession, relocation, or having moved into other areas of development in an attempt to make some decent money I had a few opportunities to speak at the conference, and while it was still around the Flash Lite player, I tried to inject a lot of enthusiasim for the mobile platform to indeed make it look like a fun place to work (sans karate suit this year). Certainly the announcements made that conversation very easy to start, and even made the discussion of the real mobile platform pain-points (those outside of Flash) quite interesting for most. But what is the state of our community? How does it reflect the opportunities in mobile for Adobe product users?

I have some concerns at the moment around the movement on the Flash mobile platform, and how this is affecting the small but dedicated community that has developed over the past 4-5 years. Given the realisation of a common runtime, Flash (Lite) mobile developers have some choices, which are probably based on how they’ve approached their association with Flash on devices so far (and here we thought that the main choices would be for current Flash devs jumping onto mobile!). Many Flash Lite devs don’t know As3. Many don’t come from a pure “coding” background, or would consider themselves application developers.

Put simply, we either have to adapt, or be left behind.

There is now an influx of developers to the mobile world that speak a different language to those that many of us have been speaking for the past several years, and to be honest have the capacity to carry with them a superiority complex where they believe themselves to be further down the evolutionary chain because they build with Flex or AIR or build native iPhone apps in their spare time. Not an uncommon scenario in the software world, and I’ll point out right now that I have no-one specific in mind here – I’m not out to tear anyone down here. But there are a lot of good people that have been working on the Flash mobile platform for many years that have enormous understanding of the mobile space from points-of-view other than what platform or toolset you’re using.

There is so much to learn about the mobile space that is not directly related to a runtime or specific technology, that the existing Flash mobile community has a lot to offer and can help make this transition a smooth, educational and ultimately growing experience. The Flash platform community needs to leverage this knowledge and experience that has been earned and learned through much blood, sweat and tears, and understand that just because they can publish to FP10.1 from Flash Builder and have the SWF technically run on desktop, web and mobile, it doesn’t mean that publishing for a mobile audience is the same.

The high-level messaging and practical implementation of that messaging from Adobe needs to empower and include Flash Lite developers who are “moving up” to a more powerful and broader Flash platform than what we’ve had, as well as educate and inspire those Flash developers who are “moving across” onto a new screen and into a new market with its own set of specific rules and intricacies.

What will MAX 2010 look like?*

Who knows!? It’ll be in LA again, so we’ll all be familiar with the local restuarants and bars at least I’m expecting that a lot of water will have passed under the bridge by this time next year; many Flash apps in the App Store and more of an idea of how they are performing amongst native iPhone apps, Flash CS5 with new versions Device Central and maybe mobile Flex frameworks will have changed the tooling landscape, and some new devices will have shipped with Flash Player 10.1.

It’s safe to say though that this next year will bring the most dramatic shifts for Flash mobile developers that we have experienced. It won’t be an easy year, but it will be full of exciting new challanges and opportunities that aren’t here now. Embrace it.

To see what you missed, head over to tv.adobe.com for session videos

I’d like to specifically thank these guys for making Adobe MAX 2009 a great trip for me – Darren, Mark, Bill, Max, Chris, Spaulds, Serge, Tomas, Alan, Manu, MNR, Evan, Luca, Marco, Andrew, Scott, Mark Hamill, the MAX Speaker Team, and Things From Another World who sold me some cool Hong Kong Phooey and Captain Caveman vynil toys

(*I have no idea of timings of actual products or anything, so this is all completely speculative)

Well Day 1 is done and so far it’s been a jam packed Adobe MAX conference. My session on Sunday for Flash Lite development was attended by a dedicated group and went pretty well overall. Thanks to all who attended, and to Darren for the audience assistance.

As you may have already heard, this morning’s keynote session was all about devices. Well, not ALL about it, but pretty much the key take always were certainly mobile, and in particular, Flash apps running on the iPhone. For some, the 20+ minutes of previews of James Cameron’s AVATAR film – in 3D on a 60 foot was the highlight, and was very impressive I have to admit.

But the big news in my world was Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones and multi-touch devices, and a new compiler-process for exporting from the next Adobe Flash CS5 to ARM processor-targeted, native iPhone applications.

THIS IS NOT FLASH RUNNING ON THE IPHONE, but Ahead of Time compilation, meaning that your app won’t be able to load SWF files after it launches – SWF’s are not supported on the iPhone. You can go and read more on the Adobe Labs website, sign up for the beta (planned for hopefully in the coming months) and also download some apps from the App Store that are already live. More resources:

• Applications for iPhone:Developer FAQ
• ADC Article: Developing for the Apple iPhone using Flash
• Adobe Flash CS5 Professional Beta

Needless to say most of the talk around the conference for the rest of the day (and night) revolved around Flash and iPhone, which I think was the main aim of the announcement this morning. Congrats to all the engineering guys, Adobe teams and launch content partners for getting things this far. I believe there’s some way to go, but this is all good steps in the right direction.

More on MAX to come …

Over at sgentrepreneurs.com there’s a short interview with Rick Treweek, co-founder at Breakdesign, on their recent Flash mobile work and plans. Rick, Stefan, and the rest of the BD crew have been working with Flash Lite for a very long time now, and have had great success with Dawn of the Fly, the Johnnie Walker Digital PA, and with securing funding through the Open Screen Fund for their upcoming Barking Seed game platform. It’s always great to see business and industry publications giving time to start-up companies in this space – well done Rick.

Check out the interview here, and also BD’s latest product – That Roach Game.

In a slight departure from style of videos so far on the “Developing With Flash Lite” series, this new episode entitled “What Can I Make with Flash Lite?” is something that I hope can become a regular and useful vehicle for the Flash mobile community to have content showcased.

I’ve tried to give a snapshot of some content that has been developed in various categories, such as standalone content, mobile browser and personalisation. Due to the limitations of my current production setup, there’s some content I couldn’t demonstrate at the moment, but I’m planning on how to get around this in the future (particularly as new breeds of applications and content emerge with FP10 and AIR). This video however also serves to highlight some developers and designers, and it’s this coverage which I would like to repeat for others in the Flash mobile community in future editions of this particular title.

I was unfortunately unable to make it to the recently run FITC Moible conference in Toronto (Canada is on my MUST visit places list), but I managed to catch a lot of content through various blog posts and Twitter feeds. There was some particularly interesting demos and slides around Flash for the mobile platform, and a “well done” Scott, Thomas, Mark and other Flash presenters for the time they spent spreading the word according to Flash!

Here’s some of the news that filtered out from FITC:

• Flash Lite 4: A new version of the Flash Lite player with AS3 support, running as a browser plugin and standalone player (for BREW apparently) on lower-end devices. With all of the opimisation work that Adobe have done on the Flash Lite player over the past couple of years (Project Tamarin, etc), it’s at a point where keeping this “lite” version of the player for limited devices is a positive move.
• Flash Player 10: The version for more powerful devices, again running as the browser plugin. Standalone applications will run using AIR Mobile (all sometime later in 2010)
• Device Central 3: There’s some cool new features in the next version of Adobe’s mobile testing application …
  • Geo emulation – emulating GPS location services on devices
  • Better device profile filtering in the Libraries
  • Easier process for creating your own profiles (something that just about everyone has asked about at some point!)
• SWFPack AIR application for packaging SIS and CAB files

I’m really looking forward to Adobe MAX in a few weeks time, and getting a chance to seeing more of this demonstrated and talked about.

Nokia World ‘09 opened yesterday in Stuttgart, Germany, and President and CEO “OPK” wasted no time in delivering some exciting announcements to the keynote audience (and those of us watching the stream on events.nokia.com). Amongst the details that were released were:

• Specs for the upcoming Booklet 3G netbook computer
• Specs for N97 Mini
• New X Series devices – X3 and X6
• More details on the new Maemo-powered N900
• Beta versions of new services Ovi Maps Beta for mobile, Ovi lifecasting, and Nokia Messaging – Social Messaging Beta

I may have missed some there, and I’m sure there will be a few more surprises to come, but I think for the opening keynote, that’s a pretty impressive list. Keep in mind that all of those new devices are of course running a version of Flash, and take the Flash Platform further into the hands of various demographics. In the smartphone wars, Nokia have the advantage when it comes to delivering technology into the hands of niche customer groups in all regions, as well as the mass market. Add that to a slowly building Ovi suite of services and content delivery, and I think things will be hotting up in this space in the coming year for Nokia.

Mark has posted some stats on the uptake of Adobe Mobile Packager, with the main indicator being that installs have reached 100,000.

Coupled with an apparent increase in player downloads through the Adobe Version Checker that’s a part of the Flash Lite Distributable Player solution, things are trending in the right direction here.

Read Mark’s post here.

“Building a Flash Mobile Video Player – Part 2″ has just been uploaded to the “Developing with Flash Lite” video series on Vimeo. In this episode we go through animating a playhead, accessing and working with cue points embedded in the FLV video, and finally playing video at full screen on the mobile application.

I’ve been very busy lately working on presentation material for Adobe MAX, future video episodes as well as some in-house mobile application projects which I hope to be able to share with you all shortly!