Tag Archives: Flash

Flash Apps on iPhone! The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Yesterday at Adobe MAX, Adobe dropped a bombshell. In the upcoming version of the Flash Pro (Flash CS5), developers will now be able to export directly to iPhone. This isn’t an Adobe Flash Player on the iPhone, but rather full applications being exported to native iPhone byte-code. For a place like The Nerdery, it turns our army of Flash Developers into a potential army of iPhone developers. This has really energized the Flash developer community, but some of the iPhone pundits are starting to harrumph about the downsides as well. This also comes on the heels of the announcement of a product called MonoTouch that allows .Net developers to write native iPhone applications as well. It seems like everyone is finding ways to get their favorite programming language to work on an iPhone.

Personally, I’ve spent my first amount of time here at The Nerdery as a Flash/Flex developer until I moved to become one of our senior-most mobile developers. I have the unique position of spending *a lot* of time in both environments. Being in this position, I have some thoughts on the whole situation:

First off, the positives. It is much, much easier to write code in Actionscript (the language that drives Flash applications) than it is to write Objective-C (the language that drives iPhone applications). Ted Patrick, the Platform Evangelist at Adobe, released source code and a applications that, in my estimation, would take 3-4 times longer to write natively in Objective-C. Flash is king at animation and ease of development which will allow for people to make potentially great looking games very quickly.

Also, as hinted at before, the developer pool just grew exponentially. Before, iPhone applications were the realm of developers who wanted to climb the steep learning curve of Objective-C and it’s wonky syntax. Apple announced in late September that there were 125,000 registered iPhone developers. This number could easily grow into the millions now. This will drive down the cost of developing iPhone applications and make this space much more competitive.

So, if it’s faster and cheaper what could be the downside? Just like the old saying in project triangle – “Fast, good, and cheap — pick two,” this comes at the cost of quality. iPhone applications aren’t easy to make and there are a lot of nuances to getting an application just right. In the previously mentioned samples from Ted Patrick, a simple app of putting four circles on the stage and spinning them comes in at a whopping 3.7 MB. Adobe also pointed at seven applications that were developed in Flash Pro CS5 that averaged in size of 10 MB. This is in contrast to the size of the apps developed The Nerdery that average 2.3 MB. . . and I’d wager our apps are just as graphically rich as theirs and as full featured. Why is this important? At 10 MB, your application can no longer be installed over AT&T’s wireless network and your iPhone user needs to find a wifi hotspot or go back to their computer to download the app on iTunes.

It may be that file size is acceptable since your application is going to be large anyway. Using my personal iPhone, and handing it around to our other developers at The Nerdery, performance on these apps has been uniformly been described to as “less than ideal” and “there clearly needs to be some optimization here.”

Then there is the ugly. Apple isn’t the type of company that sits back and lets people circumnavigate the rules that they have laid out. Apple likes having the keys to the development kingdom and don’t like other companies playing around in it. One can see this in the fact that Apple creates new versions of iTunes seemingly just to break the ability of the Palm Pre to sync music with iTunes.

In the iPhone SDK agreement, Apple mentions that you may not “decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, attempt to derive the source code of, modify, decrypt, or create derivative works of the SDK.” So how will Apple react to this potential violation of the SDK? They have pulled apps that had Google Voice support, so it wouldn’t be unprecedented for Apple to pull these apps. Also, what happens if Apple creates a new firmware update that is incompatible with Flash apps? How responsive will Adobe be to changes in the firmware and releasing patches to Flash Pro?

It should be noted this is all speculation as well. Apple may have blessed this whole process and those concerns are moot. It just seems strange that Apple wouldn’t have been announced as a partner in all of this if they hadn’t.

This is very exciting new for Flash developers. If this is an approved way of developing apps, sign me up. However, until a release date for Flash Pro is announced or Apple comes out and says they endorse or disapprove of this method of creating iPhone applications, I think the only thing that we here at The Nerdery can say for creating iPhone apps in Flash Pro is “caveat emptor.”

Tech Tuesday: Flashbacks from Flash on the Beach

I’m just back from Flash on the Beach 2009 in Brighton, England, where I witnessed loads of inspiring talks, great people and some sneak peeks from Adobe at the three-day conference.  I hope to post video of my “Flash your TV” presentation as it becomes available in the coming days, but meanwhile here are a few key takeaways from the Adobe keynote.

During the keynote session they demoed Flash CS5 and integration with Flash Builder.  Some of the key features of the new software:

Code snippets allowing designers to generate stubs

This can be used by both developers and designers that work in Flash.  The snippet they demoed was for mouse movement on an object.  Having code snippets will allow designers to add basic functionality without having to depend on a developer every step of the way.

Integration between Flash and Flash Builder

You will be able to open projects started in Flash using Flash Builder.  All project files will automatically be generated.  This will allow developers to code in the environment that is most comfortable to them.  You can also build Flash projects straight out of Flash Builder.

Improved drawing tools

In the demo they used the deco-brush to draw various types of trees using one stroke of the mouse.  The brush can be programmed allowing designers to quickly draw common objects.

Code completion in Flash

This one is self explanatory and long overdue but Flash CS5 will support code completion.  You will get completion on methods and properties assigned to a custom class.  Great when you get a rescue project and are forced to use the Flash IDE.  Personally, I’ll be sticking to Flash Builder for my development needs.

Tech Tips: Compress Transparent PNGs with Flash

Do you use transparent PNGs in Flash, Flex or AIR? Want to cut your application file size in half?

Problem:
Embedding transparent PNGs dramatically increases the size of your Flash, Flex and AIR applications. Photoshop and Fireworks dot not have any compression available for transparent PNGs (that I am aware of).

Solution:
Import your PNGs into Flash, give them a linkage id, and export the file as a SWF. Make sure to set your compression level in the publish settings (default is 80%). Using this method, I was able to cut the file size in half for a number of applications.
Read more

Non-programmers arm yourself for the upcoming Silverlight v. Flash battle

If, like me, you work with and around web/tech nerds, you’ve undoubtedly heard murmurings about Flash vs. Silverlight. I’m not sure if this is as contentious of a battle as Mac vs. PC or IE vs. Firefox, but it seems to have that kind of potential.

I set out to find out what exactly the hubbub was about these two technologies and why they’re doing battle. There’s a lot of information about this, mostly aimed at people who know a lot about coding and not a lot of information (at least that I could find) aimed at people who just want an easy answer. I don’t think there is an easy answer. Though I did manage to glean a pretty good deal of info from these three articles. Knowledge is power, arm yourself now because you never know just when the Silverlight or Flash question becomes as self-defining as Coke or Pepsi.

• WikiAnswers: What is the difference between Flash and Silverlight?
• Smashing Magazine: Flash vs. Silverlight: What Best Suits Your Needs?
• Inside RIA: Flash and Silverlight… an unlikely symbiosis?

Flashbelt Days 2 & 3: The Take Away

Flashbelt has come and gone, and I’m really glad to have been a part of it. Even being at Flashbelt this year was something of a dream come true for me.

Unfortunately at the end of the second day of Flashbelt, I felt a bit…let down. I think I felt like I didn’t have much to bring with me from the sessions I had attended. I felt like maybe they could have gone deeper. In some cases, I felt like they were covering things I’ve had the ability to learn myself. Now, I don’t think that my experience is indicative of Flashbelt as a whole. But I honestly didn’t feel like I had much to write about after that day, so I waited to see what would happen.

Moreover, I realized that I had been missing out on something else Flashbelt offers: the ability to meet other people. Up through the second day I hadn’t really talked to too many people at the conference, and realized that I was probably missing out on meeting some cool people and hearing about cool projects.

I’m happy to report that day 3 was better for me on both fronts. I went to a couple of sessions that had good connections to the type of work we do at The Nerdery. Veronique Brossier’s session discussed some of the ins and outs of developing Flash-based multiplayer games. We’ve worked on such games at The Nerdery, and she provided some good insights that we’ll be able to use as we work on such games in the future. Flash is a capable multiplayer game platform, it just requires a special kind of care.

Ralph Hauwert presented what on the surface might have seemed like a session that only appeals to the most hardcore of graphics programming nerds. But his session was showing very impressive 3D performance within Flash player, using the programming tools that Flash 10 provides. 3D has relevance to almost any application that can be developed for Flash, so his stuff is something we’ll be keeping an eye on.

The sessions were good, but I think the best thing about day 3 was the interactions with other attendees. I was asked to help man the Sierra Bravo/Nerdery Interactive Labs info table, and that provided me with the opportunity to talk with some people and give out some schwag. The coolest time, though, was over lunch. A group of people were talking with Veronique Brossier after her session. We all started walking out of the hall together, as it was lunch time. We all ended up going to lunch together, about eight attendees and Veronique, too. It was an honor to be able to have lunch with a Flashbelt presenter, but it was also fun and interesting to talk to the other people.

In the end I didn’t come away from Flashbelt with any new code to use in my projects. What I did come away with, however, is a bunch of new ideas to think about. Flashbelt is full of people who are testing boundaries, seeing what they can create with digital tools, figuring out new ways of interacting with all of the digital data that’s now out there in the world. It’s this testing, tinkering, and playing that can yield some pretty amazing results; often times things totally different than what was expected.

Moreover, I came way from Flashbelt with some new contacts; maybe even new friends. These are people who are doing similar things as myself and my company. Who knows what sort of partnerships might be created and solutions created?

So what did I come away from Flashbelt with? An overall enjoyable conference experience, but perhaps more importantly, possibilities for very cool stuff in the future. Thanks, Flashbelt! And now, back to The Nerdery.

Flashbelt Day 1: Quite the Canvas

I’ve just finished up day one of the Flashbelt conference here in Minneapolis. Flashbelt is one of the premier conferences in the country oriented around Adobe’s Flash player. The conference is aimed at animators, designers, developers, project managers, ad agencies and so on; pretty much anyone who is involved with creating content for the ubiquitous Flash player.

Flashbelt attracts a lot of well known speakers, many of the “heavy hitters” in the Flash scene – guys like Seb Lee-Delisle, Dr. Woohoo, Minneapolis’ own Danny Patterson, and so on. These names probably don’t mean much to the uninitiated, but if you’re into the geekiness like us, these people can almost be rock stars. I’m one of the Flash developers at the Nerdery, so myself and a few others from the Nerdery are at the conference checking things out.

The day started with a keynote by Richard Galvin and Paul Burnett from Adobe. These guys have intimate knowledge about Flash; they mange the Flash product lines. They talked about where the Flash platform is at currently and where it’s going.

Perhaps the most interesting point was how Adobe really wants to move the current Flash player to more devices than just computers, like TVs and mobile phones (Flash for iPhone anyone? We Flash devs can dream). Getting Flash onto these devices is the logical next step, and would be a boon for getting interactive content to more people.

The rest of my day was spent in sessions dealing with the more nerdy development side of the Flash world. I’ve gotta make sure to give mad props to our own Chris Black and Minh Vu, who gave a presentation about their experiences developing Skimmer, Fallon’s “lifestreaming” application. Chris and Minh did a great job presenting, and demonstrated that they really know their stuff.

The day ended with a session by Joel Gethin Lewis, who I’m not even sure does Flash development. Instead, Joel works for a firm in the UK that puts together real-world “interactive experiences,” things like using laser pointers to “paint” projected artwork onto buildings or making interactive stage lighting for the band Massive Attack.

It may seem odd to have a session that isn’t directly connected to the Flash platform, but apparently this is what they always do at Flashbelt. It shows that Flashbelt is about more than just coding or content production. It’s about being inspired and seeing what’s possible.

And I think if I had to sum up this first day of Flashbelt, it would be just that: be inspired. There was plenty of technical mumbo-jumbo to go around at Flashbelt, but the fact is that Flash transcends its technical backing (which has come a long way, I might add). For many years now, Flash has been arguably the most ubiquitous platform for serving up interactive experiences.

Think of this: Flash is the technology enabling YouTube and all other video sharing websites, which is changing the way we consume long entrenched forms of mass-media. Or imagine you’re an artist with an interest in the interactive-type things. You can make something for Flash, and suddenly your art can potentially be seen by millions of people who have the container waiting to show your art. The install base for Flash player is in billions of machines – that’s quite a canvas!

So it’s a good thing for all developers to remember as we come up with solutions for our clients: be inspired, think big, think of unique things, think of what people are going to want to use. Flash is one of the technologies we can use to bring the content and experiences that people are looking for.

Oh, and the worst part of Flashbelt so far? Having to endure the hokey smooth jazz that is always playing over the restroom speakers.

Nerdery Rockstars On Tour

Attention AIR developers: Are you interested in learning about caching images in binary format, SQLite database migration, re-using existing view components, memory fragmentation and general tips / tricks about developing your application using Adobe AIR? If you answered YES than you should attend Minh Vu and Chris Black’s session at Flashbelt on June 8th at 1:30PM. We’re going to have a killer presentation for everyone interested in developing Adobe AIR desktop applications.

Can’t attend Flashbelt?
I would highly recommend attending Flashbelt. Networking opportunities, great presentations and lots of fun! OK, if you absolutely can go than keep an eye out for our presentation which I will be posting to this blog on Monday. And check out all of our Flashbelt coverage as the event happens.

Who should attend?
Developers that are currently developing AIR applications or are interested in doing AIR development in the future. Project managers would also benefit from knowing the decisions that go into creating large scale applications. How about designers? This presentation is geared towards the development side of AIR but designers are welcome.

About the presenters:
Chris Black is a Senior Developer at Sierra Bravo who focuses on ActionScript development with Adobe Flex and AIR, and is interested in integrating social networking APIs into Rich Internet Applications. He covers these topics as well as sharing solutions to the problems he encounters when working with Flex and AIR on his blog, blackcj.com. Chris has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, and when he’s away from the computer he enjoys rock climbing, backpacking, and tennis.

Minh Vu is a Developer at Sierra Bravo who works on interactive development with ActionScript and JavaScript. He has a strong interest in applying Model Driven Development to Flash or AIR applications. Minh studied at the University of Minnesota Duluth where he got his degree is in Information System & Technology. In his spare time he enjoys disc golfing, snowboarding, ultimate frisbee, and learning how to program for the iPhone.

Most beautiful Web sites of 2008

CrazyLeaf Designs has named their Most Beautiful Web Sites of 2008. The choose 50 of the best CSS and Flash designs from their Web site showcase. Some of the sites are really pretty, though after a bit they start to seem a little same-y looking. A lot of them seem to have the cartoony look of a Ferry Halim game (beware: clicking that link might get you sucked into beautiful flash games and cause you to lose many hours of your time) look about them.

So here’s a questions for you, what do you think are some of the most beautiful sites on the Web?