Poll: What would you like to hear me speak on?

So, I’m pitching concepts for possibly speaking at a Flash conference. Throwing around some ideas on topics to speak on, I’ve landed on a few that I think people may enjoy. But now I need your help. Take a look at the list below and post a comment telling me which topic you would like to hear me elaborate more on if I get accepted to speak. Thanks!

1. Mobile UX: It’s About the User. From project flow to design to testing, staying focused on the user will better your applications and ensure the best user experience possible.
2. Designer/Developer Relations: Why Designers should learn some dev and devs should learn some design.
3. Designing for the iPhone using Flash CS5. (This is if CS5 is available, of course.)
4. Pushing the limits of Flash Player 10.1 for mobile. See how Flash Player 10.1 can be utilized for the web on mobile devices.
5. Using FlashBuilder/Catalyst as a Designer. Take Illustrator and Photoshop files from concept to fully functional applications with ease. Quickly and easily add Flash animations, design, and video to your applications.
6. AIR and Netbooks, Next Generation Apps on Next Generation Devices. Find out how AIR can be utilized on next generation devices such as netbooks and tablets.
7. Designer/Developer Workflow – Creating Custom Flash Components: Learn how to speed daily workflow by creating custom Flash components that are easy for developers to implement and simple for designers to skin.

You HAVE go to Flash and the City.

Image care of Elad Elrom.

Not 20 minutes ago, I got off the phone with Elad Elrom who is organizing Flash and the City – a three day conference in New York this May. Elad told me about all the awesome events he has in store. So awesome, in fact, that he made me swear on possession of my soul not to tell. Since I would like to keep my soul, all I can say is: You HAVE to go to Flash and the City.

Not only will you learn so much your head will explode from some of the brightest minds in the Flash Community, but you will have so much fun all your friends/coworkers/neighbors/students/teachers/bartenders/hair stylists/pets will be olive green with jealously. You won’t be able to stop talking about it.

So, go and get your tickets. Get packed now, because you’ll be too excited not to.

Accessing Flash Player 10.1 from Flash CS4/5

Update 06/30/10: Some links have been updated and some changes have been made to the installation steps. The same installation work for CS5 as well. Just replace CS4 with CS5 and you’re good.

Flash Player 10.1 beta has been out for a little while, but Adobe doesn’t have any information on how to use the API in Flash CS4. They have instructions for Flash/Flex Builder. In fact, even Lee Brimelow had to ask how to use it from the Flash CS4 IDE. So here is how to get it running.

1. Be sure to fully quit out of Flash.

2. Download and install the player plugin for browsers. Also download the StandAlone players and place them here:
Mac: /Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/Players
PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Players

3. Scroll to the bottom of the download page, you will need to also download and unzip the Player Global SWC.
**The Player Global SWC is no longer available as a direct download (although it should be). You will need to download the Flex 4.1 SDK. Once you do, unzip the package and browse to: flex_sdk_4.1/frameworks/libs/player/10.1/. Copy the playerglobal.swc.

4. Back up the FP 10 playerglobal.swc and replace it with the new 10.1 version.
You can find it here on Mac: /Applications/Adobe Flash CS4/Common/Configuration/ActionScript 3.0/FP10
And here on PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Common\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\FP10

Now let’s make sure it works.

1. Start Flash CS4 and create a new AS3 .fla.

2. Create 2 new Dynamic text fields, and give them instance names of text1 and text2.

3. We need some code. A topic of discussion lately has been Multitouch, and since the multitouch API is FP 10.1 specific, let’s use that. Open the Actions panel (opt+)F9 and copy/paste the following code:

**Previously I had extraneous code. It has now been removed.

Test Movie will throw errors because CS4 doesn’t have a standalone version of FP 10.1 (there isn’t one publicly available yet), well, because the IDE has issues. But you installed FP 10.1 earlier can use Debug Movie (cmd(cntrl)+shift+enter) to test. Or you can Publish and Run (cmd/cntrl+F12) in the Browser. Text1 and 2 should report back if GestureEvents and TouchEvents work on your computer.

Check Christian Cantrell‘s Adobe Dev Center post about Multitouch if you are unsure if your system supports it.

Have Fun!

Flash IS on the iPhone, sort of.

Yesterday, Tobias Schneider @tobeytailor released his JavaScript Flash runtime – Gordon. This runtime allows Flash swfs to run on the iPhone in Safari. Although currently Gordon only supports Flash Player 1 (that’s not a typo), this is pretty monumental. It’s a great step in the right direction in getting Flash on the iPhone. This looks pretty much like a precursor to what Adobe sneaked at MAX in October 2009. There they showed how Flash could be rendered with HTML5 canvas tag. The difference here is that this is the actual swf playing. It’s actually JavaScript turning the Flash to SVG.

It should be said that Gordon is not the actual Flash Player, but some JavaScript wizardry that somehow renders Flash on those oh-so-beloved-yet incredibly-frustrating-for-the-Flash-Community iDevices.

** Edit: 01/21/10
Peter Elst states in his blog post:

To be very clear: it is *not* running the SWF file — its parsing it, converting it using Javascript and outputting SVG. Running that same SWF file on a native Flash Player, even on a smartphone would be a fraction of that in terms of CPU usage.
**

That’s still pretty cool. Tabias used an existing language to do this. (You should read Peter’s posting for more info.)

Tabias has stated that he is working on another release to get FP 2 targeted swfs to run through Gordon. If Adobe isn’t careful Mr. Schnieder may render all their hard work of tricking iPhone to play swfs almost completely wasted. Maybe they should just hire him.

Screw the iPhone, what about Android?

Back in October of 2009 Adobe showed off the ability to publish Flash files as iPhone applications. That sent the Flash world into a tizzy that we still have yet to come down from. The apps looked like iPhone apps, they installed out of the Apple Store like iPhone apps. In fact, if you didn’t know the people that created them were primarily Flash developers, you would have never known the apps were created in Flash (that is if Adobe didn’t tell you, too).

Then comes the Android Phones, and in particular, the Nexus One. (ok so the image below doesn’t show the Nexus, just the Motorola Droid. The Nexus One is a bit too expensive without service.)  Reports are that Nexus One will handle Flash Player 10.1 when Adobe is ready, so too, will the Droid and Palm Pre.

That’s cool. Actually that’s awesome. I can’t wait to be able to hold the Flash Player in hand. But that’s within the staunch walls of the browser.

Maybe this whole Flash compiling to iPhone thing is an even better idea. Compiling an application or game as a device driven app is much more compelling to me than running that same app through the browser and it’s limited sandbox and often ugly UI. I mean, there is a greatly growing number of AIR applications being released into the wild, taking Flash out of the browser. So why is the mobile push for Flash pretty much staying in the confines of the browser? Why not go further than that?

How about a compiler for Blackberry (Storms, Curves, etc) native applications? What about Android?

The Nexus One looks very promising compared to the iPhone. Android OS can certainly handle intensive applications on the Droid, so the Nexus One should be able to as well. If the Flash compiler can perform well enough on iPhone, why can’t we get a compiler to other devices as well? And if Adobe really can’t stand Apple as much as we think they do, then why not push for native apps on devices that could have the potential of bringing this iPhone madness to an end?

We continue to feed the iPhone/iPod tyranny by creating content for them. Instead, we should be trying to focus on making content for those that can match up to the iPhone. It’ll make innovation better. Maybe we’ll eventually see a device that will render the iPhone obsolete.

Simply, I want to be able to compile device driven (non-browser) applications and RIAs to multiple platforms and OS with minimal effort. Please.

Work Flow Lab (.9 beta Release) – Keep it in your sights

Since moving to the Mobile and Devices Group at Smashing Ideas we have started to implement scrum/Agile development style project flows on a few projects. We have also been looking for an application that can assist in such but have yet to find anything of any value.

Adobe has been working on an AIR app called Work Flow Lab that looks to be pretty promising. The .9 beta release of WFL has quite a bit of the features we have been looking for, but as of this release, still lacks in some of the features that would make this app truly useful. This is a beta application, though, so hopefully it can be expanded.

In any case, keep an eye on WFL. I have a feeling it will be an useful tool for project development in the future.

Also watch Doug Winnie’s Adobe blog for updated information on WFL.

I’m going to try to do a screencast of this as soon as I can.