While having sushi tonight, I had an amazing conversation with a Non-Geek. We talked about everything from the iPad to Google’s Tablet to User Experiences on desktop and devices and more. She probably has a lot better insight from a non-geek point of view on much of this than I do.
You can hear the recorded conversation here: 20100429.mp3
I started recording in the middle of our conversation so the first part may not make too much sense. She was in the middle of explaining her thoughts on the difference between Google’s approach vs. Apple’s.
Note: She has only played with an iPad once (yesterday) and wanted one, and I had only showed her information on the Google Tablet earlier in the conversation.
Sound quality isn’t the best. We were in a restaurant and recorded on my BlackBerry Storm.
You can see how the average* CPU usage drops. Interestingly Chrome was the best performer overall in terms of Flash’s CPU usage. But it does have that “Google Chrome Helper” thing, which, pared with Flash player, total over 100% CPU usage themselves. When not playing the video, the “helper” either left or went to very small amount of usage. In the Firefox and Safari cases my average* temperature stayed below 140° F, but using Chrome kept it above 140°.
It will be interesting to see Gala take shape, especially since Apple just released the API for video decoding acceleration.
People aren’t so lazy when you give them the tools.
If you have the hardware configuration, you can find Gala here.
*My “averages” are not entirely scientific. I was doing some of the math in my head while watching Activity Monitor as the videos played and tried to take the same screen shots at the same time in each that gave somewhere near the average. The videos are different from player version so as to see a visual difference. Running the same exact file in each player version would be a start to a better test.
WOW. Flash Camp Seattle is less than 3 weeks away, and I totally forgot to blog about it.
And I’m speaking!
I am entirely honored to have my name in pixels in the same list as some really great guys, including Ryan Stewart, Duane Nickull, Nate Beck, David Kelly and others. (See the entire speakers list here.)
My session will focus on the process of enhancing the Designer to Developer workflow from Flash Pro to Flash Builder/Flex by creating reusable, easily skinable, custom built Flash components and extensions. Sounds long but creating one can take less than 10 minutes when everything is set up and rocking.
If you are in, around, near, or just want to come to Seattle, Flash Camp is on Friday, May 7, 2010. It’ll be an all day event filled with fun and learning and networking with some really awesome local people.
The Line in the Sand is drawn. I’ll be on the fun side.
If you love Flash and are excited for the future of the platform, follow hash tag #422 on Twitter for all the fun, updates, and cool shit coming from people all around the globe within the next few days.
It’s really easy to create a pure AS3 AIR project in Flash Builder 4!
Here’s the steps in text format:
1. Create New. Either File>New>Flex Project or you can right click in the Package Explorer > New>Flex Project
2. Application Type of Desktop (runs in Adobe AIR), give your project a name and click Next
3. Change or leave the Output Folder, and click Next
4. In the Main application file text field change your .mxml file to .as file
5. Click Finish
So you, like a lot of people who have started using Flash Builder 4, HATE that Yellow Box that pops up with Code Hinting. It’s nice to know what the ASDocs say but that damn yellow box is just annoying. Lets’ kill it. (more…)
“There is one thing for certain: I do what I want to do.
If I was truly interested in creating iPhone/iPad applications (under my own name and on my own time) then I would go learn Objective-C or whatever.
But I’m not, so I won’t.
I want to work with the Flash Platform and all the cool things I can do with it.
Why? Because I have fun with it. Flash is an enjoyable challenge with twists and turns and excitement around every corner, like the best action/drama/comedy/romance movies all playing back to back.
Right now, I am just waiting for the devices and platforms that will accept Flash and be much more fun for me to play with.”
(This is an excerpt from a much longer post I decided not to publish.)
Apple just had their iPhone OS 4 unveiling and there are some points to be taken out of it. Multitasking yada yada, Folders blah blah, iAd (bad idea, horrible presentation). But my most concern is stated in the TAC for iPhone 4.
