Feb
11th

Oneupweb : Adobe Flash – Is Time Running Out?

Posted by Robert on February 11, 2010 at 10:09 am

Recently, Apple unveiled its new toy called the iPad. I was disappointed to learn that like the iPhone and iPod Touch, it will not support Flash. This got me thinking about the future of Adobe’s Flash Player.

I wrote an article last month about Flash CS5 having the ability to compile iPhone apps from ActionScript3 code, but now I’m wondering if that’s really the best solution. Flash is currently the best form of media for browser based gaming when it comes to reaching the masses, but if things don’t change, it will find itself reminiscing over its glory days before long.

HTML5, paired with JavaScript, is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Its biggest advantage is the ability to render graphics with the GPU (Graphic Processing Unit). Its disadvantage is that users must have a browser that supports HTML5. IE8 and FF2 are among the browsers that don’t support it. In a world where 10.2% of internet users are still on IE6, it’s not likely that HTML5 will be the standard anytime soon. In fact, HTML4 isn’t even fully implemented yet.

Flash currently renders graphics through CPU (Central Processing Unit) for maximum compatibility across computers and operating systems which, unfortunately, puts quite a load on the processor. The next release of Flash Player will have GPU support (v10.1), but that will require users to update the drivers to their graphics cards as well. All I can do is hope that it gives Flash enough power to compete in the years to come…

I love AS3, but if Adobe doesn’t do something, then I’ll have no choice but to move to something else. In the end, the fate of Flash will depend greatly on how Adobe plays its cards.

GD Star Rating
loading...

Socialize This Post

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you leave a comment.

Feb
2nd

Thoughts On The iPad, Flash And Online Video

Posted by Jeremiah on February 2, 2010 at 10:12 am

Ah yes, the iPad. Shrouded in secrecy until its recent unveiling, this newest gadget from Apple was the subject of nigh rabid speculation regarding its features, form factor and name. Post-launch, the product is still being hotly discussed, but one feature in particular (or lack thereof) seems to have grabbed quite a bit of attention: no native support for Adobe Flash.

This is nothing new for Apple. The iPhone and iPod Touch have lacked any support for Flash since coming to market, relying on custom apps to allow access to content on sites like YouTube (which ordinarily streams content as Flash video files). As described in an earlier post on this blog, Adobe has once again found themselves with the ball in their court. I wouldn’t be surprised if Adobe Flash Professional CS5 winds up able to compile apps for both the iPhone and the iPad. Or who knows, maybe that’s a CS6 feature?

But why take such a hard line against Flash with the iPad? First, Apple has been consistent in its position that Flash is too resource intensive for its mobile devices, citing decreased battery life and processor strain as the two primary examples of why it could be considered advantageous to drop support altogether. Secondly, Apple is pushing standards with the launch of this device—HTML5 specifically.

By supporting HTML5, Apple has enabled the iPad to stream video content without the need for a browser plugin. Most mainstream video content providers, including YouTube, are already moving to adopt HTML5. Currently, web browsers Opera and (unsurprisingly) Apple’s own Safari boast strong support of HTML5, while Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer lags far behind.

It would be unwise to take all of this as reason to be dismissive of Flash altogether, however. Roughly 96 percent of internet users have some version of Adobe’s Flash installed on their computers. While HTML5 may be the future of video distribution on the web, Flash developers continue to push the platform’s boundaries, delivering not only video, but games, advertising and interactive media to a steadily growing global market.

We may be just catching a glimpse of the end of Adobe’s market dominance on the horizon, but in the meantime, it’s still the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to the multimedia content being consumed by the one billion plus global internet users online in 2010. Apple’s decision to essentially “lock out” its iPad users from this type of content may have been intended to be a push toward the future, but could wind up hurting them in the end.

Pushing standards is one thing, but denying people access to content they have become widely accustomed to consuming is another thing entirely.

GD Star Rating
loading...

Socialize This Post

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you leave a comment.

Dec
1st

Adobe Gets Flash on the iPhone (Or the Next Best Thing)

Posted by Robert on December 1, 2009 at 4:18 pm

Getting flash on the iPhone has been an ongoing struggle for Adobe. Put simply, it’s because Apple refuses to cooperate.

Allowing users to play free games while browsing the web would impact the number of sales generated from the Apple Apps store. From a business perspective, it’s kind of hard to brush that off. And so flash gets to sit in the corner, ignored and neglected, awaiting the day that Apple notices it.

Well wait no more!

Apple still hasn’t noticed flash, but Adobe got tired of holding their breath.

Adobe recently announced that Flash Professional CS5 is able to take ActionScript3 code and compile it as an iPhone app. There is no run-time interpretation, it is actually building a true native iPhone .ipa, following all of the guidelines Apple has set for their development community. The new Flash IDE comes equipped with tools geared specifically towards accessing the iPhone’s capabilities, including touch and tilt detection.

There are, of course, features in flash that the iPhone doesn’t allow, such as accessing the camera and microphone, or loading external .swf files that contain actionscript. But all in all, this is a huge score for the flash development community, allowing us to distribute our flash games and applications via the Apple Apps store.

So I guess flash is still technically on the sidelines, but its genetically altered clone gets to walk through the front doors without the bouncers even giving it a glance; which is the next best thing, really.

The public beta for Adobe Flash Professional CS5 will be released this month. So sign up to be notified and Adobe will let you know when it becomes available.

Many of the technical details haven’t yet been released, but here is a useful link if you would like to learn more.

GD Star Rating
loading...

Socialize This Post

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you leave a comment.

Nov
2nd

Adobe Provides Flash Platform Services

Posted by Robert on November 2, 2009 at 2:17 pm

Enhance, distribute and monetize applications. That’s the tagline attached to the new Flash Platform Services provided by Adobe. Services which are designed to help flash developers, like me, promote and share their social apps.

There are three separate services in total: Distribution, Collaboration, and Social (coming soon). I decided to take a closer look at all three, to find out more and see if these services are right for me. Read on to discover how they can help you as a designer.

Distribution

flash platform services - distribution

This service enables businesses to share, promote, track, and monetize apps. There are free, paid, and revenue earning features that can be utilized.

“Free,” you say? Absolutely! Developers can now easily add sharing capabilities to their apps, making it a breeze for users to tell their friends, giving businesses a better chance at making their apps viral. And to monitor the success of the app, tracking is also included as a free feature. During the beta phase, mobile distribution is being offered for free, however, Adobe reserves the right to change the pricing at any time.

“Paid,” you ask? Yes, some services do come at a cost. Promoting your app does have a CPI (Cost per Install) charge. The overall price varies based on target audience. Ad hosting is also an option, with a typical CPM of $5. Again, this price varies.

“Monetize,” you wonder? Adobe is offering the chance to generate revenue by hosting paid ads for other apps within your apps. The amount, like everything else, varies.

The developer extensions are only available for Adobe Flash Professional CS4, Dreamweaver CS4, and Flex Builder 3. Mobile distribution is only available for Adobe Flash Professional CS4.

Collaboration

flash platform services - collaboration This service enables users to communicate with each other in real-time. This interaction ranges from simple text chats, to audio/video streaming. It also enables the developer to manage user statuses and connections.

Only paid features are available for this service. Real-time bandwidth usage runs at $0.49 per GB. Message pushing goes for $0.10 per 1000 messages sent. User minutes are charged at $0.01 per hour (this is where user status comes into play, allowing developers to disconnect an idle connection).

Social

flash platform services - social This service isn’t available yet, but will be in the near future. The goal is to enable developers to easily integrate flash apps into the leading social networks, without dealing with their respective APIs. This means less of a learning curve, and MUCH less time spent implementing over multiple sites. Seriously, just being able to avoid fbml (facebook markup language) gives this feature an A+++ in by book.

No word yet on which features will be free or paid.

GD Star Rating
loading...

Socialize This Post

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you leave a comment.

Mar
27th

Tutorial: Embedding Flash in Facebook Business Pages

Posted by Robert on March 27, 2009 at 1:55 pm

In a current project with Oneupweb, I was faced with the challenge of embedding our podcast player inside a business page on facebook. While this sounded like a simple task, finding the right solution has proven to be quite an obstacle.

There are many apps out there designed to embed flash to your profile, but you’ll likely find that the majority of them were not developed for use in business accounts. To add to that, facebook recently changed their business pages to make them function more like personal profiles. This is mostly a good thing; except that it resulted in “endless loop redirects” for the rest of the developer apps that are supposed to be working. Now when you try to install one, you end up with an error page and a broken app added to your profile.

So while we wait for the developing world to catch up, we’re stuck with apps developed by facebook. Luckily, with a bit of digging (and a lot of testing), the right app is out there. It’s called Static FBML (FaceBook Markup Language).

How to install it

Log into your business account and click this link
Click the [Add To Page] button
Click the [Add Static FBML] button

If everything installed correctly, you should be redirected back to your wall.

How to use it

Click the Edit Pages link, located below your profile picture
Click the [pencil] icon next to Static FBML and select Application Settings
Choose if you want it displayed as a Box, Tab or Both
Click the [Okay] button

Click the [pencil] icon next to Static FBML and select Edit

Enter a title to be displayed above your box/tab

Enter the embed code (located below)

Click the [publish] button

The Embed Code

Although the app description says that you can use HTML, it is greatly restricted. Needless to say, the regular flash embed code will not fly here. The only other option is (you guessed it) FBML. It’s okay if you’re not a developer, this part is fairly easy.

Let’s first look at the basic code, and then I’ll walk you through it:

<fb:swf
     swfsrc=’http://www.myurl.com/myflash.swf’
     imgsrc=’http://www.myurl.com/myflash.jpg’
     width=’400′
     height=’300′ />

<fb:swf

This tag tells facebook that we’re using FBML; In this case, we want to use a swf object.

swfsrc=’http://www.myurl.com/myflash.swf’

Here we set the source url of our flash movie.

imgsrc=’http://www.myurl.com/myflash.jpg’

Here we set the pre-click image for our flash movie. Yes, I said pre-click. Facebook requires that a user activates flash before it can be displayed.

width=’400′
height=’300′ />

Here we set the width and height of our flash movie.

More Options

There are other options available that can be applied to your movie, such as swfbgcolor and flashvars. For a complete list and description of their uses, visit the Facebook Developers Wiki. There you can also see which flash variables facebook automatically passes for use inside your movies (such as the identification of the currently logged in user).

So there you have it! If you followed the above steps, you should now have a fully functional embedded flash movie. I hope you found this tutorial helpful, and that you’ll become our fan on facebook.

GD Star Rating
loading...

Socialize This Post

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you leave a comment.