Blackberry, Playbook, Flash, AIR….etc.,

I have been quite busy over the last 1 month that I couldn’t spare sometime on blogging. The reason can be attributed to a lot of things

1. Rapid innovations and new toolkits in the Flash platform.

2. The new Nokia Microsoft deal

3. Cricket World Cup  😉

There are a lot of good reasons to develop for the Playbook. One is that, all SWFs that run on the computer / web can be wrapped into an application seamlessly. And Playbook’s hardware and initial showcases have been impressive. The device seems solid. Blackberry has been encouraging developers to code for their platform and have been offering a free playbook upon a successful submission. Blackberry understands that apps in the marketplace are essential for the success of a platform. And to overtake Apple’s iPad, they need to have a launch with a marketplace ready with diversified content. One also has to remember that Playbook is equivalent to iPad 2’s hardware (has dual cameras) and is hence not behind in the race.

Anyways, so I created an app for the Playbook that can be used to watch TED videos. I used the TED RSS and it’s published for free. In future, I will be adding newer features to it. Previously, there were loose ends in the process of testing and signing the content for the Playbook. The toolchain has been improving and we are now seeing more blogs writing about it (one is this by Hemanth). Adobe will shortly be releasing a more streamlined process for development. Additionally, Blackberry was taking quite some time to give any response on the submission of apps. It took me 30+ days for the TED app to get approved. Now the approval times have been drastically reduced to nearly 1 week only. Since, my content has been approved I will be receiving a Playbook after its launch. I shall later attach screenshots of my app.

I must also say about 2 things that has not been highlighted adequately

1. There is a package of UI, media and other components that have been designed and developed by Adobe + Blackberry to suit the Playbook and  the QNX platform. It is better to use these components when targeting the playbook.

2. The community at Blackberry developer site is hyper brisk. I think there are people answering queries with sleepless nights ! You generally get answers in less than 20 mins time. I used these, when I had initial difficulty with signing and packaging and found them to be really useful.

With Nokia going into deals with Micrsoft, it means that Flash Lite’s future in diminishing. Symbian had good support for Flash Lite. But I do believe that Flash Lite is a good platform to target the millions of devices that are today in the market and more that will continue to ship over the next few years. My latest game on the Ovi store, HAPPY SUN has been doing very well. It is also being featured by the Ovi store. Being a Forum Nokia Champion and an avid Flash enthusiast, I hope that Flash soon makes its way into WP7.

I am also attending the Adobe Refresh Singapore event tomorrow. Really hoping to catch up with dev friends.

New Flash Lite game – Happy Sun

My latest Flash Lite game HAPPY SUN is out on the Ovi store. Its available for all touch phones including the S60 5th edition and Nokia S^3 phones. You can download it for free from the Ovi store. Here are some screenshots of the game … Its a very exciting word game and created after working closely with Mellisdesigns.

New webminar on Video apps

Via Alessandro,

There will be an interesting webminar form Forum Nokia: Developing Video Applications for Symbian Devices, WRT+Flash Lite

“Join Robert Burdick of Forum Nokia and Kirk Ballou of Flash Widgets LLC for a session on building video applications for Symbian devices. The webinar’s topics will include using QtMultimedia for Symbian devices such as the Nokia N8 mobile computer, as well as Web Runtime (WRT) and Flash Lite technology for S60 5th Edition devices.”

 

 

New app for WolframAlpha

Chompgames have launched a new application for Nokia touch devices, based on the fast growing computational knowledge engine – Wolfram Alpha. If you are not aware of Wolfram Alpha. It’s a engine that scans the web and creates knowledge based on it. I wrote this app on Nokia’s WRT platform using Adobe Dreamweaver CS5. Hope you like it..

My interview with Nokiadevs

I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Nokiadevs.com last week. You can now read it here.

In this post, I talk about my journey as a Flash Lite developer and developing on Nokia handsets. I also talk on my Flash Lite game Deep Days and some apps I created using Ovi AppWizard. Hope you like it.

Adobe Announces Availability Of Flash Player 10.1 For Mobile & Devices To Its Platform Partners ……..!!

Via Adobe, yesterday Adobe announce the availability of Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile.

“Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the release of Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 to mobile platform partners. Redesigned from the ground up with new performance and mobile specific features, Flash Player 10.1 is the first release that brings the full Web across desktops and devices. Mobile users will now be able to experience millions of sites with rich applications and content inside the browser including games, animations, rich Internet applications (RIAs), data presentations and visualizations, ecommerce, music, video, audio and more.

Already one of the top free apps on Android™ Market today, Flash Player 10.1 will be available as a final production release for smart phones and tablets once users are able to upgrade to Android 2.2 “Froyo.” Devices supporting “Froyo” and Flash Player 10.1 are expected to include the Dell Streak, Google Nexus One, HTC Evo, HTC Desire, HTC Incredible, DROID by Motorola, Motorola Milestone, Samsung Galaxy S and others. Flash Player 10.1 was also released to mobile platform partners to be supported on devices based on Android, BlackBerry, webOS, future versions of Windows® Phone, LiMo, MeeGo and Symbian OS, and is expected to be made available via over-the-air downloads and to be pre-installed on smart phones, tablets and other devices in the coming months.”

kris

Adobe Unveils First Full Flash Player For Mobile Devices And PCs

Today, Adobe Unveiled First Full Flash Player For Mobile Devices And PCs.  Close to 50 Open Screen Project Participants Support New Browser Runtime for Multiple Platforms.

Adobe unveiled Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 software for smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PCs and other Internet-connected devices, allowing content created using the Adobe Flash Platform to reach users wherever they are. A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows® Mobile, Palm® webOS and desktop operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year. Public betas for Google® Android™ and Symbian® OS are expected to be available in early 2010. In addition, Adobe and RIM announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash Player to Blackberry® smartphones, and Google joined close to 50 other industry players in the Open Screen Project initiative.

Rest of the post here.

Adobe Device Central CS4 Device Profile Update #5 Now Available Online….

Mark Doherty has written blogpost here on Device Profile Update 5 for Device Central CS4 which is now available for download. This latest device update for Device Central CS4 contains 36 new and some updated profiles bringing the total number of supported devices to 738. 

Here’s an overview of the new profiles:

• DoCoMo Fujitsu F-08A
• DoCoMo Fujitsu F-09A
• DoCoMo NEC N-07A
• DoCoMo NEC N-08A
• DoCoMo NEC N-09A
• DoCoMo Panasonic P-08A
• DoCoMo Panasonic P-09A
• DoCoMo Panasonic P-10A
• DoCoMo Sharp SH-05A
• DoCoMo Sharp SH-06A
• DoCoMo Sharp SH-07A
• HTC Hero for testing flash in the browser
• KDDI Hitachi HIY01
• KDDI Kyocera KYX02
• KDDI Sharp SH002
• KDDI Toshiba TS002
• KDDI Toshiba TSY01
• Nokia 5530 XpressMusic
• Nokia 5630 XpressMusic
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Flash Lite 3.1
• Nokia E52
• Nokia N86 8MP
• Nokia N97
• Samsung I8910 HD
• SoftBank NEC 930N
• SoftBank Panasonic 931P
• SoftBank Samsung 931SC
• SoftBank Sharp 934SH
• SoftBank Sharp 935SH
• SoftBank Sharp DM004SH
• SoftBank Toshiba 832T
• Sony Ericsson C901 GreenHeart
• Sony Ericsson C901a GreenHeart
• Sony Ericsson T707
• Sony Ericsson T707a
• Sony Ericsson W518a

 All new device profiles would be available through the Online Device Library in Adobe Device Central CS4.  You can check the complete set of devices here.

Register Now: Ovi Maps API Webinar

Nokia’s Ovi is opening up to developers, starting with Ovi Maps. As a developer, you will have the opportunity to embed powerful maps functionality in your websites using the brand-new, easy-to-use API called Maps Player API.  Maps Player makes it simple to integrate rich Ovi Maps functionality into your website, turning it into a personalised, contextual, and compelling experience. During this webinar, Nokia will introduce the API, demonstrate the simple steps to embed Ovi Maps into your websites, and show you examples created by other developers. It will be held on September 16, 2009 by 10 am Barcelona, 11 am in Helsinki and 9 pm in Bangkok. For this webinar, you can register here.

Code of Partnership

Well, not many know about Code of Partnership happening in India, and at my hometown Chennai.

Code of Partnership is another congregation / workshop organised by Forum Nokia to leverage and motivate the developer base in WRT platform. It is a One day event hosted at Chennai and the list of speakers include  Mr. Prakash Sayini – Forum Nokia India Head, Mr. Sunil Rao, Developer Relations Manager, Forum Nokia and my very friend from Bangalore Mr. Balagopal who works as a Technology expert at Nokia.

I think the main motive of this event is to evangelize developers to the WRT platform, but wonder why the registration has been made Invite-only. You can read more, here.  And as it appears from the site, Forum Nokia developer Conference 2009 is on its way.

The sad part, all these events happen only when I am not in town or not available. 😦