Shak's Blog » RIA http://www.shakeeltariq.com Technology bites Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:17:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Adobe Developed IPhone Tool Without Apple’s Help – Business Center – PC World http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/12/adobe-developed-iphone-tool-without-apples-help/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/12/adobe-developed-iphone-tool-without-apples-help/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:43:54 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=243 Adobe Systems said it developed its tools that allow Flash developers to create native iPhone applications without help from Apple, but it hopes the iPhone maker will be glad of its efforts.

Adobe announced on Monday that the next version of Flash Professional, due in beta later this year, will allow developers to export their Flash code in a format that allows it to run on the iPhone as a native application. Adobe is keen to offer Flash Player for the iPhone but says it needs more cooperation from Apple to do so. The solution it announced today is a workaround.

It’s not the Flash Player for the iPhone that many are hoping for, and the applications won’t be able to browse the Web in the way that programs running in Flash Player can. But it does mean that Flash developers won’t have to rewrite their applications from scratch for the iPhone, which should expand the pool of applications for Apple’s device.

“We believe these apps are good for Apple and good for the iPhone,” Adrian Ludwig, a product marketing manager with Adobe’s Flash Platform group, told reporters on Monday. “We have no reason to believe that Apple won’t love this.”

The fact that Adobe doesn’t know the answer to that question already suggests there is some tension between the companies, and that a Flash Player for the iPhone will probably not be appearing imminently.

Asked if Adobe worked with Apple to create the new tools, Ludwig said they are “entirely based on technologies that any other developer would have access to.”

The tension was also apparent during Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch’s keynote at the start of Adobe Max, where he gently mocked the iPhone for not running Flash by comparing it to an old, rotary-dial telephone.

The company is still hopeful it will get a Flash Player on the device eventually, however. Adobe and Apple are close partners in other areas of their business, particularly with creative tools for designers. Observers have speculated that Apple is concerned that Flash Player will offer less that optimal performance on its device.

Adobe submitted seven applications to the App Store that were built with a pre-release of Flash Professional, and all were accepted, Ludwig said. “They all got approved without modifications.”

Having a plug-in API to Apple’s Safari browser isn’t the only thing Adobe needs to offer a Flash Player for the iPhone, he said. Apple also restricts programs that execute code at runtime, he said, and Adobe needs help optimizing Flash Player for Apple’s hardware, as device makers such as Nokia have provided.

In fact Adobe has worked hard to get its software running well on other devices. It announced Monday that it will release beta versions of Flash Player for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS before the end of the year, and for Google Android and Symbian next year.

“One of the biggest challenges was smartphone memory,” Lynch said during his keynote speech Monday, when he demonstrated a pre-release of Flash Player 10.1 running on several smartphones.

Adobe did some work in Flash Player 10.1 to reduce the amount of memory required for applications. Adobe’s Flex photo album will require 25MB of RAM, down from 69MB with the prior version of the player, while a typical Yahoo ad will require 4MB, down from 13MB, according to a slide he showed.

“As you build your content, keep an eye on how big your RAM is, it will make it easier for us to do our job,” Lynch told developers.

The demonstrations didn’t always go smoothly, either because of the wireless network in the Nokia Theater or because the software still needs work. When Lynch tried to show some roll-over content pop up on a device, it didn’t work, and the screen froze while he showed Google Finance running on another device.

But he was able to show how Flash Player 10.1 should provide a similar experience on phones as on the desktop, including running HD video, using touch-screen controls to switch to full-screen mode, and using the accelerometer to switch a video to landscape mode when a phone is turned sideways.

One of the big benefits for users of Flash Player on phones will be the ability to run video sites such as Hulu. Flash Player 10.1 will be able to run 3.5 hours of video on a typical smartphone battery, or 6.5 hours of animation, Lynch said. “Now you can watch a full feature film on a smartphone,” he said.

via Adobe Developed IPhone Tool Without Apple’s Help – Business Center – PC World.

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]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/12/adobe-developed-iphone-tool-without-apples-help/feed/ 0 It’s Flash on the iPhone … Sort of http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/07/its-flash-on-the-iphone-sort-of/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/07/its-flash-on-the-iphone-sort-of/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:54:00 +0000 Shakeel Tariq It’s Flash on the iPhone … Sort of – PC World
The iPhone may be the only major smartphone in the known universe that’s unlikely to get Adobe’s Flash Player anytime soon, but there is a bit of iPhone/Flash news. At Adobe’s MAX conference in Los Angeles, the company announced that Flash Professional CS5, the next upgrade to the Flash developer package, will be able to creative native iPhone applications for distribution through the App Store.

This has nothing to do with Flash Player, and won’t let iPhone users view Flash content on the Web-it’s just a way for developers who are comfortable with Flash to build iPhone apps. It’ll presumably be useful when a company’s putting together an app in Flash for multiple devices, and wants to get it onto the iPhone without starting from scratch.

It sounds like a smart way for Adobe to jam its foot into the iPhone door even if Flash Player for the iPhone remains an iffy proposition-but if these tools are worth using, iPhone users should see no signs whatsoever that there’s anything unusual about the apps that developers build with them.

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]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/07/its-flash-on-the-iphone-sort-of/feed/ 0 3 Reasons Why iPhone Won’t Get Adobe Flash http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/05/3-reasons-why-iphone-wont-get-adobe-flash/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/05/3-reasons-why-iphone-wont-get-adobe-flash/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:27:00 +0000 Shakeel Tariq

Adobe delighted on Monday the smartphone world, when it announced that Flash Player 10.1 will be available by the end of the year on BlackBerry, WinMo, Palm WebOS, Google Android, and Symbian phones.

But the millions of iPhone users out there are left fuming over the announcement because their beloved gadget isn’t showing any signs of Adobe Flash adoption.

Research In Motion, Microsoft, Palm, Google and Nokia will all embed the Flash Player 10.1 into their handsets by the end of this year or in early 2010, but Apple is ignoring the wishes of the masses of iPhone owners across the world and did not announce any plans to integrate Adobe Flash support onto its line of smartphones.

Read More @ 3 Reasons Why iPhone Won’t Get Adobe Flash – PC World

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]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/05/3-reasons-why-iphone-wont-get-adobe-flash/feed/ 0 Flash Player Inches Closer to Smartphones http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/05/flash-player-inches-closer-to-smartphones/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/10/05/flash-player-inches-closer-to-smartphones/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:39:00 +0000 Shakeel Tariq Flash Player Inches Closer to Smartphones – Business Center – PC World
Adobe Systems’ Flash Player is getting closer to appearing on smartphones, with Research in Motion adding its BlackBerry to the list of devices that will run the software. Apple’s elusive iPhone remains out of reach, however.

At its Adobe Max conference in Los Angeles on Monday, Adobe announced that a beta of its new Flash Player 10.1 software will be released by the end of the year for Windows Mobile and the Palm webOS, with betas for Google’s Android and the Symbian platform to follow early next year.

RIM was a last minute addition over the weekend, and it wasn’t immediately clear how soon Flash Player 10.1 for BlackBerrys will appear. Nineteen of the top 20 handset makers have now agreed to carry the software, Adobe said.

Putting Flash on these devices should mean a wider range of content and applications for mobile users, including more games, videos, location-based services and social-networking sites.

The absence of Flash on phones is “one of the great missing parts of the mobile Web,” according to Avi Greengart, a research director with Current Analysis. He expects handset makers and mobile operators to offer the software on devices soon after it comes out of beta, which Adobe says will be in the first half of next year.

In the meantime, developers will be able to download the beta software to develop and test mobile applications and Web sites. A beta of Flash Player 10.1 for Windows, Linux and Macintosh desktops will also be out by the end of the year, Adobe said.

Along with video and other rich content, Flash is used by a lot of Web sites to run advertisements, so its availability on phones should mean more ad-supported services will be made available to mobile users, said Anup Murarka, director of technology strategy and partner development for Adobe’s Flash Platform group.

“A lot of sites depend on advertising to sustain themselves, and they’ve had a tendency to block or restrict mobile access because they couldn’t support it with an advertising model,” he said.

Still, the mobile effort hasn’t been a breeze for Adobe, which has recently fallen behind schedule. In June it said it would release the Flash Player 10 beta in October, to coincide with this week’s Adobe Max conference.

While the Windows Mobile and Palm webOS betas will be out soon, Android and Symbian will be several months late when they arrive next year. Murarka said Android is taking longer because Adobe needs some programming interfaces that will be available with the Eclair release of Android, due later this year.

The iPhone also remains absent from the list of supported devices. “Unfortunately we have no news for you there,” Murarka said. “As we’ve said before, we need additional support and cooperation from Apple to get Flash on the iPhone.”

The iPhone is “a pretty big omission,” Greengart said, but he expects it to arrive eventually. Apple likes to announce such developments at its own events, he noted, and would be unlikely to declare its support for Flash at Adobe Max.

Still, Adobe has come a long way, Greengart said. It has been developing Flash for several phone platforms simultaneously, he noted, which in turn will run hundreds of handset models.

The mobile effort is part of Adobe’s Open Screen Project to provide a common development platform for phones, PCs, netbooks and even televisions. Open Screen is backed by almost 50 device makers, content developers and other partners, Murarka said, up from 16 when it was launched in May last year.

Motorola, Nokia, LG Electronics and Samsung are among the handset makers that have signed up. On Monday, Adobe said it is also working with Nvidia to optimize Flash for its graphics chips in netbooks, and with Qualcomm to get Flash running on its Snapdragon chipset for smartphones.

Having a common runtime that spans different devices should make life easier for developers, but it won’t be a panacea, Murarka acknowledged. Web sites with complex navigational elements won’t translate easily to small screens without additional work.

“But popular video sites and social-networking sites, popular games and sites that use Flash for advertising, those should all work fine,” he said. “It will take a bit of time for developers to evolve their best practices, but the functionality is there with very few exceptions.”

At Adobe Max, Adobe will also show off version 2.0 of its Air runtime environment for desktops, which adds support for peer-to-peer applications and more device peripherals, Murarka said. The software is due out next spring.

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