In installation process, ADM was downloaded first which was almost the same download size of the Flash Player itself, so I don’t get why Adobe used it in the first place. If it supports resume-able downloads, then Adobe should only use it for downloading trial versions of Adobe CS products.

Adobe Flash Player 10.1.82.76 Update

This new version features better hardware acceleration, multi-touch and gestures, private browsing support and as always enhanced performance and memory management. Read more here.

I am happy that Adobe now have switched back to better and tiny (only ~2.8MB total) installer. The update notification included summary about what new features it offers and links for more details.

The only thing which I’ve been asking Adobe to put in these update dialogs is complete version numbers of the currently installed Flash Player, and new version. So the user could know what exact version he is upgrading to.

The overall Flash Player update experience was great this time. Excellent job Adobe!

// chall3ng3r //

This update of Adobe Flash Player is huge, and is also the first version from Open Screen Project. It’s super fast, it’s mobile optimized, it’s multi-touch enabled, it’s everything Flash Player 10.0 was not.

I don’t see a reason why Adobe don’t want to call it version 11.0? Anyone else want to know or maybe know why?

Update: I already went through Emmy’s post regarding version numbering. I just think this is a major update, so the change in version number should be major?

// chall3ng3r //

I would like to highlight some biggest mistakes which almost every other popular video sharing service make. Yes, that includes YouTube, Vimeo, Google Video, Yahoo Video, or just think of any major service. Just take a look on above screenshots, and try to notice what’s missing?

I know you’re wondering, what are these mistakes?

• Mistake 1: A simple “Stop” button. Can you believe that? There’s always a Pause / Play button and Scrubber, but no one ever cared about adding a simple Stop button.

  What this button should do? Well, stop the video and break the damn connection!

  If you are on a crappy connection like me, and you clicked to play a video, there’s only one way to stop it sucking all the bandwidth, refresh entire page. Flash Player does offer APIs to close an ongoing stream, but no one uses it.

  Life can be really easy for users on slow connections if there’s one more button to Stop a video in the embedded player.

• Mistake 2: It’s just my guess, but I think it’s correct that developers who program these Flash video players are on company’s corporate high speed networks. So, they click the video and it plays. What about users on slow connections?

  I don’t think they even bother to test the video playback on slow connection. Flash Player offers APIs to set the video buffer, so the video is buffered for few seconds for smooth playback experience. But again, not used. Or if used, not optimized.

  It’s even worst on Adobe own website, where I noticed videos start playing as soon as few bytes are received. The video plays choppy and on homepage intro video, there’s no Pause button… just imagine how bad impression it makes.

• Mistake 3: Tiny player control buttons. As there are more and more touch based devices in hands of users, watching videos on these cool gadgets is increasing. But what I found that designers of Flash video players do not think about if the same player is used on such device.

  For example, on my Nokia N900, a cool Maemo Linux based device which can play videos from most of the popular video services, but the controls are not optimized for touch input which makes them hard to use. And really stupid things happen, and user end up closing the video window.

  Well, the developer can detect the device and render different set of controls. But I think the easiest option would be to make one design which fits the bill for desktop + touch device optimized user controls.

• Mistake 4: I really hate when I try to quickly pause / stop a video by clicking anywhere on video, which opens a new window to service’s website. As the control buttons are already too small, the general sense is to pause the video when clicked on it. Some services do avoid this mistake, but most services just want the user to get to their website, and this seems to be the easiest option for them.

  It’s worst on small screen touch input devices, where user have to do 2-3 tries to actually pause a video. Really bad user experience.

I can just hope and wish my this blog post somehow gets to the actual designers & programmers or decision makers of Flash video players for these video services. And also they try to fix these mistakes.

Do you think there are any more mistakes? Post them in comments.

// chall3ng3r //

• SWF2Go have now social media presence as well. You can become a fan of SWF2Go on Facebook and follow on Twitter for latest news and updates.
• We have published a small guide to make SWF2Go v2 made SIS files compatible with S60 5th Edition devices. Read it on SWF2Go wiki
• We are now running a special holiday season sale. Instantly save 20$ on SWF2Go Pro v2.0. So, what you are waiting for!!!
  

FYI, we are working on an update for SWF2Go which will be available soon. Stay tuned!

Happy holidays and have fun!

// chall3ng3r //

buteek.com – A new brand and webshop for latest fashion & style. The store currently offers eastern and western designs for young women and ships all around the world. Take a look and let us know your thoughts about designs, prices and overall experience.

BTW, buteek.com is running exclusive discounts to celebrate its online launch, so get busy shopping!

// chall3ng3r //

Its a great honor to be awarded as Forum Nokia Champion for the third time in a row for my country.

Thank you Forum Nokia for making my Eid celebrations even better!

// chall3ng3r //

Orison Tecchnologies,
 
The big day is here!  Ovi Store http://store.ovi.com is open for business!  Our thanks to you for helping to fill the shelves and get the store ready for opening day so that consumers around the world can discover your applications and content on their Nokia device.

We are working on some cool stuff as well for Ovi Store

// chall3ng3r //

ScribeFire, its not a standalone Mac application but an add-on for Firefox. If you select to open the editor in new window, it looks much better, just like a standalone client.

Initial impressions are quite good, and this post is also been blogged from ScribeFire. I am still not very sure if this is the one, but I have a feeling that I’m gonna be using it quite well.

This was just a short review, I will be posting a detailed one after some weeks of use (hopefully )

// chall3ng3r //

SWF2Go Professional have made great success in these two years. We successfully released one minor version as free upgrade and one major version with exciting new features.

We are truly thankful to all the developers who have supported SWF2Go all this time and kept us motivated to bring innovative new features to Flash Lite developers.

Here I’d like to share a news. We successfully enabled Flash Lite 3.1 support in our internal builds on the 2nd day Flash Lite 3.1 was available on Adobe Labs website. The second part of the news is, there will be new features in next update, so be prepared

Have nice day!

// chall3ng3r //

This application is freeware, made using Flash Lite and Python for S60 (PyS60) and packaged using SWF2Go v2. It demonstrates how to make powerful and engaging mobile applications using Flash Lite and PyS60 on S60 3rd Edition platform.

Symbian S60 3rd Edition SIS files and full source code is available under free source license (no license at all, have fun ).

Download Be My Lips and read more about it at SWF2Go Wiki

Couple of screenshots:

// chall3ng3r //

What I see, 3 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic devices in the pool, but guess what, long queues for them. Even for next two days people have booked the lines, WOW! (I guess I have to keep awake until 3:30am to get a chance)

Then just for fun, I go back one page Earlier from Now (14-Nov-2008 21:00), my eyes were wide open to see every single device was used in that time range. Checkout the screenshot below.

Now as you can see for yourself, this service is quite popular I don’t know if its because of addition of 5800 XpressMusic, or just happened. But I’m glad that this many developers are now using a great service by Nokia. I think there a need to add some more devices. And also bring back S60 devices from other OEMs again.

Well, by looking at the image above, it looks overloaded, I hope everyone is getting their chance to test the applications (like I did ) and FN guys are keeping eye on the service to keep it running smoothly.

// chall3ng3r //

I made this external help viewer for myself, but I thought if anyone who also finds Help Panel in the way most of the time when working in Flash CS3, might like to use it.

Download: FlashHelp_v01.zip

Note: Requires MS. Net Framework v2 or later. Not needed on Vista

// chall3ng3r //

We are pleased to announce that due to your active participation in the mobile development field and in the Forum Nokia Champion program in the past year, you have been re-selected to the program. Congratulations!

Nokia recharged me again to work even harder, Thanks Nokia!

// chall3ng3r //

Please read the official press release at:
http://www.orison.biz/pressroom/pr_swf2go_9_9_08.aspx

The new product website www.swf2go.com is now live with dedicated forums and wiki. You can find all the details about what’s new in this major release, as well as screenshots of the product on this website.

Website: www.swf2go.com

Note: The wiki is ready, but is currently set to private access until we finalize its settings.

Update: I forget to mention, there is a 10% introductory discount offer, and its for limited time.

Once you’re ready to rock ‘n roll, you can place your order right away

Happy Flash Lite-ing!

I will be attending Mobile Developer Days 2008 in Berlin, Germany from 10-13 Sept. If anyone like to meet or have a hands-on demo, you can contact me via email or mobile.

Email: chall3ng3r@gmail.com
Mobile: +49 176 5451 5873

// chall3ng3r //

So, rather dumping the cool stuff from SWF2Go v2 User Guide, I just give you the link to it, so you can explore it for yourself. The User Guide contains screenshots of the SWF2Go v2 new user interface as well as details about all the cool new features.

Download: SWF2Go v2.0 User Guide

All the cool graphics design is done by my designer, Najam-us-Saqib. Great work boy!

To be one of the first to get the SWF2Go v2 release newsletter, subscribe now at SWF2Go product page.

Okay, now I leave you to drool over

// chall3ng3r //

Nokia is also going to buy Symbian Ltd. and contribute it to new Symbian Foundation, while Sony Erricson and NTT DoCoMo are also going to contribute to foundation.

Later in 2009, we will have a new Symbian OS version which will integrate all the features of S60 and UIQ into one OS. So, Adobe’s Open Screen and Open Source Symbian would be real good platform to build cool experiences.

Read more at Symbian Foundation

Also checkout the recording of the webcast.

// chall3ng3r //

A big thanks to Felipe Andrade for informing me that I’ve won the Forum Nokia 2008 Code Example Challenge in Flash Lite category

And another big thanks to Nokia for such a great opportunity!

Congrats to all the other winners. Have a nice weekend guys!

// chall3ng3r //

I’d like to continue the discussion by posting my thoughts here.

Flash Lite 3.0 and 3.1

Ugur already discussed the current issues with Flash Lite 3 with Security Sandbox (or as Ugur named it Security Painbox), Trusted folder and XML Socket.

I read somewhere when I was following news about FL3.1 release to OEMs that FL3.1 is sort of a bug fix for Security Sandbox. And it will remove this *feature*.

I raised my thoughts quite strongly about Security Sandbox issue in FL3 beta, and even many developers were standing with me, but to no avail. Now they have learned that this is a curse to FL developers, now here comes the FL3.1 with a bug fix. And start of another J2ME like fragmented technology!

Adobe/MM is used learn lessons hard way. They did same with Central and the product died, and they are continuing with FL as well which I believe is quite unfortunate.

I have some more FL issues to add in FL Pain-List,

1. So many nags

FL shows many nags for each operation which involves device APIs. For example if my application calls fscommand API to dial a phone number, FL player shows a nag to user, and if user selects yes, then it performs operation.

Not to mention, that most of these APIs are only triggered through “User-Click” events, so if user does not press any button, the API cannot be called, or its ignored. So, when user have already interacted with application to perform operation, there’s no need to ask the user again.

2. Browser – click on FL control

Adobe and Nokia trying to make FL to work better as browser plugin, and not supporting standalone implementation very well. There’s a big drawback thats not fixed even in latest FL3, and I’m sure it will be same in FL3.1.

When <object>/<embed> tag is used to embed SWF in a page specifically made for FL3 mobile devices, the mobile browser does not give focus to SWF, and user first have to select and click SWF content to interact. This is similar as Active Content issue with IE6/7.

We can write a script to avoid this behavior in IE, but there’s no workaround for mobile browser for embedded SWF. The only workaround I discovered is directly calling the SWF in browser. This way SWF is downloaded to temp and opened by built-in FL player.

3. Can’t quit without key-press

FL application cannot quit until user key-press event is detected. The add-on with this is that only one operation can be performed at a time. So, if I have a background process running (i.e. KuneriLite), I cannot send shutdown request via loadVars to BG engine and quit FL at the same key-press event.

I have to first make a request for shutdown on first key-press, and on second key-press, call to Quit fscommand to exit FL application. So, user have to click twice to close my application.

4. If unable to load data, terminate app?

The most bad user experience is that the exception/error is directly displayed to end-user. I.e. “Content error -13”, what that mean? And user is provided with two options, Continue and Close.

If user continues, the application works, and there’s no way in AS we could notice that there was a error. And if user selects close, the application is terminated.

There’s no way to control errors in FL using AS. Specifically when loading external content. If any data loading call fails, the application cannot get any thing about this before user selects continue on the error nag.

5. Adobe not responding

The more frustration for me starts when no one at Adobe reply to emails. There’s a separate email for mobile developers to get in touch with FL guys at Adobe, but it doesn’t work, or all the emails go into spam folder.

I have personal emails addresses of FL guys, but I found them replying to mailing-lists, but not off-list emails, not a single word I get back, even if I try twice :/

Conclusion

I’d like to conclude by giving Nokia a big praise for their great support to FL developers and community. The way Nokia engineering team get back to developers to help, I’m impressed!

I also hope that recent announcements made by Adobe regarding FL technology would be step forward in right direction. And I also hope that Adobe would hear and support the FL developers community, and developers who are trying to explore new possibilities with FL.

// chall3ng3r //

SWF2Go is a really niche product that proves the size and variety of the Flash Platform. It’s software that will let you make signed SIS installers that makes distributing your Flash Lite applications for Nokia phones really easy.

Thanks Jens for your nice words

Read the complete review on FlashMagazine.com

// chall3ng3r //

I have some stuff for this month as well, so keep watching.

// chall3ng3r //