Going beyond Ajax with… both Ajax and Flash?
Adobe’s infamous and somewhat long-running Flex ad on Techcrunch boldly stated ‘Go beyond Ajax with Flex‘. It was a battle cry, when the only enemy, rather rival to Flash, was the plug-in free approach called Ajax. This HTML, DHTML, JavaScript language is credited with driving what we call web 2.0, putting a free dynamic web development solution in the hands of many Flash (and other proprietary plug-in driven platform) hold-outs.
As evidence of the “go beyond” ad, the Flash and Flex communities seemed rallied against an alternative approach such as this one and, believe me, the inverse was very true as well. Those were some glorious times. As part of Yahoo! Maps, I sat in many ‘this vs. that’ sessions, where the abilities and limitations of each technology were proudly marked on whiteboards time and time again. The rally was never more evident than the victory I witnessed one day back in March at Yahoo!, when a standing-room attended Flex course by Ted Patrick was responsible for the displacing one ‘Theory of the DOM’ mainstay class to a smaller conference room. Those were the days.
And then things changed. Adobe learned what real competition was to Flash when Microsoft announced what is now known as Silverlight. Apollo grew up into AIR and AJAX became a cornerstone technology as well as a key development contingent that Adobe needed to wrangle in to win universal adoption for the desktop platform.
The dust hasn’t settled completely yet, and many are not ready to see Ajax and Flash holding hands either, but convincing testimonies are coming out now more than ever about how these once anti-technologies can really work together. As a demo of their new presentation sharing platform, Slideshare uses a presentation on Ajax and Flash to show us how this combo may be better for humanity than even peanut butter and chocolate.
And now comes the part where we all say how we knew it all along. Truth is, I started to open up to it about a year ago while writing my Yahoo! Maps Mashups book. The publisher made me agree to cover the Ajax maps API in addition to the JS-Flash, AS-Flash and Flex Yahoo! Maps APIs I had already planned to write about. I agreed to it, nearly kicking and screaming. However, as I openly tell people, those 5 chapters on the Ajax API, culminating in a very cool Flickr JSON-based maps mashup, may have been the most fun, challenging and adventurous (in a good way) for me to write.
Like so many Flash platform developers now, I find myself embracing much of Ajax for what it will bring to AIR. There is something better than Ajax, yes, especially when Ajax itself is paired with some great Flash technology.
See RED: Ultra HD Video at 12,065,000 pixels
The RED camera, from Jim Jannard (founder and CEO of Oakley), is now available for purchase. If you can afford it, the 12,065,000 pixel-capable camera can be yours for $17,500, and that’s for the camera body only. For an additional $1,250 you can compliment your camera with a mount, handle, shoulder pad and cradle. Oh, and don’t forget a lens. They come individually, ranging from $4,950 to $8,500.
But seriously, price aside, this has to be one of the most important innovations in digital cinema to date. Just take a look at some of the video samples posts on the RED site. They are breathtaking. You’ve never seen such high detail and contrast from a camera before. The images are truly life-like. I can’t wait for this camera to become the standard for digital cinema.
The RED camera’s modular design.
Read my first post on the RED camera from January 7, 2007.
Coding Flex for good
Reading this story alone makes you feel good… 360|Flex has announced a CODE JAM on Sunday, August 12, the night before the conference starts. They are lining up a non-profit that will be the recipient of a shiny new Flex app, courtesy of the collective effort of Flex developers in attendance. Based on the talented list of 360|Flex speakers alone, whatever the app is, I’m sure it will be top notch.
Coding for charity is an incredible idea. With the shortage of Flex developers and such a high demand, many of us are doing pretty well developing on this platform. A chance to give back something, particularly coding a state-of-the-art app to a deserving client that would otherwise not be able to afford it, is a wonderful opportunity.
Those developers coming to the conference who are of a beginner and intermediate level also have a chance to work together with a premiere group, contribute accordingly, and learn a ton of development skills in the process.
It’s just one more thing that makes the 360|Flex conference very special. If you are going to the conference, how can you not come to this event? And if you haven’t registered yet, this should certainly put you over the edge! Register now!
An app like this, coding Flex for good, is comparable to a quilt. Each developer participating will likely contribute a key piece. The project as a whole will represent the very best of the Flex developer community. And I’m not just talking about the quality of code.
Why is FACEBOOK trying to sell me a chick for a dollar?
I think social networking has crossed over form the useful to the absurd. I understand they’ve got money to make and that certain functionalities and terminologies are being dumbed-down a bit to appeal to a more mass market. Take for example this stupid and useless ad facebook has chosen to display to me.
Under “New Stuff”, a feature I would assume facebook would use to showcase a new or advanced feature, facebook is displaying instead “Today’s New Gift”. And that ‘gift’ is a highly detailed, yellow-textured image of a baby duck. Yes, for $1, I can be the proud owner of an artist’s rendering of a chick. And in QVC-style fashion, I better act now, because the Chick (rather the image of) is limited to 100,000. DO YOU REALIZE that if facebook sells out of this precious, limited quantity chick, that they’ve made $100,000 off of this image. It’s genius, and it pisses me off.
First off, why would facebook show me this ad, disguised as a new feature? In my small list of friends (my facebook account was created to explore their development platform a few months ago, so I have not been nor intend to be aggressive in building my friends list) there is no one under the age of 10 that would want this chick image. So, I ask again, why does facebook display this to me?
Secondly, I clicked on the Chick and saw an additional 27 more images. That’s wasn’t the end of it. There were 9 pages total of these images (excuse me, gifts), each representing a similar chunk of revenue for facebook amounting to $100K per image.
And finally, many of the images were actually SOLD OUT. Are you kidding me? Who is paying $1 to buy these images? How could this be?
I’ve resolved to some rather peaceful explanation behind this. Today’s virtual stickers (that’s what I’m cleverly calling these facebook images) are to young folks now what hood ornaments were in the 70’s, what bumper stickers on Trapper-Keepers were in the 80’s, what POG’s and Pokimon were to the 90’s and what ringtones were last year. It’s a new generation’s way of decorating their lifestyle, or to put it in other terms, tricking themselves out.
This is also true for the highly customization of some web 2.0 sites, or the RockYou.com-like services that let you add media and slideshows to your mySpace page. It’s an element of expression. Just don’t send me a $1 image, or I’ll delete it.
This post brought to you by someone who, as a young lad, blew many allowances on 3.5 by 2.5 pieces of thin cardboard with baseball player’s photos on them. My rational was simple; get them while they’re limited.
360Flex: I’m speaking about Ribbit, so see you in Seattle
I’m excited to announce that I will be speaking at 360Flex in Seattle, taking place August 13-15. 360Flex represents the best concentration of Flex developers, anywhere. You are guaranteed to become a better, more networked developer by attending. In recognition of the incredible opportunity to present to this caliber of developers, we at Ribbit have decided to share a preview of our application and developer platform, including our free phone component, with the worthy 360Flex audience.
Having had a hand the formation of the first 360 event, I am very fond of the conference’s methodology, approach and its founders. However, the inaugural event occurred the same week as the birth of my son, Chase, and so I was not able to attend and present as planned. Having the opportunity to come back and share the amazing technology and application my team and I have been building at Ribbit seems a very fitting way to mark my official debut at the conference.
This will also mark my first trip to Seattle, so I’d ask any Emerald city natives attending the conference to spare some time for a tour. I won’t ask for much, given you’ll probably be entangled in the rich content that 360Flex has to offer. Whether it be Ben Lucyk’s “AIR 101″ course, Brendan Meutzner’s “Advanced Charting”, Renaun’s “Logging Framework” or Andy Trice’s “Programmatic Visualization” (to name a few), there’s an amazing and incredible depth of over 40 sessions to choose from.
Join me at 360Flex for my presentation “Make phone calls and check voicemail from Flex with the Ribbit Phone Component“.
Session Description: Charles Freedman, Director of User Experience & Flash Platform at Ribbit will present to you the component you’ve always wanted. Ribbit’s new, free, all-in-one Phone Component will let you do the following amazing and never before seen features including: Make calls to anyone right from your Flex application, manage contacts, check and listen to voicemail. Get a sneak peak on this cutting edge technology, built on Adobe Flex, and learn how you can be one of the first to develop with this exciting and free component offering from Ribbit.
I’ll see you in Seattle for 360Flex. >> Register Here.
With AIR in the tires, go bus go
The AIR bus hit the road today, embarking on the first leg of its cross-country (and semi-international) coding tour. There is a genuine approach here to promotion that is so novel, it almost feels like nostalgia in the making. You can almost hear yourself 5 years from now, when just about every other software vendor has a fleet of buses crossing the country, recalling the inaugural red and logo-wrapped bus’s very first journey.
All the credit goes to a very bold and creative Apollo-turned-AIR evangelist team, namely Mike Chambers, for making a gutsy decision to turn a surplus (perhaps Dx3 stranded?) marketing budget into a macro-conference on wheels.
You have to admire one’s ability to step back and accept themselves as rock stars, literally, to imagine such a lavish and prominent campaign. A few tour bus images stream into mind that range from the supreme worthy to the ultra-humbling; Bessy, the heart and soul of Still Water in the movie ‘Almost Famous’; The bus the ‘wives couldn’t ride in’ in Mark Whalberg’s ‘Rock Star’; The traditional minor league baseball, compact yet full of character bus in movies like ‘Bull Durham’. So I wonder, which of these best represents the AIR bus? Maybe a combination of all, especially when it enters its final 3rd leg in the fall.
AIR is exciting, and the great thing is that you don’t really need to ponder if or how you will develop for it. If you are a Flash Platform developer in any shape or form, you are already developing for it. Flex Builder let’s you seamlessly deploy your existing Flex app to AIR. And soon to come officially (a hack already exists) you’ll be able to deploy your Flash app just the same. Certainly there are additional APIs that AIR provides that will help you properly convert your web app to better live in a desktop habitat. Anyway you look at it, the interest in AIR is growing and you’ve got people from VC’s to Ajax developers asking about it.
The bus will do great things in spreading the word and knowledge of AIR. It will create its own hype as it rolls, bringing a sampling of the cutting-edge and charismatic Adobe development team to your home town. In a ‘camp’ infested developer world, the AIR bus should set a new ‘bar’ for how intimate a software vendor can make the release of a revolutionary platform. Go bus go.
Want Flash on the iPhone? Write your Apple representative.
Bill Perry has a fantastic post offering complete coverage of the absence of Flash Player on the iPhone, in almost every possible scenario.
http://www.flashdevices.net/2007/06/iphone-does-not-support-adobe-flash.html
Towards the end of his post, Bill suggests we all contact Apple and let them know we want Flash on the iPhone:
“So what can you do as a web, Flash and/or Flex developer? We suggest that developers speak to Apple directly about what technologies the iPhone will support and integrate. It’s important to note that our relationship with Apple continues to be strong. Naturally we believe that support for Flash is essential for any mobile device that wants to deliver a great experience for customers. If you think it’s important for the iPhone to support the rendering of Flash content then let Apple know.”
I’d also urge you to petition Apple to do something about the health care system and state of education in this country. Together, with Apple’s help, we can make a difference.
But for now, the lack of expected bitterness or frustration in Bill’s post shows real professionalism, even though he demonstrates the absence of Flash at every turn, and it gives me hope that we may just be an update or two away from seeing Flash on the iPhone. I certainly can wait.
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