Apple continues its iShun of Flash: Who really wins and loses most?
With all the posts and noise, I wanted to take a step back and consider who wins and loses most now that the world’s biggest mobile device company has officially continued its policy of shunning Flash Player from its mobile product line.
Winners:
- Any Flash design/interactive firm that has embraced the iPhone SDK, hired developers and built a portfolio of impressive apps. I know a couple of folks in this category who stand to win big with the further distribution of iPhone SDK-based devices that will ship. Good work guys.
- Adobe. Yes, Adobe. If CS5 Packager launches soon and successfully, expect a surge in sales of both Flash Professional and the Creative Suite. Flash, Flex and Actionscript developers not interested in learning the iPhone SDK will have to purchase the new version of Flash Pro to stay with the pack and meet the demand of their clients for increased iPhone SDK application production.
RIA Conference Schwag Auctions for Charity
In addition to making a few random donations for Haiti relief, I wanted to contribute to the HaitiNeeds.us effort led by Jesse Freeman.
Partially inspired by something Ted Patrick did several years ago, I decided to take a bunch of conference schwag items and post them on eBay. 100% of the proceeds go to charity towards Haiti relief.
| Photo | Item | Starting Bid | |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 |  |
Flashforward 2008 rare conference schwag set | $5.00 |
| #2 |  |
AjaxWorld 2008 conference schwag set | $5.00 |
| #3 |  |
Red5.org & Chris Allen Collector’s Set | $5.00 |
| #4 |  |
Limited Edition Flash on The Beach sign bag 2009 | $5.00 |
| #5 |  |
High quality FITC laptop bag 2008 | $5.00 |
| #6 |  |
Adobe MAX 2006 bag | $5.00 |
| #7 |  |
FITC messenger bag and beanie | $5.00 |
| #8 |  |
Silverlight 3 Starter Kit | $5.00 |
If you have even a little interest in owning one of these items, please bid high for it. Again, all money raised goes to charity for Haiti.
Why were there exciting Flash Lite devices at 2010 CES?
We are just a few weeks removed from an Adobe/developer cage match, where Adobe’s mobile strategy was bashed and Flash Lite, in particular, was called all sorts of nasty names. No matter what you feel about Flash Lite, you have to agree that is has all but been deprecated (at least on devices that can handle more) with the announcement and soon-to-be-released Flash Player 10.1 for mobile devices.
So, why were there not one by three buzzworthy gadgets running Flash Lite at the recent 2010 CES? While I discuss each device, ask yourself the following: Do these devices represent a resurrection of the 4 year old mobile player? Are they only using Flash Lite because of hardware restrictions? Do the makers of these devices see potential in the AS2 developer community? Is Flash Lite just being used as a placeholder until 10.1 becomes available?
Flex Example: Populating Value Objects with web service XML
I am working on a little AIR application that stores data both locally (SQLlite) and on a web service (PHP/MySQL) that I’m building in parallel. When the app starts, it requests initial data to populate a pair of DataGrids in the AIR app. I’m sending a URLRequest against a URLLoader with simple params and getting back XML. I am then looping through the items in the returned XML and adding them to an ArrayColletion that acts as the data provider for each DataGrid in the UI.
To bridge the data, I’m storing each item in a value object, so it is easier to reference the item’s properties when viewing and modifying data chosen (and moved around) in the DataGrid. I’m using a nifty trick which seems to be working great for mapping the XML child’s value right to the value object property. Take a look and see if this works for you:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | private function resultHandler(e:Event):void { var resultXML:XML = XML(e.target.data); var items:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection(); var item:itemVO; // Convert XML to ArrayCollection for each(var itemXML:XML in resultXML.item){ item = new itemsVO(); for each (var itemProp:XML in itemXML.children()) { //Use XML node name to reference matching property in value object item[itemProp.name()] = itemProp; } items.addItem(item); } } |
Of course, this only works if you create properties in your value object that match the xml nodes you are returned (or that are being returned) from the web service’s XML.
Lots of personal and technical wins in 2009
It’s Sunday morning, January 3, and I’m on a natural sugar high after drinking a cup of Cran-Peach juice from Massachusetts-based Ocean Spray. I wanted to be in the most positive frame of mind (not easy when my Celtics lose 3 in-a-row to end the year / but easier when you wake up to relaxing snow powder wrapped around your house and trees like Mother nature’s cold, yet warm blanket). So here is a recap of my personal and technical wins of 2009, in chronological order…
1. WIN > Successfully and safely relocated my family from the West to East coast.
After just over 3 years in CA, we moved back to and settled in MA. The combination of family, friends and affordability were leading factors. Since both my wife and I grew up in MA, our childhood memories were so engrained that it became too challenging to see us raising our family without the key elements back here we were so fond of. After one year, we are totally settled in our home and are very happy with the decision.
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