Flash apps for the kitchen on litl

February 24, 2010 · Posted in Flash, Technology, litl · Comment

On behalf of litl, I would like to welcome Flash Player to the kitchen. Here, the world’s most ubiquitous interactive media platform, Flash, will deliver fun and informational widgets, applications and experiences to guide all of us to cooking and enjoying a slightly more technically-infused experience. There is a really cool collaboration at play here: The versatility of the litl device, specifically its ability to display interactive content with minimal control, combined with an SDK extending that device’s controls against the open and vibrant canvas of Flash Player.

New in the litl app catalog this week is our Bakespace channel. Tapping into Bakespace.com’s prolific collection of community-submitted recipes, users can view featured recipes as well as login and view dishes to cook from their own recipe box. Recipes can be added from both litl’s laptop and easel mode. However, it’s in easel mode where the chef can set litl on the kitchen counter and scroll through ingredients and instructions.

We are working on the SDK that will allow existing and new Flash developers, designers and artists to build similar experiences and ultimately deploy/sell them to litl users via our app catalog. The device currently runs both Flash Player 10 (in browser) and Flash Lite (as our standalone channel engine). The SDK is being written for an optimized Flash Player 10.1 version only. More news on our SDK and channel ecosystem will be released in the coming months.

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My litl business cards

February 22, 2010 · Posted in Personal, Technology, litl · 1 Comment

I’ve had a lot of business cards in my career, but none have been as expressive as what I’ll be giving out as Chief Channel Evangelist from litl. So far, I have been very impressed with our internal design team. Not only did they apply incredible ingenuity to the hardware design of our device, but they have tons of creativity to spare to come with these incredible cards. The design team has also been effective in putting a litl-spin on some of the channels now available in our catalog to litl users!

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Here’s a reminder of what the device looks like in its unique easel mode:

I look forward to giving you one of my new business cards at an upcoming event!

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AIR mobile and the mystery that awaits us!

February 15, 2010 · Posted in AIR, Technology · 6 Comments

Wonka river of chocolate

I started writing a lengthy comment in response to brother Kevin Suttle’s very concise and well-written celebration post on the announcement of AIR for Android and Mobile. Please read that first here: http://kevinsuttle.com/2010/02/15/air-mobile-will-spark-the-era-of-contextual-applications/

In response to that post and many other announcements today, I have a lot of thoughts and questions I’d like to ~~air out~~ post. Before I get into this, I feel the need to state now that I love AIR. I’ve loved building AIR apps, coding with both CS4 and FlashBuilder. I am thrilled that Adobe is pushing this further into the mobile realm and hope the adoption skyrockets! I think it is the future of the Flash platform.

And now, some of my thoughts/questions and issues:

A. Aside from the use of a common language and platform in Flash, how can/will building AIR mobile apps be a unified advantage over building native apps on the device? As Ryan Stewart noted, “Depending on the device, you may want to make some small modifications, but you’ll be able to reuse your assets and a bulk of the code to quickly create cross-platform mobile applications with AIR mobile.” As we know some of the pave-over pitfalls of building AIR apps across Mac and Windows, there are some conditionals required to handle things like docking and alerts. My hope is that Adobe can continue to offer more seamless pave-over/common solutions that will let us tap into unique device platform features with a unified code approach.

B. It’s hard for me to envision how the same windowing, alert and docking functionality I’ve implemented in a desktop-based AIR app will appear/function on a mobile platform and smaller screen size. Assuming the mobile device/platform implementation of AIR supports this, will they work in a familiar way so the user knows how to handle them? Example: Twhirl. On Android, will the identical AIR app (if supported verbatim) actually load multiple windows for each of my Twitter accounts and lists? Will the app’s taskbar/docked icon (or mobile equivalent, if there is one) blink or bounce when I have a new tweet? Will a notification window popup over whatever app I’m using (or if/when I’m on a phone call) with new tweets? Hard stuff to imagine, but very exciting possibilities.

C. How will the AIR API proxy unique device functionalities like GPS, Accelerometer, orientation (landscape/portrait), touch/mult-touch, etc? Will we see separate classes for each, or something similar to the Flash Lite implementation of System.Capabilities.hasStylus? Furthermore, if I write such functionality into an app, will AIR ignore or intercept such calls if the same app is installed on a device without that functionality?

D. Most important (to me, anyway) of all, is the issue of distribution. There was an exchange earlier today between Ted and Scott about distribution and monetization. If AIR-built apps are to be listed in respective ‘app’ stores on different device platforms, will that require the developer to build/package the app for each device they wish to distribute too? Will there be a unified certificate or similar approach to protect source and assets from onedevice/store/platform to the next?

I’ve got more questions, but I’ll leave that for another post. Forgive me as I know the announcement is super fresh, and I’m sure many of these questions will be answered soon. My excitement has me desiring many answers and discussion now. If you have any thoughts or answers, similar or on other aspects, please post them and let’s get a dialogue going here. (Feel free to direct responses/comments to brother Kevin Suttle’s post.)

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Flash And The City 2010 Speaker Video

February 11, 2010 · Posted in Personal, Technology · 1 Comment

I am proud to present my official Flash And The City 2010 Speaker Video.

The idea came to me based on Egon’s awesome line: “I’m terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought”, while standing on the roof of a high rise over New York City. I think this line reflects, with some humor, how many folks in the Flash community had initially reacted to the iPad not having Flash Player. The whole situation makes our session panel at Flash And The City more significant. Moderating the panel of Elad, Scott, Thomas and Lee, we will discuss “Devices with Flash”, widening the understanding, scope and potential for developers to continue building Flash applications for mobile and devices. There are a lot of great products and OEMs out there that include and are even built around Flash Player!