FITC Toronto 2010 Scouting Report
This year I am unfortunately missing my first FITC in 3 years. This a great conference and for the 1000+ that are going, and the few that remain on the fence, I offer this scouting report. If I were going, here are the sessions (based solely on topic & description) I’d be most interested to attend.
Day 1
Back to the Future, Hacking SWF, Touch Me Baby
Day 2
Large, Physical, Flash, Storytelling: Absorbed, Obsessed And Immersed, Merging Motion: Working between Flash and After Effects, You Talkin’ To Me?
Day 3
Future Stories: New Tools for New Screens, The Cool Shit Hour, From Flash to Unity (and back)
If you are fortunate to go please comment back here, or post on your own, some details about these and other sessions you found interesting.
Apple’s 3.3.1 burns at Flash point
My real thoughts on the 3.3.1 clause of the iPhone Developer Program agreement, now confirmed by Steve Jobs of Apple as a clear attempt to block “intermediate layers between the platform”:
I’m not even close to siding with Apple. I’m the furthest from being an Apple fanboy from almost anyone I know. I wonder, from their perspective, how the outcry from the Flash and other communities looks. If anything, I don’t see them registering it as a negative complaint, rather confirmation that they have created a platform and opportunity that we all want a piece of — and we all appear frustrated we can’t get a piece of it on our own terms.
I have not been able to get my hands on the CS5 beta, nor have I installed any apps, that I know of, that were compiled with CS5 for the iPhone or iPod Touch. I can’t attest to the quality of apps created this way, so I can’t really argue whether “intermediate layers” really disrupt their platform experience. However, having been a longtime Adobe customer, I know the quality of most of their products usually gives me the results and quality apps I want.
Last June I set out to contribute an app just for the fun of it — just to see if I could do it — and to see if I could engage my then 2-year-old via a device he was clearly becoming glued to. It’s true. My 2-year-old became quite attached to our iPod Touch, much earlier and much more captivated than I was when I used to play the Nintendo Game Boy at a younger age. Coding in Xcode, learning ObjC, proved to be an incredibly positive and constructive experience for me. I didn’t feel forced at the time to learn the language, rather took it as a challenge to learn a completely new language for this first time in almost 6 years. The game I made posted in the app store in August. It was a personal triumph.
There’s no doubt it feels something evil is going on here, especially when we haven’t heard of customers of Apple’s openly complaining about poor quality from non-iPhone SDK produced apps. We are left to assume Apple’s moves are solely vindictive, and that’s where I don’t like it. If, however, Apple came out with a report of customer complaints on how Flash or other alternative language-based apps were performing badly on their devices, how could any of us argue?
Should section 3.3.1 be upheld by Apple, thus blocking all other alternative ways to product iPhone SDK content, my suggestion to the Flash and other communities is to embrace those platforms and devices that openly support your language. Assuming you wouldn’t want to live in a country where they don’t speak your language or go to the extent of outlawing it, find a platform where your skills, creativity and vision are welcome and supported.
The flash point of a volatile liquid is the lowest temperature at which it can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air.
Speaking of 3.3.1…
Now that Apple has made section 3.3.1 infamous, with a controversial change to their iPhone Developer Program agreement, I wanted to see what other sections of the same indexing are notable throughout history:
3.3.1 Buffon’s Needle Experiment
A famous “needle-throwing” experiment first proposed by Buffon in 1777 provides a good example of probabilistic modeling from a geometrical point of view: Suppose we have a large flat surface that has been ruled with a series of equidistant parallel lines separated by a distance d. An experimenter throws a needle of length l “at random” onto the surface and we wish to compute the probability that the needle intersects one of the parallel lines. We suppose that the surface is large enough so that the needle always lands on it and that boundary effects are negligible.
3.3.1 of the Georgia Stormwater Management Manual
Filter strips are uniformly graded and densely vegetated sections of land, engineered and
designed to treat runoff and remove pollutants through vegetative filtering and infiltration. Filter
strips are best suited to treating runoff from roads and highways, roof downspouts, very small
parking lots, and pervious surfaces. They are also ideal components of the “outer zone” of a
stream buffer, or as pretreatment for another structural stormwater control.
3.3.1. Protein structure from Genomes by T.A. Brown
A protein, like a DNA molecule, is a linear unbranched polymer. In proteins the monomeric subunits are called amino acids and the resulting polymers, or polypeptides, are rarely more than 2000 units in length. As with DNA, the key features of protein structure were determined in the first half of the 20th century, this phase of protein biochemistry culminating in the 1940s and early 1950s with the elucidation by Pauling and Corey of the major conformations or secondary structures taken up by polypeptides. In recent years, interest has focused on how these secondary structures combine to produce the complex three-dimensional shapes of proteins.
3.3.1 AFFAIRS OF THE TOWN, from The Town Charter of Marlborough, Connecticut
In addition to powers granted by the CGS, the Selectmen shall have the general and specific powers per Section 3.4. They shall be responsible forÂoverseeing and coordinating the performance of duties and responsibilities of the officers, boards, commissions and other agencies of the Town as the carrying out of these duties and responsibilities affect the affairs of the Town.
Why FlashCommunityCares.com?
UPDATE: Visit FlashCommunityCares.com right now to bid on tickets to FITC Toronto, FlashBelt and FlashAndTheCity!
There is no doubt in my mind that the Flash Community is the most creative, energetic and vocal designer & developer community out there. The combination of talent, across many skills of designing and coding, along with its longevity and the activity Flash fosters of its members to contribute code, support one another and engage each other, is really unprecedented. Perhaps because ‘both sides of the brain’ are involved with Flash more so than other software platforms, or maybe its the abundance of conferences we all congregate to… It’s not just about cutting & pasting actionscript, mxml, or drawing lines, tweening, building components… It’s about the people involved and the character of its members.
When the Flash community gets crossed by something, they are as vocal as anybody. The solidarity amongst this vast, international network is a strong force. As the world continues to need our help, its time to harness this community into something that everyone can benefit from.
FlashCommunityCares.com was launched to give the Flash community a collective point of light to do some great things for everyone. We’ve already raised over $5000 for various organizations including Toys for Tots, Doctors Without Borders, The American Red Cross and various funds for Haiti relief.
Our efforts are supported by various and generous Flash community members, conference organizers and some special people wanting to make a difference! Most notably, we’ve received tremendous support from FITC, FlashBelt, FlashAndTheCity, 360Flex, and individual item donators and contributors like Jesse Freeman, Lee Brimelow, Brian Connatser, Michelle Yaiser and several more!
Please help us help others. Spread the word about FlashCommunityCares.com.
Flash Player 10.1 coming to litl with new SDK
Today, we are launching developer.litl.com and making some major and exciting Flash announcements:
1. litl will have 10.1 Flash Player
We will soon be shipping and instantly updating existing litls with Flash Player 10.1. This will add the latest hardware-accelerated Flash Player from Adobe to our device, supporting an enhanced viewing of HD video and other Flash content. The 10.1 player will be added to our browser allowing the continued and seamless web experience litl users already enjoy.
Additionally, 10.1 will become the foundation for our public SDK.
2. litl will have an SDK
Flash developers can take existing content or build new content specifically for litl users: families and those looking for a more simple computing experience with our litl webbook and custom litl OS. We call them channels, and this is the form of application our users can download from our dynamic channel catalog. Eventually becoming a store, this channel catalog will bring a much needed and very true ecosystem to the Flash developer community.
While developers’ existing content is fully supported in our browser, adding our SDK to Flash applications will allow developers to create channels and hook into the special controls and ‘views’ the litl webbook features. In addition to a laptop mode, the litl flips over itself into ‘easel’ mode, where a unique experience is controlled with a scrollwheel and button found on the device hinge. These controls are replicated with our remote. Essentially, building Flash apps, with Flash or Flex, will let developers ‘target’ our device and offer there content ultimately, for free or fee, through our store to our litl device owners and users.
The SDK will ship with a Simulator so that those without a litl in hand can develop and test their apps. Also included with the SDK are asdocs, guides, tutorials, a custom UI control set (for both Flash and Flex),and sample channels to help developers kick start their channel project.
3. litl will be launching our SDK at Flash And The City, as a major sponsor of the event
While we may make our SDK available for private beta, the public release will be at Flash And The City on May 14 (the event runs May 13-16 in New York City). We will be on hand to demo the device and SDK, as well as showcase some initial channels built with the SDK and running on 10.1. Again, with our Simulator, developers don’t need a litl to get started, so all will have a chance to get in early on the opportunity to get their content out to litl users. Those in attendance at Flash And The City will get a first hand look and we are working on ways to give away our device to a select few!
The Daily Interfacer
I recently launched a new side-blog project with super-talented friend and former colleague of mine, Brendan Lee. The idea came to use way back in August 2009, but like so many worthy things, it took some time to establish.
We take to a naturally unique conversation style, where the tangent and non sequitur are instrumental, fueling intellectually bizarre and fascinating topics that emerge from our conversations. These are observations on culture and things, with an acute, artistic twist. When we become aware of (reveal) these topics, it is often as if no one else has every realized what we are seeing. To put it bluntly and to coin an eloquent phrase of Brendan’s that inspired us to create the blog, these are “the flowers in the cracks“.
The blog is called “The Daily Interfacer” and has offered me an outlet, a cloud-based and collaborative ‘notebook’, to share these observations, directly and indirectly, with Brendan and the entire world observing community.
Enjoy: http://www.thedailyinterfacer.com. On Twitter as: @dailyinterfacer.
Flash apps for the kitchen on litl
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.
My litl business cards
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!
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!
AIR mobile and the mystery that awaits us!
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.)
Flash And The City 2010 Speaker Video
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!
More on Flash And The City:
Session Panel: http://blog.flashandthecity.com/schedule/2010-sessions/day-2/technical-track/thomas-elad-scott-session/
Speaker Bio: http://blog.flashandthecity.com/speakers/chuck-freedman/
Main site: http://www.flashandthecity.com
Blog: http://blog.flashandthecity.com
Details on Flashliner, bus from Boston to NYC: http://flashliner.eventbrite.com/
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