Flash for iPhone
OK, by now you've probably heard about Flash for iPhone - Adobe announced last week that developers will be able to create content for mobile devices that work on the new Flash Player 10.1. They further announced (with one of the
funniest conference videos ever) that you'll be able to deploy Flash presentations to the iPhone by compiling to the
LLVM (Low Level Virtual Machine) and then distributing apps the same way Objective C developers do - that is, by getting the app approved and distributed by Apple.
Also noteworthy - the
Flex Mobile SDK (code named Slider, since it's a smaller sort of hamburger) is currently in development. Ely Greenfield did a great session where he showed us the sort of code that will be possible. Flex developers will take to it like a duck to water. (Ely also did a less detailed demo at the sneak peeks presentation while wearing a weird Princess Leia hairdo, which Mark Hamill (who was on stage, don't ask) called a "hair-don't).
Slider will use the same compiler for iPhone as Flash CS5, but alot of the implications of designing multiscreen apps for mobile will be handled out of the box. Look for a possible beta mid-year 2010, according to an Adobe source (no promises on specific dates though).
Labels: flex iPhone mobile
The Silverlight DataForm control
A very impressive demo of the DataForm control, which dynamically generates a data entry form based on a data model. The model can be annotated with metadata tags that control form labels and validation rules. This code would generate a form control for a required numeric value with a specific range (minimum & maximum)
[Display(label="Age:")]
[Required]
[Range(1,115)]
public int age;
The resulting form control would require a numeric value in the form. Its label would be specified by the [Display] tag, and if the user broke the validation rules a validation error message would be displayed automatically.
Silverlight weaknesses
Trust the Q&A session to bring weaknesses to light. Silverlight does not have these features, which are supported by Adobe Flash Player and/or AIR:
- Webcam
- Programmatic clipboard copy & paste
- Native printing API
Labels: Silverlight
Silverlight out of the browser
Many of the features of Silverlight are nearly identical to Flash Player 10: HD video support, streaming, pixel bending, etc. etc. One big difference though is the implementation of 'out of the browser' support - the equivalent of AIR.
Silverlight apps on the desktop run within a sandbox - I don't know how restrictive it is, but as a result the local installation doesn't have to present any scary security warnings. There's clearly a tradeoff - the broad system access that Adobe AIR apps wouldn't be possible - but user acceptance levels might be much greater.
Labels: Adobe AIR, Silverlight
Silverlight Firestarter
I'm reporting today from the Microsoft campus in Redmond. OK, this is odd - I've NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE. After 20 years or so in tech, this is the first visit to the beast.
Today's event is a 1-day conference-style collection of presentations on Silverlight - the player, development tools, etc. The first speaker is Mithun Dhar, sort of the Ben Forta of Silverlight. More to come. Right now we're just dealing with coffee & pastries.
Labels: Silverlight
Upcoming Presentations
I'll be presenting at 2 more conferences this year:
FlashForward is in Boston, September 19-21, and
MAX is in Chicago, October 1-3.
