Tag Archives: Adobe

Mobile Flash Player: RIP

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It’s been an uphill battle since “Thoughts on Flash” and this year things were finally leveling off. I was getting buy-in from important pockets of my organization and now Adobe’s message has utterly annihilated all the work I’ve done putting mobile Flash in a positive light. I’m not wasting any more time convincing people if Adobe itself isn’t standing behind the technology.

We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook.

Now, instead of saying “Sure! We can do that in Flash!” – I’ll have to say “Well, HTML cannot do what you want, sorry… maybe we can just take expectations for this web app down a few notches?” Really, really sad state of affairs – especially when considering that mobile Flash Player works really well on the devices I use regularly.

I’ve never targeted mobile Flash Player for application development – have always done desktop Flash Player and AIR desktop or AIR mobile. However, being able to reassure clients that their desktop web project was accessible on mobile phones and tablets over certain platforms was often enough to convince them to go with Flash Player for certain advanced website functionality. Personally, I LOVE being able to view browser-based Flash content on my mobile devices.

Most all of my books, videos, and whatnot over the past year or so have revolved around AIR and mobile… so while it definitely does excite me to think that more resources can be placed into furthering AIR on mobile, as a user of mobile Flash and a strong advocate of mobile Flash across Android, QNX, and beyond… this decision absolutely weakens the perception people have for the rest of the platform.

The way in which Adobe just dropped the news on loyal customers after years of gathering pretty strong support from the Open Screen Project and other partners is probably the worst part in all of this. I’ve written a lot on mobile and Flash on this weblog. I’ve written how Steve Jobs is wrong, how Flash on mobile works well, et cetera… I stand by my previous statements.

I love what Adobe is doing with Flash Player 11 and AIR 3. I have 2 eBooks scheduled for publication by O’Reilly next week on both these topics. I’m also doing work with Adobe Edge and various elements of the “open web stack” – so I get that it’s important to support all of these solutions… it just feels so much like an ill-informed blood-sacrifice to dismiss mobile Flash Player in this manner. I think Peter Elst put it best with his analogy of removing a limb. Seems very unnecessary and Adobe has done great harm to many core supporters in the community and with outside perceptions.

I’m really floored by this decision. I hope I am wrong in my analysis. Thibault Imbert and Lee Brimelow seem to think that this is a good move. They are the ones that know for sure… or at least they are better informed than I…

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Some additional articles on the subject (both positive and negative):

Flash to Focus on PC Browsing and Mobile Apps; Adobe to More Aggressively Contribute to HTML5

Flash to Focus on Apps for Mobile

Focusing

Et tu, Adobe? Flash Player homicide

Flash Player Mobile, a Post Mortem.

Adobe abandons mobile Flash development

Without mobile, Adobe Flash is irrelevant

Adobe’s November 9th Case Study in Message Failure

OccupyAdobe

Clarifications on Flash Player for Mobile Browsers, the Flash Platform, and the Future of Flash

My Thoughts on Flash and HTML (as Expressed in an Email to “Tech News Today”)

AXNA Feed Reader

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AXNA Feed Reader

Distilled data feed from the Adobe XML News Aggregator!
Pulls relevant data feeds from the Adobe XML News Aggregator (AXNA) at http://feeds.adobe.com/ – an invaluable community resource. This data is distilled into smart categories and present to the user for easy perusal.

I’ve gotten a lot of great info from AXNA – and I’m sure many other souls have gained great knowledge from this resource as well. in creating a demonstration for an upcoming set of lessons on Flash Builder and Flex, I began to see the benefit of making this application available to the community at large.

I do plan on making the source for this available, and also to distribute the app to other platforms aside from Android. This is beta (a few hours work) – but it is a good start.

Grab it from the Android Market

UPDATE:
Here’s a demo video…

AIR 2.7 is Out! AIR Linux to OSP!

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With yesterday’s release of AIR 2.7 on mobile and desktop, this brings the runtime up to date with Flash Player 10.3 capabilities along with a host of mobile specific improvements.

Linux porting kit for AIR

One aspect of this release that not many have taken note of is a new distribution model with AIR for Linux desktops. Adobe is now providing a Linux porting kit for AIR (including source code) to Open Screen Project partners interested in distribution.

This is pretty exciting, as it means more growth for the OSP and cooperation between Adobe and the OSS and Linux communities. It’s good for mobile AIR developments as well- since Adobe can now focus on that set of platforms. I’m hoping that the Linux community takes this opportunity and runs with it!

Let’s stay positive!

Read all about this and more over at ActiveTuts+

Adobe Announces Creative Suite 5.5!

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Create work for new devices and move designs across media. Develop with HTML5 in Adobe Dreamweaver® CS5.5 and with expanded platform support in Flash® Professional CS5.5. Boost your video editing efficiency with Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5.5 and deliver new reading experiences using InDesign® CS5.5. Now including Adobe Audition® CS5.5 and Flash Builder™ 4.5 Premium, Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection software enables reaching out to audiences in new ways.

I’m actually more psyched about CS5.5 than I was about CS5. Adobe has made a lot of great improvements in a bunch of applications, and have corrected some of the grievous mistakes of the past.

Personally, I’m really glad the cat is out of the bag so that I can talk about those portions of my book which have been under embargo for the past four months. Those chapters that are not available should become available very soon!

So what are the hi-lights for me?

  • Flash Builder Premium 4.5 (mobile Flex framework and tooling, enough said!!!)
  • Flash Professional CS5.5 (mobile integration, great overall improvements)
  • Dreamweaver CS5.5 (jQuery Mobile, PhoneGap, HTML5)
  • Audition CS5.5 (Resurrected!)
  • Premiere Pro and After Effects CS5.5 (Warp Stabilizer is mind-blowing)
  • Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 (Too many improvements to list)

Yep- they listened to us and are including Flash Builder 4.5 Premium in Master Collection and Web Premium! That was such an oversight for the CS5 release. Shameful!

Soundbooth is DEAD. Long live Audition! I loved having Audition as part of Production Premium CS2. When it was dropped from the CS3 suites and replaced with Soundbooth, I was pretty upset. Well, dancin’ on you grave tonight, Soundbooth!!!

(errr… my condolences to the Soundbooth team)

Great job, Adobe!