Newsletter — December 2009
Articles in this issue
Adobe unveils the first full Flash Player for mobile devices and PCs
As developers look to expand their content from desktops and notebooks to netbooks and mobile devices, they face a new set of challenges: These smaller devices have extremely limited memory and processing resources. But on October 5, 2009, at Adobe MAX, Adobe unveiled the first full version of Adobe® Flash Player software for mobile devices and PCs. Flash Player 10.1, developed in conjunction with the Open Screen Project, brings uncompromised web browsing to a broad set of devices and operating systems, combined with new features that enable developers to create optimal user experiences. It will be available later this year in beta.
Designed for mobile
Flash Player 10.1 is extending its reach to four new mobile device operating systems: Palm webOS, Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6.5, Android Éclair, and Symbian S60. It may not look much different to end users, but its ability to deploy SWF content on resource-constrained devices is the result of a lot of engineering work behind the scenes. The most significant enhancement that enables playback of content developed for the desktop on mobile devices is the use of device hardware to accelerate graphics rendering and H.264 video decoding, reducing CPU utilization and extending battery life.
Flash Player 10.1 also includes several new mobile-ready features that exploit native capabilities unique to these devices: support for multi-touch, gestures, mobile input models, accelerometer, and screen orientation. With these features, developers gain unprecedented creative control over the user experience and the ability to design content that is tailored to device capabilities.
Here are some mobile-specific features that will help developers tailor content for optimal mobile user experiences:
Graphics hardware acceleration — A GPU-based vector renderer replaces the software renderer on smartphones and other mobile devices, resulting in faster rendering performance for more expressive user experiences while consuming less power.
Video hardware decoding — Flash Player 10.1 introduces hardware-based video decoding to deliver smooth, high-quality video with minimal overhead across mobile devices and PCs. Using available hardware to decode video offloads tasks from the CPU to improve video playback performance, reduce system resource utilization, and preserve battery life.
Mobile text input — Flash Player 10.1 provides support for native device virtual keyboards, so a virtual keyboard automatically raises and lowers when a user edits text. When the screen rotates or a call comes in, all input text is retained.
Multi-touch and gestures — Developers can take advantage of the latest hardware user interaction capabilities using new ActionScript® 3 APIs for handling multi-touch events and native gesture events, such as pinch, scroll, rotate, scale, and two-finger tap. This feature lets developers create multi-touch–aware content for a wide range of devices, including multi-touch–capable computers running Microsoft Windows® 7.
Accelerometer input — A new ActionScript accelerometer class gives developers a way to receive acceleration values in X, Y, and Z axes from native device accelerometer sensors to ActionScript. Developers can even specify the rate of accelerometer updates to conserve battery life.
Screen orientation — Flash Player content can automatically adjust to changes in screen orientation, such as a switch between portrait and landscape modes.
Optimized SWF file management — SWF file management automatically prioritizes the loading of multiple SWF files on a page, based on SWF visibility and available memory and CPU resources to reduce battery usage, improve performance, and provide a better user experience. Developers can also manually set instance priority using a new HTML parameter, "hasPriority," and determine whether instances should be loaded to enable more immediate browsing experiences without having to wait for every SWF file on a page to load. As a result, developers can help ensure that their content drains less battery power and provides a better user experience. Flash Player 10.1 can even automatically pause SWF file playback.
Sleep mode —The Flash Player timer slows down when the mobile device goes into screen-saver mode to reduce CPU and battery consumption. The timer returns to the default setting after a wake-up event— with no interruption in audio/video playback.
Want to learn more?
Get ready for the Flash Player 10.1 beta by visiting Adobe Labs and exploring what's new.
Learn more about the Flash Player 10.1 beta today
View videos of Flash Player 10.1 demos on Palm webOS using a Palm Pre and on Windows Mobile using a Toshiba TG01
(Note: A SWF file built for Flash Player 10 and Flash Player 10.1 looks the same to the software. So if you use conditions to expose only the new features for users with Flash Player 10.1, you can layer enhancements without requiring that the user have the latest software.)
Partner spotlight: Paramount
Paramount Digital Entertainment broke new ground this year with the release of Circle of Eight, a multiscreen suspense thriller that incorporates interactivity to engage fans and help them solve the story's mystery. The following interview with Keith Quinn, senior vice president, Creative Development and Production, Paramount Digital Entertainment at Paramount Pictures clarifies how the Adobe Flash Platform made it possible.
Open Screen Project News:
Why did Paramount get involved with the Open Screen Project?
Keith Quinn:
At Paramount, we believe it's important to align ourselves with the kinds of entertainment programming that fit multiple distribution platforms and the audience consumption model that is becoming more prevalent, which is content on any device, from anywhere. Being able to bridge entertainment across the television, the personal computer, and handheld devices is an essential part of that alignment. The Adobe Flash Platform allows us to create content for multiple devices in an optimal way, and we can even change the nature of the content we create by making it interactive. Through the Open Screen Project, we can use the Adobe Flash Platform to create an interactive experience that gives consumers a lot of choice for how they get their entertainment.
Open Screen Project News:
Tell us about what Paramount has created through the Open Screen Project Fund.
Keith Quinn:
Paramount is making a mobile application for our original series Circle of Eight, which launched on MySpace on October 27, 2009. The application is part of a game that complements the episodic filmed entertainment played on MySpace using Flash Player. Circle of Eight is a suspense thriller, and fans can play a game — based on Adobe technology — to deepen their understanding of the story, unlock additional content, and prove their smarts in solving the mystery that is central to the story. One tagline for Circle of Eight is "Find the Clues, Unlock the Mystery." In that metaphor, the keys to the lock are made with Adobe technology. Adobe tools and technologies were used in the majority of the workflow stages for both the filmed entertainment and the interactive production, including a mobile application and Adobe AIR gaming widget.
Open Screen Project News:
What were your business objectives with Circle of Eight?
Keith Quinn:
We wanted to launch a premium entertainment property on a digital platform that had multiple layers and would keep viewers engaged beyond the filmed entertainment. Adobe is critical to our production, starting with the customized player with hidden “hot spots” that launch the game, all the way to the game interface, extra content, and mobile application. Paramount's ultimate goal is to entertain in a more engaging manner. If we do that, we'll be successful.
Open Screen Project News:
How does a multiscreen/multiplatform application help Paramount accomplish that goal better than a single-screen application could?
Keith Quinn:
The technology world has begun to talk about Web 3.0 in terms of apps. This speaks to the fact that digital content — particularly sharable, portable, and social forms of content — are key values in consumer lifestyle choices. We want to be a vibrant part of our audience's lifestyle choices, and to do that, we have to give them a choice of screens and ways to engage with content. Circle of Eight is the very beginning of what's possible in terms of consumer engagement. Circle of Eight is an entertainment experience that merges several familiar elements that were once kept separate: a filmed story, a casual game, and image- and text-based storytelling. The technology that makes this merging of elements smooth was Adobe technology in most cases.
Open Screen Project News:
Would you do anything differently now that you have this experience?
Keith Quinn:
There were a lot of unknowns when we started producing Circle of Eight, and in many ways it was a perfect test case. Having gone through the process, I think we want to take more risks in terms of functionality to deepen the audience engagement. If we had it to do over again, we would try to get more time and resources to do more multiscreen content, because the audience is responding to it. They think it's really cool.
Watch a video of Paramount presenting Circle of Eight. You also can check out the official Circle of Eight trailer.
Apply for the Open Screen Project Fund