Newsletter — March 2010
Articles in this issue
Adobe AIR gets a new playground: Mobile devices
As more mobile devices come on the market, developers face a growing challenge: how to cost-effectively create content that will play consistently across screens of any size, regardless of operating system (OS). To create a different version of an application for each device and OS would throw productivity hours down the drain and inhibit the profitability of that application.
The Open Screen Project works to help developers overcome that challenge with runtimes that provide a consistent user experience across devices and platforms, with little recoding. After the announcement of upcoming Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 for mobile devices, the latest announcement from Adobe and the Open Screen Project — Adobe AIR® for mobile devices — is the next logical step in cross-screen development.
AIR goes mobile
While Flash Player enables rich content in the browser, Adobe AIR enables rich Internet applications (RIAs) to run outside the browser across Windows®, Mac, and Linux® platforms. AIR has already been installed more than 200 million times and is the runtime used by popular applications such as TweetDeck and The New York Times Reader 2.0. AIR has also been recognized through awards from MIT Technology Review, Popular Science, CNET, Webware, and many industry leaders.
By the end of 2010, Adobe AIR for mobile devices will enable developers to build, test, and deliver standalone applications that run outside the browser, regardless of screen size and operating system. AIR for mobile leverages mobile-specific features from Flash Player 10.1. It’s optimized for high performance on mobile devices and designed to take advantage of native device capabilities for a richer and more immersive user experience. In other words, the same application can take advantage of multitouch functionality on a mobile phone while also providing usability to desktops, notebooks, new form factors like tablets, or phones without multitouch screens — all with a single code base.
Ready for Android
No doubt, one of the most exciting parts of the announcement is the addition of support for the Android mobile OS. Consumers will be able to access an AIR application on their desktops and then access it on their Android based phones and enjoy a consistent experience between the two, even when disconnected from the Internet. The application would even be able to take advantage of the phone’s unique features. For example, applications created using the Adobe Flash Platform and AIR for mobile will be able to take advantage of:
Mobile text input — Support for native-device virtual keyboards can automatically raise and lower a keyboard when a user edits text. When the screen rotates or a call comes in, all of the input text is retained.
Multitouch and gestures — Developers can take advantage of the latest hardware user interaction capabilities using new ActionScript® 3 APIs for handling multitouch events and native gesture events, such as pinch, scroll, rotate, scale, and two-finger tap.
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 — Content can automatically adjust to changes in screen orientation, such as a switch between portrait and landscape modes.
Motorola has expressed excitement about AIR coming to Android mobile devices. In addition, RIM and Adobe are collaborating to bring Adobe AIR to BlackBerry devices.
Designed for different contexts
Different screen sizes and operating systems aren’t the only concerns when working with mobile devices. AIR applications can recognize much deeper context in the way they’re being used and adapt on-the-fly. For example, applications can be programmed to run a certain way based on a device’s network bandwidth, user history, and social data such as GPS location. This ability to create highly contextual applications gives developers yet another tool to deliver their content to the largest possible audience with the least rework.
AIR for mobile in action
Ready to see Adobe AIR for mobile? Check out this video demo from Mobile World Congress 2010 to get a sneak peak of AIR applications on a Motorola Droid device.
Partner spotlight: RIM
Open Screen Project News:
Why and how is RIM participating in the Open Screen Project?
Tyler Lessard:
Adobe Flash is now being used in a wider range of applications and content services than ever before. We’re seeing great adoption of Flash on the Internet for video, games, and interactive content as well as behind the corporate firewall for business applications and intranet web content and dashboards. We’re excited to help our customers and partners bring these interactive applications and content services to BlackBerry users around the world.
As a participant in the Open Screen Project, RIM is working with Adobe to bring Flash and Adobe AIR support to BlackBerry smartphones and to ensure that developers, designers, and content creators can continue to use the tools they know and love today to deliver rich content and applications to BlackBerry smartphones.
Open Screen Project News:
How do RIM customers and developers benefit from having Flash on BlackBerry devices?
Tyler Lessard:
With support for Flash, BlackBerry users will have seamless access to more and more rich content and online applications residing on both the Internet and the corporate intranet. Users will be able to access and enjoy their favorite Flash based content services whether they are at their desktop or on the move with their BlackBerry. Our developer community will also benefit because Flash and AIR will offer them a new and powerful way to develop content and applications for BlackBerry.
Open Screen Project News:
How will RIM and Adobe address the challenges of designer and developer collaboration?
Tyler Lessard:
RIM and Adobe are working together to ensure that Adobe Creative Suite® and the BlackBerry plug-in for Eclipse™ work in concert to simplify collaboration between designers and developers. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for designers to create rich graphics and user interface (UI) design components that are optimized for BlackBerry and to share those assets in a seamless way with BlackBerry application developers. Creative professionals will find the process of creating UI concepts, elements, and graphics much more streamlined and integrated with their industry-standard tools of choice. This will help reduce the re-creation of graphic assets and iterations that designers and developers often go through to generate rich animations, images, and video content. And with Adobe Device Central, designers and developers using Creative Suite tools can design, preview, and test rich media websites, graphic assets, and video content for mobile devices such as BlackBerry smartphones.
Open Screen Project News:
There has been a significant amount of innovation in how consumers and businesses experience the web as a result of Flash — whether via interactive online games, web video from YouTube, or Flash based business apps and web dashboards inside the firewall. As web and mobile innovation converge, how will Flash continue to be an engine of innovation in the next decade?
Tyler Lessard:
The important point to recognize is that the technology foundation has been laid, but that’s only the beginning. What lies next is how we enable our customers and partners to take advantage of the unique capabilities of our mobile platform and combine that with the power of Flash to deliver interactive mobile apps that are compelling to users and truly impact how they work, live, and play. How will developers harness the power of always-on push technology and social apps that are always one click away and combine that with rich media content and interactive app experiences that engage and immerse users? How will developers embed context-based information from the device, the web, or the corporate intranet into these applications in a meaningful way that transforms the user experience? This is what is exciting about the future. There is significant opportunity to continue on this path of innovation to enable developers to build the next wave of mobile apps for businesses and consumers in a way that is quick and intuitive while harnessing the power of underlying platforms and back-end data systems.
Open Screen Project News:
What excites you most about the potential that Flash and AIR offer RIM in the future?
Tyler Lessard:
We believe that Flash will continue to be an engine of innovation on the web in the next decade, and this innovation will progress onto BlackBerry smartphones. We’re excited about the potential of our developer communities combining the immersive user experiences created in Flash and rich Internet applications (RIAs) built with AIR, the power of always-on, notification-driven mobile applications and content services that are possible on the BlackBerry platform.
Open Screen Project News:
How will Flash Player 10.1 change the mobile web experience on the BlackBerry?
Tyler Lessard:
Flash Player 10.1 will help us bring rich media content and interactive games to mobile users around the world. This will open up great new opportunities for existing Flash developers and current mobile content providers targeting both consumers and enterprises.
Adobe previewed Flash Player on Blackberry and the designer/developer workflow at Mobile World Congress. See Serge Jespers following up with attendees to get reactions.