This week I had the chance to play around with the first preview release of Adobe Edge. Edge allows web designers and developers to create web standards based animation without doing any coding whatsoever. Reminiscent of the way in which Flash helped to open the world of web animation to designers from non-technical backgrounds, Edge stands poised to lower the barrier to entry into HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript animations. In an environment that has seen Flash become somewhat of a pariah, embracing the open web is a logical way forward for Adobe. While it’s still very early in development, Adobe has managed to do some impressive things with Edge, and releasing it this early demonstrates that they are serious about incorporating user feedback into future iterations. Now, let’s get under the hood… (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Flash’
A Hands-On Look at Adobe Edge
Friday, August 12th, 2011Why Businesses Shouldn’t Overlook Android
Friday, August 13th, 2010
It’s been a dismal time for Google with the discontinuation of Google Wave, but some interesting news has surfaced about the market share figures for the Google Android operating system. In the second quarter of 2010, Android Smartphone shipments have surged by a whopping 886%. During the same period, RIM saw a 41% jump in Blackberry sales, allowing it to maintain almost a 50% market share lead over the iPhone. These are some interesting numbers, but why is the Android seeing such an incredible increase? One possible issue inflating these figures is the definition of what constitutes a “Smartphone”. While one would expect a Smartphone to be a robust, app-running device, for the purposes of market share data, pretty much any device that has the power to surf the web and is running Android to do so is counted as an “Android powered Smartphone”.
What does this higher than expected Android market share data mean for businesses contemplating getting into the mobile market? Well, the good news is that the market is narrowing down to just three major players in terms of OS (until Windows finally comes out with its Windows Phone7 OS). The even better news is that companies now have a viable delivery alternative to the iPhone for rich mobile content. The Android operating system supports Flash and has its own App Store. With its skyrocketing adoption level, Android is quickly becoming another channel for reaching consumers and it’s one that companies in the mobile space should have on their radars.
Why does it have to be HTML5 vs Flash?
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Why is it that when people talk about technology they reduce the concepts down to a black and white comparison? It’s always one technology against another or one product that’s good and one that’s bad.
This is case in point with the recent battle that’s emerged between HTML5 and Flash. HTML5 is being touted by developers, bloggers and press alike as the new “Flash Killer”. This angle seems to be based on the one-dimensional view that Flash is only used for video (rather than the full spectrum of game, 3D and application development it’s really suited for), and that the fast and reliable video support that’s offered with HTML5 will make it the new choice for developers. But don’t count Flash as dead yet, it still offers a number of unique features that are not yet supported in HTML5, such as live streaming, DRM, and rich video controls. Plus it has a much greater span of support than HTML5 does today. (more…)
iPad – A Neat Gadget, but Who’s it For?
Friday, January 29th, 2010I feel it would be wrong to let this week go by without at least commenting on the launch of the iPad. There is no question that Apple has become the master of hype. Everyone wanted Apple’s new gadget, even before we knew what it was.
But now that we’ve seen the iPad and heard more about it, the question I ask is “who is this for”? I see what Apple’s trying to do by finding a sweet spot in the market between their current offerings. The iPad does fit a niche today that’s populated by cumbersome, workhorse netbooks that aren’t pretty, but they get the job done, for a reasonable price.
To me, the iPad is missing a few things to really make it work. Is it an eBook reader? A web browser? A digital lifestyle device? It’s really a jack-of-all-trades, master of none in my opinion. It’s pretty and it offers more real estate than an iPod Touch or an iPhone, but how much more functionality does it really bring to the table?
It’s supposed to be a great web browser. However with so many sites leveraging Flash and Silverlight and the iPad not supporting either of these, how much of the web experience are you missing?
It’s also pitched as a great tool for email and photos. But it’s still missing a viable data entry device for emails. The on-screen keyboard is fine for short text or messages, but not for much more. Even support for handwriting with a stylus would have been helpful. For photos, it’s missing two key features as well – an SD slot and USB port. Sure there will be accessories from Apple in the future, but these are more things you will need to carry around.
It’s not an eBook reader either. As much as the publishing industry is hoping that Apple can do for it what the iPod did for the music industry, I just don’t see it happening. Even with its faults, the Kindle has a better screen and battery life for reading books.
So what is the iPad good for? It’s great at promoting the concept of the tablet to the general public. There are a slew of these offerings coming to the market and everyone will benefit from the hype Apple’s created. The iPad has helped bring mobile back into the spotlight and give it some much needed credibility.
The RIA Battle is On Despite the Economy (and Other Overwhelming News)
Thursday, July 16th, 2009I was on under the impression that nothing on planet Earth was happening besides Michael J’s death (last name withheld to protect anonymity), but it looks like there is a lot of action in our industry.
Last week, Microsoft released Silverlight 3.0, a very promising RIA (Rich Internet Application) development platform. Thus far, Silverlight 1.0 was too limited to allow for any kind of serious interactions, and Silverlight 2.0 was just a Windows-centric platform.
Silverlight 3.0 features better media support (3D, graphics acceleration, higher quality video) and richer interactivity (richer user interfaces, ability to run outside the browser, ability to interact with other applications). It is an impressive platform for Windows but little is known so far on its prowesses on MacOS and Linux.
The current incumbent on the RIA scene is Adobe and, although it was known that 99% of all computers worldwide could run Adobe’s Flash Player, details on the specific segment of Enterprise clients were sketchy. A Forrester Research based on 50,000 respondents highlights that almost 97% of enterprises can run the standard Flash Player (the one required by today’s common Flex applications). Within 3 months of the release of Flash Player 10 (the player required for the upcoming generation of development tools), 36% of enterprises were ready to use it.
So, despite a slowing down economy, the RIA race is fiercer than ever thus asserting that the case for RIA’s is a solid one.
I will shortly blog my perspective on another hot battle these days: the Operating System’s one.
Adobe Flash takes to the big(ger) screen
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009To keep up with the convergence of media devices occurring at rapid-fire speed, Adobe has secured a deal to embed its Flash software within televisions, Blu-ray players and set top boxes to allow for developers and content providers to create and deploy web content such as news, weather and stock charts. The applications are set to deploy on televisions early in 2010 and will allow users to engage in the all of activities they are used to performing on the web.
There are a few televisions on the market that are using Yahoo’s widgets to provide a rich media experience for viewers but this deal will allow for the creation of a single standard for a media application that can be re-used for numerous other devices.
“Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home will dramatically change the way we view content on televisions,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “Consumers are looking to access their favorite Flash technology-based videos, applications, services and other rich Web content across screens. We are looking forward to working with partners to create these new experiences and deliver content consistently across devices whether consumers view it on their desktop, mobile phone or television.”
With this announcement, Adobe has lined up partnerships with content providers such as Comcast, Netflix, the New York Times and Disney to deliver the “Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home”.
BBC News reports that “Adobe is aiming to become the global standard for all rich media in the “three screen” world – PC, TV, and mobile. Up to 40% of all mobile devices shipped in 2008 are expected to carry Flash Lite. However, the big omission remains Apple’s iPhone.”
As a side effect from this announcement, INM expects for Flash on TV sets to dramatically enhance the usability of devices that have now become too complex to use for most consumers. We’re looking forward to seeing how Flash will help to personalize, simplify and enhance multi-device navigation and programming systems. In essence, Adobe’s move is helping consumers to move closer towards the full convergence of their televisions, DVD players, gaming systems, photo album viewers, internet browsers and multi-media devices.
Adobe Announces LiveCycle ES via Amazon Web Services
Friday, January 16th, 2009Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced “the immediate availability of Adobe® LiveCycle® ES Developer Express software,a full version of Adobe LiveCycle ES hosted in the Amazon Web Services cloud computing environment. Using the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) technologies, Adobe’s offering provides a virtual, self-contained development environment where enterprise developers can prototype, develop, and test Adobe LiveCycle ES applications without needing to install and configure Adobe LiveCycle ES themselves.”
By combining Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF), Adobe Reader®, Flex® and Flash® technologies with the Amazon Web Services (AWS), developers now have an instant, ready-built sandbox to work in. The upfront costs, installation fees and maintenance hassles that traditionally follow when development teams begin work with a software package are eliminated with this offering.
LiveCycle ES via Amazon Web Services can also be very useful for the rapid prototyping of a solution that otherwise would require the installation of a LiveCycle server. The costs associated with the set up of a development environment or test lab are also greatly reduced. By taking a pay-as-you-go on a per-use basis approach, LiveCycle ES ensures that businesses don’t need to invest in large infrastructures on day 1 of their project.
We blogged about PaaS (Platform as a Service) a while back and praised the ability of this technology to offer on-tap applications available on an as-needed basis via a programmable environment presented as a rich Internet application (RIA). This Adobe / Amazon partnership is part of this kind of service offering. By making development tools and extensions available “on tap” is helping businesses such as INM integrate these offerings to better deliver rich user experiences. LiveCycle ES allows for a-la-carte use that scales up instantaneously to a large number of CPUs and provides plenty of storage space to deliver a rapid response (crucial to the delivery of a great User Experience).
Silverlight Makes Headway
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008Microsoft’s Silverlight technology is making waves this month with two very high profile events. First, Silverlight was the technology of choice for NBC’s streaming Olympic video coverage on NBCOlympics.com. The site racked up 70 million page views on Friday August 8th, and 4.8 million people watched 3.1 million video streams on Saturday. These are impressive numbers for Silverlight’s big debut. However, there were a number of critics that commented on the frustrating delays for online coverage, as well as the lack of full screen support and the size of the windows.
Silverlight is also the official software and HD web content provider for this week’s Democratic National Convention. Although many networks are offering streaming video from the convention, the official site is the only one showing HD video content. The HD is quite impressive, and was even dubbed as “awesome” by the Washington Post.
Even with these two high-profile events, I’m not sure it will allow Microsoft to catch up to the massive install base Adobe Flash Player already has, but it certainly brings Silverlight closer to being a true contender.
Google Analytics Now Tracks Rich Content
Monday, October 22nd, 2007The difficult task of generating some meaningful and accurate numbers to justify your investments in rich content on your site has just gotten easier. Google Analytics, a popular website analysis tool amongst small to mid-sized businesses, has just been updated to now track user engagements that include elements common with Web 2.0 services, including Javascript, Ajax and Flash applications, widgets and gadgets, and downloadable pages.
This not only allows companies to better track their website numbers as a whole, it also allows them to offer advertisers alternate numbers to page views for gauging the success of an ad. New figures such as time spent on a page or the length of time an ad is visible may become more valuable to advertisers in the future.
