Adobe AIR Challenge

August 21, 2011 · Comments Off on Adobe AIR Challenge

Writing a mobile app using Flash? Want to win a cash prize? Then why not enter the Adobe AIR App Challenge!

Sony has partnered with Adobe to offer a grand prize of $100,000 for the best application optimized to run on their new Android-based Sony Tablet S1 and Sony Tablet S2 tablet devices. The competition has been running for a few months now but with the final app submission date set for November 11 there’s still plenty of time to get your entry ready.

There’s actually $200,000 worth of prize money up for grabs and by entering you also have a chance of being selected to receive early access to the Sony S1 and S2 prototypes! I’ve actually been meaning to blog about both tablets for a while now as they certainly stick out from the crowd. The S1 in particular looks like a particularly attractive device and its 9.4-inch screen might just make it a little more comfortable to hold than the iPad.

The competition is open to residents of the USA, UK, Spain, Germany, Italy and Japan. Oh and your submission can be created using either Adobe Flash Professional, Flash Builder, or the Flex SDK. So what are you waiting for? There’s fame and fortune to be had.

Timer Bug in AIR 2.7 for iOS

August 8, 2011 · 1 Comment

I was running a rendering test the other day on my iPhone when I noticed something odd. The test was claiming that twice the number of frames were being rendered using AIR 2.7 compared to the AIR 2.6 equivalent that I had run a few months back. This seemed like a pleasant surprise because although I was aware that CPU rendering was significantly faster in the latest version, I hadn’t heard of any improvements when utilising GPU rendering, which my test was using.

However, after running it a few more times it dawned on me that rendering probably wasn’t any better using 2.7 and what I was actually looking at was some sort of timing bug. You see, my test randomly repositions a number of movie clips on each ENTER_FRAME event. After five seconds the number of frames that were successfully rendered is written to the screen. But the test wasn’t running for only five seconds, it was actually much closer to ten!

I quickly checked my code to see if I was doing anything stupid and then, suspecting that there was something badly wrong with the Timer class in AIR 2.7, did a quick Google. Sure enough, there’s a known bug in AIR 2.7 on iOS with the Timer class. It seems like it has been fixed in an internal build but I’m not sure if we’ll need to wait for the next major release of AIR or if Adobe will push out a minor release with this fixed.

So there you go. No GPU rendering improvements and one fairly annoying bug. It’s a real shame that this one slipped through but fingers crossed we’ll see a fix for it soon. And if any of your AIR 2.7 projects on iOS rely on the Timer class then you’ll need to find a work-around.

AS3 Search Chrome Extension

August 2, 2011 · Comments Off on AS3 Search Chrome Extension

Here’s a great little Chrome extension you might be interested in. The ActionScript 3.0 Search extension brings AS3.0 API documentation and auto-completion directly to Google Chrome. It lets you type a class name into the address bar before taking you directly to the relevant documentation. It’ll even provide you with search suggestions if a match can’t be found.

It’s pretty neat and extremely useful for ActionScript development. Before you begin a search, simply type “as3” and hit either space or tab. Then you’re free to type your query. If you find yourself using it then you might also want to consider additional extensions for other languages you work with such as Java, C, C++, Android, JavaScript, and PHP. Hell, just about every language in the world is covered! Take a look at the list if you don’t believe me.

Circ – Another Cross Platform Success Story

July 13, 2011 · Comments Off on Circ – Another Cross Platform Success Story

Here’s another nice looking game developed using Adobe AIR. Circ features a smooth 60fps frame rate and runs on iPhone 4, iPad 1, iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, HTC Desire HD, and BlackBerry PlayBook. Phew that’s quite a list.

It was developed by Vojtech Havlícek(lead developer) and Anh Vu Hoang (lead designer) from Prague and looks like a lot of fun. If you want to know more then head over to Tom Krcha’s blog where you can find an interview with the guys and an interesting video from Tom showing Circ being tested on various devices.

My First Book: Flash iOS Apps Cookbook

July 5, 2011 · 12 Comments

If you’ve been wondering why my blog posts have been rather infrequent over the past six months then here’s the reason. Yup that’s right, I’ve been hard at work writing a book for all you Flash lovers out there who want to get into iOS development. It’s titled “Flash iOS Apps Cookbook” and is due for release by Packt Publishing in November.

Spanning fourteen chapters it’s full of practical recipes and step-by-step instructions for developing iOS apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. And don’t worry if you’ve always fancied developing for iPhone but weren’t sure where to begin. The first few chapters gently introduce you to the fundamentals, showing you how to join the iOS Developer Program, create the required developer files, and build your very first application using Flash. Heck you’ll be a mega bucks iOS developer in no time!

Oh and if you can’t wait until November then why not head over to the Packt Publishing website and get your hands on the RAW version, which entitles you to immediate access to each new chapter as it becomes available. Right, I guess I better get back to work.

More Great Adobe AIR Apps

July 1, 2011 · Comments Off on More Great Adobe AIR Apps

If you need more proof that Adobe AIR is a viable option for developing mobile phone and tablet apps then look no further than these two great examples. First up is the really stylish Red Bull Illume HD iPad app, which showcases some of the best skateboarding and surfing photography out there.

Next up is Apolline & Léon – a gorgeous interactive childrens book by Avant Goût Studios. Running on iPad, Android Tablets and Blackberry PlayBook, it’s an excellent example of the cross-platform capabilities of Flash CS5.5 and AIR 2.7.

So there you have it. AIR goes from strength to strength with each new release, and with Stage3D hopefully on the horizon for mobile and tablet devices, it’s looking like AIR could very well have a bright future outside the desktop.

*UPDATE: Head over to Lee Brimelow’s blog for an interview with Zoom Productions’ Wolfgang Klopf, the developer of the Red Bull Illume app.

More Molehill Goodness

June 29, 2011 · Comments Off on More Molehill Goodness

I must say, I’m pretty damn excited by Stage3D (AKA Molehill) and this demo written using the Alternativa 3D engine gives further indication as to we’ll be able to do with Flash and full 3D GPU support.

It’s a work-in-progress demonstration of Tanki Online 2.0, and if you’re in any doubt about what Stage 3D will do for Flash, then take a look at the original pre-Molehill Tanki. I’m sure you’ll agree the difference between the two is night and day! Anyway, click on the image above to launch the Tanki 2 demo and remember to download the Incubator Flash Player if you haven’t already done so.

AIR 2.7 Released

June 15, 2011 · 2 Comments

Adobe has just announced the availability of AIR 2.7 and there’s some great news for those targeting iOS. The rendering performance of AIR 2.7 for iOS is up to four times faster, meaning Flash is quickly becoming a viable platform for a number of iOS projects. Adobe Developer Evangelist, Renaun Erickson highlights the faster rendering performance improvements of AIR 2.7 in this video.

And if you want to see what’s currently capable with Flash, take a look at the video below, which shows off the excellent Rossignol Experience iPad app.

So things are definitely heading in the right direction for AIR on iOS. Hopefully we’ll see In-app Purchasing and Game Center integration soon too, as they’re still stumbling blocks for many wishing to use the Flash platform.

Bye Bye Yahoo! Maps API

June 15, 2011 · Comments Off on Bye Bye Yahoo! Maps API

Some real bad news if you’re a Flash developer who uses Yahoo’s excellent ActionScript Maps API. Yahoo! are closing the service as of September 13th. It’s not just the ActionScript APIs that are for the chop, here’s the full list:

A few location APIs will be kept available that I guess Flash developers could take advantage of including Placefinder API, Local Search API and Placemaker. But on the whole it makes for quite depressing reading for anyone who is heavily invested in the ActionScript APIs.

Yahoo! suggest that those wishing to implement maps within their applications should consider using Nokia’s (their new maps partner) Ovi Maps API to render a map within a web page.

You can find more info on Yahoo’s site.

The Visible Property

June 14, 2011 · 1 Comment

Can you see it? Yeah that little check-box sitting in the Properties Inspector. Yup that’s right, it’s the Visible property and at long last we can set it from the IDE rather than having to use ActionScript.

Okay I know you can just as easily set a display object’s Alpha property instead, but setting Visible to false provides much faster rendering performance compared to setting Alpha to 0%. And remember, if you’re targeting mobile or tablet devices then every CPU cycle counts.

I’m not entirely sure why it took so long to see this feature in Flash, but kudos to Adobe for making it part of CS5.5. Oh and if you’re planning to use it, you’ll need to target Flash Player 10.2 or above.