Archive for the 'Flash Lite' Category

How to fix your N95 in case of total death

Published
by
MarkD
on October 18, 2008
in , Devices and Mobile Content
. 5 Comments

Recently I moved house which involves the move of ISP and various accounts.  In total my ISP is taking 28 days to move my ADSL setup to another telephone exchange and set up the services that I use.  28 days of almost zero Internet.

So checking around I discovered JoikuSpot for my N95 which allows me to open a WIFI hotspot on my N95 and use the UTMS (3G) connection to get online.  It’s pretty awesome all round, I can use my corporate VPN, surf and email.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing with Vodafone, who seems to have poor UMTS coverage here.  I noticed very strange behaviour with various Internet sites, Facebook for example is delivered in the form of the mobile site.  Why would I want the mobile site on my Macbook??  Why are Vodafone making decisions about the content that I want to view?

JoikuSpot is pretty amazing kit, but I’m fully aware that it’s stretching the device beyond its design.  My N95 agreed that it was all too much and died.  No beeps or flashing lights, just sudden death.  After playing with the battery, charging for a while reset reset reset, nothing was working!

As a last ditch effort I called my good friend and resident know-it-all Steve Hartley (Adobe) who imparted this pretty weird how-to.

  1. Take the battery out
  2. Get a copper coin
  3. Press against the battery pins on the inside of the phone for 2 secs
  4. Replace battery and turn on

And voila, the phone powered back up!

Steve explained that Nokia devices hold a charge for the clock and certain states, even when they are apparently powered down.  Shorting the pins causes a full power down, and thus reset of the device.

So there you have it: How to fix your N95 in case of total death :-)

Insight into Adobe’s Plans for Mobile and Devices

Published
by
MarkD
on September 25, 2008
in , Conference, Flash Lite and Industry News
. 2 Comments

Today the online magazine e-week published an interview with Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch.  In that he provided details about Creative Suite 4, Adobe’s work in the Open Source community, the Open Screen Project and our goals for multi-screen content.

“And that’s what we’ve done with  AIR on PCs. AIR is a way to deploy an application across OSes. And that’s  going great. We’ve had 35 million installs of AIR and we’re hoping for 100  million by the end of the year. Looks like we’re going to make it. And we’re  working to bring that same technology to mobile devices. And I think that  might be a trend toward a “mobile first” experience, which is really a  reversal of how people create applications.

Right now they create largely  using large screens and PCs and think about creating stuff that will be  displayed on large screens and PCs. And I think that need to change. In the  conception of creating that content we need to think about how that will work  in the constraints of a mobile device and then maybe how it will work on the  big screen. That’s a reversal of how people are thinking and I think it will  take a few years for it to happen.

But at Max that’s one of the things we will  encourage people to think about — to shift more to this mobile way of  thinking and then consider PCs. And that will be a change to our tooling over  time. Already we’re starting to do that with things like Device Central in  Creative Suite 4 where you can visualize your work across devices. But there’s going to be a lot more to do there.”

As you can see this is a clear signal of our intent for multiple screens including mobile phones, consumer electronics, set-top boxes and of course desktop computers.  Innovation for web has, and always will be, the primary driver behind all that we do for the community.

If you haven’t already signed up for MAX and the mobile sessions then now is the time to get on board.

See the badge on the right hand side —>

Device Central CS3 Update 7

Published
by
MarkD
on September 24, 2008
in and Flash Lite
. 2 Comments

Our Device Intelligence team have been hard at work!  Device profile update number 7 is by far the largest profile update we’ve ever had with some fantastic new additions.

In total there are 261 profiles included, 57 new devices and updates to 204 existing profiles.  In total that makes 525 device profiles for you to create content with.

Spread the word, and get it here.

40% of European gamers have Flash Lite

Published
by
MarkD
on July 29, 2008
in Flash Lite and Mobile Content
. 7 Comments

An interesting article was posted today by Stuart Dredge at PockGamerz.biz today following an interview with Alistair Hill of M:Metrics.

Some key pieces of information from Alistair regarding the gaming market in Europe and the US:

  • 13.5m UK users are browsing and downloading applications
  • 25-34 year-old women are the largest group of mobile games buyers
  • 27% of Europeans have Flash Lite capable handsets (compared to 15.5 per cent in the US)
  • Nokia’s N70 is the most popular gaming device
  • 70% of people who were purchasing games were under the age of 35

Stuart and Alastair both point out that despite huge numbers of people playing games, there are not as many purchases.  This could indicate a number of issues, piracy is one but what’s most likely is that users are playing pre-installed games.

What is completely clear is that users are happy to play but are not quite as happy to pay.  That is a clear signal that advertising or brand endorsement within the content is a likely track for the future.

So what is the recipe for the *perfect* mobile game?

  • Event, advertising or brand funded
  • Casual puzzle game like Suduko or Tetris
  • Targeting female and male audiences
  • DRM protected
  • Easily accessible in a branded store
  • Social features built in, sharing, high scores, levels etc

Let’s look at the Google generation statement, “People know how to plug their mobile into their computer, and they know how to go to Google and type in ‘free mobile games’”.  We already know this to be true, last week I read a forum question from an end user (it happens!) who wanted to know why a screensaver wouldn’t work on their phone.

Rather than focus on the copyright issues what I was surprised/shocked by was the response when I told the user that it had been removed.

User Nokia5700: “How could i know it was from Sony Ericsson? At MOSH you can even find FIFA for phones.. I just love it so much ”

There are three statements above:

  • How could I know that it should be paid for?
  • Everything else is free, so why not this?
  • I would pay for it, given the opportunity.

iPod, iPhone and Touch users have been in training for years at the school of iTunes.  That’s the secret behind the AppStore, everyone already knew how to use it and EVERYONE was clear that there would be a price.

Ok, ok some are free I hear you.. but you get the point!

Capuchin releases - Packaging tool and Sony Ericsson C905

Published
by
MarkD
on July 25, 2008
in Devices, Flash Lite and Industry News
. 7 Comments

Sony Ericsson C905

Sony Ericsson have been doing a lot to update the look and feel of their site, what a great job particularly the mobile device Gallery.  Today saw the launch of the Capuchin Packaging Tool to add to the release of the first supported device the C905 which has received great reviews already.

The device includes a huge array of features including aGPS, WIFI and an 8.1MP camera.  I can tell I’m going to like it already due to my camera being stolen at Heathrow :-(

Update, here are some pictures taken 28th July and reduced in size by 50%:

My Office in LondonGardens at my Office

The Capuchin Tool is Windows only at this stage, simply install the exe file and this will place the relevant packaging piece into your chosen install path.  From there all you have to do is launch the little batch file.

Check it out..