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Device Central, Flash Lite emulator and more

biskero | 27 March, 2007 16:06

One of the challenge that every mobile developer faces is how easy are the tools to use for their development and how they integrate with other software.
Adobe released their new Creative Suite 3 software packages. Every software include mobile features that integrate with the Device Central CS3 tool. Check all the features and a faq.



Device Central is the mobile emulator which helps Flash Lite developers to test their mobile content. It is accessible from other software authoring tools such as Photoshop and the Flash IDE.


 


This is interesting since you can have your graphic designer create the UI for your mobile content and test it in Device Central CS3 while  the developer can test their code using tool. Different emulation features are available depending from which software you are launching Device Central CS3. For example from the Flash IDE you will have all the cool emulation features including memory consumption and CPU emulation.
You can also group mobile phones based on your project requirements and export them so that other developers can work on the same environment.

You can select the content type you are developing, such as Flash Lite wallpapers, screensavers, standalone or web site and it will automatically show which mobile phones support that content type.

You can change the some display behavior and so simulate a real scenario in which your content will be used

There is a Memory graph that displays memory usage of your content during execution. So when you free up memory it will show graphically the result.

The performance tool can simulate CPU performance based on some predefined tests. This is not 100% accurate but it can give an idea what behavior you can expect on the real phone. Each phone has a different index for this test.

Network and time emulation are included. These are a really cool features since you can emulate certain network and time/date conditions directly on the emulator. For example you can create Flash Lite wallpapers that change their behavior based on time of the day or network conditions. These kind of conditions would be really difficult to test on the real device.

Device Central CS 3 includes more then 200 device profiles. So all Nokia mobile phones S40 and S60 are included, will all the necessary information for developing Flash Lite content. The device profiles list will be update quarterly.


Does it replace testing on the mobile phones? Nope!! As every mobile developers know nothing can replace the actual device testing, but it will help for sure. It definitely helps the development work flow across your team and projects. It also make life much easier for developers looking to test some specific animation based on network and time/date.















There are many more feature and if anyone is interested you can follow an Adobe eSeminar on April 4th to know more about.

Alessandro

Flash, S60, Series 40 | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Open C Road Show, great event

biskero | 21 March, 2007 01:39

Last Friday I attended the Open C road show at the Nokia Research Center in Cambridge.


Here is an Open C Road Show summary:

  • Couple of new devices should be announced at CTIA
  • Flash Lite on every S60 3rd Ed and S40 3rd (FP1) Ed onward

Open C is working in progress and supports a subset of C functions which are “mobile friendly”

  • S60 3rd Ed FP2 supports Open C
  • S60 3rd Ed FP1 supports Open C as plug-in, so you can install a .sis package containing the Open C libraries. You can also redistribute (.sis 800k) and package the plugin into your own .sis

Limitations:

  • Open C does not integrate with the phone messaging systems such as SMS, Bluetooth, location etc.
  • No support for signal, fork and exec
  • and others limitations are included into the documentation

Why this is cool?

  • Because you can write C applications which are portable across platform based on standard C.
  • For example: Oracle ported Berkeley DB from Linux to S60. TIM ported their SIP user agent to S60.
  • I envision using Open C to write libraries for Flash Lite.
I won a Nokia N80!! Another reason on why is cool!
Open C

Alessandro

Event, Flash, Open C | Permalink | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

Flash Lite application Contest 2006 winners announced

biskero | 20 March, 2007 00:17

The 2006 Flash Lite application contest organized by the Boston, Australia and Brazil Adobe Mobile and Devices User Group winners have been announced:

  • Best Overall Flash Lite content: developed by Gideon Multimedia
  • Best iRiver Flash Lite content: developed by 2SoulDesign©
  • Best Application: developed by ShopQwik
  • Best Animation: developed by Fat Pengy
  • Best Flash Lite Site: developed by Mobile Wish
I also wanted to remind the winners of the Flash Lite Games contest organized by the Rome Adobe Mobile and Devices User Group:
  1. 1st. Ping 520 Ubiquity Games
  2. 2nd. Bone Smashers Luciano Ayres
  3. 3d. Flow Panic Ubiquity Games
Hopefully these type of contest will help to drive some attention to Flash Lite.

Alessandro

Flash, S60, Series 40 | Permalink | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

 
 
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