Ugur Kaner's Forum Nokia Blog

Ugur Kaner's Forum Nokia Blog http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/ugur-kaners-forum-nokia-blog A Forum Nokia Blog ukaner 2009-11-24T03:14:10Z Create NFL packages online with SWFPack http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/ugur-kaners-forum-nokia-blog/2009/01/08/create-nfl-packages-online-with-swfpack You might remember the <a href="http://bloggy.kuneri.net/2008/10/09/kuneri-releases-online-mobile-development-tool-swfpack/" title="SWFPack launch">launch of SWFPack</a>, the online developer tool to create Flash Lite SIS packages for free. Today, <a href="http://bloggy.kuneri.net/2009/01/08/create-nfl-files-for-flash-lite-swfpack-for-free/" title="NFL with SWFPack">we added NFL support to SWFPack</a> to enable anyone to package Flash Lite content for Series 40 devices. By no surprise that's also for free, a courtesy of <a href="http://www.kuneri.net" title="Kuneri">Kuneri</a>. Just check it out and let us know if you come across any problems or miss any feature. Soon CAB support will be added and it will be very fast and easy for Flash Lite developers to deploy their applications to S60, Series 40 and Windows Mobile. <a href="http://bloggy.kuneri.net/2009/01/08/create-nfl-files-for-flash-lite-swfpack-for-free/" title="NFL SWFPack">You can read more here,</a> or visit <a href="http://www.swfpack.com" title="SWFPack">SWFPack</a> Business Opportunities/Services Flash S60 Series 40 2009-01-08T11:50:30Z ukaner Mobile development online http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/ugur-kaners-forum-nokia-blog/2008/10/10/mobile-development-online Have you ever imagined to develop your mobile applications online? Or to have mobile development tools that work on any web browser on any operating system without any pre/SDK installation? Well, we have such a vision in <a href="http://www.kuneri.net" target="_blank" title="Kuneri">Kuneri</a> and released our first online mobile development tool (mobile development 2.0?) <a href="http://www.swfpack.com" target="_blank" title="SWFPack">SWFPack</a> with a <a href="http://bloggy.kuneri.net/2008/10/09/kuneri-releases-online-mobile-development-tool-swfpack/" target="_blank" title="SWFPack Press Release">press release</a> yesterday. Value proposition is simple; <blockquote> Flash Lite is the emerging mobile technology of Adobe, estimated to reach one billion devices in 2009. Content created for this technology needs to be packaged as installers for distribution. Packaging has been a hassle on Windows, and impossible on other operating systems. Kuneri’s <a href="http://www.swfpack.com" target="_blank" title="SWFPack">SWFPack</a> is a novel online service offering a cross platform, zero-install and easy to use Web 2.0 solution. </blockquote> As a Symbian developer, it's been always a hassle for me to setup  S60 development environment; not to mention they only work on Windows, which I gave up some time ago as a happy Macbook user. Even after the setup, waiting projects to compile and create a SIS file annoyed me quite much: Compile 2 minutes, make small change change, compile 2 minutes argghh.. Story didn't change much after I moved to Flash Lite and started to develop applications for S60 devices. I had to create SIS installers and doing that is not much different that before; worked only on Windows and took a lot of time to generate the SIS. As Flash Lite, which is a subset of Flash, has a considerable user base on Mac OSX machines, this was a show stopper for many, unless they used virtual machines and double the setup pleasure. <img src="http://bloggy.kuneri.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/flashlite2sis.png" alt="SWFPack" width="326" height="173" align="left" />This summer, we decided to change the story for Flash Lite developers and came up with a crazy idea, which turned out to be real in short time. Now, Flash Lite developers have a fast (couple seconds instead of couple minutes), easy (web browsing skills), cheap (free) and cross platform tool which saves time, nerves, money and makes things possible, as <a href="http://www.kuneri.net/content/view/14/26/" target="_blank" title="Kuneri products">most of our other products</a>. <a href="http://www.swfpack.com" target="_blank" title="SWFPack">SWFPack</a> not only generates SIS installers for Symbian, but will be able to create NFL for Series 40, CAB for Windows mobile and add DRM protection to content with the following releases. <a href="http://www.swfpack.com" target="_blank" title="SWFPack">SWFPack</a> is the first milestone on our roadmap, which means we will bring more mobile development tools online. What do you think, would that change anything for mobile application developers? <a href="http://www.swfpack.com" target="_blank" title="SWFPack">SWFPack</a> is a small but exciting step, do you think mobile development could be moved completely to web? Do you know any other tool similar to that and how is their story? Enterprise Flash S60 2008-10-10T11:14:06Z ukaner Flash Lite 3.0 security fix on the way http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/ugur-kaners-forum-nokia-blog/2008/05/20/flash-lite-3.0-security-fix-on-the-way <div class="entry"> Great to be in a community where <a href="http://bloggy.kuneri.net/2008/05/13/the-pain-of-flash-lite-30/" target="_blank" title="Pain of Flash Lite 3.0">discussions</a> (another one <a href="http://www.orison.biz/blogs/chall3ng3r/?p=249" target="_blank" title="Flash Lite 3.0 discussion">here</a>) turn into actions. <a href="http://www.flashdevices.net/2008/05/flash-lite-3-security-issue-resolution.html" target="_blank" title="Bill Perry">Bill</a> and <a href="http://flashmobileblog.com/?p=96" target="_blank" title="Mark Doherty">Mark</a> from Adobe gave the good news that Flash Lite 3.0 security issue will be solved soon on S60 devices, in cooperation with (Forum) Nokia. Thanks! </div> Flash 2008-05-20T13:29:44Z ukaner The Pain of Flash Lite 3.0 http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/ugur-kaners-forum-nokia-blog/2008/05/13/the-pain-of-flash-lite-3.0 We couldn't enjoy Flash Lite 3.0 as many others. See 'Why?' below, or read it <a href="http://bloggy.kuneri.net/2008/05/13/the-pain-of-flash-lite-30/" target="_blank" title="Kuneri Bloggy">from my blog post</a>. <div class="entry"> Usually, when new version of a software is released, we cheer, considering things will get better and easier. As we were expecting things would be easier for developers, we cheered up for Flash Lite 3.0’s features, however that couldn’t be more than wrong and it turned out to be a big pain for us. Moreover, there doesn’t seem to be any short term solution, and no one guarantees there will be one in mid or long term. I would like to write my reasons why I think so, and warn Adobe, Nokia and developers for a potential threat, which will not be long to come. Security Sandbox Pain (or Security Painbox) Flash Lite 3.0 came with Flash 8 engine, and together with Security Sandbox ‘feature’. This might make sense for browser plugin, but doesn’t make any sense for standalone player. <a href="http://device54.com/blog/2007/12/flash-lite-3-security.html" target="_blank" title="Flash Lite 3.0 security">Nick has a really nice post about this issue</a>, which is almost 1 year old, can give an idea about the past and future of the problem. Ok, what’s wrong with ‘Security Sandbox’? Isn’t security something good? Well, security is good when it’s used in convenience. If you use security for a case where doesn’t make any sense or bring an added value, you end up making life difficult for developers and users. Problem about this new Security Sandbox is; you either can have a local connection (i.e loading local files), or can a network connection (i.e connect to internet). This ‘feature’ not only brought an unnecessary pain to us (developers), but also broke backwards compatibility. How? Simple: If you have a Flash Lite 1.x or 2.x movie using local and network connections at the same time, it simply won’t work on Flash Lite 3.0 (which means new phones like N95). Wasn’t the biggest problem on mobile world fragmentation? Problems not only end with those on ‘Security Sandbox’ feature. It’s not possible to do localhost calls, which disables any connection from Flash Lite to outer world. Why is this something bad? Well, there are many 3rd party projects extending Flash Lite via localhost (the only way left to us, because 3rd party application launch is limited by Nokia), such as <a href="http://www.kunerilite.net/" target="_blank" title="KuneriLite">KuneriLite</a>, <a href="http://www.flyerframework.org/" target="_blank" title="Flyer Framework">Flyer</a> and <a href="http://www.spaghettisort.com/janus/products-janus-symbian.html" target="_blank" title="Janus">Janus</a>. These projects help Flash Lite to expand beyond its capabilities and enable people to create richer applications, which can compete with native S60 applications in look and performance. Luckily, there is a ‘best of worst’ trick that solves those problems. There is a magic folder in ‘C:\data\others\trusted’ (that’s another pain, I will come to that shortly), which disables ‘Security Sandbox’ and enables applications to communicate both with local and network, as well as localhost. Why is this a ‘best of worst’? Simply because whatever you put into this directory is visible under ‘Gallery’ which brings a very bad user experience and many security concenrs within. This issue will be even more cronic, if Adobe or Nokia doesn’t make any move; because ‘trusted’ folder will not be available anymore for S60 3.2 devices. Which will kill all developer efforts and backwards compatibility forever. We are not sure if Adobe or Nokia will solve this problem, but crossing our fingers hoping someone sees our S.O.S fire. Trusted Folder Pain I mentioned Security Sandbox problem and a ‘best of worst’ solution to that above. Now see another pain closely related to this subject. S60 devices have ‘Phone Memory’ (PM) and ‘Memory Card’ (MC). Users are given the option to install their applications to PM or MC. As you know, to solve Securiy Sandbox problem, we need to install Flash Lite applications to those ‘Trusted’ folders that exist both on PM and MC. So what is the problem? With a clever(!) move, ‘Trusted’ folder is located at different paths on PM and MC. It’s at C:\Data\Others\Trusted\ on PM and E:\Others\Trusted\ on MC. Yeah, but what is the problem? Well simply, it’s not possible to install applications (SIS packages) to different folders on PM and MC, and this breaks Symbian Signed criterias. So, Flash Lite 3.0 applications either will work on PM, or MC. And in that way, you can not get your appliction Symbian Signed. There is no solution we could find for that yet. If we can not; it will not be possible for anyone to Symbian Sign their Flash Lite applications on Flash Lite 3.0 phones (from my current understanding). XML Socket Pain Well, Security Sandbox is not the only problem. There is a serious bug on Flash Lite 3.0 with XML sockets. Simply put, it’s not possible to receive data via XML socket shorter than 1+ seconds, which kills if you need to stream data. Most clear example for that is using KuneriLite Accelerometer plugin with Flash Lite. Naturally, to use axis values, you need to get those values at least 4-5 times per second; so that you can reflect it to your application. But because of this bug, you can get data only 1 time or less per second, which makes it impossible to use. See the <a href="http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126748" target="_blank" title="Forum Nokia">this Forum Nokia thread</a> for more information on that subject. And as far as we see, there is no solution offered yet. Conclusion I tried to state my reasons, why Flash Lite 3.0 is a potential show-stopper for developers, users, enablers and many more on S60 devices. Nokia keeps on spreading this problem via Firmware updates and pushing Flash Lite 3.0 player to earlier phones (i.e Nokia N95 Classic), supporting and triggering fragmentation. With the introduction of S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2 devices, these problems will be impossible to solve and Flash Lite player will get fragmented at least for couple of years, which will delay market entrance that is already delayed for long time and still immature. What I would like to see is some action from Adobe and Nokia, leaning on this subject and listening to us to avoid a big potential problem awaiting all Flash Lite users and developers in short term. Please leave me your comments if you have any. cheers, Ugur.- </div>   Flash S60 General KuneriLite 2008-05-13T17:22:02Z ukaner Flash Lite 3.1 feature snapshot http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/ugur-kaners-forum-nokia-blog/2008/04/29/flash-lite-3.1-feature-snapshot <div class="entry"> There has been a wave of news originating from <a href="http://www.embeddedflash.com/?p=68" target="_blank" title="Flash Lite 3 for OEMs">Anand’s post</a> lately about Flash Lite 3.1 made available for OEMs. *Personally* I don’t see this as a big news, due it’s for OEMs, and I don’t see any large scale OEM to go for that, due most of them already licensed Flash Lite from Adobe: No big impact for Flash Lite developers. Today Mark Doherty (Manager of Developer Relations at Adobe Mobile and Devices - EMEA) <a href="http://flashmobileblog.com/?p=89" target="_blank" title="Flash Lite 3.1">provided official(?) details about upcoming Flash Lite 3.1</a> and its features. According to Mark; Flash Lite 3.1 does not offer big difference, but some improvements like; <ul> <li>Improved Web Browsing, 91% of top 500 internet sites.</li> <li>Flash 9 (AS2 only) support</li> <li>Local Connection / HTML Text / GetURL_target / CSS support / WMode</li> <li>H.264 support / Improved video support (smoothing, seek)</li> <li>Improved memory handling for images</li> <li>MP3 Streaming support</li> <li>Linux Reference port</li> </ul> Looking forward to see first S60 FP2 device shipped and test Flash Lite 3.1. And thanks to Mark for providing us details. You can also see my post on <a href="http://bloggy.kuneri.net/2008/04/29/flash-lite-31-features/" target="_blank" title="Flash Lite 3.1 features">Kuneri Bloggy</a>.  </div> Flash 2008-04-29T13:09:13Z ukaner KuneriLite advert video with N95 8GB http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/ugur-kaners-forum-nokia-blog/2008/04/07/kunerilite-advert-video-with-n95-8gb I have a unique piece of art to show you. As you know, we have an innovative Rapid Application Development toolkit <a href="http://www.kunerilite.net" target="_blank" title="KuneriLite">KuneriLite</a>. It allows you to create great-looking S60 applications in no time and for almost no cost using Flash Lite. Some developers know that, but some still don't. To make our product more visible, we decided to come out with a simple advertising, and it turned out to be a unique piece. If you like or appreciate it; we would love your suppot by blogging or <a href="http://digg.com/software/Nokia_N95_8GB_hand_drawn_with_MS_Paint_and_mouse/who" target="_blank" title="DIGG!">digging</a> it. Comments are always welcome :)   <div style="text-align: center"> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/qvX3zupoeEU" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qvX3zupoeEU" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /> </object> </div>   Entertainment Flash S60 KuneriLite advertising 2008-04-07T11:26:22Z ukaner Hello world from Over The Air London http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/ugur-kaners-forum-nokia-blog/2008/04/04/hello-world-from-over-the-air-london Hello World! Today I got the happy news that new Forum Nokia Champs can finally start blogging. So, decided to give the first shot from <a href="http://overtheair.org/blog/" target="_blank" title="OTA">Over The Air</a> event in London. I am <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ukaner" target="_blank" title="Ugur Kaner">Ugur Kaner,</a> CEO and Creative Director of Finnish mobile company <a href="http://www.kuneri.net" target="_blank" title="Kuneri">Kuneri</a>. If you are in Flash Lite world, I am sure you heard of me or at least <a href="http://www.kunerilite.net" target="_blank" title="KuneriLite">KuneriLite</a>, but if not don't worry, you most probably will hear from me a lot on this blog. I am also blogging on our corporate <a href="http://bloggy.kuneri.net" target="_blank" title="Kuneri bloggy">bloggy</a>, and from now on, I will also be blogging from here; mostly my personal opinions and perspective to mobile trends and business. It's a pretty and sunny day here in London, we are in Imperial Collage Kensington and here is full of mobile enthusiasts all around the world. Soon we will head to KuneriLite Masterclass together with Riku Salminen from Forum Nokia and inform people about Flash Lite and how to create great-looking S60 applications using Flash Lite and KuneriLite. If you happen to be around, please join us, we will be very happy to see you.    Event Flash S60 General KuneriLite 2008-04-04T15:23:15Z ukaner