Crowded RIA ecosystem

It seems that it has become very crowded in RIA ecosystem. After Adobe AIR, Microsoft Silverlight and Sun JavaFX (more...), now there is one more tehnology out there from Mozilla called Prizm.

It seems that this ecosystem becomes to small for all this new stuff and some discussions have appeared between Mike Chambers and LabRats about what Adobe AIR is and what it's not. This is strange to me because I think both technologies are enough open so they can only be complementary nothing else. I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding, nothing else. And what about Tamarin?

New Flash 10 features sneak peek at MAX

This video is from Adobe MAX at Chicago. It is presentation by Tony D. and Jethro Villegas on new features of next Flash release, Flash version 10, code name "Diesel". You can see example of new Stage rendering core, live preview and interactive video, extreme Timeline changes.

AIRifier yourself

We are just starting to see how web desktop relationship will evolve and one interesting experiment is AIRifier which allows you to turn any web application into desktop application that works 100% like it was started inside your browser. Watch this video for instructions.

Also, some interesting reads about WidgetSummit you can read here. Finally, Andre is wondering Can Flash and AIR make the browser and OS irrelevant?. Enjoy!

MTV Adobe Air challenge

From October 1st until December 31st there is open competition with some prizes organized by Mtv and Adobe. Adobe has Air and Mtv has Mtv assets. Combination of this two into one creates legal entry for this challenge.

Prizes are in a range from trip for 2 to NY to Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection. There are 3 categories: Toatl request application, Pimp my assets and Making the wildcard. Assets available are video and podcast RSS, Mtv RSS, Mtv blog feeds and Mtv art. Any ideas?

More info...

Flash-based widgets taking over?

Reports say that in first week WidgetBucks registered over 5.000 bloggers and affiliates which becomes maybe the fastest growing ad network of shopping widgets. Over 25 million impressions are reported. One of the factors for this amazing result is free $25 bonus just for signing up (see graphic).

On this blog sidebar there is example of 160x600 skyscraper widget, done in Flash and working perfectly. For now, widget design is limited on choosing size and color. However, WidgetBucks has announced on their blog new widget designs very soon. This will be interesting to see. I wonder if they will allow custom user made flash widgets?

edit: WOW! I can't believe what happened! I just posted above and widget shows 'data temporarily unavailable'. Checked other blogs, same thing. Widgetbucks.com is down!!! I hope this is just due to some upgrade.

bLog tEmplate cHanges

Flanture has changes it's template a little bit. It is the same Blogger template, "sand dollar", but older one had just one sidebar. There was way to much empty space around and I decide to use this modification and to change some colors. Link to this modification authors is available at the bottom of blog. Changing template was much easier than I thought it will be.

I have to notice jump in number of RSS subscribers for 50% since new button was installed. Button is so cool I get sudden wish to click it every time I see it. It seems that this is not case just with me.

Flash Animation

Fun Flash animation done by Federica Giulietti

Pacman meets Matrix at Mtv:___> PacMtv

Easy transition to beta 2 AIR SDK

Installation of AIR SDK beta 2 was easy. I just deleted old files and unzipped new files in the same directory, so not path modification was needed.

However, when I tried to run older sample files, following error occured:
"initialWindow/content must have non-empty value"!

After looking at documentation I realized that there are some changes in description xml file structure. Besides <application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.0.M5" where 1.0.M5 is new moment, RootContent tag has changed. Actually there is now "content" tag and systemChrome, transparent and visible are no longer properties. Here is example:

beta 1:

<rootContent
systemChrome="standard"
transparent="false"
visible="true">
window.html
</rootContent>

becomes in beta 2:

<initialWindow>
<content>window.html</content>
<systemChrome>standard</systemChrome>
<transparent>false</transparent>
<visible>true</visible>
</initialWindow>

Now everything is OK, apps are running smoothly.

Ah, those AIR developers!

We love you too Lee...



There is so much news around Adobe AIR, nobody can keep up. First, there are AIR Derby Winners. Also check out Devnet AIR page and AIR Marketplace.

Did you already get new AIR SDK? This is really too much :)

What's new in Beta 2? Here is the list:

- System Tray icon/Dock Bar Bounce
- Synchronous database API(tm)
- Native menus
- Drag and drop enhancements including bitmap support
- Windowing improvements such as Z-order control and enhanced
activation and focus support
- Improved Install dialog look and feel
- Application-initiated runtime updates
- HTML security model improvements
- Mouse support for double-click and scroll-wheel
- Per-machine runtime installs
- Performance and memory enhancements
- Hundreds of bug fixes

AIR Beta 2 released!

After four months after release of Adobe AIR beta 1, from today new Beta2 version is among us. Don't get surprised if your AIR installation files icons change after installing beta 2. New shaded icons with .air letters have interesting and unexpected look. There is, first of all difference in size. While beta 1 has 8.51 Mb, beta 2 is slightly heavier, 9.14 Mb.
Download link for beta 2 and changes available here:

Beta 2 Download Page.

Don't forget to download documentation which is BIIIG, 63 Mb, compared to 3,2 Mb for beta 1. You will get 8 pdf fool books ready for development and html language reference. Installer for Macintosh is also available. This time you don't need to uninstall beta 1 in order to instal new version like it was case in cross between Apollo and AIR beta 1.