Logic Bureau Consulting
War, urg, what is it good for? iPhone apps apparently.
US defence firm Raytheon has just announced it’s new anti-missile system iPhone app. ‘Patriot Crew Drill’ is a multiple-choice game that will sadly not be available to joe-public on the App Store. The company says it sees combat apps making the iPhone a “war zone tool”. They have a number of other apps on the site to.
Maybe this will marginalize the war with Adobe 
PokerCoder 8 is running on the evening of Tuesday 13th July. If you’re a developer or designer who uses Adobe products professionally and you’d like a go at poker for free, then get along to the PokerCoder site and read up on the event and then register but do it quick as places go really fast for this event.
Adobe lay on the drink and the prizes. There’s no entry fee and the only thing you’ll pay for all night is your food if you want some. The games are not played for money and the dealers are used to beginners and give tutorial help during the evening. It’s a great opportunity to learn poker with no risk and surrounded by friends and colleagues. It’s also a great opportunity to meet you peers, potential employers or potential employees (and you’ll get the chance to see how they operate under pressure).
Apple said HTML5 could do all this.
Adobe responded that Flash can do all this.
Parry-riposte.
I read an article on Gizmodo which intelligently and articulately analyzed the claim that HTML5 was a Flash killer. They quoted many research sources and spoke of many real world industry imperatives, ultimately leading to a very honest and pragmatic conclusion. I was very impressed to read such a cogent comparison and analysis and I firmly recommend that if you are a Flash developer who’s worried about your future, you have a read of this and put your mind at rest.
But for me, Ny Quil crystalised the triviality of the threat to Flash in one question : “The real question is this: will HTML5 make it easier or harder for me to get porn?”
Being heavily involved in the IPTV sector we have to say that the continual improvements in the BBC’s iPlayer are very welcome. They are in a unique non-profit requirement position to make products which are simply excellent and not constrained by insane client deadlines, unrealistic budgets or any sort of commercial RoI requirement. Bundle this with the BBC’s approach to using the best people and technology partners in the industry to produce their visionary solutions and what you have is an incredible recipe for world leading, technically excellent solutions. This alone is reason enough for paying your TV licence fee.
The new player which was announced today, will have a number of improvements including:
Simple
–Sliding drawers: Featured, For you, Most popular, Friends
–TV Channels: TV listings page, showing what’s on now
–Categories: browse by genre and sub-genre
–No longer grouped together, easier to browse
–Radio console
–Pop-up console runs while you browse
–Quick links in viewing window, one-click to flip between channels
–Download favourites in advance to save time
–Easier to watch favourite programmes offline
–Fewer buttons
–Larger screen
–Higher quality video
Personal
–Tell BBC iPlayer what you like, and it will line programmes up in a convenient playlist
–New programmes, expiring programmes and unwatched programmes are flagged so it’s easier to keep track
–Stored in local cookies, or via BBC iD
–Families can log in through separate IDs: individual experiences through the same machine
–Improved programme alerts delivered via email, so you don’t miss a thing
–Log in to store preferences, so you pick up where you left off on another computer
–List your favourite channels and stations
Connected
–Post content directly to your wall to recommend and share with friends
–Auto-tweet to recommend and pass links to friends
–Log in to Windows Live Messenger through BBC iPlayer
–Forward links to others online: watch on-demand at the same time
–Comment live on programmes as they air
Join Adobe platform evangelists for how to build an interactive application from start to finish in just one week. Use Flash Catalyst CS5 to create user interactions and states based on visual design from Ilustrator CS5 and Photoshop CS5. Leverage Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4 to connect to PHP and Java backends. Work with Flash Professional CS5 and Device Central to develop mobile versions that use the latest Flash Player 10.1 device APIs. Create desktop versions in AIR that go beyond the browser. And finally, incorporate social and collaboration capabilities with LiveCycle Collaboration Services and Flash Player 10.1 P2P APIs. See the full schedule below:
June 7th – 12:00 – 13:00 GMT Erase the Designer to Developer gap: Adding interactions to your design with Serge Jespers
June 7th – 15:00 – 16:00 GMT Connecting your design to PHP services with Mihai Corlan
June 8th – 12:00 – 13:00 GMT Connecting a web application to a J2EE backend using Flash Builder 4 with Michael Chaize
June 8th – 15:00 – 16:00 GMT Working with Flash CS5 components in your Flash Builder 4 project with Mike Jones
June 9th – 12:00 – 13:00 GMT Going multi-user with P2P in Flash Player 10.1 with Tom Krcha
June 9th – 15:00 – 16:00 GMT Developing multi-user applications with LiveCycle services with Tom Krcha
June 10th – 12:00 – 13:00 GMT Bringing web Applications to the desktop with AIR 2.0 with Piotr Walczyscyn
Jun 10th – 15:00 – 16:00 GMT Code once and run on multiple mobile devices with Mark Doherty
In the immortal words of Bart Simpson “I didn’t think it was possible, but this actually sucked AND blew at the same time”.
The Internet World show is no longer all that the internet can be, it’s a big pitch fest for Marketers, SEOs, CMSs and eCommerce payment vendors with a pinch of development consultancies thrown in for good luck and most of them were the off the shelf kind. This show used to be for the Internet professional. There is no sign of that any more. I learned literally nothing, well, except for ‘don’t go to the Internet World show if the internet is your profession’. Where’s the innovation? Where’s the niche / specialist vendors?
I have mentioned the LFDD user group before but the London Flash Developer and Designer user group is now officially an Adobe recognised and supported user group. It is also recognised and supported by Friends of Ed so as well as speakers, question time and personal presentation opportunities, it a;so benefits from all the things the official Adobe and FoE recognition brings, including book and software prizes to be won.
The group is dedicated to beginners and intermediates, as there are already 2 advanced user groups in London for Flash and Flex. But what does that mean? Who should go to the group? Well, broadly speaking, if you can answer ‘yes’ to any of the following then this is the group for you:
The group meets once a month (the penultimate Thursday of every month) at the South Bank University’s Keyworth Center on the 1st floor. There is just now an Adobe user group official site for it (http://groups.adobe.com/group/815). Everyone is welcome no matter what your background of expertise. It’s a very open and friendly group and if you have knowledge to share then it always welcomed.
If there are topics you’d like to see covered then please let us know as we have the expertise and the connections with Adobe to make it happen. we’ll also be giving away Adobe software from time to time and Friends of Ed have generously donated any amount of excellent books to give out as prizes (or if you’re willing to read them and write a review of the book for the user group site)
ok, so the London Flash Developers and Designers group, who will be referred to as the LFDD from now on, with which we are affiliated, have Iain Lobb talking there tomorrow night on Games development and design in Flash. Iain has done some great work and has spoken on the subject at Flash on the Beach. If you are a budding games developer or designer then sign up and get along to the South Bank University’s Keyworth building on the 1st floor tomorrow night. Nearest tube is Elephant and Castle (just round the corner).
Iain’s talk will include:
One of our senior partners will be giving a talk for beginners and intermediates alike at the London Flash Developer and Designer’s user group this Thursday the 26th at 7pm at the London South Bank University’s Keyworth Center.
The talk on moving to OO development in Flash/actionscript is aimed at answering the many questions of why and how to move from procedural development in actionscript to Object Oriented analysis and develpment.
To find out more about this group and talk, please see the entry at FlashCoder.