Flash 10.1: Developing for Desktop and Device

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Yesterday Adobe made the beta of its new Flash 10.1 player available for desktop testing via Adobe Labs. The fact that it’s only a point release suggests that it’s a relatively trivial update but that’s not the case. In fact 10.1 is one of the most significant releases in the history of Flash.

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PowerPoint and Silverlight: a perfect match?

Monday, November 9th, 2009

With its place at the heart of the Microsoft Office suite, PowerPoint is the overwhelmingly dominant presentation software for business. However it has a fundamental flaw – it still doesn’t offer an in-built route for efficient, cross-platform, screen-based web delivery. For a program whose whole purpose is to help users get their message over, this is quite astonishing and unforgivable as we approach 2010.

Microsoft might not provide its own solution but there are plenty of third-party applications which fill the gap such as Adobe’s Captivate and Presenter, the bargain Flair from WildFX and my personal favourite Articulate Presenter. The major embarrassment for Microsoft is that these all rely on the Adobe Flash format.

It’s an embarrassment that is made considerably worse by the fact that Microsoft is currently busily touting its own cross-platform web format, Silverlight, as a direct alternative to Flash. It’s clear that PowerPoint and Silverlight should make a perfect match and native Silverlight export would certainly go a long way to explaining (if not excusing) PowerPoint’s lack of support for Flash.

So where is the ability to convert PowerPoint to Silverlight?

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Can Your Browser Do This? Adaptive Layout

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Recently I wrote that what makes RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) different from browser-native web applications isn’t rich functionality or rich content but rich design. Moreover I argued that only a player-based approach (effectively Flash/Flex or Silverlight/WPF) can provide the platform necessary to take web design to the next level.

As I expected, the feedback to the piece centred on the best way of blocking Flash content as it always does whenever I mention the technology. It’s hardly surprising as the first thing that comes to most people’s mind when you mention Flash is irritating banner ads specifically intended to distract you from reading the real content of the page – the absolute definition of bad design.

However in the context of a RIA, Flash/Flex is capable of so much more – producing an end user experience that the browser alone can never hope to match… (more…)

Google and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of Google’s browser-native approach to web application development. Strategically I can see the advantages (wide and open access) and politically I think it’s admirable (open standards) but, in design terms, this lowest common denominator approach proves disastrous.

For example in a comparison between the barebones HTML-based Google Docs and the slick Flash-based Acrobat.com, I’d reserve the term RIA (rich internet application) for the latter and dismiss the former as a mere “web application” (more importantly I know which one I’d prefer to use).

Recently though I have to admit that Google caused my jaw to drop… and made me question the distinction.

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The real reason Microsoft has given in over Internet Explorer

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

So why is Microsoft giving in over Internet Explorer? What’s the true motivation for the so-called browser ballot? It hasn’t been forced into the matter, although it could be argued that this was coming over the hill from the EU.

No, I think there is another reason, but this is pure speculation. I think Microsoft is actually walking away from Internet Explorer because it knows the battle is going to move elsewhere. It’s a kind of inversion, but the logic goes like this. (more…)

Silverlight not so Flash for Microsoft

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

When Microsoft announced it was launching an iPlayer rival I could barely hear the words over the onrushing sound of catastrophic failure. If you listen closely, you can hear it too…. Huuuluuu, Huuuluuu, Hulu.

Having used Hulu, I can testify that it’s brilliant and now its flame-filled eyes of domination are on the UK. If the whispers are true it’ll stride into the UK next month, laughing maniacally and kicking its competitors in the crotch, I’d imagine. It’s going to be a bloodbath and if I were Microsoft I’d take Windows 7 and Office 2010 and hunker down in my fortress made of £100 notes. Instead it’s tying itself to the tracks. Unfortunately, stubbornness has never derailed a freight train.

So, that’s that. What really baffles me about MSN Video Player (yes, beyond its very existence) is that Microsoft’s chosen to roll it out on Flash. That’s Adobe’s Flash. That’s Adobe, the next-door-neighbour with the bigger garden, prettier wife and stranglehold on the internet. Microsoft’s been trying to unseat Flash with Silverlight for the last couple of years, ushering developers towards the platform with big smiles and over-elaborate tech demos. And now, confronted by one of its biggest web rollouts for years, it expresses its confidence in Silverlight by sidling into its rivals garden and groping his wife. (more…)

Adobe rips off / the wraps on Catalyst

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Two announcements from Adobe today. 

First the bad news…

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Flash Penetration: The Truth

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Last week I posted an item questioning Adobe’s claim that “Flash content reaches 99.0% of Internet viewers”. I made the argument on a number of grounds but the bottom line was that the figure just seemed unbelievable when you factor in the number of Linux users and other Flash haters (joke) as well as all those brand new users who haven’t got around to installing yet.

The post was picked up on Slashdot and generated a lot of comment mostly from anti-Flash zealots and those who thought I was questioning the maths rather than the methodology (a survey commissioned by Adobe based on a small panel of opt-in users who were asked whether they could see various items of plug-in content complete with player download dialogs!).

However there was one particularly useful response…

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99% Flash Player Penetration – Too Good to be True?

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Adobe makes much of the fact that its Flash player has become” the world’s most pervasive software platform” bridging the worlds of PC, Mac and Linux. Nowadays this claim is generally taken as read but ultimately it depends on the ubiquity of the Flash player as advertised on the Adobe site.

But should the claims be taken at face value?

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Acrobat, Flash and iPaper

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

In my last digital design column in the latest issue of the magazine I take a look at the long history of “iPaper”. It’s essentially the story of the holy grail for designers: a format that manages to combine the design strengths and reading experience of paper with the unbeatable advantages offered by the internet – universal, instant and effectively free publishing and delivery.

Back in my first column, 150 issues previously, I had thought it was obvious what format would come to fill this role: the web-optimised PDF. And, as the most common document format on the web after HTML and with semi-integrated playback in most browsers, to an extent it does. Generally though, despite all its other strengths, PDF has failed miserably in its web ambitions. 

So is there an alternative?

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