New Version of Klok Mobile for Android available

We posted a new update to the Klok Mobile for Android beta last night. We will be posting it to the Android Market very soon but if you would to try it out now, you can download in manually from our website

Note: You will need Android 2.2 and you must have the Adobe AIR runtime installed first. For more information about system requirements, see the Air mobile system requirements on Adobe's site.

Flash Builder Burrito/Flex Hero

I'm sure I am not the only one wondering what is going on with Flash Builder Burrito and Flex Hero. Adobe usually has another beta ready around the time the first beta "expires" but I haven't heard or read anything about new beta builds at all. Maybe I missed some blog posts now that Adobe Feeds doesn't work.

If there is someone at Adobe reading this that can at least comment, that would be appreciated.

Adobe AIR Application: Klok Mobile for Android Beta now available - update

With the excitement of Thanksgiving last week you may have missed our exciting announcement regarding the Android version of Klok Mobile. If you have an Android phone that meets the requirements for Adobe AIR for Android and would like to try out the mobile version of Klok, feel free to click on over to the Klok Mobile for Android page on our site. Make sure you read the Getting Started section. Also, please send any bugs or feature requests to us at support@mcgraphix.com.

Adobe AIR Application Klok surpasses half a million downloads

This is giving me a bit of deja vu, as it was only a little over a month ago that I announced that Klok had reached 350,000 downloads. But, I am happy to announce today that while I was on vacation for the last two weeks, Klok has surpassed 500,000 downloads. As of today it is actually more like 600,000. Thanks to everyone who has helped make Klok such an enormous success.

What happened to the AIR Marketplace?

If you haven't noticed, Adobe has a new website. Unfortunately, it leaves a bit to be desired IMHO.

I wanted to look for something in the AIR Marketplace (which is where my application Klok lives) but could not find a link for the AIR Marketplace anywhere. I expected this to get a more prominent spot. I ended up searching for it and found it that way, but I never did find it in the navigation anywhere

It also took me a few minutes to find the links to the designer and developer community sections. They are nestled under Learning in case you are looking for them too. While there is certainly a lot to be learned there, I didn't immediately make the connection.

Perhaps the site isn't completely done yet?

Aside from the missing link, you will notice another item that has gone missing... Flash content. There is surprisingly little Flash being used on the site. Now it isn't to say that there should be a lot of Flash on the site, I'm just saying that I was surprised to see the home page with the big Acrobat X graphic on there without some cool animation or interactive content.

Flex: The ABC data is corrupt - Solution

About a half hour ago, I was happily coding along on my Flex Adobe AIR application and all of a sudden when I tried to run the application (which compiled without error) I got this error when the application was initializing.

VerifyError: Error #1107: The ABC data is corrupt, attempt to read out of bounds.

My first thought was "What the hell is ABC data?". I still have no idea what that means but I did figure out what the problem was. After doing a bunch of searching I finally went back through every change I had made in my code since the last time it ran successfully.

What I found was that I had added two optional arguments to a method with the same name. I'm not sure exactly how that mistake caused that error message but in case you run into this error take a look at your method arguments. Given the genericness off the error message, I suspect that there are probably a lot of other different ways to cause that error message but this fixed it for me.

Android - A breath of fresh (Adobe) AIR

In case you have not heard, Adobe has release the Adobe AIR 2.5 runtime for Android devices. We should start seeing some very cool mobile applications built with the Flash Platform in the coming weeks. I know I can't wait.

Adobe AIR Application Klok reaches 350,000 downloads

It is almost hard to believe, but as of Sept 30, 2010 Klok has been downloaded 350,000. It seems like just yesterday I was posting about it reaching 2000 downloads. Back then it was just an experiment that I used to learn Flex and Adobe AIR development and enter in Adobe's "developer derby". Time really flies... which is why it is so important that you keep track of it.... using Klok of course.

OpenPlug Elips - Sounds great but...

Don't you hate when you get all excited about how easy something is and then try it out and it just doesn't work the way you expect it to?

Well, OpenPlug Elips Studio sounds pretty great (except for the price) so I decided to give it a quick try while I await Flex Hero. So I created a very simple app with some text on it and tested in FlashBuilder and saw the Android emulator (I think... it kind of looks like an emulator comes up and then the air app comes up and is positioned over top of the emulator) come up and show me my application. So far so good. Then I decided I wanted to try creating the APK file and install it on the emulator myself and eventually on my Evo (Froyo is coming tomorrow so I hear).

This is where things started to go wrong. First off, I had an Actionscript error where I had a creationComplete handler specified on the application but didn't have a matching method in my code. The error message shown in the console was pretty big considering the error. So it took me a few to find my problem.

Then I compiled again and got a different error regarding the keystore being in the wrong format. I thought the issue was that in the configuration I hadn't correctly specified the necessary parameters to generate a key. So I specified all the values that were required and tried again. No joy though. The new error... "Incorrect AVA format". I don't really know what that means. A search of the support forum, returns exactly 1 result that mentions "rebuilding the keystore". Not exactly sure what that means either so I am dead in the water at this point.

Hey Adobe... help me out here. A beta of Hero would really help right about now.

Flex Hero now available for download?

If you are like me then you are anxiously awaiting the ability to create apps for mobile devices with Flex. With the announcement of Flex Hero a couple of weeks ago I have been a kid waiting for Christmas. Several people have asked about Klok for Android and I have been playing around with Flash CS5 but I would love to build it with Flex if possible.

So today I decided to see what additional information was available online. A quick Google search returned this result:

Clicking the link brought me to the general login page for Adobe's site. Upon logging in I was brought to the Adobe Groups home page. Unfortunately, that is where the trail went cold. Hitting the link directly, even after logging in, gave me an generic permission denied error.

It seems that on July 20, it was possible to download the Flex SDK with Hero atop it, but it is no longer publicly available(?). Perhaps there is a private beta that I don't know about. If there is I would love to be included... Did you hear that Adobe? Just in case you didn't, I will say it lounder: ADOBE, PLEASE INCLUDE ME IN THE FLEX HERO BETA.

Klok | Adobe CS 5 integration anyone?

Yesterday, I read something about Adobe's Creative Suite SDK and it got me thinking. As someone who spends a lot of time in Adobe tools (Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.) I might find it useful, if I had a panel right in those programs where I could start or stop working on a project and have it automatically start the Klok timer. This seems entirely possible with their SDK. However, before I spend a whole bunch of time working on it, I figured I would put it out there and see if there was actually any interest to anybody else. So is this something that you would find useful or should I not waste the time?

Who am I kidding... it seems like a fun thing to do, so I will probably do it anyway at some point.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Someone noticed the worm in the Apple

I can't say I am surprised at this investigation by the FTC. I wonder if Steve Jobs is? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that someone at Adobe may be grinning on the inside about this.

I finally understand Steve Job's argument against Flash

Yes. That's right, I finally understand Steve Job's argument... and it is more asinine than I thought. You may have seen that he posted an open letter on the Apple website clearly spelling out his argument. While there are some things I can't disagree with such as stability and security on Macs (since I don't work on a Mac that much), there are a few statements that really clear it up for me.

What I mean by that is the fact that Steve Jobs is so removed from the lowly task of developing software that he cannot comprehend what it would take to create an equivalent application in HTML5, CSS and Javascript. To quote Steve Jobs:

If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

There really are no words to describe how much this trivializes what Flash developers do.

You might as well say:

Why take a plane from New York to LA when you can ride a bike?"

The two technologies have widely varying capabilities and weaknesses. Why not use HTML5, CSS and JavaScript? Because they aren't good enough yet. They just aren't. I know Steve wants them to be and maybe someday they will but right now you just can't do the same thing. Even if some websites, applications, and games could be done it HTML5, it isn't necessarily cost effective for me to change everything to support one platform.

And do we really need to hear how Apple defines Open again:

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Now I don't know about you but this statement is just as true as Jobs's

Apple iDevice products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Apple, and Apple has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Apple's products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Apple and available only from Apple. By almost any definition, Apple's iDevice is a closed system.

And when you think about it, the Flash Player is free, Adobe's Flex SDK is open source and the Flex Compiler is free, the Flash Player format spec is freely available. It doesn't cost anything additional for a developer to start creating apps for the Flash Platform. Just a browser, the free items above and some initiative and off you go. Plus, I can't remember the last time Adobe stepped in an disallowed any Flash application from being sold (or given away for free)

In contrast, you need to buy a Mac from Apple to build iDevice apps, you need to pay for the privledge of becoming an iDevice developer (which doesn't guarantee they will let you actually distribute anything you create). You then have to submit your creation to Apple's approval process (whose guidelines vary widely depending on some unknown criteria). At any time Apple can choose to prevent your creation from being distributed even if it approved it previously.

Now seriously, does Apple really think they are more "Open" than Adobe?

Apparently Jobs also doesn't understand the meaning of the word full. So here is the definition for anyone else who doesn't know:

• containing as much or as many as is possible or normal
• entire: constituting the full quantity or extent; complete;
• complete in extent or degree and in every particular

More...

When a person goes to a website and the whole thing or any significant part of it cannot be seen, then they are by definition not seeing the "full" website. It doesn't matter that YouTube videos can be seen if the ones I want can't be seen. If many of the sites I visit use Flash, and many do, then I am not seeing the "full" web. If I play a lot of games online that are Flash, then I am again not seeing the "full" web.

I do agree that Flash was created in the PC era. However, Objective-C was too. And who cares? Flash is pushing beyond PCs too. Targeting TVs, mobile devices, and anything else with a screen is just as likely with the Flash Platform.

Having Flash on mutliple types of devices does not mean that Adobe (or their developer base) wants to take a single application and run it on every device. What we do want is to be able to leverage some code, logic and assets in order to quickly build contextual apps without driving costs up by recoding everything in a different technology.

So yes... I understand what he is saying. To paraphrase: "I am so important that it doesn't matter that I am so out of touch with reality... people will follow me! And by the way... I want to control everything"

Lets not forget that the iPhone can have buggy apps when built natively too

There seems to be a trend with the people backing Apple in their decision to prevent Flash from being compiled to the iPhone. Many developers have been saying that that capability will cause a whole wave of poorly designed/developed applications from get submitted which would be a huge burden on the App Store review process.

Am I the only person who has my iPhone lockup or crash when using native apps?

I doubt it. Bad developers are bad developers regardless of what language they use. The fact that a bunch of new app submissions is going to bog down the review process speaks more about the review process than the apps. What if for a whole new generation of Objective-C developers comes out of the woodwork? Wouldn't that slow down the review process too? Wouldn't you get just as many poorly written applications? The fact of the matter is that the whole concept of a review process is ridiculous. If Apple wants to maintain quality, then have the review process be optional. Then let the consumer choose whether they want to download apps that don't have the Apple approval.

There are probably a hundred different compromises that could be made that would benefit both developers and consumers while at the same time protected the Apple brand experience. The real problem is Apple's lack of willingness to compromise.

Apple pours salt on Adobe's wound...

In a further attempt to crush Adobe, Steve Jobs has announced that starting Monday (coincidentally the same day as the Adobe CS5 launch event) you will no longer be able to dial the number 5 from your iPhone. Steve Jobs states that the number 5 is buggy and has lead to 92% of all iPhone crashes.

This couldn't be true right? Of course not... but it is only slightly more ridiculous than his decision to prevent the use of the Flash iPhone packager. There are a lot of developers out hear that didn't want to have to take sides in the Adobe/Apple war... but we are taking a lot of shrapnel from Apple's F-You grenades.

I for one will be focusing on AIR development for every other phone and if I have to learn Silverlight to support Windows Phone 7, then I will.

This certainly doesn't make me want to go spend $3000 on a Mac, then pay for the privilege of becoming an "iPhone" developer, then spend a ridiculous amount of time learning a language that's only other use is for supporting a single minority (talking Mac vs. Windows here) platform, then spend tons of time building the next great mobile application which will need to ported to Flash anyway to support all the other phones, only to have it take forever to be reviewed by the App Store nazis and finally get rejected because Steve Jobs doesn't like the color Red (or some other undisclosed reason).

Ok... I'm done ranting for today. Now I will go back to checking out the HP Slate

Did Steve Jobs Just Kill the iPad

In case you are living under a rock you may not be aware that Apple and Adobe have there... differences. This article on Slate asks whether Steve Jobs' decision to keep Flash off the IPad will "kill Flash".

There have been many "Flash Killers" over the years which have faded into obscurity, so you could easily ask whether this decision will be worse for Apple than Adobe. If you think about all the great things that the iPad would be great for (video, mobile video conferencing, games, presentations) you will see that most if not all of them are currently solved with adequate success using Flash today. So, as an iPad user you will probably eventually be able to get all those things on the iPad, but my expectations (and those of many gadget users) are that any new device should add value on top of what I have today... the iPad doesn't (at least not in the way I want it to).

So the argument needs to focus on which technology meets the needs and expectations of the target audience. I just don't see how Apple's latest device will do that. It just isn't as revolutionary as the iPod or iPhone.

Download Klok 2.0 Beta and help those in need

While sitting around the table at Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago, it was inevitable that you hear people say things like “I can’t eat another bite”. It was at that moment this year where I thought to myself how crazy it is that while we sit around with more food that we can eat there are others that don’t have food (not to mention clothing and shelter)… not just on Thanksgiving, but every day.

So, with Thanksgiving a distant memory and Christmas and Chanukah right around the corner, I had a thought about how we can help make a difference for those struggling this year. So for now until the end of the year half of every donation made to support Klok, will be donated to various local charities and food pantries.

As an added bonus for making a donation, you will automatically be given access to the Klok 2 beta. Since more of you have asked to be included in the beta program than I had spots available, I was not able to include everyone initially. While I had intended to keep the beta population small for my own convenience I feel that this is a great way to help.

For anyone who doesn't know, Klok is an Timetracking application built with Adobe Flex and deployed as an Adobe AIR application. More information can be found at the official Klok website at http://klok.mcgraphix.com

LiveCycle Data Services 3 - Pricing

I was poking around the Adobe Labs site and came across the Model Driven Development Getting Started Guide. This looks really, really cool. However, I couldn't find any information regarding which version of LiveCycle DS it will be part of. Given the hype about the new capabilities of Flash Building and LiveCycle, I'm sure there are many developers getting very excited about using it in real world projects. It definitely seems like it can save a lot of time.

I am anxious to download it and try it out, but before I put the time and effort into it, I would like to know if it is really feasible for the types of projects I work on and the budgets I need to work within. If there is going to be a $5000 per CPU type price tag on it, I will have a hard time justifying it to my clients.

To put my conspiracy theorist hat on for a moment, I wonder if Adobe is withholding the price until we all get "hooked." Once hooked, we may never want to go back to writing server side code which would allow them to charge us an arm and a leg.

Adobe InContext Editing problem with SIFR

I recently had an opportunity to try out InContext Editing on a client project. Of course, 5 minutes after hooking it up I ran into a problem. If you happen to be using sIFR to add nice typography to your site, you will notice two problems.

1. First, the sIFR Flash content appears to be in front of the InContext Editing interface;
2. Second, the sIFR replaced text is not editable. If you make an editable region around sIFR replaced text, you get an error when you edit the page.

Luckily, there is a simple solution to the problem. If you open up the sifr.js file you will immediately notice that the Javascript is compressed in such way that it is pretty unfriendly. However, since luck is on our side, the only line you need to edit is human-readable. Scroll to the bottom of the file and you will see a line that looks like this:

if(typeof sIFR == "function" && !sIFR.UA.bIsIEMac && (!sIFR.UA.bIsWebKit || sIFR.UA.nWebKitVersion >= 100)) {

That IF statement checks to make sure sIFR is ready to be setup. In our case what we want to do is make sure that that condition checks to see if you are in InContext Editing. We can tell by looking at the top.document.location to see if the page that is currently in the location bar is the ice/ide.html page. Changing the condition above to:

if(typeof sIFR == "function" && !sIFR.UA.bIsIEMac && (!sIFR.UA.bIsWebKit || sIFR.UA.nWebKitVersion >= 100) && top.document.location.toString().indexOf("ice/ide.html") <= 0){

Doing so will cause sIFR to be enabled unless you are in the InContext Editor...problem solved.

Vista 64 bit and Type 1 fonts

I came across a weird problem today where after installing a Type 1 font, it was still not available in Illustrator or Photoshop but was available in MS Word. It turns out that you need to install it in the normal fonts folder and put it in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts as well.

I don't know if this violates any font licenses so you should verify that you are allowed to have two copies installed this way.