Adobe Releases Flash Player 10.1 And AIR 2.0 – Both Include Multi-touch Support November 17, 2009
Posted by pannet in Multimedia, Programming.Tags: Adobe, Adobe AIR, Flash, Mobile, Multi-Touch, Programming
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A mere week after Adobe Systems reported that it would be shedding nearly 700 employees or 9% of its total worldwide workforce, the company is releasing two highly anticipated new products that have been in the works for a while: Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2.0.
Both of the products are being released with a ‘beta’ label at the same time for all 3 major operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux) and x86-based netbooks, and are available now via Adobe Labs.
The links to the products are now live: Flash Player and AIR.
People who were still hoping for a beta release of the new Flash Player for mobile will be somewhat disappointed by the fact that they’ll have to exercise even more patience.
But first things first.
Both the new Flash Player for desktop browsers and the latest iteration of the rather popular cross-platform runtime environment for desktop apps were announced in the beginning of October and previewed at the recent Adobe MAX 2009 event (see video below). That means there aren’t too many surprises left with regards to what the upgraded versions bring, so we’ll just give you a quick run-down.
Both Adobe AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1:
– boast support for multi-touch and gestures (yes, you’d need a machine with a touch screen)
– include a global error handler, which enables devs to write a single handler to process all runtime errors
– (finally) support local microphone access, so you’ll no longer need to first pass through a server in order to record audio locally on both Flash Platform runtimes
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 now also leverages hardware decoding of H.264 video on Windows PCs, netbooks and mobile devices.
Want all that goodness on your mobile phone, too? Hold your horses: while a public beta of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for Palm webOS is expected later this year, Google Android support is expected no sooner than early 2010, and support for Blackberry smartphones will likely take even more time to be added.
Also new in Adobe AIR 2.0 and worthy of a mention:
– Native process API: enables apps to communicate with native applications on local machines
– Mass storage device detection: plug in your Flip camera or that USB stick you got as a gift at the last conference you attended, and AIR 2 applications will be able to detect them
– Open document API: with it, AIR apps can ‘ask’ the OS what the default application is associated with files and function accordingly
– Improved socket support: think AIR-powered local servers and P2P apps
– Speedier WebKit: updated version that includes a faster JavaScript engine and new HTML5/CSS3 capabilities
via Adobe Releases Flash Player 10.1 And AIR 2.0 – Both Include Multi-touch Support.
Twitter API getting location data August 21, 2009
Posted by andre in Internet & Communities, Programming.Tags: API, Geotagging, Location, Programming, Twitter
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Biz Stone from Twitter has announced that the service will soon get a new feature in its API: the capability to optionally put geolocation data into tweets.
Currently, geo-focused apps like Foursquare must hack location data into updates by linking them to Web pages. Once Twitter lets developers embed geo into tweets themselves, a new and interesting world for developers will likely open up.
As Stone says in his post, “For example, with accurate, tweet-level location data you could switch from reading the tweets of accounts you follow to reading tweets from anyone in your neighborhood or city–whether you follow them or not. It’s easy to imagine how this might be interesting at an event like a concert or even something more dramatic like an earthquake.”
By having the geodata available only to developers, though, and not via the general Twitter.com user interface, the company may also shift the economics of Twitter a bit. If geodata in tweets can only be written and read by apps and third-party Web services, those services will become even more valuable, possibly kicking off yet another round of Twitter client battles. […]
via Twitter API getting location data | Rafe’s Radar – CNET News
Google releases Wave protocol implementation source code – Ars Technica July 28, 2009
Posted by pannet in Internet & Communities, Programming.Tags: Google, Google Wave, Programming
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[…] Google intends to open the source code of its own implementation in order to encourage widespread adoption of the protocol. The company took its first major steps in that direction on Friday by releasing the source code of its Operational Transform (OT) code and a simple client/server reference implementation that is built on top of the protocol. This code, which is available under the open source Apache Software License, will give developers a way to start experimenting with the protocol and potentially even building their own Wave-compatible services.
“To kickoff Federation Day, we open sourced two components: 1) the Operational Transform (OT) code and the underlying wave model, and 2) a basic client/server prototype that uses the wave protocol,” says an announcement in the official Google Wave developer blog. “The OT code is the heart and soul of the collaborative experience in Google Wave and we plan that code will evolve into the production-quality reference implementation,”[…]
Because of the complexity of Wave’s concurrency model, Google is concerned that third-party implementations of the underlying OT framework will not be able to interoperate correctly with each other. Google aims to provide a standard production-quality reference implementation that all adopters will be able to use in order to minimize the risk of inconsistent behavior. The company says that it will also provide comprehensive testing frameworks to help guarantee the compatibility of third-party implementations. […]
Wave is highly exciting technology with enormous potential. As the platform opens further, it’s likely that we will see Google’s Wave protocol reference implementation code repurposed in innovative ways and integrated with other independent services.
via Google releases Wave protocol implementation source code – Ars Technica.
Open Javascript framework provides virtual geolocation for mobile developers – GPS Obsessed July 12, 2009
Posted by pannet in Mobile & Gadgets, Programming.Tags: GPS, Location-based service, Mobility, Programming
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This post is for all of the geospatial developers out there. Stan Wiechers of mobile analytics service PercentMobile has put together an open javascript framework that enables engineers to simulate a potential users location and movement without requiring a real-world presence. The underlying code provides a base hidden by a simple interface and the entire deal is incredibly simple. I’m far from being a savvy coder but even I can make sense of this framework.
Wiechers has put the source code on Google Code with several examples and a description of the project.
Open Web Tools Directory – Mozilla Labs July 7, 2009
Posted by pannet in Internet & Communities, Programming.Tags: Internet, Mozilla, Programming
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There are an immense number of tools that have been created to help web developers. Unfortunately, you might never know this; there’s no central index of these tools. It turns out that keeping up with all the development in this space is really difficult–even for folks like us who have been tracking it every day for years.
As we’ve explored different tools we could create here as part of the Developer Tools Lab, we’ve come to the opinion that in addition to creating new tools, one of the best things we could do is help developers understand the broad universe of tools that already exist and expose some of the fantastic and amazing work that’s being done.
We’re launching today a first step in this direction: an Open Web Tools Directory.
(Note: a modern browser with canvas is required to view this, like Firefox 3.5, Safari 4, Chrome 2, or Opera 9). […]
So where do we go from here?
First, we’re putting out a call for folks to tell us about their tools. We’ve prepared a data entry form for you to use to submit a tool; please, help us fill up the directory with the hundreds or thousands of items we’ve missed! Your entries won’t go live immediately, but we’ll review them on a regular basis and get them added.
Second, let us know what features you’d most like in the directory.
Via https://labs.mozilla.com/2009/07/open-web-tools-directory/
Jetpack | Mozilla looks to enable Web personalization May 26, 2009
Posted by andre in Internet & Communities.Tags: Addons, CSS, Firefox, HTML, JavaScript, Jetpack, Mozilla, Programming
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Mozilla Labs on Wednesday afternoon unveiled an open source project intended to explore new ways to extend and personalize the Web via Firefox browser add-ons.
The Mozilla Jetpack project features an add-on creation process for the browser that is more accessible technically. Anyone who can build a Web site can participate in making the Web as a place to work, play, and communicate, a Mozilla representative said. Developers can build features that are secure, easy to install, and faster to review, according to Mozilla. The features can be added to a browser without restart or compatibility issues, thus resulting in little or no disruption to an online experience. […]
Jetpack is intended to extend development of add-ons to HTML, JavaScript, and CSS programmers. The current 0.1 release serves as a prototype and
features an API, jQuery support, and an IDE via the Bespin cloud-based
code editor. The initial API release does not include a fully formed
security model. […]
via Mozilla looks to enable Web personalization | Developer World – InfoWorld
Liquid Media 