Monthly Archives: April 2009

Merapi on the Tesla – Yeah, that Tesla

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This is really cool. Tesla is using Merapi and Adobe AIR for their cool, new user interface. If you check out the TechCrunch article you’ll see the new car comes with a 17 inch touch screen and it has 3G or wireless access. It ties into services like Google Maps and Pandora which means it’s a perfect candidate for AIR since you can get both Flash and HTML.

Merapi is what glues it all together. Using Merapi they were able to expose all of the hardware of the car to the UI layer. Congrats to Adam, Dave, and the rest of the Roundarch team. This is a really cool project and I’m glad Merapi has such a high profile deployment.

Win Money By Building a Great Location-based RIA

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Intuit and Xtify are running a contest that’s very close to my heart. Xtify provides a set of location-based APIs so you can see where the people using your application actually are. And of course Intuit is a huge supporter of Flex and they have a very robust SDK for building Flex applications on their platform. Combine those two things and you have the Intuit/Xtify Application Contest.

The contest started yesterday, so you’re already late. The publishing deadline for your application is June 23rd, so you’ve still got a couple of months. The grand prize is $7,000 and there are also $4,000 and $1,500 prizes for 1st and 2nd place. This is a great chance for people interested in location and RIAs to earn some money while playing with a great platform. I might even try and enter :)

Flash on the TV

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I’ve been a bit off the grid which is why the blog has been a bit dusty. I’m down in New Zealand as part of Web09 and did some hiking as well as a bunch of customer visits and user group meetings so I’ve been neglecting the blog. But I wanted to make sure everyone saw the TV announcement. We’re working with a bunch of industry partners including Comcast, Intel, Netflix, The New York Times, Disney, and Broadcom to bring Flash Player to Internet enabled TVs. My favorite article was from the New York Times because of this quote:

The denizens of Hollywood and Silicon Valley have, by and large, vastly different value systems, role models, even tastes in cars, food and clothing.

But they increasingly agree on one thing: a standard for online video called Adobe Flash.

As Flash video continues to take off it means more opportunities for Flash developers. At Web09 and in a lot of the customer visits I’ve been in here in New Zealand, people want their content to be multi-screen and we want that to mean more than just mobile devices. We want you to be able to put your Flash content anywhere.

There are going to be a bunch of fun announcements coming up between NAB and FiTC, so stay tuned. There will be a lot of Flash goodness in the next couple of weeks.

Cool Stuff From My Co-Workers

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The best part of my job isn’t the travel, getting to talk to developers, or even drinking many different kinds of beer. It’s that I get to work with people doing some really fun stuff…….(well maybe that’s second to the beer). And this week they seem to have been on a roll so I wanted to share some things.

Kids have been busy. It makes me feel like a slacker.

Watch the Masters Tournament Live with Flash Media Server

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I’ll be honest. I think golf is for sissies and for me the Masters is just a few days where ESPN.com is cluttered with stuff I don’t care about. But some people really love their Masters Tournament, and if you’re going to watch it, you might as well enjoy it live in HD right in your browser. Both Masters.com and CBSSports.com have live coverage courtesy of Flash Media Server. CBSSports.com gives you a low and high connection option while Masters.com has it in full HD glory.

The TechCrunch Tablet Looks Awesome and I’m Pretty Sure it’s Flash-Enabled

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The TechCrunch Tablet had a few leaked screenshots which if legit, are pretty damn impressive. Great form factor, nice touch screen (hopefully multitouch) and Applesque packaging. My favorite part? I’m pretty sure it’s fully supporting Flash.

crunchtablet_flash

This screenshot (above) shows the TechCrunch homepage and in all of the browsers I tried, the top right bar of the homepage is a Flash banner ad. The screenshot renders everything perfectly. I know they wanted to support Flash, so I’m hoping this is an indication that it works. Combine that with the rest of the device and this could be a really cool way for Flash developers to show off their stuff.

I’ll try to get more info on if/what version of Flash it supports.

Update: I just got served a regular image ad in that spot on techcrunch.com, so it might not be rendering Flash in that screenshot. I know they wanted to add it, so I’ll keep trying to track down some info.

Adobe Stimulus Plan: Free Flex Builder

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I’m happy to see OSNews, Download Squad, and Webmonkey pick up the fact that we’re giving away a free license to Flex Builder for developers that have been hit by the economy’s downturn.

It’s a great way for developers looking to branch out to learn something new. As James noted, the job market for Flex is doing very well and it’s a fun technology to get to know. So head to https://freeriatools.adobe.com/learnflex/ to get your copy of Flex Builder. We also have some free offers for anyone in the education sector, so if you’re taking courses, you’ve got an easy way to learn Flex and ColdFusion.

Adobe’s Kevin Towes Makes the Streaming Media All-Stars List

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This is pretty cool. Every year Streaming Media picks an all-star team that consists of some of the most influential people in the world of online video — people who have made a big difference in bringing, creating, and distributing video on the web. The list this year is a great one with folks like Jeremy Allaire from Brightcove, Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu……….and our own Kevin Towes, the product manager for Flash Media Server.

It’s been really fun to watch as Flash has completely changed how people watch video on the web. The FMS team deserves a lot of kudos for enhancing and optimizing the video experience for everyone, and wins like MLB.com or Hulu are a good indication that we’re doing something right. So congrats to Kevin and everyone on the FMS team. Here’s Kevin’s card and responses to some Streaming Media questions:

towesKevin Towes, Product Manager, Adobe Flash Media Server, Adobe Systems, Inc.

Previous job titles:

  • Principal Consultant, New Toronto Group
  • Co-Founder, Pangaea New Media
  • Director, Juno Awards Online
  • Professor Media Arts, Ryerson University, Toronto

Proudest achievements:
-Juno Awards Online broadcasts (1996) – Fresh out of University with lots of ideas, I worked to help bring the Canadian Music Industry online starting with the annual music awards show, the Juno Awards (equivalent to the Grammy’s in the USA). We set up shop next to the broadcast trucks with direct access to the top names in Canadian Music including Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLaughlin, Shania Twain, Maynard Ferguson, Oscar Peterson, Tragically Hip, and many more. We worked with early streaming technology like Progressive Networks (now Real) to provide the postage stamp video over dial up modems – Our first event hosted 25 concurrent streams growing to over 200 (which at the time was huge).

-Emmy Nomination (2002) – CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) Vancouver hosted a daily program live called “ZeD uncut” – ZeD was a new-age show that toyed with “interactive” and culture blending film, music, television, text, image and interactive together to form a 1 nightly program across the nation’s network. I worked with the CBC Vancouver team to create “the Wall” – an interactive place that users could use their webcam to place their video stream to be invited to join the live television broadcast from their living room. We also created video-based instant polling and real time chat. Tens of thousands of people participated during the lifetime of the show and became what we know today as the social network.

-Flash Media Server 3 and 3.5 (2008) – Hosted by the top 20 CDN’s worldwide and responsible for driving higher quality, and higher valued video experiences we’ve come to expect from the web. Helping to drive experiences such as Masters.com, NFL.com, MySpace.com and uStream.com – FMS is a vital part of the video experience on the web today. I wrote the first book on Flash Media Server back in 2001 and I would rank my participation in these new releases as part of my top achievements in the Streaming Media industry.

Next big thing:

  • The future of Flash Media distribution and Video on the Adobe Flash Platform (increasing quality, capacity, security, engagement and the overall experience)
  • Helping people find new ways to “interact” with video experiences through technology like DVR and video chat
  • Helping content owners (and the industry) find new revenue streams with video on the web

Kevin Lynch’s Flash Catalyst Keynote at Web 2.0 Expo

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At Web 2.0 Expo we had some great news about Facebook and the Flash Platform but we also got some face time for Flash Catalyst. Kevin Lynch demoed Flash Catalyst at one of the keynotes. The buzz of the demo has been really fantastic and it was fun watching the tweets go by as he was doing the demo. They’ve uploaded the demo to blip.tv so you can check it out.

For more video goodness from Web 2.0 you can check out Beet.tv’s interview with Adrian Ludwig on the partnership with Facebook.