Category Archives: Flash Video

Video to Your Mobile Phone with Flash

Posted on by
8

I just caught this press release from On2, the people who created the codec for Flash video in version 8. It looks like they are planning on showing off their new codec, Flix Live 8, at the Fall VON 2006 conference in Boston.

There isn’t a lot of news here, but being able to deliver high quality video content to phones with Flash is something that will be a major advantage for the Flash Platform, and it’s something to keep an eye on. If anyone is planning to go, drop me a line. Could this portend some Flash 8 features in the next version of FlashLite?

Update: There are some great comments below, from people who know way more about this than I do. Thanks guys for shedding some light and adding to the info.

Next Gen Advertising, but I can’t link to it because my mom reads my blog

Posted on by
8

Matt Voerman pointed me to a very, very not safe for work advertisement/catalog for the French clothing company, Shai. Gawker covered the ad here a couple of weeks ago.

While blogging about this particular content is not something I plan to do often, this caught my eye simply because of the way it uses Flash Video to build an experience around products (and yes, I said that with a straight face). The catalog is essentially a Flash Video with hotspots that you mouseover to find out more information about the clothes. In this case, the video has nothing to do with the product, as they quickly shed the clothes that Shai is selling, but I think this is a good example of how Flash can enhance a brand and provide an experience that no one else can.

Multimedia is absolutely the new frontier, and for building interactive experiences around multimedia, there is nothing like Flash. It embeds easily, has a small footprint, and is viewable by almost everyone.

Update: If you know of a G-rated site that does the same thing, I’d like to hear about it.

Google Serving up MP3 Flash Player in Gmail

Posted on by
3

I just saw over on Amit’s blog that GMail is now including an MP3 Player. From what Amit says, the player is just a modified version of their Video player, but you will be able to embed it in blogs and websites just like the Odeo player. It is heartening to see a company like Google continue to turn to Flash as their multimedia delivery mechanism. Most of us have known all along that Flash is the best way to do that, but Google is a company with a lot of clout. As you’ll remember, no one was talking about Ajax until Google Maps came along.

I think this portends great things for Flash. Right now, the multimedia integration is very “nailed on”. We haven’t yet gotten to the point that the multimedia is really a part of the application. However with the explosion of easily accessible, user generated multimedia, it is only a matter of time before people start to take the next step and build applications around that. We are already seeing this in applications like Jumpcut.

With Ajax, people wanted to use a technology they were familiar with. As multimedia becomes the focal point of appliations, people are going to want ot build those applications with what they’re familiar with, in this case Flash. It’s a good time to be a Flash developer.

Chalk Up Another Win for Flash Video

Posted on by
Reply

Jeff Jarvis is reporting that tomorrow Ad Age will release (link should work tomorrow) some numbers for the ABC streaming video. The skinny is that research showed an 87% recall by users of the advertiser compared with the typical 24% on TV. That’s a big jump, and good news for anyone looking at the online video world.

Flash Video makes it so easy to view content that I can see how 87% of people would remember the advertisers. Instead of messing with a complicated plugin, users with Flash can just focus on watching the video (and the advertising).

Gotuit – Flash Video Portal

Posted on by
Reply

If you haven’t seen the news, last night Gotuit Media announced Gotuit.com, an on-demand, broadband video portal that is probably one of the coolest Flash RIAs that I’ve seen. Instead of sites like YouTube and MySpace that use Flash to show videos, Gotuit has built an entire application in Flash around viewing the clips.

What makes Gotuit interesting is that it isn’t user-driven, they have actually gone out and gotten content. You can see the news, listen to music videos, check out sports clips. As Michael Arrington says, this application furthers television’s demise. It is a great example of how Flash can be used not only to deliver multimedia, but deliver an entire experience around that multimedia. It is one of the selling points of the platform, and Gotuit does it very well. Richard McManus has some great info on the launch.

Adobe, Buy Jumpcut

Posted on by
Reply

Okay, I said it. Adobe should buy Jumpcut (obligatory TechCrunch profile here. I had taken a quick peek at Jumpcut when they arrived on the scene, but I didn’t really dig in until I got an email from an old colleague at Wharton the other day. It’s an impressive application both for its target audience as well as its technical merit. As far as RIAs go this is the real deal – something that could just as easily be an intro-level video editing application for the desktop.

Which is why Adobe should buy them. Jumpcut would make a perfect compliment to their video suite, and with Adobe’s inside video knowledge could become a very powerful tool for the white-hot online video market. Buying Jumpcut would give Adobe a complimentary product to Pemiere and would target a less professional market – the kind with low costs and high margins. Combine that with the fact that it’s running Flash and outputting Flash video and this has Adobe written all over it.

Jumpcut could gain a lot from Adobe’s technical video talents and Adobe would gain a lot from Jumpcut’s head start. Besides, all of the other kids in the Valley are buying Web 2.0 start ups, why not Adobe?