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Flash Makes Splash in Gadgets
An anonymous reader writes "Flash is winding its way into a growing number of gadgets and devices, according to an article at DeviceForge. Although Macromedia normally requires licensees to sign up for massive quantities of licenses before they can build its 'Embedded Macromedia Flash Player' into devices, the company as authorized NEC subsidiary Vibren to supply embedded Flash licenses in lower volumes to makers of POS (point-of-sales/service) terminals, personal organizers, PC replacements, small-screen airline entertainment devices, real-time securities trading terminals, digital signs, and more. Brace yourself for some juiced-up electronic billboards!"
Talk about a news Flash.
Klatu Brata Nicto
I can't wait until embedded device designers take a cue from web designers and start using Flash for navigation and suddenly a simple thing like "adjusting the contrast on my monitor" takes 10 minutes.
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"PUNCH ME and WIN AN iPOD!"
*smash*
Love the Third Amendment?
As much as I like Java, the more and more I see Flash-based applications for vertical markets, the more I see that as Java's missed opportunity. This was Java's golden path, and it floundered with poor download times, incompatible security policies, and prejudice as "nothing more than animated icons."
Meanwhile, Flash became more than just scaled vector text, taking on greater amounts of application capability. Even my daughter's Leapster, the so-called "learning game pad" that displays Dora and SpongeBob in a variety of educational situations, is based on Flash, not Java.
So much for a language originally intended for embedded applications. Java is strongest now in the server room, tier 2 (Oracle & Sybase hold tier 1). Flash is strongest in tier 3: the user interface.
Now can we get back to work on SVG, so we at least have the possibility of an open format.
Try doing that with standard html or php...do you want to site while it loads 20 gifs that are more than 100k apiece?
Flash is the future, my friend...and as long as they keep the processor cost relatively low, I welcome it to my pda.
Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
At least these POS machines will be able to start using something besides Windows CE, in all its glory.
Flash-based POS's seem like they could be much more focused, as they wouldn't need much fancy stuff to run simple, colorful apps on. It should probably lead to smaller, more focused POS things. Think mini-billboards, interactive and all that good stuff.
'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
All cash registers will now have a 'skip intro' button.
Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
Flash IS evil, but that's not the reason. The reason is that it doesn't use the browser commands. You can't go back. You can't bookmark. You can't open a list of interesting links in new tabs while you finish reading the original page.
Flash has it's uses, but making complete websites isn't one of them.
Here's a Q.. In the last few years Flash has added stuff like networking, DB access, dynamic generation of content, etc.. How much of this is actually in SVG?
AFAICR SVG was just a vector content format. Do SVG viewers implement stuff along the lines of Flash or do they just display SVG content?
Can you program a network-capable video game in SVG according to a single standard?
The way I see it lately, Flash is eating applet Java lunch and is quickly approaching full-blown Swing app territory... And what is inherently wrong with Flash being the view layer ala HTML, Qt, MFC, etc... I mean, of course, besides its proprietary nature...
Don't you mean "poor UI design is evil"? Both the issues you describe seem to boil down to bad design and authoring.
The only inherently bad thing I think think of that that's inherent in Flash for computers browsing the web is the fact that it won't work on all browsers, either because the browser doesn't support it, or a firewall blocks it. (Also they make handicapped access harder, but hardly anyone talks about that.)
And none of those issues are likely to be a problem in a device designed up front to use Flash (although processor use could become an issue.)
The technology should not be blamed just because some people use it poorly.
How to remove it from ie
Agreed, expecially because Macromedia is creating Flex. Flex is a Flash front end with Java servlets running it. Check out the demo of the online store in Flex at the Macromedia site. It really is the future of web applications.
If you're interested in Flex, but don't want to shell out huge wads of cash to Macromedia, check out Laszlo, the system that inspired Flex. Laszlo is now Open Source, and it's a wonderful way to program Flash, without using the horrible proprietary Flash authoring tool! www.laszlosystems.com
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Humph! As far as I'm concerned, things went directly to hell just as soon as I was no longer able to simply tell the story and had to start scratching them damn marks in those doubly damnable clay tablets. Once that shit started, we lost all control of the medium. And ever since then, it's been one disaster after another. Scrolls, books, photographs, phonograph records......pfaugh! I'm going back inside my cave and I'm not coming out again until all this stuff blows over.
Is it fascism yet?
Theoretically, it could, although in actuality it will only add to the already prevalent information noise, since most "rich content" will be ads (or just meaningless graphics) disturbing the user process. When withdrawing money, you will have a number of presentations and offers from the bank, and perhaps from third parties (porn ads, contact ads, whore-o-scopes, dick/boob enlargement ads, ...).
Also, current installations of very simple text- and/or video based devices intermittently display the typical Screen o' Death, since these devices typically rely on Windoze systems. This kind of failure will only increase with the more complex Flash, unless implementers start deploying Linux, OS X or other more robust systems (and this will probably not happen, since most implementers are clueless). Flash itself, being rather complicated, also has a large array of bugs.
But now that I've found Open Source Laszlo, programming Flash is quite fun and easy! I can live with that.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
You're driving down the highway one day, and all of a sudden you see, "Ram the monkey with your car and win $20!"
You asked for it: Adblock for real life.
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
I assume he is talking about porn. But why would you want flash based porn sites?
I think the problem is much broader than that. It's about the authoring experience. It's relatively easy to create some funky animations in flash, and relatively difficult to do so in java. I remember there were a few programs kicking around years ago which allowed non-programmers to produce animated java applets, but none of the ones I used even remotely touched flash for easy of use and power, much less performance.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
It's true, in some ways client-side Java was ahead of its time in terms of technology. I think the biggest problem was the botched job that the browsers did in implementing Java support. Like how Netscape supported Java 1.1 except for the new AWT classes. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Sun would have been better off developing the Java Plug-in right from the start instead of relying on Netscape and Microsoft.
EricDeploying Java applets (old set of tips)
I hope someone comes up with a way to block these flash animations on these devices. The last thing I need is a cash register showing cartoons at me.
The ATMs around here all have commercials on them. You know, the places where everyone says "pay attention to your surroundings" while the Bank is saying "stare blankly into our 20 second ad while risking life and limb at an ATM in downtown Atlanta".
While on the subject of ATMs, who else wonders why your prefered language isn't marked on your account so you don't have to make that selection at each ATM stop?
I'm cutting and pasting a journal entry I made a while back because I see a lot of the same crap that people like tcomplain about when it comes tflash on slashdot whenever there is a story about flash. I'm a flash developer and it does keep food on the table; however, just because it's a good deal of what I dfor a living doesn't mean I think it's perfect.
Just tvent a little bit, I really hate flash sometimes. There are smany things that make it a pain tdeal with, it's not funny. Yesterday it was the sandbox issue where flash can't access data outside it's own domain, and today it was the realization that flash is just todamn slow tuse for fast paced action games. Here is my top 10 reasons I love and hate flash:
Top 10 Reasons I Hate Flash:
10. Poor buffering of streaming mp3's
9. Inability for projectors tlaunch files outside of the root directory of the Flash movie
8. Lack of "onload" feature for Loadvariables()
7. Lack of videsupport
6. Separation of Movieclip and Button class objects
5. Unexpandable work area
4. Usage of flash in advertisements
3. Even after you set line tnone, it goes back tblack once you click something
2. New "sandbox" security protocol in Flash MX that is retroactive
1. Extremely slow screen re-draw
Top 10 Reasons I Love Flash:
10. Easy tunderstand
9. Built in sound mixer
8. Scalable vector graphics that can be drawn on the fly
7. Ability tstream mp3's and pull JPG's in on the fly
6. Ability tpull/push data from server based applications
5. Ability texport as a stand alone executable
4. XML Socket support
3. Support for PNG's and TRUE alpha channels
2. Most cross platform multimedia development tool there is
1. Actionscript, Actionscript, Actionscript
On this whole note, here is an open letter I wrote about a year agon the adoption of flash for front ends tnew web technologies. It's fairly venomous, but it was sinta hostile email I had gotten from a company I was freelanceing for at the time.
Flash Findings:
Debunking the Myths
What follows is a slightly modfied rant that I sent as an email ta client concerned about using flash for a front end interface ttheir flasgship product as opposed tDHTML. Hopefully this can provide some insight tpeople that don't fully understand the potental uses for Flash and are currently believing some common myths as truths:
Most of the things that concern clients and other developers about the prospect of using Flash for a project are either untrue or not of concern. Please excuse the rant/angry tone of this -- but there are alot of misconceptions about Flash that make me angry. I've been hearing them a while from people on slashdot. There is alot of ignorance surrounding Flash and I'm here tdebunk this.
1. Closed source
Not entirely true. The Flash file structure is actually quite open and the specifications are available freely from Macromedia. Anyone can write a program that creates flash files or a flash player. As example, there is Adobe Livemotion (www.adobe.com) that creates flash content. If flash is closed source in a traditional Microsoft sense, why does Macromedia's biggest competitor, Adobe, have a flash authoring tool? There are alsother open source flash authoring environments available, just poke around freshmeat.net and you can see for yourself. It may not be full on GPL/BSD open source, but the specifications are available -- unlike almost every other closed source format/application out there today. This is a non-issue anyway. Is your project itself open source? Didn't think so.
2. Breaks Browser paradigm
Back/Forward buttons
You shouldn't even have a need thit back in a browser any more. The web has seriously advanced since the days of HTML 1.0 and Mosaic. If a site is laid out correctly, all desired information should be availble tthe user with one mouse click, removing the need for a back b
"The Wright brothers were the first to fly with a heavier-than-air machine, but boy did they have a lousy plane"
Some people hate those cheesy Flash animations on badly designed web sites, but Flash is soooooo much more than that. And it's a good thing that they've got so much inertia going for Flash, because Macromedia will be a lot more platform-agnostic than, say, Microsoft or Sun.
This is a big deal, people.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
There's a lot more happening with SVG for embedded devices. Like all these phones.
I attended the Macromedia MAX Conference in New Orleans in early November. Please note that I do not work for Macromedia, I abhor Flash on Web sites except for very limited uses, and will have nothing to do with Cold Fusion, so to say I felt out of place at a Macromedia conference comes as sort of an understatement. :) My observations regarding Flash on mobile devices:
Flash for mobile devices has the moniker Flash Lite. Two versions exist: 1.0 and 1.1. As I understand it, Flash Lite came about when DoCoMo in japan approached Macromedia with an interest in coming up with an animation engine to spruce up the user interfaces of DoCoMo's phones. Macromedia cobbled something together by stripping down Flash 5 to a footprint suitable for small devices. Note that, as a result, Flash Lite uses ActionScript 1.0 instead of the current 2.0 in the latest PC Flash implementations, which ruffled the feathers of some of the Flash developers at the conference.
As of the conference, Macromedia had essentially zero penetration in the U.S. They recently got a little bit of penetration in Europe with T-Mobile, but Flash Lite at this stage exists almost solely in Japan with DoCoMo, though they mentioned they might have something going with KDDI, the, as I understand it, second largest carrier in Japan behind DoCoMo. Some of the DoCoMo phones in Japan actually use Flash Lite to render the user interface replete with 'cute' animations and such, some models using Flash Lite 1.0 and others 1.1.
The latest version of Flash MX Studio 2004 (right name?) has a profile for Flash Lite 1.1, so you can develop Flash Lite applications with it. However, Flash Lite Flash applications have extreme limitations - no bigger than 100K distributable and small runtime memory allowances. Ironically, they advised developers to use bitmaps rather than high-complexity vectors because the player on these limited phones cannot handle vectors very well.
The examples of applications and code I saw demonstrated a high level of 'hack' factor to get around these limitations and Flash Lite development in Flash MX Studio 2004 looks absolutely agonizing, though that may stem from my lack of experience with Flash development in general. Let me just say when you have to draw 'off stage' *visual* elements and click on them to input your 'script', which differs from frame to frame in a 'movie track', I want none of it. When you get layered inappropriate paradigms, you have trouble.
Macromedia did a good job of providing information about Flash Lite, but they face an uphill battle because they appeared to have an almost singular focus on pleasing carriers, not developers. This does not surprise me in the mobile world, which presents a generally toxic environment for independent developers, but suffice to say that they really want to make money off licensing the player to carriers in large volume. They need developers to create some compelling apps to encourage such licensing, but with no penetration in the U.S. and very rudimentary support for developers, this does not seem likely or wise for anyone except those targeting the Japanese market.
One important point that demonstrates this: Even if you came up with a fantastic app such that you could actually convince mobile users to download Flash Lite, there currently exists no way for them to do so or for you to bundle the Flash Lite player with your app because Macromedia wants license fees from carriers for the installation of the player on the mobile device and therefore does not provide free and ubiquitous downloads as it does with the Flash browser plugin.
If you want to start development and test on the phone, you need an advanced phone for which they have a beta client, such as a Sony P900 or recent Nokia Series 60. You also need to email them at a special email address to get added to their 'Flash Lite beta program' and may have to sign an NDA to get a version of the Flash Lite player to run on your phone, which I declined. I think, to test
I can't believe how damn clueless some people are regarding technology like Flash.
Everyone judges the damn content on freakin' banner adverts, instead of having a deeper look into how incredibly powerful it is.
Pffft.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
Wait till Flash creeps into your server room! Enterprise Flash Beans (with full antialiasing) - woo-hoo!
Finally a Flash rant that doesn't come from a total dickhead.
/. .
But you've got some serious wrongs in your rant. Haven't got much time so I'll speed through a few (my refererenc is Flash MX 2004 Pro, btw):
10. Poor buffering of streaming mp3's
Completely wrong. Works perfectly if you write your own AS 2-liners that control delayed playback dependent on bandwidth. Which is what you should do in the first place anyway.
8. Lack of "onload" feature for Loadvariables()
Bad example. Loadvariables() is an ancient artifact thats only left in for compatability reasons. Load an XML document with your stuff (loadvariables() sucks anyway. I remember hacking a dynamic flash app with that in Flash 5. Creepy.) and you can check loadstatus and totalload anytime you want.
7. Lack of videsupport
Incorrect. Importing into swf doesnt bloat Quicktimes and FLV is the best streaming format out there. Or do you want the plugin to be a full range video player? Isn't that a bit much for a VM with so much features allready? I'd rather keep VM size down then support all video formats in existance. We get new ones every odd week anyway. No use trying to keep up with that.
6. Separation of Movieclip and Button class objects
Yeah, shure. Stop the nitpick allready. Heavens crickey, that button thing is a built-in for those who are used to clicking together their apps by hand since Flash 3 using the old style paradigms of keeping your brain switched off. AS is a full range PL with a set of libs. Don't like them? Ignore them and build your own.
THat's for a quick comment of mine. Aside from that: Congrats to a rather educated remark on flash in a long time. Rare thing here on
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
What the hell is informative about this parent post ?
I'd love to know - the person who wrote it is a clueless moron.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
Flash is the future, my friend
A future where one company (Macromedia) controls the format everyone uses for websites? What's to stop them abusing that monopoly; the temptation would certainly be there.
You get a taste of what that experience would be like when you right click on a flash animation today (perhaps an advert, perhaps a graphic). Macromedia controls that menu, not the user, because it's *their* plugin. Incidentally, if I right click and choose 'Settings...' I get a dialog asking if I want to allow ultracomercial.com to 'access' my microphone and webcam. Although I have no intention of letting them, the fact someone thought this was a good idea at Macromedia scares me.
That's not a future I'd be happy in. While Flash is very flexible (via scripting etc) and the tools easy to use (or at least it was and they were when I looked at it a few years ago), I'd prefer a future where a format like SVG was common and supported. SVG is open, searchable, usually text (so easy to manipulate/copy/save by servers and end-users alike), and thus easy to output from common scripting languages. Once one person has written a library to do this, anyone can use that language to output dynamic graphics on their server, using whatever scripting language/platform they choose.
Shame they made the initial spec so huge that no-one wants to implement it all.
Considering Flash as a platform, we've been here before with ActiveX or XAML trying to take over the web, and we should be wary of the same sort of experience. Yes, I know ActiveX is not Flash but the aim of both companies is the same.