Litely Flashed

My 53 minutes of fame

2008-12-13T01:36:00.008+01:00

It's my blog and as such I must have the right to shamelessly plug myself:
Here is my session at Adobe MAX 2008 San Francisco.

Its a recording of the audio and the computer screen.

On a much more interesting note it should be added that Adobe has added all sessions from MAX at tv.adobe.com - there are many interesting and exciting things to be found.

All thanks to the glory of Flash video and American Stream-o-philes...

Curtain down

Nokia Platform Services - the biggest thing since the wheel?

2008-12-11T21:08:00.002+01:00

Just recently Nokia updated their Flash Lite Developer's Library to version 1.1. This may seem dry and boring but it may be the most exciting news since OJ. Why? Because it includes documentation on using Platform Services. In popular terms this is a way to access device features previously unavailable except through eg. KuneriLite middleware.

Read all about it here.

AFAIK Nokia Platform services is only available on Symbian 60 5th Edition (which is 5800 XPressMusic and N97 at the moment) but I can't wait to start fooling around with it.

Announcing Copenhagen Mobile and Devices Usergroup

2008-12-08T22:23:00.004+01:00

I am very pleased to announce the opening of the Copenhagen Mobile and Devices Usergroup (CMDU).

Everyone interested in the mobile space please feel free to join.
Online and offline events and activities will be initiated shortly.

The CMDU is hosted by Adobe Groups.

Please take a look, join, leave a comment or whatever.
The more places we have to discuss this great mobile space of ours the better.

kind regards
Mads

They will win

2008-12-03T09:36:00.002+01:00

When I boldly stated on December 1st "Nokia will win" I was blissfully unaware of things to come. The N97. Symbian 60 5th Ed. with all kinds of Flash Lite goodness. I am currently contemplating whether they already have won - but now the victoryjust has to be implemented.

In my Euro-world view the good folks at Apple need to pull another one out of the hat quicksnap. And I kind of hope they do because now the wow-factor of touchscreeniness and responsive UIs has disappeared. We are very much ready for the next great thing - whatever that may be.

Or maybe they should start selling the iPhone for 199 without service contract in Wal-Mart. That would probably do the trick.å

A few exotic devices

2008-12-01T01:39:00.002+01:00

Just came back from MAX08 in San Francisco - and I gotta tell ya: The world of Flash for Mobile just got a bit more exciting...

As you all are probably aware Adobe has announced plans for a Distributable Player as well as Flash Player 10 support for high-end phones. Cool stuff although a ways off still (Q4 2009).

Inspired by these cool initiatives I thought I would take the time to describe a few cool devices I recently got my hands on - and no, there is no Flash Lite for iPhone announcement below.

HTC Touch Pro
-------------
Windows Mobile 6.1 - no Flash Lite pre-installed, but the downloadable from Adobe.ccm for WM5 works fine. Apparently a new version of IE for WM including FL3 is forthcoming. This device is very nice although a bit on the clunky side. The touchscreen is poor to say the least. We use it for developing a business oriented Flash Lite app targeted for that specific device. But still, using buttons and such is a nice departure from the Nokia based development we're used to.

Sony Ericsson C905
------------------
This phone turned my view of SE completely around. It's the coolest thing ever. 8.1 MP camera, FL pre-installed, WiFi support - you name it. It swallows battery like crazy and FL doesn't run in standalone mode (which always bothered me about SE phones). But other than that it's sweet as sugar. This particular device also supports the Capuchin extensions to Flash Lite (device integration like GPS, Contacts etc.)

HTC G1
------
The Android phone is still something of a rarity over here in Europe - and getting it activated was a challenge. But it was worth the effort. In my humble opinion this device and OS beats the iPhone hands down. It doesn't have Flash Lite yet - but will support Flash player 10 at some point in the future (as demoed by Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch at MAX2008). I can't wait to see the next devices to use Android - it shows great promise for the future.

iPhone (all versions)
---------------------
Been there done that - yea its cool - but I'd rather be Mr. PC and have the greatest marketshare. But it's fantastic as an MP3 player...

Next on the hitlist
-------------------
Nokia 5800. The first real attempt from Nokia to take a stab at the iPhone-type devices. They will win. The device is very cool (from the brief hands-on I've had) at it will sell at a reasonable price in all the known universe.

Anyway, just thought I'd share a few experiences.

Just back from San Francisco - or "What is the opposite of evolution?"

2008-08-26T12:46:00.003+02:00

I just came back from SF having attended the ever-cool Flashforward conference. As always it was inspiring to hear and experience some of the top names in the business.

But one thing has me a little concerned: Why the combined brain trust of the Flash business hasn't evelved past the point of animosity towards the (in)famous usability "guru" Jakob Nielsen. I mean, back in 2002 I attended a Jakob Nielsen workshop at the Macromedia DevCon in Orlando. This was touted as the great peace-pipe-smoking-event between Flash and the bald devil.

I am frankly very discouraged by the fact that not one but two of the speakers still found it worthwhile to make fun of Jakob Nielsen 5+ years after the fact. Come on guys, please find a new pet peeve. I mean, sure he looks kinda funny but so do many of "us". Do you expect this business to be taken seriously when we spend time making fun of others like pre-schoolers. Especially taking into consideration that we won the battle.

I should also note that apart from being a Dane like Mr. Nielsen I have no special sympathy for him or his views. I had forgotten the entire affair and thus was very surprised to see it rear its childish head again.

Other than that I love San Francisco and I wanna live there in my next life. If only I could decide between Monterey and Nob Hill...

I Know What I Did This Summer

2008-07-16T09:14:00.005+02:00

I was busy running the Flash Lite client for Roskilde Festival 2008. And also - as the picture shows - the big screens that people could interact with via their applications. The picture shows a screen displaying an SMS text infront of 50,000+ people just before Radiohead went on stage.
And for all non-believers out there: let me tell you that Flash Lite gets the job done. We had thousands of users during the 8 days the festival lasted and they used the system repeatedly.

So now the festival's over - what' next?

Well - for one thing, we've just been confirmed as speakers at this year's Adobe MAX in San Fransisco. We have been given the task of telling everyone how to make money off of Flash Lite and Mobile.

We also currently have 2 new applications for other clients in the works. As well as several exciting deals on the horizon.

I hope to be able to update the blog more frequently in the future but at the moment my time - fortunately - is stretched rather thin.

So what if you're busy - the blog doesn't update itself!

2008-05-19T13:31:00.002+02:00

Been quite a while since the last blog update. Well, since this blog has no descernible audience I guess I can only really apologize to myself.

Much has happened in the meantime though. Firstly, the family and I went to Orlando Florida for 14 days. Damn, I love that Disney-crap-syrup-smothered-pancakes-in-the-morning-lifestyle. But all good things must come to an end - for some reason unknown to me.

We are currently working on a major new application. The client cannot be revealed just yet - but it will be good times and margaritas for all once its released. Release is slated for June 08.

We are also having to cope with clients that show up by themselves - ie. without any sales effort from our side. Quite the novel experience :-)

Also we are working on elements of the Roskilde Festival 08 eco-system. We have gotten a fair amount of press on this in the Danish press. Check out the dedicated page on the official site here.

Roskilde Festival and Me

2008-03-27T21:32:00.002+01:00

We are currently working our collective butts off on a veru exciting project for Roskilde Festival - the biggest music festival in Northern Europe. This will break new ground for Flash Lite imo and be very cool. If anyone reading this is planning to go be sure to download the mobile client.

Money makes the world go around

2008-03-13T23:29:00.003+01:00

Today was a ground-breaking day. Today I sold my first Flash Lite game on Handango.

You can find it here.

Very weird thing - and of course nothing special in the grand scheme of things. But these kind of events really makes me love the web.

Just a quick update

2008-03-07T18:14:00.002+01:00

Busy times as usual.
We're currently hard at work creating a new exciting project to be rolled out this summer. These past (and next) few weeks have seen 3 new-bizz meetings on average each week. Lots of stuff happening.

Cheers

Been a while...

2008-02-21T15:52:00.002+01:00

So, just got back from skiing. The whole family had a wonderful time in Valmorel.

We also just launched our biggest project to date: A companion mobile universe to the popular reality show Paradise Hotel. If you want it for free, get it here.

A few colleagues of mine were lucky enough to attend the MWC in Barcelona and had a blast. They returned home with a bag full of very exciting contacts that will be taking up their time in the coming days.

Got training?

2008-02-04T11:48:00.000+01:00

Just finished our very first Flash Lite training last Friday.
Some happy campers left after 2 days feeling a lot wiser.

Am currently in London on the receiving end of some training myself.

Free mobile goodies from me to you

2008-01-27T22:32:00.000+01:00

We just created a new mobile demo containing samples, freebies and the official Little Big Ideas RSS feed. Point your mobile webbrowser to wap.lbi.dk/goodie to get your hands on it (Nokia Flash Lite phones only at the moment, I'm afraid).

Exciting stuff in London

2008-01-27T22:22:00.000+01:00

I have been invited to participate in a FlashCast training taking place in London early February. I'm very excited about getting the chance to get even more into the driver's seat of an emerging technology. (So to speak - I do eat my daily humble pies :-).

In other news we are close to launching a mobile companion for Paradise Hotel (a reality show). Also, we have struck a deal with Roskilde Festival and are soon completing the first piece for Adobe. Also we are participating in MWC08 and have just particated in another Adobe-sponsored event 2 days ago.

So, apart from the 2 day Flash Lite training we are having at the firm this week, things are quiet :-)

More exciting stuff to follow, I'm sure...

I want your MTV

2008-01-16T08:46:00.001+01:00

Or just gimme that 150" plasma monster TV I just saw at CES in Vegas.
A thing of pure beauty - now I only need a new house to house the monstrous housing in. But Mr. Panasonic-San was very proud indeed.
Other than that Vegas was the same as always. Tried shooting an AK-47 and lost $20 at the BJ table - usual stuff.

Loaded full of crap

2007-12-10T00:29:00.000+01:00

Here is what I spent my weekend going nuts about:
Why will the Nokia 6300 not load anything larger than 1023 bytes using loadVariables (Flash Lite 1.1) but the 6233, 6131, and others have no problem?
Sometimes I just hate this shit - but I will hopefully be back with an explanation of yet another un-documented "feature" soon...

List of devices supporting Flash Lite

2007-12-06T01:15:00.000+01:00

Well, I gave it one more go. To create the elusive list of phones pre-installed with Flash Lite. I correlated 3 different "data sources": The excellent PDF document created by Bill Perry, the latest WURFL database, and whatever info I could find on forum.nokia.com and developers.sonyericsson.com.

View the doc here.

Should you have any corrections or comments feedback is greatly appreciated!

Busy times in December?

2007-12-05T16:39:00.000+01:00

Normally December can be a rather quiet time of year. Not in 07 though. Just finished a demo for a concept presentation. And we have 3 concept demos, 2 real-world applications, 1 training and several wallpapers to do - all before 21/12.

Crazy stuff - but very great.

Call me old fashioned!

2007-12-03T21:19:00.001+01:00

For some reason I didn't join Facebook until today - and discovered that I do indeed have two friends :-)

I guess my life is better now.
Feel free to visit my facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=795413305 and do whatever it is one does there...

:-)

Congrats to everyone else!

2007-12-01T01:16:00.000+01:00

Finally everyone has got access to the great toy we have been playing with for a while now: http://www.flashdevices.net/2007/11/flash-lite-3-developer-edition-now.html

Yet another medal!

2007-12-01T01:10:00.001+01:00

I just got word that my company has been authorised as an official Adobe Training Centre.

Cool!

Currently we offer training for Flash and Flash Lite.

Should anyone be interested in training at our state of the art facility just North of Copenhagen please let me know :-)

Success!

2007-11-29T16:26:00.000+01:00

I can now refer to myself as - in addition to the other Adobe medals - "Certified Adobe Flash Lite 2 Developer".

Strangely, the whole world hasn't noticed this earth-shattering event yet - and I must assume that the ticker-tape parade is postnoned due to the late arrival of several important dignitaries.

:-)

Going for another medal

2007-11-28T15:56:00.000+01:00

I am currently preparing for my next certification - Flash Lite 2 developer.
If all goes well I will have this in the bag by this time tomorrow.
It should also upgrade me to FL2 Instructor status automatically when the paperwork clears...

Will post a smiley or un-smiley tomorrow.

XMas party at the Office

2007-11-25T12:20:00.000+01:00

So, yesterday was the day for our office Xmas party.
We held it at a restaurant in Tivoli, Copenhagen which of course was very nice.
Not much talk about mobile phones but many many beers and lots of loud Viking types shouting their drunk heads off :-)

All good fun

One Month 'till Xmas

2007-11-24T16:58:00.000+01:00

And this year we only did 1 Flash based christmas calendar.

That is almost a present in itself...

Almost forgot...

2007-11-24T16:52:00.000+01:00

I am currently working on stuff on the FlashCast technology (which is a Flash Lite related technology). This is very exciting - and a great opportunity to learn new stuff.

This also probably has a deadline around Xmas Eve...

A new client!

2007-11-24T16:48:00.000+01:00

Thursday was a big day at the office. We landed a new client who wants us to develop a Flash Lite application. It is related to television and includes all sorts of cool things like votes, aglleries and such.

Grats to the Sales Dudes on this one!

(And someone, please send me a crash helmet I can use when my wife discovers that the deadline is Jan 17th)