Adobe Announces Photoshop.com Mobile Beta

Published by vivek on August 26, 2008 in Adobe, Flash lite and Mobile. 0 Comments

Photoshop.com Mobile Beta

Via Bill, Adobe Announces Photoshop.com Mobile Beta. A new addition to the Photoshop.com family, Photoshop.com Mobile beta, which is a rich Adobe Flash based mobile application that offers camera phone users an easy way to upload, view, and share photos using their Photoshop.com account. Photoshop.com Mobile runs in the background on the phone and allows consumers to take photos, send messages and run other applications while pictures are being uploaded to their Photoshop.com account. Photoshop.com Mobile is the mobile companion application for the new Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Adobe Photoshop.com.

Key Features:

Upload from the road
Have Photoshop.com Mobile upload photos from your phone to your Photoshop.com account as soon as you take them. You can store up to 5GB of photos there free.

Access anywhere
At a party, in a meeting, on the road — view your online photos and albums from your phone, wherever you are.

Share with friends and family
Create a Mobile Share album right from your phone to show the world, or invite friends and family to view your photos online from Photoshop.com.

Photoshop.com Mobile beta will be available as a free download in September.

vivek

Join the Forum Nokia Code Camp for the Series 40 Java Code Camp, Bangalore

Published by vivek on August 25, 2008 in event. 0 Comments

Forum Nokia Code Camp for the Series 40 Java Code Camp, Bangalore

Forum Nokia organized Nokia Code Camp for the Series 40 Java Code Camp, 29th August, IIIT - B, Bangalore.

Speakers:
Balagopal K S
Former Forum Nokia Champion and  Technology Expert at Nokia Prakash Sayini, a seasoned telecom professional with  14 years experience in mobile telecommunication

Prakash Sayini
A seasoned telecom professional with 14 years experience in mobile telecommunication

Date: 29th August 2008
Venue: IIIT-Bangalore, Electronics City, Hosur Road, Bangalore – 560100
Contact: Sannidhi VJ
Tel: +91 80 40095420
Fax: +91 80 41501593

Register here

vivek

Xuinet Launches FlashR Developer Challenge in Search of Best in Class Mobile Flash Application

Published by vivek on August 21, 2008 in Flash lite. 0 Comments

Xuinet is launching the competition to help encourage mobile Flash developers to get creative and slug it out for the chance to win over $10,000 in cash and prizes for the best mobile Flash creation.

The contest offers the opportunity to win a $5,000 grand prize, $2,500 first prize, and an added $500 bonus prize for the most downloads via the Xuinet community in the following categories:

  • Blogs, forums and social networks
  • Fun-n-games
  • Images/slide-shows
  • Sports
  • On-the-go-travel, weather, news, etc.

To participate, Flash developers simply download the SDK at www.xuinet.com, create their content and publish it to the Xuinet network to enter before November 3, 2008. Once published, developers can share with family, friends, and the entire community of Windows(tm) Mobile users. Further details on the FlashR Developer Challenge can be found at www.xuinet.com/2008FlashR.

The Xuinet FlashR awards will be announced in San Francisco on November 17, 2008. In addition to cash prizes, some of the latest Flash development software from Adobe will also be awarded. Title sponsor Adobe is joined by additional sponsors and contest judges including DeviceAnywhere, through which developers can leverage 1500 real devices to build, test and port best-in-class mobile applications, and Millennial Media, the leading mobile advertising network in the U.S. in terms of both impressions and reach.

vivek

Beijing 2008 Olympic begins and inspire the world :)

Published by vivek on August 13, 2008 in event. 0 Comments

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games emblem

Friday evening, i was watching the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympic and it was just an awesome experience how technology meets innovation and inspire the world in beautiful way. As i heard and know this one is the most expensive olympic in the world.

Beijing National Stadium - Bird’s Nest

Beijing National Stadium - Bird’s Nest

The Chinese are acknowledged around the world for being some of the most highly persistent and efficient people on the globe. They shown organizing the most amazing Olympic opening ceremony in history. The ceremony, witnessed in the newly built “Bird’s Nest National Stadium,” an astounding, remarkable, mind-blowing, and staggering as it was.

Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremony

Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremony

Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremony

Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremony

Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremony

Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremony

Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremony

Few more exciting pictures which i found in flickr.

Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

I like the Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, Fuwa will serve as the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace and good wishes from China to children all over the world.

Each of Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name - a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow.When you put their names together — Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni - they say “Welcome to Beijing,” offering a warm invitation that reflects the mission of Fuwa as young ambassadors for the Olympic Games.Fuwa also embody both the landscape and the dreams and aspirations of people from every part of the vast country of China. In their origins and their headpieces, you can see the five elements of nature - the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky - all stylistically rendered in ways that represent the deep traditional influences of Chinese folk art and ornamentation.

Read more details about Fuwa here.

Read official website for uptodate  Beijing 2008 Olympic  news.

vivek

Cool flash lite mobile application video on adobe

Published by vivek on August 7, 2008 in Adobe, Flash lite, Flash lite applications and Mobile. 0 Comments

flash lite application_nasdaq executive

flash lite application_finetune

flash lite application_finetuneSpongeBob SquarePants

Via Bill, Adobesetup a new mobile demos page on the Adobe site which has 8 different video walk throughs of Flash mobile applications that have been created by various companies. They are:

  • Bacardi
  • Mightyverse
  • SpongeBob SquarePants
  • Finetune
  • Nasdaq Retail
  • Sony Pictures
  • Johnny Walker
  • Nasdaq Executive

Have a look to these video and hear the User experience they are talking about. Really intresting application i saw these demo in Forum Nokia Widgets and Flash Lite Code Camps, Bangalore.

vivek

A Cross Cultural Study on Phone Carrying “Where’s the Phone?”

Published by vivek on August 3, 2008 in Daily life, Design, HCI, Mobile and event. 0 Comments

A Cross Cultural Study on Phone Carrying “Where’s the Phone?”

A Cross Cultural Study on Phone Carrying “Where’s the Phone?”

A Cross Cultural Study on Phone Carrying “Where’s the Phone?”

I found this very intresting research paper a Cross Cultural Study on Phone Carrying and Personalisation co-authored by Cui Yanqing and Fumiko Ichikawa which is presented at HCI International 2007 in Beijing.

This essay presents data from a series of Nokia street surveys conducted between 2003 and 2006 that explored where people carry their mobile phones and why?

A Cross Cultural Study on Phone Carrying “Where’s the Phone?”

“Where’s the Phone street surveys set out to document the extent to which people noticed their incoming communication and cross refererence this information to the location where the phone is carried. The mobile phone’s effectiveness as a communication device is partly dependent on its owner noticing incoming communication (though whether someone decides to respond to that communication is another matter entirely) and it was assumed by the authors that the process of deciding to carry an object would correlate with a minimal level of its effective use. Contexts where there was a high likelihood of missing incoming communication presented a design opportunity both in terms of thinking about device redesign and from the perspective of connectivity-related services accessed through that device.

Download this pdf here as powerpoint or pdf (3MB).

Where’s the Phone?

Read as from Jan Chipchase here.

View results of this research paper here

Very Interesting . .

vivek

19 Verizon Wireless Phones Support Flash Lite Applications

Published by vivek on August 3, 2008 in Adobe, Flash lite and Mobile. 0 Comments

Verizon Wireless Phones Support Flash Lite Applications

Via Bill, there are now a total of 19 19 Verizon Wireless Phones models - all of which support Flash Lite 2.1 content.

The extensions for each of these phones are available for download from the BREW extranet.
You can download an updated Flash Lite supported devices spreadsheet that also includes the PIDs for each BREW phone.

vivek

Sony Ericsson Project Capuchin: Swf2Jar packaging for Flash Lite released.

Published by vivek on July 27, 2008 in Flash lite. 0 Comments

Swf2Jar packaging for Flash Lite

Via Biskero, Sony Ericsson released the Flash Lite packaging tool swf2jar.

“Swf2Jar 1.0 is an application for packaging a Flash™ file (.swf) into a MIDlet jar. The application supports setting Jad properties for the MIDlet, as well as signing the MIDlet. After packaging, the MIDlet can be transferred to a phone. When running the MIDlet on the phone, the packaged Flash content is automatically played.

Note: The Flash file (.swf) will be visible on the phone screen while the MIDlet is running only if the phone supports Project Capuchin.”

Download here

vivek

Forum Nokia article: The Value of Good Design

Published by vivek on July 22, 2008 in Design and Mobile. 0 Comments

 The Value of Good Design
This article gives an explanation to what is good design and why it should be pursued in the first place. The article discusses the very core of design and the value that good design can bring to the end product. The article also takes a look into design today and tomorrow.

There is importance of design and good design which we need to understand. Design is everywhere and anywhere :)

Read this article

vivek

Mobile communication in the developing world – a design challenge

Published by vivek on July 13, 2008 in Design, Mobile and User experience. 1 Comment

Neil Clavin has written the latest contribution in the ongoing series of emerging markets articles that are on a weekly basis being published Vodafone Receiver’s magazine.
In his paper for receiver Clavin argues that for better design, we must first of all understand different user needs around the world. The prime design challenges he sees are: richer communication, social tools and reconfigurable interfaces.

“Current mobile interfaces and services are not designed for the developing regions of the world – many users have problems reading and writing, some services are not relevant and native languages not always supported. Many users complete only the basic functions of dialling a number or answering an incoming call.” […]

“The current mobile experience is designed for a literate section of the world who can expect interfaces in their native language. Another section of users have problems navigating text-based interfaces and need to reinforce links with the families they have left behind.

For successful mobile experience design we must provide alternative interfaces, social tools and better native language support. The mobile experience for developing regions will be rich with audio-visual communication, genuinely useful social networks and reconfigurable interfaces.

Designing for these user needs creates better experiences also for advanced countries. Simpler audio-visual interfaces will benefit children, elderly people and users with learning difficulties. Social networks will mature from hipster hangouts into tools for achieving meaningful and progressive goals. Touchscreen devices will become cheap enough for anyone to afford and the languages of cosmopolitan populations fully supported.”

Neil Clavin is a design manager for Vodafone Group User Experience. He worked as a user experience designer for BBC New Media & Technology and as a research assistant for Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art, London, before joining the Vodafone User Experience Concept Development Team based in Düsseldorf, Germany. There, he leads concept design for mobile communication, information and entertainment experiences.

Read here

vivek

My article on Adobe DevNet: Designing for mobile devices using Fireworks CS4 beta

Published by vivek on July 9, 2008 in Adobe, Design, Flash lite, Mobile, User experience and our Portfolio. 5 Comments

Designing for mobile devices using Fireworks CS4 beta

My another article published on Adobe Devnet “Designing for mobile devices using Fireworks CS4 beta”. This Article is on importance of designing for mobile devices and why its so much important to think on that :)

“The visual elements that comprise the user experience on mobile devices are themselves becoming more important as devices become more complex and users become more adept. I believe there is a great opportunity at this time to help shape the future of user interfaces on handheld devices and promote intuitive interaction as a standard. Making something beautiful, as well as functional, will result in an application that is useful and offers a more interesting and compelling experience for consumers.”

“Put simply: small is beautiful. When interface design effortlessly fulfils the purpose of an application while also enhancing its aesthetic, there is a greater chance that the end product will be successful. Users are naturally more drawn towards an application that they view as enjoyable and engaging.”

i2fly-designing for mobile devices

From Pre planning to final application even the smallest design elements is very important to place.

I use Fireworks CS4 beta almost exclusively on every project I create for mobile devices. It is my first choice because I find it to be much more user friendly in terms of creating graphics and exporting files to a wide variety of formats. Additionally, the integration between Fireworks CS4 beta and Adobe Flash is just fantastic. This article provides real-world considerations and tips for creating assets for your mobile development projects using Fireworks CS4 beta.

You can read this article in following below links

Designing for mobile devices using Fireworks CS4

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/design_mobile_devices.html
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/

As usual love to know your feelings. Feel free to post your comments/suggestions/views anything. Curious to know about it :) .

vivek

Adobe Web 2.0 event 2008, Bangalore, India

Published by vivek on July 8, 2008 in Adobe and event. 0 Comments

Adobe web 2.0 event, Bangalore, India

Just got an e-mail from Adobe for Web 2.0 event which is happening on 18th July 2008, Bangalore, India.

You need to send an e-mail at adobe@channel-technologies.com or

Call Arfa Nazim at 09910758792 for registration.

vivek

Adobe helps search engines to handle Flash

Published by vivek on July 6, 2008 in Adobe and Flash. 0 Comments

logo_flashplayer

An interesting news and often asked questions by many developers that “if they use Adobe’s Flash technology, is Search engines will be able to find text embedded in Flash files(SWF)” But Now YES!

According to Adobe it says “Adobe is providing optimized Adobe Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines.”

Google has been quickest off the mark, and the Official Google Blog boasts:
Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites. Recently, we’ve improved the performance of this Flash indexing algorithm by integrating Adobe’s Flash Player technology.

Yahoo appears to be a bit slower off the mark as no official press release but as from Adobe “Yahoo! also expects to deliver improved Web search capabilities for SWF applications in a future update to Yahoo! Search. “Yahoo! is committed to supporting webmaster needs with plans to support searchable SWF and is working with Adobe to determine the best possible implementation,” said Sean Suchter, vice president Yahoo! Search Technology Engineering.

It’s very important while designing and developing your content using Flash for web as well as Mobile to optimize it properly for search engines discoverable.

Read here

SWF searchability FAQ

vivek

Porting Flash Lite content to the Apple Iphone:b.Tween

Published by vivek on July 2, 2008 in Flash lite and Mobile. 0 Comments

Via Thomas Joos , This week they released Rock Werchter Mobile Guide, a music festival application in Adobe Flash lite. “The cool part is that for the first time in the mobile history we ported our Flash Lite Project to the iphone/ipod touch, taking advantage of all the oppurtunities the iphone UI has to offer. He used b.Tween: an eyeGT FRAMEWORK technology to make this work :) Few advantages:

  • The code that uses the framework is compiled to machine code, that means several orders of magnitude faster than the ActionScript equivalent (AS3 in Flash 9 is JIT compiled but we are talking about mobile platforms here where there is no AS3 and no JIT compilation, for the moment at least)
  • Parts of the code that are unused are left out the final compiled application, so size and time to transmit/load are reduced to the minimum
  • Native code can access ANY feature of the hosting platform: wants Bluetooth? Wants to process received SMS? Wants to read the phone book? All possible from native applications not so from a player based one.

Cool, read the complete process to how to Port Flash Lite content to Apple Iphone.

Other blog news

Excellant information as collected from Krvishal, i2fly

vivek

Conversation with Raphael Grignani of Nokia Design about Homegrown

Published by vivek on July 2, 2008 in Design, Mobile and User experience. 0 Comments

Nokia homegrown

An Intresting interview with Raphael Grignani of Nokia Design about Homegrown project. Must read to know about new design thinking on sustainability.

Rachel Hinman, mobile design strategist at Adaptive Path, has conducted an interview with Raphael Grignani of Nokia Design about “Homegrown”, a long term research project looking at how Nokia can help people make more sustainable choices.

mobile_homegrown_nokia

“With Remade, Andrew Gartrell (Homegrown project lead and Remade father) pushed design beyond skin deep aesthetics. He considered covers, key mats, and displays but also engine, connectors, and other components. We discovered that a typical mobile phone contains around 44 of the 117 elements currently known to science. Andrew’s approach was to de-construct everything and rebuild it from scratch using recycled materials and sustainable technologies — from the inside out.

mobile_homegrown_energy_saving_concept

50% of a phone’s energy demand is backlighting.

mobile_homegrown_people

Energy saving graphics “concept”

Another aspect of Homegrown that is really interesting is the work we did around prototyping. Andrew designed in CAD over 100 versions of Remade and prototyped 36 — which could be considered obsessive — but it was through that constant consideration and iteration that we were able to arrive at something that was great.

mobile_homegrown_unplugged_charger

At present, phone chargers waste 300mW of standby power when left unplugged.

Prototyping allowed us to confront our designs — asking ourselves, “Is this the best we can do? What can we reduce? Have we found the essence? What can we make better or what can we make differently?” We questioned every bit of the concepts throughout the prototyping process. Now we can explain every bit of the design; we can rationalize every aspect of it.”

Read interview

Read press release “Nokia”

vivek

89 Nokia Devices Support Adobe Flash Lite

Published by vivek on July 1, 2008 in Flash lite and Mobile. 0 Comments

Via Bill, Counting just increasing on and now 89 Nokia Devices support Flash lite :) including new Nokia Series 40 devices. Further breaking them down looks like this:

  • Flash Lite 3 = 18 models
  • Flash Lite 2.1 = 20 models
  • Flash Lite 2.0 = 21 models
  • Flash Lite 1.1 = 30 models

You can download updated Flash enabled handsets spreadsheet here.

vivek