Mobile on richardleggett.com

Seconds Pro for Android

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:31:00 +0000

The latest Android app I’ve been working for Runloop, the hugely successful iOS interval timer Seconds Pro, is now live. Packed with the following features:

• Quickly create timers for interval training, tabata, circuit training
• Save your timers, as many as you need
• Organize Timers into groups
• Text to speech
• Install timers from the timer repository
• Send your timers to your friends
• Full control over every interval
• Assign music to intervals or timers
• Large display
• The choice of personal trainers up and down the country

Getting Started with NFC on Android for .NET Magazine

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:23:00 +0000

A tutorial I wrote for .NET Magazine is now up on their site. This tutorial takes you through the basics of getting NFC working with Android 4.0+ with a “Top Trumps” like demo. It covers both reading and writing data to/from NFC tags, stickers or cards.

Head over to .NET Magazine to read the tutorial!

Winners at Create London NFC Hackathon

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:10:00 +0000

We had what was probably the first BBQ weather of the year over the weekend, but I wouldn’t know about that. Instead I spent the time coding away at the NFC Hackathon (sponsored by O2) with my fellow team members George Medve and Aaron Newton.

The idea was to spend 28 hours designing and coding something that made use of NFC (Near Field Communication). We were supplied with NFC enabled Galaxy S2s and some useful SDKs from Proxama and BlueVia for tracking NFC campaigns, making payments and tracking users.

Snowball Fight for iOS and Android

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:54:00 +0000

I’m pleased to announce a game we’ve been working on is now out. A collaboration between The Creation Agency and Bitmode (my previous home), we bring you The Great Snowball Fight!

The game is played over Google Maps, launching virtual snowballs at unsuspecting players in order to rank up, earn points and even win prizes from retailers you hit. You can also add buddies, connect via Facebook and receive special powerups.

Nexus One Review

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:53:04 +0000

I was lucky enough to receive one of the first waves of Nexus One’s (N1) from Google’s direct online shop. Before I go on, the shopping experience was a little too slick IMHO. I signed in with my Gmail account, clicked buy, clicked confirm and it was shipping, if you’ve used Google Checkout before they will likely have your card details and address. You do have 15 mins to cancel the order though. When you see Google’s ever growing list of properties getting together you can see why they are so immensely disruptive.

SWF2JAR – Project Capuchin from Sony Ericsson

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:21:27 +0000

I’m just watching the seminar (recording here) about Sony Ericssons project Capuchin. It looks incredible. Ask anyone that’s developed with Flash Lite and they’ll tell you that distribution is one of the biggest problems they face.

The problem is that traditionally SWF files have been treated by some as nothing more than animated gifs (this is particularly the case with a lot of the older Sony Ericsson phones), and treated by others (for example Nokia) as applications that run standalone (and more recently as a web plugin). This makes it tricky to classify how to treat a SWF when it comes to getting it on a phone, particularly when you haven’t been able update your software anywhere near as easily on mobile as on the desktop. Do you run it from a browser link? do you bluetooth it from a PC or to a friend like an image? or do you go ahead and “install” it somehow, to get an application icon? Of course until now every manufacturer has dealt with the problem differently.

Handset Detection (Mobile Browser Sniffing)

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:00:08 +0000

A huge challenge when developing web sites for mobile phones, either as a separate entity, or as a gracefully degraded version of the “desktop” version, is sniffing just what features the device has. This might include support for XHTML, JavaScript 1.5, Flash Lite (standalone or embedded in a page) and so on.

I just caught a post on the Flash Lite Google Group regarding a new site, handsetdetection.com, which provides a free API for sniffing over 7000 devices. The API is available through XML or JSON and the list of features the API documents is exhaustive, from screen size and streaming video support to HTTPS and SVG capability.

Flash on the iPhone, an Alternative to Bringing Flash to Safari?

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:02:47 +0000

There are a few posts out there relating to Shantanu’s disclosure of a standalone Flash Player being developed for the iPhone using the newly released SDK, but of course that doesn’t answer the question as to whether people will be able to browse the web and view Flash content in-line, given that Flash makes up a huge chunk of the web, and also provides the revenue for a great many sites through advertisements (fallback GIFs are not what advertisers are paying so much money for).

Microsoft Silverlight Coming to Nokia

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:51:29 +0000

In a press release today Nokia announced that Symbian OS will include Silverlight. This includes both high-end S60, and low-end series 40. Silverlight is of course the cross-platform RIA runtime from Microsoft, that can be considered a subset of WPF (at least with version 2.0 which has a substantial feature list).

I wonder if Microsoft charged a per-device license fee to Nokia like Adobe did, and if so what the difference is. On top of that there was of course the controversial price to pay for the developer edition of the Flash Lite runtime for Series 60 which is thankfully now free. Clearly there is a fierce competition to be had in this space as the web continues to leak out onto what we currently call “devices”, and Microsoft have made it crystal clear Silverlight is high on their list of priorities.

Update: Using a GPRS, 3G or HSDPA Mobile with eee PC

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:26:41 +0000

I recently posted on using a mobile phone’s data connection with Mac OS X, and I’ve just had some sucess with my new eee Linux based laptop, again on Vodafone (but I imagine other operators will be similar).

To dial up a connection, plug the phone in via USB and setup a new Dialup Connection in the Network Connections manager with the following information:

Phone number: *99***internet#
User name: web
Password: web

The difference here is that I’m putting the access point name in the number to dial, no doubt the script I was using on OS X was doing this for me. These settings worked on a plain vanilla eee PC without messing around in /etc/ppp. So that might vary operator to operator. Best of luck, please post in the comments if your process varied for other operators or devices.

Using a GPRS, 3G or HSDPA Mobile with OS X

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:26:54 +0000

So I’ve just moved house and I’m without Internet. It seems I have to pay a total of Ã‚£384 ($729 USD) for the priviledge this year. Unbelievably only Ã‚£120 of this is for 16mb no-monthly-limit broadband from Sky, but the rest is on an obscene Ã‚£124 activation cost to get a BT line set up in this place (I was told it has been 7 years since one was active), the rest is line rental for said line from BT. So that’s all going to take at least a month, because living in a town of several hundred thousand people counts as being “in the sticks” when compared with London, and they just don’t make enough phone engineers…

Asus eeePC (Sub Notebook) Review

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:06:03 +0000

The other week I picked up an ASUS eeePC Linux based laptop from, believe or not, Toys ‘R’ Us, for an incredible Ã‚£220 GBP ($429 USD). I have recently started commuting to London on the train with around a 40 minute journey time, so for me this was a purchase that would save my sanity and hopefully my (considerably more costly) MacBook Pro from being stolen. It’s small enough to have on one knee so don’t worry about a table and I’m currently using it to surf, code in Ruby, read books and watch videos.

Subscription Model Should Dominate All Media Consumption

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 23:39:53 +0000

That means iTunes’ current model will be due for some drastic changes, no more downloading things “to keep”. Someone asked me the other day whether I really thought all our media consumption (music, video, insert-other-media-here) would be entirely subscription based in the near future. I gave a definite YES in response.

This is something I’ve had on my mind a few years, and personally I’m of the opinion the only viable solution to the increasingly complex problem of content management and ownership -whilst maintaining the rights of artists and authors- is to consume all of our content as the result of a subscription to a media conglomerate or third party broker.

Does Flash Lite Have a Future?

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:24:36 +0000

A popular thread on the Flash Lite mailing list right now is entitled: “Does Flashlite have a future with mobile devices?“. This is very alarming, but a very just question with all things considered…

In 2005 I started writing Foundation Flash for Mobile Devices (Friends of ED). This came about very soon after Flash Lite 1.1 was released, and writing continued right up until the release of Flash Lite 2.1 (we made sure we waited to include it). Before I give my thoughts on Flash Lite and its future, I should probably explain that in the last year I’ve pretty much taken a back seat in the Flash Lite community, and there are many reasons for that. The reality is my attention span is very short and I’ve been too busy keeping up developing prototypes and commercial sites and applications with every new technology, including Flex 2, Papervision3D, Silverlight, WPF and AIR. There are other reasons, but more on that later.

Nokia Series 60 To Get Flash Video

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:27:05 +0000

A press release from Nokia today states:

“Flash Video will be integrated with the Web Browser for S60 … This allows people to view on the go Flash-enabled Web sites and Flash Video, such as YouTube”

Nothing new to many of you, as it’s no doubt the inclusion of Flash Lite 3 that facilitates this. But it’s nice to see continued commitment to including Flash Lite in future revisions of their software.

Opera Mini v4 Beta 2 Available for Download

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:57:50 +0000

Opera have just released beta 2 of their Opera Mini 4 mobile browser. Considered by many the best mobile browser out there. They’ve also published an article on the dev center on designing sites for mobile. There is also a video of Opera Mini 4 in action.

Download the beta here.
View the article here.
Play with a live simulator here.

Tasty new Nokia Prism Collection

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 02:27:15 +0000

There was a time when Nokia was the style icon in the mobile industry, the 3210 widely considered one of the best phones of all time (I can’t substantiate that claim), it was good looking, worked flawlessly and was as tough as old boots (if I remember it was also the first with Snake). In particular the foray into smartphones has left them looking a little bit… purely functional, leaving the Samsungs and the LGs to take the crown for best looking in the last few years.

Flash Lite Digital Personal Assistant for Jonnie Walker

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 06:21:43 +0000

Here’s a fantastic execution of an idea for mobile, using Flash Lite. For those up and coming Asian businessmen without a PA of their own, BreakDesign (makers of Dawn of the Fly) have created a digital PA that has a calendar, finds bars, taxis and other information.

I’m a big fan of giving a consumer something useful and then branding it. As opposed to giving a consumer something that does something associated with the brand (brand self-love I think they call it). In this case they hit the old golden “sweet spot” and did both. Some brands lend themselves to this naturally, such as Nike with Nike+, sometimes its harder to create something of real value.

The Popularity of Music Videos on Mobile Devices

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:20:15 +0000

No one can really doubt the success of MTV up until now. People like music videos. But I’m left confused when I look at music videos being sold for download on mobile devices such as phones and iPods, and sold at a premium.

Watching music videos on TV is something I only do if I’m doing something else at the same time and just want some background (I don’t say background “noise” because I think it’s safe enough to say many people now look for background sound and video at the same time, strange as it may sound). As for actually spending money and downloading a music video to my phone or iPod, with those tiny little screens and in the case of mobile phones, horrible sound quality- is surely the worst possible way you could watch a music video?

Finally – New Slimline Nokia Smartphones

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 04:59:13 +0000

I’m a big fan of Nokia’s smartphones and have stuck to them for my last 3 handsets because I love that I don’t have any compatibility issues with files, programs or syncing to Outlook et al, they just work flawlessly. But I’ve been dissappointed that they just keep getting bigger and bigger (and slower!), so I almost decided to switch to Sony Ericsson as a result, no-one wants a slow chunk of silicon in their pocket.

Hey Ma, I’m on BBC Radio ;)

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 20:52:31 +0000

It’s been a week since I was at Flash on the Beach but whilst I was there Rami Tzabar from the BBC (Digital Planet on Radio 4) asked me a few questions about Flash Lite just after my presentation. You can listen online and download the podcast at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4849402.stm

Direct link to mp3

Skip to 20 mins 30 seconds for the piece on 10 years of Flash (and Flash on the Beach). The show talks about the evolution of Flash and its expansion into various forms of media. There’s also an insightful discussion from Geoff Stearns on the abuse of Flash. 10 years, wow.

Homebrew for PSP 2.0 – 2.8

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 07:03:24 +0000

I was a bit gutted when I upgraded the firmware on my PSP to 2.71 in order to get the Flash Player on there. I had a lot of useful homebrew like a PDF reader and some open source games like Tetris, and its always good to have the choice to try out some demos/games of your own (for example with LUAScript). Anyway some good news and probably the smoothest hack yet. You can now navigate to a special tif image on your memory stick and the preview icon alone will cause the PSP to run in User/Kernal mode all ready for homebrew.

Expansive Flash Lite 1.1 Game – Fantasy Quest

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:20:26 +0000

“beginner_lite” has been going all out in his spare time adding more and more to the rather expansive Fantasy Quest Flash Lite 1.1 game. Not only is it a role playing game utilizing Final Fantasy graphics if I’m not wrong, but there’s also Tetris, Tic Tac Toe, racing, a labrynth, weapon upgrades and a whole lot more packed into this mammoth Flash Lite game.

You can see lots of screens the last few updates to this game over at the Flash Mobile Forum.

Presenting at FlashForward

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 02:11:42 +0000

I’m very pleased to announce I’ll be presenting at Flash Forward Austin in September. I’ve only been across the Atlantic once to visit Chicago, so I cannot wait to check out Austin especially with the City Limits festival straight after the conference. I will be presenting on my favourite topic, Flash Lite (2). Hopefully you’ve already clicked the link above to check out the lineup, all I can say is that I’m going to enjoy going to the other presentations as much as giving mine 🙂 and the conference runs from the 16th to the 18th.

PSP Flash Game of the Week

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:32:47 +0000

This is cool, Hayden Porter on the Flash Lite Yahoo Group just posted the following link to a blog that is reviewing Flash games for PSP on a weekly basis. PSP Homebrew has been seriously hampered by the last few updates, with no real mod-chip out there yet, it’s been the case that homebrew is for the hardcore (even I upgraded so I could play the latest games). Either way, Flash for PSP fills some of that void with free games to download:

Flash Lite Emulator Speed vs. Real-world Handset Speed

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 13:38:12 +0000

Eric D. threw up a very interesting point in his latest blog post. Asking whether there is a way to accurately emulate the performance of a lower powered, slower device such as a mobile phone.

I did a quick couple of tests using the latest Flash Lite emulator and a combination of an FPS speedometer, capabilities test, and a couple of apps designed to slow down your computer’s CPU for emulating old DOS games. Check out the results, posted in the comments on Eric’s blog.

Flash Lite 2.0 Inline TextField

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:58:17 +0000

Something I forgot to upload a while back.

This “component” allows the user to enter text with T9 (non-predictive) text input without having to use the cursor keys and select to give focus to the textfield, i.e. tapping the 2 key will cycle through “a”, “b”, “c”, “2” and wait a second for it to advance to the next character in the string. Simple concept that we now take for granted on phones, Macromedia created a Flash Lite 1.1 version which did the same thing although this one was a lot easier to make having to modify that for an FL1.1 app just recently (kudos for the major effort that must have been put in there)!

Flash Lite and Flex and Other Server Apps

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 09:20:50 +0000

First up, eagle eyed Scott has just caught a job vacancy on Monster for a “Senior Product Manager, Flex Mobile Development at Adobe”. Well there’s been some suspicion regarding this matter since Flash Lite 1.1 came out, I asked Mike Chambers this when he came over for the 8-Ball London MMUG special in Sep with a very understandable no comment, but now it looks like the final piece of the puzzle is fitting into place.

Motorola and Flash Lite – News from 3GSM

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:05:30 +0000

Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to 3GSM, but I’ve just been informed that the chief integrator of Motorola has said that we will see Flash Lite on their phones such as the Rokr within 3 months! Motorola were the last of the major manufacturers to cave, but now we have the whole set 🙂

Series 60 news – As we know the new Series 6 v3 SDK contains the Flash Lite player as a standalone and web plug-in. It looks like the greatly anticipated N91 (4gig, wifi, I want one) will have it installed, as well as the lovely looking E-Series business phones, the E60 is my personal favourite.

Flash Lite App – Adobe Product Certification Practice

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 03:58:17 +0000

I’ve just received an email from Fabio over at elastech.it letting me know that they have just uploaded a new Flash Lite application to the freeware section at flashmobile.it. QuizAndPass aims to test you on several Adobe products including -of course- Flash Lite. This is yet another nicely styled app that is polished throughout, following on from their previous app LitePoker, which also looks and runs great.

Creating Trials for Flash Lite Apps (Part II)

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 15:00:56 +0000

So following on from the first part of this discussion I was asked to look at creating a 10 day trial Flash Lite application. The theory is sound, you either contact a server and pass it the IMEI (best option), or work out a way of storing some information on how many uses have taken place locally on the phone, either using plain-text, a hash or some real encryption.

In Flash Lite 2.0, we can do this with Local Shared Objects, this is also great to keep the information from prying eyes as you have to know where to look for the SO’s in order to try and crack them, the down side is that a little bit of digging a while back showed they look fairly similar (if not the same) as desktop Flash Player SO’s and therefore there are already tools available to read them. Either way, they are a boon to Flash Lite development for many other reasons.

Flash Lite 2 Player for Free

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 10:31:46 +0000

Naz on the Flash Lite Yahoo Group just noted that there is a time limited offer on the Flash Lite 2 player right now. When you go to checkout, the cost gets deducted, totalling 0.

I just tested this out and can confirm. So get over to the store and see if you are lucky.

Note: You must visit through the above updated URL.

Flash Lite 2 Beats Expectations

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 02:28:49 +0000

I don’t normally like to post something that has already been covered, but there are a couple of new bits to get to grips with.

First of all, the default location the Flash Lite 2 Player looks for SWF files in has changed. To be good Symbian citizens, SWFs should now be placed in c:nokiaothers or e:others.

Secondly, you have to check out Jesse’s FlickrMobile app which uses the Flash Lite 2 component set we began work on -and something I think I’d like to fire up again. Flash Lite 2 just opens up some really amazing avenues for mobile dev. It simply gives you so much more, including some more familiar objects, LoadVars, XML, SharedObjects and even some things that we have previously taken for granted, like attachMovie() and the drawing API. Add to that brand new features that the desktop player finds hard to compete with, loading in gif, png, 3gp, mp4*.

Flash Lite Device Cap’s Table On Its Way?

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 22:15:46 +0000

Just a note to Flash Lite devs out there to head over to the Adobe Flash Lite forum to provide feedback to Laura who is working on an application to provide developers with device information for Flash Lite capable handsets.

A while ago a few of us set about creating a table of which devices were supported and how they performed, created through developers’ testing out a SWF on their handsets. Something more official from Adobe would be great and I’m looking forward to it.

Mobile Cameras Improve

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 15:16:28 +0000

Just got back from a quick break in Spain and I realised I don’t actually own a camera so I just went with my phone, a Nokia N70. Now I’ve had a “mega-pixel” camera phone before, the 7610, and I was pretty impressed at the time with the quality, and strange lomographic quality it burns into the photos. But the 2meg camera that the N70 has really suprised me. I thought I’d upload a couple of bland scenery photos to show how much camera phones have really improved, and this isn’t even the latest and greatest 7 megapixel phone you might see in Japan. The camera is great in macro- but the lense isn’t much good for anything else. These photos are straight off the phone but shrunk from 1600×1200 down to 1024×768, you can even produce some really nice effects by flipping the phone into both night, and negative mode.

Flash Lite 2 Player Officially Available (quick start tip at end)

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 14:16:11 +0000

First of all Bill Perry has just confirmed that the Flash Lite 2 player is now available from the Adobe Store. Not wanting to re-iterate what he has said you can read the full post on his blog.

Secondly, you may be thinking it’s a little strange to release a player without a way of developing content for it. Well there are a couple of things you can do; the first is to wait just a little while until the IDE update, docs and samples are released in January on Labs. But if you really can’t wait to get coding, remember that the Flash Lite 2 player is based on the Flash 7 player and can therefore read SWF7 bytecode, so those itching to get AS2 on their phones can get publishing some Flash 7 files and you can immediately start playing with your existing library of classes on your handsets. But that does of course mean that there is no gaurentee that all SWF7 bytecodes/functions/objects are supported, and it also means you won’t have access to any possible Flash Lite 2 specific objects and functionality until January, but it’s a nice way to get into mobile dev over the holidays.

Unable to install Flash Lite on newer Nokias? Instructions here.

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 14:12:35 +0000

Just had an email from a friend regarding the Nokia N70 and Flash Lite. Great phone, but there is something that had me googling for a few minutes. That is installing certain un-signed apps onto the phone. Newer series 60 phones do not allow this by default, that includes the Flash Lite 1.1 player. You receive the following message: “installation security error”.

To cut a long story short simply go to ‘Tools > Manager > Options > Settings’ and turn Software installation’ > “On”.

ITV offers Flash Lite client

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:59:47 +0000

Big thanks to David Mannl for pointing this out just now.

I’ve just signed up for the new ITV Mobizines service (see flash demo here). When you text “MOBILE” to 63330, you receive a link to download the client (if your phone is up to it, mine is an old 7610 and it worked no problems). The client will install the standalone Flash Lite player along with the main application and a skinned media player (just the 2 icons on the main menu, the media player is invoked by the client). When the client is installed via Symbian installer you should see the unmistakeable vector UI and bitmap fonts of Flash Lite 1.1 being used to offer a TV Guide, weather, news and entertainment with the option to download more “Mobizines”, or mobile magazines – similar to the channels concept pushed elsewhere. Prime candidate for a FlashCast server hey :).

Flash Lite AI Character – Retch, a Chat-eBot

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 17:31:39 +0000

A few weeks ago I started speaking to one David Williams who was interested in taking his artifical intelligence “chat-eBots”, which are sold as virtual hosts for sites, and putting them on mobile phones in an altered form. We discussed a few technologies and a few ideas but unfortunately I had to dip out of the project due to commitments. Anyway, David has gone ahead and produced the entire thing in Flash Lite, and you can demo the first of these eBots, “Retch”, on the companion site, as well as purchase a copy for your handset.

Seriously well made Flash Lite app – “theTube”

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 16:11:22 +0000

This is one of the best made Flash Lite apps I’ve seen to date, and also one I’m going to use very often.

“The Tube” allows you to navigate (with easing tweens) the London Underground map, search for a station in a rolodex fashion (this is one of my favourite features), and view individual lines. The application is very well polished, the animation is clean and one final nice addition was a little history of the Underground.

Mobile Features in Flash 8 – Presentation on the 15th

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:43:21 +0000

Just a quick note to say I’ll be presenting some of the brand new mobile features packed into the Flash 8 IDE at the London MMUG on the 15th of September.

I plan on showing several things including the emulator, the excellent docs, and also some things you may not associate with Flash Lite programming now enabled by the new IDE. If you have any requests, please post below.

Of course there’s a whole evening planned with talks from Mike Downey, Ian Turner, Aral Balkan and Guy Watson, so there’s definitely something for everyone. I hope to see you there!

SUSHI MultiUser Server for Flash, Flash Lite, J2SE & J2ME

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 15:02:05 +0000

There aren’t a lack of mutli-user servers out there that work with Flash, but this one has some great features:

Supports Flash MX AS1.0 & 2.0, FlashLite, J2SE, J2ME.
Extend the SUSHI server with Java or Actionscript.
SUSHI supports socket and HTTP connections (HTTP tunneling.)
SUSHI provides a web based, graphical administration.
Free 30 user license edition.
Hosting.

What really caught my eye of course is that they have included a Flash Lite API, it uses a polling solution to keep the connection open, but it appears very flexible and neat.

MXNA Flash Lite App

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 02:02:38 +0000

Ok, so this is my first attempt at using the new MXNA Flash Lite services. I must say, apart from the initial problem with the feed, now fixed thanks for Christian and Mike, it all went very smoothly.

You can run the app in the regular Flash player here (remember the key mappings, PageUp and PageDown are your phones softkeys).

You can download it for your phone here (including source code!)

Finally, here’s a quick screenshot: