Well...Tinic Uro tells us that it may not mean quite what you think. In fact, depending on your browser and your platform, things can sway -10 to +5 frames/sec from your selected framerate. That means from the Flash 8 default of 15 fps, your movie could be running anywhere from 5 to 20 fps. Tinic gives the technical reasons for this fluctuation. Most of it seems to be throttles built in by browser makers to keep CPU cycles manageable. It makes sense, especially when considering, as Tinic points out, online advertising. But its still frustrating nonetheless when synchronization is important. Like most else with the web, user experience is not always as predictable as we'd like, but at least knowing the problems will help with finding the answers.
Finally someone has taken our advice and started displaying premium content via Flash video with embedded ads. As I
have said in this space before, content
providers need only create Flash based video content to distribute their stuff to viewers and then they can grab the
largest online viewing audience of any video app. Larger than Windows Media Player, larger than Quicktime, larger than
all other video types.
ABC has created and released a new Flash based video player for four of its shows that embeds video with
non-skippable ad content from AT&T. Users can choose from four differenct shows (Desperate Housewives, Lost,
Commander and Chief, and Alias) and view content in each with sponsor advertisments within.
Friday You Tube released a new player face for its video. They are incouraging users to check out the new
player and tell them what they think. I like the player more than the older one, but its not as 'pretty.' You Tube
added needed features including a scroller that can be easily selected and moved to jump through the playing video, a
volume control, and a time stamp. Improvements I would like to see include the release of an API so developers can
embed You videos in their projects and even adjust the player to add of remove functionality. Plus I would like to skin
the player with various colors and designs. They could even use an API to promote the site to content providers for
targetted use on sites. Maybe E! could start embedding E! content with custom skins and active dynamic Flash
content.
Pepsi's Japan division has a simplistic time waster of a game up for your afternoon enjoyment. The game allows you to
run down a path punching walls of ice to the sounds of the usual viral music. Unfortunately I'm not exactly sure what
Pepsi Nex is supposed to taste like (I'd assume nastiness in a bottle, since its Pepsi), but the game is a great way to
waste a few minutes after lunch. Plus this is a great example of a Flash game that doesn't use stereotypical Flash
style. The game relies on the On2 video codec to display most of its animation with integrated video for a running
player and a bursting wall.
Quasimondo has a site full of artistic experiments using Flash, Java and Javascript. His latest project dives into the
newly modified Flash 8 Camera object to create a fully interactive video game that is a knockoff of the pre-crime
system from Minority Report the movie (read the short story, its darker). The project grabs hand movements from the
user's camera to define how to turn a cube on the stage and even has a new option to add the user's photo (via the
camera) to the face of the cube. As usual this is not a spy program (as noted at the bottom of the developer's page),
unfortunately Quasimondo didn't pony up for Flash Media
Server.
Last week, we all heard of the security risk posed by the current Flash player and I'm sure
you all already updated your web players. Mike Downey points out
that there are also updates for
the Flash 8 and Flash MX 2004 Test Movie players as well. So start your morning off right by patching away!
John Dowdell just posted
about the official Flash Player for Intel based Macs. You can download the updated player to bring yourself up to a
version that doesn't require Rosetta to run and fixes the latest security issue. Current issues with this player
include a strange issue where Flash will only recognize the default iSight camera. Also this is a universal binary that
included the latest Flash Player for Power-PC based Macs. Installation is reletively painless with only four steps.
So there was this big press conference at Sony headquarters yesterday to discuss the PS3 (which I will probably
avoid, $425 is too much) and the CEO had some announcements about upcoming PSP updates, including a new web browser.
The next PSP web browser will include official Flash support! Which means we can stop trying to hack the Flash Player
into the PlayStationPortable and just go with the flow. 1UP mentioned the inclusion at 10:42 AM PST yesterday. I only wonder if the player will be a
stripped down version or even just a modified version of the Palm OS Flash Player that was included with Sony's CLIE
product line. The release of a coming camera and GPS modules leads me to think that Flash developers may be able to
build full fledged RIAs that feature location based support and video teleconferencing. Now I just need to save up a
couple hundred bucks and grab on of these for 'work.'
Time to update your Flash Player. According to Cnet, Adobe has released
a new update to Flash Player to bring all you non-beta users up to 8.0.24.0. Adobe recommends all users of Flash player
up to version 8.0.22.0 update their player via download. Apparently a vulnerability has been found that
allows 'evil' SWF files to take control of a user's system when loaded into current version of the player. So head over
to the link below and update your systems. The problem affects Breeze 5, Shockwave 10.1.0.11 and Flash debug player
7.0.14 (and earlier of course).
An answer to the Mac Intel problem has started to
emerge. Recently I said I would need to delay a possible MacBookPro purchase due to the non-universal Flash problem.
Wel Tinic Uro, Flash Player developer, has
written up a reason to lower my worries. Apparently the Intel Macs will: "ship with a native Intel version of the
Flash Player 8 plugin."
Yay! I could deal with running Flash 8 in Rosetta till upgrade time if I can still
view my Flash in a natively run Safari. Plus this means Flash users (read site visitors) who are early adopters aren't
cut out of viewership.
On a side note, one of the comments on Uro's article states this is a preview release
player which may have been pushed in an effort to ease the Mac Intel transition from Adobe.
The first of the early adopters to realize his mistake has returned his brand new iMac with Intel after just
24 hours. Unfortunately for Jed Wood of SilentRant.com the failure of Flash on the new iMac (specifically in Safari and
Firefox under Rosetta) forced him to return his smooth new Mac. Again, careful how early you adopt, he ended up lucking
into a trade in on the PowerPC iMac, but almost suffered a 10 percent restocking fee.
Since the release of the new Mac Book Pro and iMac with Intel I have been considering when to make the
upgrade and move on to a new laptop. A few things are keeping me in check though. First off, this is a first gen or
Alpha product that is going to have bugs (this is jus the nature of technology). Second off there are no 'Universal'
binaries for Studio or any other Adobe products for that matter. But what about Rosetta? Well It doesn't look like
Rosetta is very nice to Flash's new step brother. Photoshop CS2 runs much slower on the new Intel iMacs in speed tests,
according to Ars Technica. Plus, according to
the latest Photoshop TV video podcast, Adobe has a previous history of not release incremental updates, hence they
think Photoshop will not be 'Universal' til CS3 (grab the vodcast yourself and watch
between 16:40 and 18:10 for more info). But Photoshop isn't Studio. Actually, now that Flash and Macromedia are tied to
Adobe, I think Flash and therefore Studio will be tied (at least loosely) to Photoshop. So if you feel the need for
speed, it is probably a good idea to hold off on purchasing the new Mac Intels. At least wait till someone jumps on the
bandwagon with official speed tests for Flash and FLV encoding.
Currently I'm going to consider a semi-update to a
'new' PowerBook instead and pray Flash Player 8.5 includes the first Universal Binary from Adobe, because as of right
now Flash Player 8 does npt appeast to work in Safari on Intel without forcing Safari to run under Rosetta.
Knee jerk reaction correction time... yes I did have a knee jerk reaction to what I thought would be a really cool thing. A combo Flash player and Adobe reader plugin and application would hopefully mean a possible slimmer (read more memory efficient) Reader and a more robust Player... but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Numerouscorrections have been flowing out of the former Macromedia heavy-weights so I thought I should write up a quick oops post to help move us forward.
Let's look at this from another angle. Would you prefer a combo app? Maybe an Apple Preview Application mixed with the Flash player in a Flash Paper way... or how about we take some Acrobat functionality and bundle it into Actionscript. I would love to dynamically edit and create PDFs on the fly (for free... I paid a few hundred for the app already, sorry Derek) then we could add a print to PDF functionality to all Flash-based apps that would mimic that great Apple print function... What do you think?
Pandora is a Flash-based radio station built by the folks over at the Music Genome Project. This is not your average Flash jukebox. You tell Pandora a band or a song that you like, then based on the Genome Project, they serve up songs in a similar vein, your very own radio station. Like TiVo, you can give thumbs up or thumbs down to new songs to refine what they're giving you. Hooks in to buy the songs off of iTunes or the albums from Amazon. A friend of mine complained about the "non-standard Flash UI," but I was comfortable with it after clicking around for a moment.
And for the record, Underworld is great music to code by.
OK, this one is addictive...but aren't all good time-wasters?!
Philippe Seifried has posted a deceptively simple game called Drifts on his site, RepeatWhileTrue. Make sure to take the time to read the instructions since there are no second lives, just a game restart. (They roll by a little slowly for me, and I skipped them the first couple of times through...I know, I know...RTFM...) My additional instructional hint: when picking up the green bubbles, they can't be touching a purple bubble or...*POP*! Drifts even remembers your personal high score locally which is a nice perk since it will be a long while before I come even close to competing with "beejay"'s 1200.
Post your high scores here...and how long you played to get there...Good luck!
Well...Tinic Uro tells us that it may not mean quite what you think. In fact, depending on your browser and your platform, things can sway -10 to +5 frames/sec from your selected framerate. That means from the Flash 8 default of 15 fps, your movie could be running anywhere from 5 to 20 fps. Tinic gives the technical reasons for this fluctuation. Most of it seems to be throttles built in by browser makers to keep CPU cycles manageable. It makes sense, especially when considering, as Tinic points out, online advertising. But its still frustrating nonetheless when synchronization is important. Like most else with the web, user experience is not always as predictable as we'd like, but at least knowing the problems will help with finding the answers.
Finally someone has taken our advice and started displaying premium content via Flash video with embedded ads. As I
have said in this space 
Friday You Tube released a new player face for its video. They are incouraging users to check out the new
player and tell them what they think. I like the player more than the older one, but its not as 'pretty.' You Tube
added needed features including a scroller that can be easily selected and moved to jump through the playing video, a
volume control, and a time stamp. Improvements I would like to see include the release of an API so developers can
embed You videos in their projects and even adjust the player to add of remove functionality. Plus I would like to skin
the player with various colors and designs. They could even use an API to promote the site to content providers for
targetted use on sites. Maybe E! could start embedding E! content with custom skins and active dynamic Flash
content.
Pepsi's Japan division has a simplistic time waster of a game up for your afternoon enjoyment. The game allows you to
run down a path punching walls of ice to the sounds of the usual viral music. Unfortunately I'm not exactly sure what
Pepsi Nex is supposed to taste like (I'd assume nastiness in a bottle, since its Pepsi), but the game is a great way to
waste a few minutes after lunch. Plus this is a great example of a Flash game that doesn't use stereotypical Flash
style. The game relies on the On2 video codec to display most of its animation with integrated video for a running
player and a bursting wall.
So there was this big press conference at Sony headquarters yesterday to discuss the PS3 (which I will probably
avoid, $425 is too much) and the CEO had some announcements about upcoming PSP updates, including a new web browser.
The next PSP web browser will include official Flash support! Which means we can stop trying to hack the Flash Player
into the PlayStationPortable and just go with the flow. 1UP mentioned the inclusion at
An answer to the Mac Intel problem has started to
emerge. Recently I said I would need to delay a possible MacBookPro purchase due to the non-universal Flash problem.
Wel 
Pandora 
