Flash/AIR on Mobile Devices
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- Boz
I thought to create this thread for all of you who want to create apps with AS3 for mobile devices.
It is now official, Adobe AIR for mobile devices will now run on Android, iPhone/iPod/iPad and Blackberry.
Today it is announced that Adobe is actually very tightly integrated with Blackberry PlayBook tablet (http://www.engadget.com/2010/09... and new Blackberry OS 6.0 and their phones.
This completes the circle (with the exception of Nokia - no news there yet) and you will now be able to build one app that runs on all of these devices in AS3.
I would suggest any questions and discussions about code, optimization and APIs to be discussed here for the benefit of everyone interesting in developing apps with AS3 for mobile platforms.
- shellie0
Really looking forward to the future here.
- dbloc0
I guess it's time to hunker down and learn AS3.
- skelly_b0
I worry about Adobe's ability to keep up with all these platforms. Windows, OS X, and Linux seems to outpace them, now with the faster moving mobile platforms, I'm skeptical.
I think cross-platform compatibility will be stronger with JS, since it's then each platform's responsibility to improve performance and compatibility. And most of them use WebKit, combining some of that effort for everyone's good.
- jetSkii0
how much will it cost to upgrade to that platform and how often?
- vaxorcist0
Don't worry, I'm sure AS4 is around the corner, and probably as compatible with AS3 as AS2 is...
- AS2 was their own invention, at least AS3 is based on a standard a lot of people are already familiar with, I don't see why they'd change that.acescence
- .. why they'd change thatacescence
- you got that backwards. AS2 is javascript w/ the same prototype object model. AS3 is not a open standard at all.kpl
- AS4 will not be the same torturous overhaul AS3 was. That's coming from an Adobe rep I saw at a Flashcoders event.CyBrainX
- Boz0
skelly_b, I hear you.. I personally don't think that's going to be the case because this is a new market and Adobe is well aware that they have to innovate to keep the market dominance or they will indeed lose their audience.
On the other hand, let's be objective here.. I get JS and frameworks you are talking about. I'm excited about Jquery mobile too, but the fact is that JS hasn't really progressed that much and much much slower. It took them 10 years to come out with Jquery and so on and that's because browsers didn't innovate. RIght now we have browser competition so I'm guessing it will go a bit faster but if you do compare the two (AS and JS) Actionscript, Flash in general has advanced much faster and offered us things that even with HTML5 we won't have (such as direct access to microphone and camera or a few other things).
I think, the community and the fact that one company is behind it, will make AIR for mobile devices grow much faster and keep up with all the new APIs that come out.
- PonyBoy0
I don't want to do it anymore... I'm learning 3D
- yup... currently on an opengl tripkingsteven
- A very tempting direction. I'm half way there myself.CyBrain
- acescence0
javascript and actionscript are both ecmascript, so syntactically they are nearly identical. if you know one, you know the other with very little effort, and you can build an air app with nothing but javascript. i think one would be well served to be fluent in both, eggs not all in one basket sort of thing.
- skelly_b0
Interesting, the Blackberry tablet is HTML/CSS/JS apps or Flash, that's it. Smart of them to not even bother trying to attract developers over to another SDK. With everyone except Microsoft using Webkit, I really think JS is where it's at for cross-platform compatibility. If you then tailor a shell around that optimizes for the platform, you're set.
- PIZZA0
^ forget any 3D games or games that use hardware acceleration for 2D graphics then.
- skelly_b0
Yeah, but I think game dev is a different endeavor. Probably be using native SDKs to go down that road. Though the simpler stuff can be done in Flash, assuming the performance is acceptable.
That is something no one is mentioning. AIR's performance on the desktop isn't that great, in my opinion, so I just don't see it running that well on mobile devices. But I don't know... haven't tried it yet.
- kpl0
Write once/run anywhere. Sounds like the late 90's to me.
The Web killed Java. Why bother with apps that need a bulky abstraction layer when you can just write apps with the web's native language? And frankly, AIR doesn't really add much of anything to Java, does it.
- in b4 "it can do html/css/js too!", like that somehow makes it better than a web browserkpl
- Boz0
Btw.. good book just released..
AIR for Android (talks about everything you need to know about Flash pro/Flash Builder development for Android. A lot of great stuff for those who are just learning about this. Very useful.
- kingsteven0
Boz, what's your setup for AIR development? which IDE?
- nicolasdesle0
Any good tutorials already out there on developing for iOS with AIR 2.6?
- Boz0
@kingsteven
Since I'm very visual I use Flash Pro for UI, graphics, and library management and I use Flash Builder for code.. I do AS editor inside Flash Pro sometimes because it's very good as well but Flash Builder is much more useful because you can see all your methods and stuff on the left so it's very easy to jump around and work with them. Flash Pro doesn't have that.. yet. Also, if you ever do any Eclipse dev or any other IDE based on Eclipse, you'll feel more at home if you get used to Flash Builder. Flash Builder is really great for coding.
So it's a mix of 2 really for me.. If you are familiar with Flex, I think you might actually be better off making apps with that framework because Adobe is trying to make sure they give you all controls and optimizations in performance without you thinking about it while you are building your apps (like listItemRenderer and other controls).
When you work with Flash Pro/Flash Builder in pure AS3, you will have to take care of a lot of the UI controls and performance optimizations yourself but sometimes it's worth it more because you have more freedom do stuff how you design it and like.
- nicolasdesle0
Bump