Move As One Macromedia's Site of the Day

Macromedia is showcasing the Move As One Flash Com Server game we worked on as their Site of the Day - hooray! Nice to have a project regarded in this way, and kudos to the project team.

Thank you Boston!

Had a great time giving my Breeze presentation this morning (or evening depending on where you were) to the Boston Macromedia Mobile User Group. It's a growing user group and there are certainly some talented and excited Flash Lite developers there. I've posted the Flash Paper verison of the presentation slides here if you're intersted to see what Moket is up to. Thanks again Alessandro for the opportunity to speak, and to everyone who has emailed me after the presentation ... you're far too kind :)

Moket to deliver Flash Lite training in 2006

I'm pleased to announce today that Moket will be adding a new stream of activity in the Flash mobile development space beginning in 2006 - authorised Macromedia Flash Lite developer training.

In early January I'll be travelling to Seoul to attend a Macromedia Flash Lite Instructor "boot camp" with James Talbot, from Macromedia's Curriculum Development and Professional Certification department, along with others from Macromedia and developers/business owners from the Asia Pacific region.

I'll spend about 3-4 days being trained as an instructor in the new Macromedia Flash Lite courseware that will become available shortly. I'll then be qualified as a Macromedia Flash Lite Development Instructor, allowing us to deliver the new courseware through training programs being setup at the moment through Moket in Australia. This isn't the same as the current Macromedia Certified Instructor course (as part of the MATP program), but something new just for Flash Lite.

This is a really exciting development in the range of Moket's services, and will only strengthen the developer community here and raise awareness of Flash on mobile devices in the mobile content industry in general. And of course I'll also be posting my travel diaries to the blog - it'll be the middle of winter of there (middle of summer here for me at home), so it'll be a climate AND culture shock:) Having never been overseas before, I'm pretty amped about being able to go and am really looking forward to it!

Move As One Development Blog

It's not often we get to work on a project that was large enough to have it's own blog! The "Move As One" Flash game has a blog now, giving readers some background info on the concept of the game, a run down on some of the issues we came across when building the Flash Com component, a video of the game in motion - even a podcast (hear Robin Hilliard doing his level best to impersonate me ... nice try Robin!).

The main campaign site has also gone live recently (produced by the Sattachi team - well done guys), showing the new car in detail ... v nice. The game is now a part of the site - click the TEST YOUR SYNERGY button!

More than meets the eye, in a galaxy far far away

I'll be honest and tell you that after more than 20 years I'm still a mad Star Wars fan and collector. But this arrived in my inbox today, like a bolt from the past bringing all my childhood fantasies together - Star Wars Transformers! Darth Vader transforming into his Advance Xi Tie-fighter, Obi Wan into a Kedi Starfighter, General Grevious into, well, General Grevious, and Luke Skywalker into a X-Wing fighter.

Alongside The Thunderbirds, Transformers shaped my Saturday mornings for years. I had stacks of them and would battle my brother and cousins (my brother had Soundwave of which I was eternally jealous) - but now this just seems to good to be true.

Looks like daddy's Christmas list just got a bit longer ... Click here for the full range!

Hutchison 3 goes Flash Lite in Italy

Marco Casario has let the extended community know about the first FLash Lite app available through 3 in Italy. It's a weather service (the humble weather service seems to always be the first cab off the ranks!) available to subscribers through the 3 portal direct on the handsets. Great to finally see some major carriers getting on board. it can only mean good things for other regions, and fingers crossed, for 3 in Australia! Read Marco's post here.

Moket presenting at Boston Mobile User Group

On the 14th of November, I'll be giving a presentation via Breeze to the Boston Flash Lite Mobile User Group. This group is the first Macromedia user group set up for Flash Lite mobile and devices, and has several overseas members such as myself. Hey I find it hard enough to get to the MMUG in my own city ... but here I am going to one in Boston! Anyway, I'll be showing a version of the opening presentation I did at the Moket launch event in July, with some new info on what we're up to now and what 2006 looks like for Flash Lite development. Thanks to Alessandro for the invite, and to James for providing the venue at Macromedia Boston (for those who actually go to these meetings in person!).

Skam is the new spam

I've just been Skyping with a friend, chatting about the seemingly new technological scurge - Skype spam - or as I have dubbed it - Skam.

This is where people who seemingly have no connection to you try and add you to their contacts. I know you can decline their invitation, which is akin to the spam filter or just a hard delete from your Inbox. But of course people use nicknames with IM clients, so you're never sure if it's friend or foe. Sometimes you allow their request to add you to their contacts, only to find that you have no idea who they are and have just started you in on a 35-way conversation with other un-suspecting Skypers, telling you of the magical properties of their product.

I'm not interested in the technical aspects of how they do this (probably some industrious developer whose extended Skype to just search the universe on email addresses), just make it stop! I love Skype, I've done overseas deals on it and worked with interstate clients on it - I just don't want to be offered Viagra from some Candadian pharmacy, or be asked for some details so I can have $34 million transferred from a Nigerian monarch in exile ... is that too much to ask?

Nokia sees mobile TV networks running by mid-2006

There's been some talk on the Flash Lite Yahoo Group about Vodafone UK's new streaming TV service that you can access from the new Nokia n70.

Well more good news for mobile users who want to watch their favourite drama on the mini-screen, with Nokia (one of Macromedia's buddies in the mobile playground) talking up the development of their hardware that will deliver mobile TV - called Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H). Stacks of hurdles to overcome though before we really see it as a standard, but it's got some serious push behind it.

Read more about it here

Pop stars tap new technology to market music

An interesting article from ITnews.com.au about how the biggest names in music these days are making use of technology to market their latest wares.

Williams' partner in promoting his "Intensive Care" record is T-Mobile, which has signed an 18-month deal with the British singer that is in keeping with a shift towards using mobile phone technology to sell pop music."Everyone these days has a mobile phone, so for major artists, this is a perfect tool to stay in touch with the fans," said Matthias Immel, who is involved in international marketing at T-Mobile, an arm of Germany's Deutsche Telekom.

It'll be great to see how Flash Lite fits into the emerging mobile entertainment market - like a glove I'm sure!