My 5300 finally arrived

Finally, my Nokia 5300 arrived today ... sweet :) Since it's one of the first Flash Lite 2.0 phones out there I thought it was important to get one and try out some of our apps and screensavers on there. I don't actually think it runs as fast as my 6131 but it's still not too bad. The form and build of the handset itself is nice and it feels solid enough even with the slider out. Looking forward to showing it off over Christmas to all my gadget-addicted friends and relatives.

New Flash Lite BLog

David Mannl from Mobizines has a new blog. Worth a read for insights from soneone whose had a lot of success with Flash Lite.

Bring on the Ashes

It's every Aussie cricket fan's dream to see an Ashes series game (or is that play in one ... anyway), and this Saturday I'll be going along to the Gabba to Day 3 of the first test between Australia and England. To get me into the mood, my good friend Luciano has forwarded me this gem of a Flash game - The Ashes. Have a go and see if you don't get hooked! And to all my friends in the UK - sorry fellas but this is going to get a bit nasty for you Poms down here :)

Are the garden walls starting to crumble?

It's been one of the main gripes against telcos (at least here in Australia) - that the walled garden approach to controlling the customer is too restrictive and has hampered the uptaked of mobile content and services. So too has been the over pricing of these services in am emerging market where lower consumer costs might have helped the small number of 3G users actually try and get more from their devices.

But it seems that at least one Aussie telco is starting to move towards a more open and competitive mobile playing field.

It's long been the opinion of many of my colleagues that once the walled garden approach to customer control .. uh .. relationship management .. comes down, then we'll really start to see some of the promise of the 3G networks realised. I'm sure there are plenty of Flash Lite developers out there who would like to see the carrier cut out of things a little more, since they're reticence to adopt the Flash Lite platform has been a major hurdle to the development of the next generation of Flash mobile applications.

Time will tell of course, but perhaps we're moving in the right direction. Read more here

The Human Nature of Console Gamers

I'm sure this report isn't indicative of all gamers out there, but man can these guys get worked up over a new console! The launch of the PS3 in the US has been met with everything from long lines, crooked politicians and gun fire. Just your average product launch at Wal*Mart ?! Read the report here

Vote for Flash Lite

This post is a little late but hey I'm still jet-lagged! For those of you who haven't already seen on the many other blogs and forums, Flash Lite has been nominated for a Developer.com Award in the category of Wireless / Mobile Development Tool / Add-in of the Year.

When you have a moment, please vote for Flash Lite plus pass it on to your friends and spread the word. The deadline is Nov 30th and the winners will be announced in Jan 07.

It's a Wrap on Total Training for Flash Lite 2.1

Well, today was my final day at Total Training filming the Flash Lite 2.1 training DVD. It's been an exhausting 2 weeks since MAX, so a VERY exhausting 3 weeks since I left home on this US adventure. The guys at TT, especially John, Jason and Ryan have been so great to work with. They really made a long and intense job become quite fun and I had a ball hanging out with them and the rest of the gang. I'm looking forward to seeing the final result, from here all the editing and post production is done - it's a really slick process they have there and some very talented people all doing their job to create these great training resources. By the way, there's an excerpt of John Ulliman's recent Total Training for Flash DVD on the Adobe Mobile and Devices Developer Centre, demonstrating some techniques for creating mobile content.

I've now got a day left to do some gift shopping and sight seeing in Manhatten before heading back. When I arrived the leaves were all turning and now most of them are bare - I think Mother Nature is telling me it's time to go home before it gets too cold ... oh no ... wait on ... that's my wife :) I can't wait to get home!

I've been upgraded

For those who don't know I'm here in New York recording the Total Training DVD for Adobe Flash Lite 2.1. Since I've been basically "teaching" the course (while being recorded at the same time), Adobe have kindly upgraded my Instructor certifcation to now be able to teach the 2.1 courseware. So look out, you never know where I'll popup next :)

Well wookie wookie what do we have here?

Today was my first real day off in New York and I decided to head into town and check out the local sights. I soon realised that where I'm staying is quite a way from NYC, so after finding out that the local train doesn't run on the weekends (!) I had to drive about 25 mins across the Hudson to another town where I could get a train into the city. No way in hell I was going to be driving in! So after 3 hours of failed train attempts, driving and then a 45 min train ride, I finally hit Grand Central Station - cool! Since I'd wasted the morning in transit , I figured I'd just take the casual approach and just have a walk around, see what was close by, and then come back next weekend and do one of those hop on - hop off bus tours around all the main sites.

In my travels I came across a costue shop having a post-Halloween sale. And the thing that caught my attention the most ... the full size Chewbacca costume in the window, and going for the bargain price of only US$199. At first I thought I was dreaming. Then my brain shifted immediately into "how do I justify a couple of hundred bucks for a Chewie suit to my wife ... and how will I get it on the plane?" Fortunately for me I think, my brain then switched into "dumb boring reality mode" and I had to admire the Wookie Wondersuit from the window. Laugh it up fuzzball.