Actionscript 3.0 Facebook API available!
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
Adobe and Facebook have announced today that the Actionscript 3.0 API for Facebook is now available. Good news for developers who work in both areas and have had to rely on server-side coding to integrate Facebook data into Flash content or even make the two “Worlds” work together smoothly – take the Apprentice Game which I integrated into Facebook for Legacy Interactive, for example.
The game needed to be integrated into Facebook and to gain the ability to save scores which would then be shown on the global and friends’ score tables.
In this case I implemented the scoring logic with Flash Remoting and PHP.
Now this may not be necessary. At the very least, the instantiation of the Facebook API and retrieval of user data can now be done 100% in AS3.0. I’ve yet to take a look at the API but will be doing so and writing more about it here!
Meanwhile, here’s a great video from Daniel Dura, Platform Evangelist at Adobe focusing on the Flash Platform, and lots of other materials available to get you started:
The Adobe Developer Connection page for the Flash Facebook API can be found here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/facebook/
Watch this space for more feedback once I’ve had a chance to try the API out!
Robert
Comments…
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
Comment moderation is in operation on this blog so it’s pointless entering a long list of URLs about Air Jordans, Prozac, Male Enhancement (or female enhancement for that matter) or just about anything else you’d like to spread via email relay… 
Yes, that means YOU!
Skype App for iPhone – tomorrow!!
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
Cool! “This is going to change everything…” 
The rumours appear to be true. According to, amongst others, the Wall Street Journal the new Skype iPhone App will be released tomorrow.
Their article quotes prices for calls from AT&T iPhones using the App to call Landlines but there’s no data for Europe in this article … watch this space.
Key points, based on news so far, are:
- The App will work over Wi-Fi only. Makes sense.
- SkypeIn and SkypeOut are supported, along with Skype chat
- iPhone Contact integration is included – nice.
- Group chats and conference calls are also supported
Sounds like a well-rounded product so far. What is excellent news is that those of us who use Skype for chat amongst business colleagues for keeping in touch on project status can now do so with Skype on the move too.
Depending on your price plan and the amount of data you have included, this could turn out to be an attractive option for calls abroad. It’s going to be useful for conference calls too, provided the memory management is good.
As soon as I’ve taken a first look at the App on my iPhone I’ll post my impressions here.
Come back soon for more!
Robert
Weekly Wordle #4
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
So, a little late but all the prettier for it! Here’s the Weekly Wordle #4:
As I said, it’s all the prettier for the introduction of some new words from the posts over the weekend – again, more variety 
More posts coming this week, including my first jQuery AJAX tutorial. Watch this space!
Happy Monday!
Robert
Of Content and Con Artists
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
Take a scroll down the right-hand side of this blog and you will see that I have removed the Creative Commons License and reverted to specific copyright protection.
Why? Some rather interesting facts have come to light about a certain publishing house over the last few days. It seems that they are doing nothing short of scraping blogs and recycling content under the auspices of a “publishing portal” labelled with their brand, claiming the original blog authors as their own featured authors as if the content was written specifically for them.
Not only that, but some of the authors’ names sound very funny – “Sybase Techwave 2001″ anybody? Is that Mr. Techwave, or Mr. 2001? Just “Sybase” to his/her friends? hm…
It’s clear that they’ve recycled articles from their own publications as well in their attempts to launch the industry’s most hugest portal…
What has also become clear is that one or two of the “authors” with whom I have contact have been met with quite a bit of abuse when they asked for their content to be removed. One has since been the target of both racial and sexual libel on the internet by the publisher in question.
In an effort to appease some of those effected, an article has also appeared on the portal stating that all authors will be paid 200% of the AdSense fees earned on their articles pages. Cool, you steal my content to fill up your so-called huge media portal and are so kind as to give me 200% of the AdSense click fees earned on that page. Never mind the fact that you can only build up your portal by scouring your archives and the net for anything vaguely useful and then publish it without paying or correctly acknowledging your theft of content!
Not a good deal.
The only credit that this portal deserves is credit for their cheek and having built some cool web robots to scrape the content – although the latter were probably developed by anonymous freelancers anyway
So. No, I’m not going to give them the credit of mentioning their name, or the name of the portal in question. Take a guess, google around a bit. Pick any short-lived tech. title with “Journal” at the end of it’s name and you’re getting close to the publisher.
Either way, anything I have written or may write in the future is now a no-go zone for content thieves. Code will be shared – that’s not going to change and such content will be explicitly marked as shareable – but as far as the rest is concerned it’s back to the old approach. Maybe one day I’ll write something that somebody may want to “reuse”!
Meanwhile, have a great Sunday all!
Robert
How not to market a product/service
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
I parked my car in a car park yesterday. OK, not exactly mind-blowing… but:
When I went back to the parking to leave, I took the ticket from my pocket to put it in the machine and pay.
The ticket had a small advert on it: “Ihre Werbung hier”, translated, “Your Ad here” and a URL for the company selling advertising on car park tickets. Hm, I wonder how much that costs, I thought – whilst also thinking that it’s probably not really worth it!
Proof of concept: I paid the ticket, withdrew it from the machine again, looked at the ad once more and read the URL. I then drove to the exit barrier, slipped the ticket into the machine there and drove out…. erm, hang on… what was that URL again?
Great advertising idea, not.
They just proved conclusively that advertising on car park tickets is totally pointless and has a lifetime of a few seconds before the ticket, and your advert, disappears for ever.
“Pay for our product – it’s worthless!”
erm.
Are Apple doing a “Facebook”?
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
I just saw a Tweet from @DavidFeng with a link to this article about Apples App Store Refund Policy.
OK. Cool, we all think initially. This’ll stop the stupid iFart, iPewk or whatever other nonsense Apps there are out there. The unprofessional Developers of insufficiently-tested Apps who fail to ensure that a necessary backend service is running to support the App (Multiphoto send anyone?) will also be called to accountability.
But I’m not impressed, really not impressed!
Here’s the low-down:
- Developer produces iPhone App, tests and ensures that it works and is ready for production
- Developer pays $99 to be able to put App in App Store, provided it gets through Apples somewhat haphazard review process
- App hits the store and starts selling. Developer receives 70% of purchase price, Apple keeps 30% for providing an excellent infrastructure and for marketing…fair enough, by the way
- Users, for whatever reason as there seems to be no qualification required for it by Apple, demands refund within 90 days
- Apple requires Developer to refund 100% (I say again 100%) of the purchase price to the Users concerned. Apple keeps it’s 30% (for “services rendered”?)
- Do the maths – Developer has big problems
But, and this is a big BUT: What about small companies and individual Developers who are trying to get into a marketplace where they compete with bigger organisations? Are we about to see a rush of eBay-like bad reputation mongers purposefully destroying these smaller competitors through anonymous “disgruntled Users”?
Believe me, this sort of thing happens. It’s a shame if Apple are going to make it possible for it to happen in the App Store and literally kill off some promising Developers along with those who they were probably trying to target.
Think it through Apple, please. Facebook have more or less killed off a promising business model by pushing applications more and more into the background on people’s profiles. DO NOT kill the App Store just because you’re sitting on piles of cash!
Maybe somebody will listen? Hm.
Robert
Weekly Wordle #3
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
Well, here it is: The Weekly Wordle #3!
There are some new words creeping in now and some fun phrases appearing: How about “paste somebody” or “without services data computing”? These things can be fun 
Watch this space for more!
Have a great weekend
Robert
Flash on the Beach ’09 – the place to be in Sept!
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
So, the sexy new badges are ready – complete with special speaker badges (with the portraits of the speakers instead of Her Majesty – very cool). Take a look at any of the speakers’ web sites for a preview of their cool badges – with more than a passing nod to that great British institution the Sex Pistols!
Meanwhile, take a look at the FOTB site to see what you could be missing if you don’t mark your calendars NOW!!!
This is going to be FUN!!
Robert
iPhone OS 3.0 – opportunities for developers
posted by robert | filed under uncategorized
So, the news is out and as users we can look forward to sometime “this summer” for the new iPhone OS 3.0. Some cool features (many of which many have argued were sadly lacking upon the initial launch) are going to be there: Cut/Copy & Paste throughout, MMS, Spotlight, Multiple photos in emails, landscape keyboard in Mail, Notes and SMS and numerous more.
Of the numerous new features for end-users, the multiple photo emailing, cut/copy & paste and Voice Memos are things I’m looking forward to. I can live without MMS as I believe this is simply a backwards-compatibility compromise to allow pictures to be sent to old phones that don’t support email
Here’s a nice slide of the new features, courtesy of engadget:
Now, some of the REALLY exciting announcements came for developers. Without giving away any details, features such as peer-to-peer communications over Bluetooth, Push functionality and a much more open API for many of the iPhone’s core features are going to be a big help for some of the projects I have in mind AND I’m sure I’m not the only one!
Here’s are a couple more slides with some more info about the spread of the changes for developers:
OK, 1000 is a big number! What sort of APIs?
There are some really nice new API features in there and I can’t wait to get my grubby little hands (ok, grubby big hands) on the beta version of the new SDK – which Apple assures us is “already available”.
Off I go to log into the Apple Developer Connection to download the new SDK…
Oh well. It had to happen really, didn’t it!
Either way, I’m looking forward to taking the new SDK for a spin and putting some fun applications together.
Apple have made amends in some of the areas where they really had to and addressed concerns about lack of “standard” features such as cut/copy & paste, implemented in what looks to be a neat way, and have opened up the SDK for developers in many areas that will no doubt trigger a landslide of new exciting apps.
Add the ability for developers to now build in-app purchasing into Apps and we’ll probably also see the demise of separate “Lite” and “Pro” versions of Apps now that it’ll be possible to simply buy an upgrade inside the app.
I wonder when “this summer” will actually be?
Robert
