AdvancED Flash on Devices:: Mobile Development with Flash Lite and Flash 10 (Friends of Ed Abobe Learning Library) [Paperback]

Elad Elrom (Author), Scott Janousek (Author), Thomas Joos (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1430219041 | ISBN-13: 978-1430219040 | Publication Date: August 10, 2009 | Edition: 1

This is the year of the iPhone SDK and the introduction of Google’s Android, and this is the book that shows developers how to create compelling mobile applications with Flash and deploy them across any device. Suddenly, every developer is going mobile and Flash is likely to be the one ubiquitous technology every mobile developer needs to know.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Elad Elrom is the CEO of Elrom LLC, a Rich Internet Application firm. He has been managing and developing Internet based applications since the year 2000 and has consulted for sophisticated clients including MTV Networks, Vitamin Water, Weight Watchers, Davidoff and many more. He has been developing Flash application since the early Flash 5 and has been developing Flex applications since the release of Flex 2. His deep understanding of the full project cycle, as well as development in numerous programming languages, contributes to his understanding of the "big picture". In the past, Elad Elrom served in the Israeli Navy Defense Forces as part of an elite group of engineers assisting the Israeli Navy Seals.

Scott Janousek is the founder and Technical Director of Hooken Mobile; a company based in Boston focused on creating and delivering unique and compelling consumer experiences across mobile, handheld, and other non-PC devices.

With over ten experiences of previous Web and Software Engineering expertise, Scott’s current passion lies with mobile and wireless development. Currently, he is a Nokia Forum Champion, Qualcomm Authorized BREW developer, Adobe Community Expert for Mobile and Devices, as well as a regarded Flash Lite subject material expert. Mr. Janousek is a co-author on Foundation Flash Applications for Mobile Devices (www.flashmobilebook.com), contributor to numerous Adobe Devnet articles, and is an Adobe certified Professional and Training Instructor for Flash Lite, as well as other mobile technologies from Adobe.

Thomas Joos is a Belgian Multimedia/Mobile Developer. He studied Multimedia at the Technical University of West-Flanders. He specialized in Flash Lite Development and is now working for Boulevart as a mobile consultant.

Beside Flash Lite development he is also into Mobile Interface Design, AS3, AIR and Flex.

Product Details

• Paperback: 714 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (August 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430219041
• ISBN-13: 978-1430219040
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,353,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elad Elrom is a technical writer, technical lead, and senior Flash engineer. As a technical writer, Elad wrote books covering Flash technologies. He maintains an active blog and has spoken at several conferences regarding the Flash platform. He has helped companies follow the XP and Scrum methodologies to implement popular frameworks, optimize and automate built processors and code review, and follow best practices. Elad has consulted a variety of clients in different fields and sizes, from large corporations such as Viacom, NBC Universal, and Weight Watchers to startups such as MotionBox.com and KickApps.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book for learn about mobile devices applications, February 24, 2010

By 

Marlon Ceballos "Adobe Community Professional" (Bogotá, Colombia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: AdvancED Flash on Devices:: Mobile Development with Flash Lite and Flash 10 (Friends of Ed Abobe Learning Library) (Paperback)

This extensive book shows all the possibilities of development for mobile devices using different applications and technologies such as Flash Lite, Flash Catalyst, Flash Media Server and Flex, among others. This is not a basic book containing tutorials otherwise a compendium of examples that will be very useful for experienced developers who want to enter the world of applications for mobile devices.

The book is divided into four parts:

Mobile Development Landscape: This part shows and explains the extensive mobile universe composed of multiple devices types and different platforms.

Flash Lite Platform Overview: This part begins with an explanation of the Flash Lite platform, especially the differences between versions of Flash Lite from 1.1 through 3.1. focusing especially on Flah Lite 3 for which it has destined an entire chapter. Then we find a chapter destined for tips and tricks to improve the applications performance and another chapter for the development of Widgets. The following chapters are destined to show components of Flash Lite, different Frameworks and third party solutions that extend the Flash Lite capabilities. The last chapter of this part teaches the techniques to carry to the iPhone the applications developed with Flash Lite

AIR Applications for Multiple Screens and Mobile Internet Devices: This part explain the AIR technology focused on mobile devices with a number of examples of connectivity and touch screen, among others, as well as techniques to develop multi-platform AIR applications.
Flex Applications Running Flash 10 on Mobile Devices: This part starts showing the Flash Catalyst - Flex Workflow where it optimizes and improves the user interface (UI) in mobile applications and ends teaching techniques through the example of a video player

In short, this is a book geared to developers which clearly shows the huge universe that includes the development of mobile devices applications.

Marlon Ceballos
Adobe Community Professional
Colombia Adobe User Group Manager

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for learning how to create mobile apps using Flash, December 22, 2009

By 

Brian Mcclain "B_Max" (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: AdvancED Flash on Devices:: Mobile Development with Flash Lite and Flash 10 (Friends of Ed Abobe Learning Library) (Paperback)

My name is Brian McClain. I am an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Flash 8, CS3 and CS4. I am also an Adobe Certified Instructor (ACI) and I teach Flash and other Adobe apps at Pace University in NYC. I have been using Flash for about 10 years, and am proficient in all three versions of ActionScript: AS1, AS2 and AS3. Lately, as I've watched the meteoric rise of mobile apps at the expense of desktop eyeballs, I have been growing increasingly anxious to find a way to start leveraging my ActionScript 2 and AS3 expertise in the realm of mobile dev. Hunting around on the web for guidance has been more than a little bewildering, as the rapidly evolving nature of the mobile industry makes it hard to hit a moving target. Adobe offers a few tutorials and there are other resources here and there, but no comprehensive book on the subject of Flash mobile dev has really existed. Until now, that is. This book, Flash on Devices (pub. by AdvancED) is exactly what I have been hoping would appear. Now, I am finally able to teach myself how to take both AS2 and AS3 and use them to create mobile apps. The book lays out the entire process and is really a turnkey solution. As an author of tech manuals, myself, I am amazed that the authors were able to capture, sort through, process and present the essentials of the fast-changing mobile world. This book explains the basics of AS2 and AS3 for those with no ActionScript background, although, naturally, if you have AS programming skills, you will be at a big advantage. The book's numerous practical examples and tutorial presentations are all about getting you up and running with real apps. Despite the technical nature of the subject matter, the gratuitous geek speak is kept to a minimum, and the points are made in plain English. Actually I found the book to be fairly lively and entertaining (for a computer book, anyway!). This book is also a must for Flash developers interested in iPhone development. One of the big shocks to the Flash dev community was when the iPhone came out and did not support Flash / FlashLite. This was a shock because it took Flash developers out of the game when it came to the hottest new mobile device on the market. Well this book, amazingly, shows you how to take your Flash apps and convert them to iPhone apps! Awesome! The book even demystifies the process of marketing or "monetizing" your apps, as the tech-busineess-savvy authors present the various options. As with any computer book, you get out of it what you put in to it, but if you are determined, dedicated and are serious about producing and earning $ from your Flash mobile content, this is the one book you really cannot do without. Seriously, if you are serious about this industry, then save yourself a ton of headaches and dead end streets and just get yourself this book. Put in the time, do the sample apps and let it walk you through the process of running the apps virtually on Device Central and then getting 'em onto your target device. All in all, an awesome book and hats off to the authors. This was a labor of geek-love, and it shows. Kudos.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can both delight and disappoint, December 14, 2009

By 

Krzysztof Satola "adobers.org" (Poland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: AdvancED Flash on Devices:: Mobile Development with Flash Lite and Flash 10 (Friends of Ed Abobe Learning Library) (Paperback)

Flash Lite is a theme of my interests for a few years. I have been waiting for this book for a long time. I was wondering about the form of the book. This book can both delight and disappoint. The target group for the book are technologists. It gives understanding about existing technologies and suitability for mobile applications creation. This book is a collection of solutions, which are published on blogs and forums. The book also attempts to systematize knowledge about mobile phones with different platforms. I think people who are programmers will not be satisfied with this book.

In Chapter I and II, there is some information about the mobile market and about Flash Lite. In Chapter III, we can find more specific information about Flash Lite 3.0. There are also presented forms of distribution of Flash Player.

In Chapter IV, we get a description of how to optimize Flash Lite applications. Thanks to the chapter IV, a Project Manager will know how much time she needs to optimize applications. But In my opinion this chapter should also consist a summary of processes of specific mobiles. The book help us also to learn how to create plug-ins in the WRT, and learn a bit more about the components on the market, and frameworks.

This book certainly has some drawbacks, too few practical examples, and too much theory. For those not sitting in a subject, the book seems to be wordy. For people who have all actual information the book shows that still only few little things have been made in this technology, and how much is a theory. Creating applications is a challenge. Most of time when creating applications in Flash Lite for many phone models, is the time primarily spent on research. I did not like the book described the Catalyst Flash. I don't know what was the purpose of this. In my opinion there is also no clarification of how to use the components.

Summary

The book "Flash on devices, Flash Lite and Flash 10' is an attempt to gather information from various blogs. It is also an attempt to explain where the mobile Flash Lite applications are today, and how much they are behind the Flash Player 10.