Customer Reviews

Flash Enabled: Flash Design and Development for Devices

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This might not be the sort of application the authors envisioned, but the book certainly helped us! We run a small online casino off the coast of Britain, TheGoldCasino (dot-com), and our development staff is fairly sparse (we're aimed primarily at users of e-gold, so we're not a big operation). We wanted to experiment with mobile games, but we assumed the cost would be prohibitive. Flash Enabled brought our current Flash developers from a state of knowing nothing about the PocketPC to having functional Flash-client prototypes in a shockingly short period of time! I don't know of higher praise for a book like this than: "It changed our business and made us money".

Obviously, it's not yet clear how large the universe of PocketPC gamers with e-gold accounts will be, but this book at least compressed our development time to the point where it is quite easy for our mobile games to be profitable. Great stuff!

Wow .. a real who's who of the Flash world, gathered together to put pen to paper. For a long time I've wanted to sit and share a coffee with these guys, well now I can via this book.

There is SO much information in here that I'm going to have to read it again. Flash has always been a successful product, most people know this for the web, well this book shows you how to take flash to other devices, Pocket PC, WinCE, XBox, PS2, Cell Phones, Kiosks, ATM, HDTV, PDA and more.

Full of pictures, code examples, a site dedicated to the book. I'd recommend this book for ANY flash designer. They talk about optimisation, Pixel Fonts, good design practises and more.

Very well written, very easy to follow, and exciting...I found myself getting to the end of it and itching to start developing these things....

the GOOD and BAD:

First, THE BAD:
I want to make DVD menus with flash. I thought this would show me how, but instead it was a case study of a company called ... that used Flash and a C-Programmer made a connector from Flash to the DVD-OBJECT controller. no code for that. That ..... Don't buy it if that's what you hope to find.

Same with the Interactive Television stuff: Mainly a case study with no practical hows. Kind friggen lame.

There could have been a section on how to create 1 flash file that works on any handheld, desktop, etc. It would have been long, but there are those of us who bought the book and were really disappointed.
I think they were trying to publish the book before this one came out:

amazon.

BUT
Great Branden Hall stuff. that guy is who I want to be. He's amazing. other info on templates and stuff are excellent. top notch.

I'd wait and NOT get this book unless you walk into a bookstore and leaf through it.

I can't put the book down. Making your own applications to run on your pocket pc is future.

I'm trying to create an application for the pocket pc with flash as the UI. I saw the good reviews and thought I'd give the book a try. Okay, the verdict is in, you must get this book. Did you know that you can do tv commercials and shorts, in flash! This book tells you how. There's also a whole chapter about using flash to commnicate with Java. This means you can extend flash and do things like access databases, etc, etc. I love this book. Buy it!

This book covers everything, and more. I was very impressed with the amount of knowledge packed in this book. It includes info on of course handhelds, phones, tv's etc...to be expected...but wait there is more. Flash on ATM's, PS2, and XBOX! Its truly a primer for anyone looking to get into the world of developing for devices. And once your primed, read through it once more and discover even more info you overlooked.

-Greg

PS Examples aren't lacking either, plenty to go around. (And a website too)

as one of the only sources on the subject (pdas, cell phone, ps2, kiosk, etc) this book is invaluable for the kind of information it presents! the information is precise and up to date (discusses flash 5, and references the MX authoring environment.)

It covers pixel fonts (a huge topic be it for devices or not), content for television, playstation2, using server-side middleware for dynamic applications, using Java for stand-alone stuff, how to go full-screen, and a whole lot more.

there is plenty packed into this well-written book to keep you entertained for months to come. one of the nicer things i found out in this book is not so much what you CAN do on devices, but things you should look out for that maybe you SHOULDN'T attempt on them (that would be taxing on system resources, etc.)

I suggest this for anyone who authors in Flash, for those with Pocket PCs, etc. who want to play around, and also for serious application development authors - this book covers a wide-range of material but does it extremely well.

It's a bit rare to find Flash books on the market that really nail their content and purpose - this is certainly one of them that clearly shines!!! Well done.

This is truly one of the few books on the market that looks at Flash from various perspectives and nails it. The contributors to this book keep the chapters focused, provide examples in context and realize that most folks out there aren't "code" geeks; there are both creative designers and innovative developers. The number of devices and platforms commented on and "tips and notes" are great.

You might ask "Where is the CD in the back of the book?", well better than that they have a website for the book and the list of useful URL's in the back of the book is awesome and helps everyone grow their skills when it comes to developing for these evolving platforms. As a Macromedia evangelist I recommend a select few books to the customers and end-users this is one of them.

Having used flash for a few years now, I was amazed at all the new stuff you can do with flash, this book give you a glimpse of the future that you can use today. If you want to learn flash MX development for other platforms, PDA's phones etc.. this is the book for you. cheers Wayne Lambright

This is my favorite kind of technical book -- one that takes on an area that normally exists as a lot of scattered anecdotes and condenses it into one coherent source.

If you've been curious about all the loose talk going around about how "Flash now plays on PDAs and mobile phones and Playstations", or if you (like me) are actually developing real content for those devices right now, then get this book! The chapters on the PocketPC and the Nokia 9200 phone alone are worth the price of admission. Good, practical, detailed stuff.

The book is supported by a website, [...], with a lot of helpful files -- a much better idea than including a CD with a tech book.