Kuneri bloggy

Usually, when new version of a software is released, we cheer, considering things will get better and easier. As we were expecting things would be easier for developers, we cheered up for Flash Lite 3.0’s features, however that couldn’t be more than wrong and it turned out to be a big pain for us. Moreover, there doesn’t seem to be any short term solution, and no one guarantees there will be one in mid or long term. I would like to write my reasons why I think so, and warn Adobe, Nokia and developers for a potential threat, which will not be long to come.

Security Sandbox Pain (or Security Painbox)

Flash Lite 3.0 came with Flash 8 engine, and together with Security Sandbox ‘feature’. This might make sense for browser plugin, but doesn’t make any sense for standalone player. Nick has a really nice post about this issue, which is almost 1 year old, can give an idea about the past and future of the problem.

Ok, what’s wrong with ‘Security Sandbox’? Isn’t security something good? Well, security is good when it’s used in convenience. If you use security for a case where doesn’t make any sense or bring an added value, you end up making life difficult for developers and users. Problem about this new Security Sandbox is; you either can have a local connection (i.e loading local files), or can a network connection (i.e connect to internet). This ‘feature’ not only brought an unnecessary pain to us (developers), but also broke backwards compatibility. How? Simple: If you have a Flash Lite 1.x or 2.x movie using local and network connections at the same time, it simply won’t work on Flash Lite 3.0 (which means new phones like N95). Wasn’t the biggest problem on mobile world fragmentation?

Problems not only end with those on ‘Security Sandbox’ feature. It’s not possible to do localhost calls, which disables any connection from Flash Lite to outer world. Why is this something bad? Well, there are many 3rd party projects extending Flash Lite via localhost (the only way left to us, because 3rd party application launch is limited by Nokia), such as KuneriLite, Flyer and Janus. These projects help Flash Lite to expand beyond its capabilities and enable people to create richer applications, which can compete with native S60 applications in look and performance.

Luckily, there is a ‘best of worst’ trick that solves those problems. There is a magic folder in ‘C:\data\others\trusted’ (that’s another pain, I will come to that shortly), which disables ‘Security Sandbox’ and enables applications to communicate both with local and network, as well as localhost. Why is this a ‘best of worst’? Simply because whatever you put into this directory is visible under ‘Gallery’ which brings a very bad user experience and many security concenrs within.

This issue will be even more cronic, if Adobe or Nokia doesn’t make any move; because ‘trusted’ folder will not be available anymore for S60 3.2 devices. Which will kill all developer efforts and backwards compatibility forever. We are not sure if Adobe or Nokia will solve this problem, but crossing our fingers hoping someone sees our S.O.S fire.

Trusted Folder Pain

I mentioned Security Sandbox problem and a ‘best of worst’ solution to that above. Now see another pain closely related to this subject.

S60 devices have ‘Phone Memory’ (PM) and ‘Memory Card’ (MC). Users are given the option to install their applications to PM or MC. As you know, to solve Securiy Sandbox problem, we need to install Flash Lite applications to those ‘Trusted’ folders that exist both on PM and MC. So what is the problem? With a clever(!) move, ‘Trusted’ folder is located at different paths on PM and MC. It’s at C:\Data\Others\Trusted\ on PM and E:\Others\Trusted\ on MC. Yeah, but what is the problem? Well simply, it’s not possible to install applications (SIS packages) to different folders on PM and MC, and this breaks Symbian Signed criterias. So, Flash Lite 3.0 applications either will work on PM, or MC. And in that way, you can not get your appliction Symbian Signed.

There is no solution we could find for that yet. If we can not; it will not be possible for anyone to Symbian Sign their Flash Lite applications on Flash Lite 3.0 phones (from my current understanding).

XML Socket Pain

Well, Security Sandbox is not the only problem. There is a serious bug on Flash Lite 3.0 with XML sockets. Simply put, it’s not possible to receive data via XML socket shorter than 1+ seconds, which kills if you need to stream data.

Most clear example for that is using KuneriLite Accelerometer plugin with Flash Lite. Naturally, to use axis values, you need to get those values at least 4-5 times per second; so that you can reflect it to your application. But because of this bug, you can get data only 1 time or less per second, which makes it impossible to use.

See the this Forum Nokia thread for more information on that subject. And as far as we see, there is no solution offered yet.

Conclusion

I tried to state my reasons, why Flash Lite 3.0 is a potential show-stopper for developers, users, enablers and many more on S60 devices. Nokia keeps on spreading this problem via Firmware updates and pushing Flash Lite 3.0 player to earlier phones (i.e Nokia N95 Classic), supporting and triggering fragmentation. With the introduction of S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2 devices, these problems will be impossible to solve and Flash Lite player will get fragmented at least for couple of years, which will delay market entrance that is already delayed for long time and still immature. What I would like to see is some action from Adobe and Nokia, leaning on this subject and listening to us to avoid a big potential problem awaiting all Flash Lite users and developers in short term.

Please leave me your comments if you have any.

cheers,

Ugur.-

Mark Ollila, co-founder of Telco Games and Nokia’s Director of Technology & Strategy for Games and Multimedia, answers 5 questions of Digital Media Wire on mobile games. Here is the full interview.

Dr. Mark Ollila, Nokia’s Director of Technology & Strategy for Games and Multimedia sat down with DMW for five questions about the mobile games space. As one of the world leaders in mobile technology with its N-series products, Nokia is poised to be among the major influencers of the space over the next several years. We discussed some of the things going well in mobile gaming, and some of the challenges that remain.

Nokia and Vodafone have launched a new website designed to help share ideas on how to use mobile communications for social and environmental benefits. The site, www.shareideas.org, was created in direct response to NGO calls for better tools and information to help them use mobile services more effectively in their work.

Check full press release.

We are proud to announce the launch of Adobe User Group Northern Finland: Augnofi!

We aim to create a warm, active and creative community on the top of the world, spreading our energy to the rest of the world. Global contests, live and online seminars, cool workshops and interviews with the experts from the heart of mobile technology are in our future program.

Spread the word; don’t forget to check it out and join! All welcome!

Hartti posts his recent Flash Lite development experience and shares his concerns about fragmentation and Flash Lite on different devices.

So far I have believed the mantra that Flash Lite works the same way across the devices and that there is no fragmentation in Flash Lite. Well, based on my recent experiences, I need to re-think my stand on this…

Flash Lite surely eases mobile software development, but would be unrealistic to say it is the perfect solution for all.

Ramsey has an interesting post, stating his opinions about Flash Lite development on Windows mobile devices, and why it may be the best platform for web Flash designers and developers to jump into mobile market. I can not comment on that issue due haven’t put my hands on Windows mobile, but if you would like to discuss, check his post out.

Windows Mobile has a lot of things going for it that kind of ease the transition from web to mobile:

• Familiar operating system rules
• Easy to put the Flash player on the device
• Easy to install third-party apps on the device
• Wide range of Windows Mobile devices with fairly powerful processors and decent memory space
• Windows Mobile devices usually have great screen resolution

International Mobile Gaming Awards announced their 25 nominees and 21 student nominees. Many good ideas, many innovations. Nice to see small companies arising among other big players. Surely couple of Flash Lite games take their place in the list.

The IMGA announced the 25 games shortlisted to enter into the next stage of the competition. 400 submissions were received from 42 countries, a staggering increase of 100% on last year.

MochiMedia, makers of a popular Flash stats tracking service called MochiBot, are now working on an ad network for Flash games. The ad network, called MochiAds, is currently in private Beta but you can go to the demo page to see how the ads work. MochiAds are both preroll and mid-game visual ads.

via Techcrunch

Web 2 mobile business plan competition is open for all qualified enterpreneurs. Winners will be invited to Nokia’s famous labs to have an opportunity to develop and test their innovations. Main sponsor is Nokia.

Open to all qualified entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and around the world, we are looking for technologies and services that harness the power and ubiquity of mobile devices – that create new business models, and the systems that will accelerate mobile work-styles and the mobile lifestyle.

This competition offers a prize that no one else can: the winning entrepreneurs will be invited to visit Nokia’s world-famous labs to have an opportunity to develop and test their innovations. Winners will also be profiled by Red Herring and all entrants will get valuable exposure in front of a panel of experienced VCs and investors.

It is funny how one meets different people at different places. I was sitting in my Spanish class and introducing myself in Spanish:”Soy scientifico…” I told that I had researched agile software development. After the class was over, the man next to me started talking to me. He was an experienced project manager in a leading Finnish company and he was seeking new processes to utilize in his current team. We talked for an hour about processes and how to manage a team in an evolving environment.

One thing I was very curious about was the way he had managed one of his teams throughout his years as a project manager. His team consisted of young competent developers and an experienced developer. The project went on well except one hidden problem: the experienced developer was implicitly running the whole developing process i.e. the other developers got used to the fact that they could ask the experienced one to solve the most complex problems. The result was: other developers had not been evolving and improving their competence on problem solving.

The project manager saw this negative effect, so he arranged a transfer for the experienced one to other assignments. Thus, the development team suffered from a major brain leak. Nonetheless, these developers were very motivated towards their job and assignment and they had a very strong team spirit. Every one was ready to work for common purpose: to achieve project goals and deliver an excellent product. The overall result was that the developers managed to build a very satisfying product. In fact, he said that if you would check Finland’s gross domestic product from those years, you could see an unexpected raise, a peak, compared to the usual level.

Summa summarum: it is quite self-explanatory matter that motivated developers form an effective team. However, people think that as a self-explanatory matter, without really thinking on it, really. One should sometimes stop and think what is important if one wants to really succeed. Of course it is true that the programming itself is an important thing as far as software is concerned, but there are still other matters that affect product quality implicitly.

We, as a team in Kuneri, are motivated because we know our aim and what to work for. The goal is clear in our mind and we are evolving day by day, facing with new challenges on our own. We advise everyone to do the same thing: Keep motivated :)

Veli