If you send headers to a domain that does not match the domain where the SWF is hosted, you need update your crossdomain.xml file to allow them to continue to work with Flash Player 9.0.124.0. While this is discussed in the ADC pre-announcement, it could use a bit more detail. Flash Player support wrote a great technote on details of how to set up <allow-http-request-headers-from>.

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403185

One of the examples from the article is:

<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM “http://www.adobe.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd”>
<cross-domain-policy>

<!– This domain can accept a MyHeader header from a SWF file on www.example.com –>
<allow-http-request-headers-from domain=”www.example.com” headers=”MyHeader”/>

</cross-domain-policy>

Also, it is worth reiterating that the new header crossdomain syntax is required for both send and sendAndLoad network APIs. For network requests without additional headers, traditional crossdomain syntax and behavior continues.

Macromedia sent out a promotional email yesterday inviting folks to register for the MAX conference, and introducing several of the presenters. I checked my mail yesterday and there was my grinning face staring back at me (the pict above was the header of the email). I hope to goodness the email was opt-in. I’m very pleased to be MAX, I just hope I’m not also spam.

Justin Everett-Church is the award-winning mobile and devices developer behind NYC Traffic, a Macromedia Flash application that delivers real-time images of Manhattan intersections to cellular phones. He’s one of thousands of leading designers and developers who will gather at MAX 2005 this October to learn new skills, explore emerging technologies, share techniques with peers, and put exciting new ideas in motion.

So that was a very exciting way to announce that I will be presenting at the MAX conference in Anaheim this October. I’m presenting on Advanced Flash Lite 1.1 development in the 90 minute hands on track. I’m actually going to be presenting the session three times, so if you are going, sign up for one and also the other Mobile and Devices sessions.

I’m actually pretty impressed with how on-the-ball Macromedia is with this conference. To make sure that the session will be up to their standards, I have a lot of due dates for outlines, rough drafts and final presentation. While it will probably keep me a bit stressed for the next month or so, I think it will make for a better presentation.

EDIT: Thanks to Grant’s trackback, I see that he is also MAX. As for the logic “MAX == me and MAX == Grant, therefore me==Grant,” I wouldn’t want to give away the Macromedia announcement at MAX for Macromedia BrainWeaver.

This morning, Macromedia released a really interesting survey conducted for them by Harris Interactive about consumer feelings about mobile experiences. Some of the most interesting stats in there are that 80% of those surveyed do have a mobile device, and that 42% wouldn’t go on vacation without a cell phone while only 24% without a camera (how about camera phone).

For a content creator, the valuable information was what consumers would like to use mobile applications to actually do. The list was topped by getting traffic updates at 53% (yay for my traffic cam viewer), followed by 42% for emergency alerts (like amber alerts), and 34% for location specific information like city guides and restaurant information.

Most applications I’ve seen (and created) for mobile phones are about filling down time when you don’t have access to richer entertainment options. This survey shows that people are looking to their phones to add a new layer of information to their lives when out and about, not just to provide distraction. I’m pretty impressed; this is a desire that shows that people are really starting to get the full potential of portable connectivity to enhance their lives. I think it is also good news for companies like Yahoo! that have vast amounts of live and current data that is lining up to get to your phone (http://wap.yahoo.com).

When it comes to interacting on-the-go (not just at down-time), the user interface becomes exceptionally important. Interactions must be simple, elegant, clearly understood, and blazingly fast. When walking down the street (or driving in your car–tsk tsk) you don’t have time to figure things out, or type in a lot of information. Flash Lite offers the best graphic and interaction opportunities available on the phone. Graphics can replace text, information can be retrieved without a full page refresh, and design can be used to keep the user oriented during information transactions. Flash Lite simply is the only solution for on-the-move mobile connectivity.

After the first taste from the Macromedia store, Macromedia has launched their Information Site for Flash 8 and a really cool feature site of course done in Flash Video.

woohoo! As leaked on CNet recently, it looks like today is indeed the day for Studio 8 and Flash 8! Notice BTW that it is Flash Professional 8 (no letter/year version!). You can preorder the new suite today here. The cooler part is that there are “reasons to upgrade” and a matrix of new features.

According to the site, we will get Flash 8 in Mid-September!

Order now and get free swag! there is a cute Studio 8 backpack that comes with pre-orders

Roughly a month after Flash 8 was released, I got my notification that the Flash 8 player is available in the form of a window on my desktop. As most of you are aware, the notification option was added in Flash 7. Advanced users can disable it, but it is pretty hidden.

I’m curious to see what this does to the adoption rate. Any guesses? Most Instant messenger applications use a similar scheme to good success, but I wonder if the average user really understands what Flash is compared to the IM client they actually engage in (There is a brand experience for IM, but not for the Flash player).

The thing that really surprised me though was that I got the message at all. Both IE and Firefox on this machine are running flash player 8,0,15,0 (I believe that is what ships with the IDE, but not positive). 8,0,22,0 is the current player but I still really only expected to see if for the 7 player. It doesn’t bother me, I’m just surprised.

About the notifier itself, I like it. It has information bulleted about what is changing that I think is a very fair and accurate description to the average user. You also get very clear choices of what to do. I’ve been incredibly pissed at the Viewpoint notifier that uses strange button names to try and trip you up a bit in the experience. For those that want more info it is available. Mostly I like the fact that it tells me that no restart is required. Overall the user if given enough info I feel to make an informed choice.

The only way to make it more usable is to make an extra button “IM son” for my mom

Hi,

Passing this along, but it should be a great presentation! Also, if you haven’t seen a live breeze presentation, it is well worth checking one out. They are very nifty.

Creating Mobile UI Interfaces for Rich User Experiences

Tuesday, November 15, 2005
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM US/Eastern

Macrochats are online, live product discussions!

Join Andrea Trento to learn how to create mobile UI interfaces able to grant rich user experiences with Flash Lite. Flash Lite is creating a revolution in the development of rich content for mobile phones and devices. This macrochat focuses on both technical and design challenges for mobile UI interfaces, as well as helps understand the use of Flash Lite to create engaging user experiences. This session will provide an in-depth exploration of the mobile experience and mobile navigability.

What You Will Learn

*Flash Lite as a viable way to develop mobile UI interfaces
*Mobile user experience and navigability concepts
*UI input methods
*Development techniques to deliver UI interfaces for your mobile applications

Macrochat Speaker Bio:
Andrea Trento is General Manager at Interpreting.it, the communication agency he founded in 1998. His expertise includes developing Rich Internet Applications and games for mobile devices and the web, as well as advising various European government bodies on the use of web- and mobile-based technologies. He is an active contributor to the Flash Lite community and cooperates with Italy’s Macromedia User Groups Actionscript.it. As Member of Team Macromedia for Mobile and Devices, Andrea teaches different subjects related to Macromedia products and technologies and regularly contributes to Italian magazines focusing on mobile technology and development.

Register for this Macrochat here: http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=detail&id=3409 75&loc=en_us

All I can say is “wow!” I had a really great time. The conferences were a lot bigger than I expected (MAX Korea was about 1/3 the size of Anaheim’s MAX conference), and I met a lot of great people, both attendees and many of the speakers that i know of, but have not actually met before. If you’d like to see some of the pictures from my trip, check out my Flickr Set.

The flight was no where near as bad as I thought it would be. Singapore air is definitely a nice airline! I was in coach, but with 60 movies and 100 TV shows and video games on demand, I was able to keep myself occupied. After 13 hrs, I got to the Seoul airport and all nervousness mentioned in my previous post evaporated. At that point I was too busy looking at everything. I loved comparing design, gadgets, and even the differences in the posted public warnings. Pretty much everything is labeled in English (If you’ve been to Canada, the amount of English is similar to what you would find for French in Canada (non-french parts). I had no trouble getting around whatsoever.

The first day of the conference was good. I went to the keynote and a few sessions that day. My presentation was the next day, so I did have some free time to myself. I was planning on going to Yahoo! that day, but I didn’t really have that much time, so I poked around the area for a while. Part of the time was spent in the large department store Shensegae which was filled with all manner of interesting things (mostly western), but the appliances section, and grocery store were definitely interesting and different.

In the evening, Macromedia took the speakers out to an amazing Korean dinner. There were so many different things on the table that it is easier to set the table in the kitchen and bring it out fully set! There was also dancers and singers to keep us entertained, but I think the most amusing of the groups was a highly traditional looking music group that played western music like “unchained melody.”

Later in the evening, several of us went out for drinks and to see more of the city. When the group ordered a pitcher of beer at a local restaurant, this is what arrived. It had bubbling dry ice and LEDs. It was quite the production :).

The following day was my session on “Advanced Flash Lite Development” featuring the Flickr Search that Jesse Wolfe and I worked on. By the time I started speaking though I had removed about half my slides from Anaheim (I gave a similar presentation there). Unlike in California, there were two simultaneous interpreters translating my talk into Korea. I’d say about 75% of the audience was listening to that rather than the English version. It was quite a shock to all of us just how slowly we needed to speak to allow for the translation time! I took a couple of courses on Spanish simultaneous interpreting, so it was a novel experience to be on the speaking side of that equation.

From there, a group of us went back to the Airport to catch our flight to Hong Kong for the next conference.

Some random fun(ny) things from Korea:

I’ve been trying to get my hands on a Samsung MMI phone that runs Flash Lite as the UI for quite a while. Wouldn’t you know that when I went to the cell phone rental counter at the airport, I would get an MMI phone It is quite beautiful. I love my Nokia phones, but I might go to Samsung if those phones become available in the US at some point.

I fell in love with the Korean writing system. Korean is amazingly intuitive. I picked up a book at the store on the writing and pronunciation and read it during my flight to Hong Kong. By the time we landed four hours later I was actually able to sound out some basics. While I still need to work on memorizing the vowels, the consonants are written to make linguistically related sounds have similar characters, and many are actually indications of how to position your tongue (according to the book — but it does seem to bear out for about half the consonants). If you want to read more about Korean, take a look here.

Orange Juice was a funny thing to order with breakfast. my breakfast entree was around $11, but the OJ was $13. It was good though

Holy bejesus, airports in Asia are enormous (at least Incheon and Hong Kong Airport). You can buy anything in them, and they go on and on and on. O’hare now just seems “quaint.”

My Friday was made far less merry by a co-worker forwarding me a Cnet article on Microsoft’s plans to alter the active content experience after all. I seriously checked to see if it were just a joke before posting. There are few companies that can cast Microsoft as the good guy, but Eolas is going for it.

Macromedia has a page for the active content workaround which is inactive right now, but I guess if this pans out, it will come back. Luckily I think most of the Flash HTML templates do take care of the issue. But still, don’t be messing with my plugins! For a summary of the Eolas workarounds, here is a pretty good blog post on it.

After a tough decision, I’ve decided it is time to move on from Yahoo! and accept a very exciting position at Adobe. Starting in about a week, I will be Sr. Product Manager for Designer/Developer Relations for Flash. I will also be product managing a designer/developer workflow project, but more on that later (when I know more about it ) ;). It looks like I will be splitting my time between the San Francisco and San Jose offices and will get the best of both worlds.

For now, I am wrapping up my projects at Yahoo! and will have to start the very long process of packing up my cube soon! After four years and six cubes, it will be very strange to not be surrounded by purple and yellow. On the upside (if it is a downside to get away from purple and yellow), I am very happy that my new position will give me a lot of opportunities to continue to interact with the Flash users at Yahoo! while working on a product that I am really passionate about.

Once I make the transition and am up to speed at Adobe I will start posting some more about the new job. While still at Yahoo!, I should mention that the Yahoo! Flash platform team is still hiring, so get your resume in (I’ve transitioned the hiring process, so emailing me about it won’t help much). I would also add that at Yahoo! I have had the opportunity of working with a lot of great people, but my manager, Thomas Sha is fantastic. I really regret that I won’t get to work for him more; but any skilled frontend developer should be tripping over themselves to work as part of his team.

The Adobe Flash Player started supporting Windows Vista as of 9,0,28. This is the current version, but you may know it as the version that introduced full screen support. Earlier player versions are not built to support Vista, though for the most part they should run pretty well.

When doing a clean install, you will just need to go to the Flash Player Download Center and download the current player. However if you or one of your users is upgrading from XP and still has an earlier build of the player installed, you will have a few strange behaviors.

Note: users upgrading to Vista from XP will retain their shared objects and can be used normally.

If you run into a Vista user that is on an older player, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Express Install - The Express Install will not run. The user will see the permission dialog box but answering “yes” will not initiate the install. This is due to a different security model being in place in Vista that changes local file access.

If this is a big concern for you right now, you can do your own detection of the OS and player version and not run express install, but soon Adobe will be releasing a modification to Express Install that will direct these users to the Player Download Center. You will not need to do anything to take advantage of this update when it becomes available.

2. Shared Objects - Shared Objects are affected by the same Vista security model change and while any existing shared objects will still be present, you may not be able to access them without the latest Flash Player.

3. Local Connection - Local Connections will be affected in the same way and will not run on un-supported versions of the player on Vista.

4. File Reference - Save and Open are also affected in the same way, so file uploading will be non-functional in older players on Vista.

If you use any of these features, you should detect Vista users on old players and encourage them to upgrade, no matter what version of Flash you are exporting for. Here is some sample AS2 code to do the check:

if(System.capabilities.os=="Windows Vista" && !hasMinVersion(9,0,28)){
//do something to tell the user they need to upgrade
//to the latest Flash Player to view the site.
}
function hasMinVersion(major:Number, minor:Number, build:Number):Boolean{
//take a version like WIN 9,0,28,0 and strip the platform
//and divide the version number into an array
var v:Array = System.capabilities.version.split(" ")[1].split(",");
if(v[0]<major ) return false;
if(v[1]<minor) return false;
if(v[2]<build) return false;
return true;