Derek J Entringer | Interactive Media, Web Application, and Mobile App Developer » New Developments

Adobe AIR for Mobile 2.5 on Android 2.1

Derek J Entringer — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:09:24 +0000

Adobe is currently in it’s prerelease stages of testing AIR for Mobile, specifically on Android, and I’ve been one of the lucky developers invited to participate. Adobe was even kind enough to send over some Google Nexus One phones to get going and testing on multiple devices. (Thanks Michael Chou).

The first thing I’ve noticed when using AIR for Mobile is that it’s WORLDS easier than porting Flash content to the iPhone. Simply publish your swf and use the AIR SDK and Android SDK to convert and port the content directly to your phone. Done. You can either install the newly published apps using the Android SDK, or you can upload them to a server and browse to the the .apk files and install them directly from a website. If you install from a server (and not Google Marketplace) you just have to be sure that your device allows for “Unknown sources”.

I’ve also been involved in the CS5 Prerelease, and when publishing for the iPhone there were mobile provisioning files connected to certain devices and those devices were particular in the UDID provided with every Apple product and producing the security certificates (.p12 files) just added even more to the headaches in getting setup.

Well, when working with AIR 2.5 and the Android SDK, it way faster/easier. It took just a little getting used to the command line prompts, and my first Hello World app was off and running.

Note: The command prompt interface is only part of the early development stages. It will not be necessary in future releases.

I’ve also noticed quite a difference in terms of the speed at which Android seems to run compared to the iPhone/iTouch. AIR on Android reacts just as fast as the native Android applications, or at least really close. It’s performing much better than any results that I’ve gotten from the iPhone or iTouch. We’ll have to see how much it will improve over time, as this was the first build of AIR 2.5.

Now, the app that I had setup for iTunes is a Educational piece created for Pearson Education, and done in coordination with Media-Fuse. Here’s a video of the Android version for Digit Cards – Close to 20, 100, 100 Math Card game in action.

Here’s the same game, but in the iPhone version (in this video, an iTouch is used).

I also successfully installed Digit Cards on the Motorola Droid, but the resolution still needs to be adjusted from the Nexus One. I’ll see if I can port it over to the 480×854 from the Nexus 480×800, and also share that video here.

Overall, AIR for Mobile on Android is really off to a great start. Can’t wait for more builds to test. Adobe, you rock!

Augmented Reality Using Flex, AS3, And A WebCam

Derek J Entringer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:15:27 +0000

Augmented reality (AR) on the Flash and Flex platform is really quite a new technology, but there are a large amount of developers and businesses that are embracing the use of AR online. Media companies such as Esquire, and technology companies such as GE are using the tech to engage their users both through print media as well as online media.

AR research explores the application of computer-generated imagery in live-video streams as a way to expand the real-world.

The possibilities of how you could use Augmented Reality (AR) are endless. Picture yourself walking or driving down the street. With augmented-reality displays, which will eventually look much like a normal pair of glasses, and informative graphics appearing in your field of view, and audio that coincides with whatever you see.

Now, this article doesn’t go as far as how to create your own AR glasses, but rather a “first step” into what is capable when using AR.

I’ve created a quick example of an AR environment below. Using your webcam, and the provided PDF, you can experience what AR is all about. Make sure to take a look at some more advanced examples in the links above also.

First, print this PDF.

Next, activate the Flash movie below to allow access to your webcam, and hold up the piece of paper to the camera to activate the AR environment. Make sure the large square is fully visible within the camera, and you’ll see how the AR loads and animates with how you position the paper.

Like I said, this example is brief. The AR that you will see above when holding up the pattern you printed is quite simple. There will be three cubes that will be displayed within your streaming video. The AR environment reacts to wherever the pattern on the printed pdf goes. You can rotate or angle the pattern against the camera, the the AR will follow.

There are many ways that this small “first step” towards a more interactive AR environment can be upgraded, and it’s only a start.

Using this technology you can stream video, add animations, or animate entire environments. You could green-screen actors or musicians and place them in a music video that comes to life seemingly right in your own hands. There are thousands of ways to implement AR to engage your website visitors or publication readers. Artist labels could use AR in their branding or CD packaging, or anyone with a business card could use AR to allow for mini-presentations. Whether that be a video or information displayed to a potential client by simply holding your business card card up to their webcam, while visiting your own website.

The ways of incorporating Augmented Reality into online and print media are nearly endless.

If you do not have a web cam, here’s how this simple example looks.

Please Upgrade Your Flash Player

Have you used AR in any of your projects yet?

Boost Your Brand Awareness, Protect Your Link Data, and Get Your Own URL Trimming Service

Derek J Entringer — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:32:35 +0000

It seems that the larger url trimming services are gaining a lot of ground these days, and are churning over huge amounts of urls. This also feeds them a ton of data on what people are interested on the web, which will benefit these trimming services at some point in the future. We’re feeding their databases with enourmous amounts of information on what everyone on the web is talking about.

But, what about ourselves? How does keeping all of my trimmed url analytics on some other companies servers benefit me? How can I boost my own brand recognition if I were to create my own personal url trimming application?

Those were the exact goals in the creation of my own url trimming app: http://entr.in/ger/

I wanted to accomplish the same things that bit.ly or tr.im were doing, but to also keep my brand http://derekentringer.com intact with all of the Trimmed URL’s that I was pushing out onto the web. Why would I push another companies brand recognition with all of the interesting articles and videos that I was sharing when using a smaller url? Why wouldn’t any Twitter or Facebook user want their own trimmed url? I believe that using your own custom url trimming service can benefit both your brand recognition, as well your own internal link tracking and social media monitoring initiatives.

Now, I don’t think that using tr.im or bit.ly is a bad thing, but, if you remember very recently, tr.im almost went offline right along with all of its data.

Protect your own data, boost your brand awareness, and get your own url trimming service.

If you’re looking for you own url trimming application, hit me up in the contact area. I’m sure we can work something out to fit your needs.

Note: If you decide to trim a url with entr.in/ger/, it will work, but you will not be able to track the link analytics. This is my own personal url trimming application.

Stream Your Videos Using FLV Player – FREE

Derek J Entringer — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:56:57 +0000

We’ve recently added some pretty significant new features to our FLV Player Flash Component. One really neat new offering is our Free FLV Player, which allows you to stream videos from Youtube!, Vimeo, or your own sources including Flash Media Server. All you need is a video source, your player width and height requirements, and you can get your embed code in 3 easy steps.

Take a look at FLV Player, and our new Free FLV Player at http://flvplayer.com.

If you ever wanted to add video to your projects or websites, there is no easier way than using pre-built Flash video components. Our player is one of the most feature loaded components on the market and it was specifically designed to suit developer and designers needs. It provides a fast and easy way to add video content in just few steps.

Get your own Free FLV Player here

Here are some more new features that we recently added to FLV Player:

FlashVar Support
FlvPlayer now fully supports FlashVars. This is another layer of interactivity that we’ve created that allows anyone who doesn’t have Flash to also benefit from the player. It provides access to all of the parameters of the player directly from the swf embed code.

Tooltips
We’ve upgraded the interface to allow for individual tooltips on all of the FLV Player elements. You also have the ability to control the colors and transparencies.

Stream YouTube! Videos
Stream all of your favorite YouTube! videos directly in your website or blog using our custom PHP streaming scripts.

Stream Vimeo Videos
Stream all of your favorite Vimeo! videos by simply letting FLV Player know the Vimeo video id.

More information is available at FLVplayer.com

FLV Player – Flash Video Component – Now Available at FLVplayer.com

Derek J Entringer — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:39:29 +0000

After a recent partnership with FLVplayer.com, and a lot of work developing and tweaking our latest product, we’ve officially released our highly customizable FLV Player Flash Video Component. Have a look at flvplayer.com

FLVplayer supports all of the video formats available through the Adobe Flash platform including, but not limited to, MOV, MP4, F4V, and of course FLV.

Customize FLVplayer to match the look and feel of your current website or project. Modify the component to give it your own custom interface.

Our FLVplayer is loaded with features. If you’re a seasoned programmer, use our API to extend the options, and create engaging multimedia video.

Some of the features include:

Progressive or instant RTMP streaming using a Flash Media Server
Customizable XML menu system to load multiple video files, thumbnails, video titles and descriptions
Dynamic Interface Options allow for turning interface elements on or off
Live preview of component features within the Flash interface
Custom color options for all aspects of the FlvPlayer interface including background colors, font colors, rollover colors, and controls for transparencies
Fullscreen toggle
Closed captions
Advanced video display controls including Fit To Player, Original Size, Fit to Width, and Fit to Height
Dynamic Buffering
Interface Display options that include Overlay or Outside, and Autohide
Dynamically rounded corners settings
Full API supporting all major functions as public methods

For more information, please visit FLVplayer.com and DevBase.com

FLVPlayer.com – Flash Video Components

Derek J Entringer — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:00:21 +0000

I’ve recently partnered with the owner of FLVPlayer.com, and we have some very interesting things planned for our next version of our Flash Video Components.

The name FLVplayer doesn’t limit our video player to FLV video files. Using our component you can deploy video players that support all of the video formats available through the Adobe Flash platform including, but not limited to, MOV, MP4, F4V, and of course FLV.

Playing videos isn’t the only functionality we’ve included in FLVplayer. Go beyond simply displaying video on your site and push your projects to the next level. Customize the FLVplayer in look and feel, and give your website visitors and project end users the ultimate experience in online video.

Some of the new features will include:

new interface
new functionality
user friendly
highly customizable

We’re currently about a week away from completing the updated FlvPlayer Flash Component, and more details will be available here once the component is released for sale.

BorrisPowell.com Fashion Couture

Derek J Entringer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:52:58 +0000

With the inspirations of Borris Powell, I would like to announce the launch of BorrisPowell.com.

From the site:

“Luxury in women’s fashion has a new name—Borris Powell. Born in Alabama, the passionate designer developed his dreams of a career in women’s fashion early on in life. Throughout his childhood, while observing his mother preparing for a night out on the town or even a Sunday visit to church, he trained his young eyes on color and silhouette. This is how his lifelong dream began. He would often advise her on style choices and then, while everyone one was away, he would sneak into the living room to the play with the sewing machine and develop his craft.

Inspired by the masterful shapes of Christian Dior, Powell followed his dreams and moved to Chicago to start his design career in 1997. Over the following decade, at the consistent urge of his friends, he pursued his vision with an infectious entrepreneurial talent and creativity that has built him a devoted following of fans. His trademark silhouettes have the comforting familiarity of his early authentic family memories mixed with a chic nod to high-end city life.“

BorrisPowell.com combines high end fashion with high end web design and development.

The site was created using AS3 and all that Papervision3d has to offer in terms of custom image galleries, created by DerekEntringer.com

Visit the site at BorrisPowell.com

Blog Updated

Derek J Entringer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:45:55 +0000

I had been using AjaxPress for the longest time, and have finally changed-over to WordPress. Should have made the switch a while ago, but there was always something else on my plate.

For anyone new to my site, all of the articles have been ported over to this new setup, but the dates are now all not exactly relevant to when the articles were originally posted.

To those who are not new…be sure to grab the new rss feed.

OrbySPV v1.5 Launched

Derek J Entringer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:37:28 +0000

A virtual tour product that I have been working on has finally launched today. OrbySPV (Sequential Panoramic Viewer) technology gives you the power to create highly interactive virtual tours, similiar to the Google Maps Street View, using your own panaromic images. you can check it out at OrbySPV.com. The technology is derived by manipulating spherically projected 360 degree panoramic images to create an interactive experience unlike any virtual tour technology available today. There are a bunch of license options to choose from, tutorials to help you get started, as well as sample viewers and images. If you have any questions about Orby, please use the email form here.

geoTract.com Released

Derek J Entringer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:18:08 +0000

geoTract.com has been up and running for about two weeks as of the writing of this post, and the users are still rolling in. Many comments have been sent regarding the site itself and lots of feedback is leaning towards the positive side. The site itself is still in Beta at this point, and I’ve been continuing to roll out bug fixes.

Working with the users to complete this project has been more than rewarding, and I’m looking forward to the future of the site in general.

In general:

geoTract.com provides a central commonplace to share experiences and interests in the form of maps mashed with chatting, blogs, friends lists, favorites lists, and general locations. On geoTract users have the ability to open their opinions on restaurants they have visited, post photos of their friends at the club they went to last weekend, or even provide a reference to their favorite nature trails or hikes they have at their favorite camp ground. These experiences are then plotted on gMaps a Google API that allows the placement of markers based on coordinate systems generated by the API. Once a marker has been placed, or as we call it a “Tract” created, users can then share that information with the world, or maybe just their friends and relatives. They can write about their experiences within that geoTract Blog, and post pictures that correlate with that particular area or experience.

geoTract is a new way for people to interact with one another on personal levels outside a boring MySpace type setting. It takes the user away from their reality and into another by showing them exact locations and geographical areas that they might not be familiar with, while still keeping all of the qualities of a myspace setting plus more.

If you’ve ever said that you know all of the perfect hangouts in your neighborhood or city, and love sharing all of those places with your friends, then geoTract.com is going to be one of your favorite online tools. People that are looking to travel to a different region of their country, or another country altogether can look up any spots that might have a good rating by others already in the area. Or, anyone who simply want to keep an online journal for themselves on the places they have been or the experiences that they have encountered, well, here is the perfect place to accomplish exactly that. All of these types of users would find that geoTract.com allows for any of these types of uses, and that actually accomplishing this is really quite easy.