Are you a visual or interaction designer coming out to Adobe MAX Milan next week?  Come out to Sophie’s Restaurant the evening before Adobe MAX kicks off (Sunday 30 November) and meet other creative professionals for a cozy night of creativity and cuisine.  Forum Nokia is partnering with Adobe to present Open Lab Milan , a workshop where you can leave the laptops at home and spend a stimulating evening sketching out the seeds of new service ideas with others.

Flash familiarity would be fantastic, but not essential – Open Lab Milan concentrates on providing a stimulating environment for creating new ideas, while providing you with the knowledge, guidance and support for building your service after the event.  The idea is to provide a collaborative environment where designers and Forum Nokia developers can pair up and conceptualize new and innovative ideas that can become great mobile experiences.

At the end of the evening they will be awarding a brand new MacBook Pro loaded with CS4 Designer Collection to one attendee based on the best concept and presentation. There's a limited number of spots available so register quickly before it fills-up.

As I clean out my cube and pack away personal items one thing has become apparent - I've used/tested a lot of devices while here at Adobe.  As you can see there are over 70 devices on the table and about 15 more that are not pictured.  Everything including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, Dell, Panasonic, Sony, Dell, iRiver, etc...  Good news is these will go into the Adobe device library and will be available for team members to use for testing content and technologies.  Imagine what the pile of cables looks like - power, USB, and headphones.

After 4 years here at Adobe (and Macromedia) I wanted to let the community know that I’ve decided to move on to pursue a new opportunity at Nokia.  This is a professional career move on my part and was a difficult decision to make.  There are a lot of great things happening now with Flash Lite on mobile devices and you can expect exciting news for developers around mobile that Adobe will be announcing at MAX in a few weeks.

Having been involved with the mobile and devices group at Macromedia back when there were only a few million devices to soon almost 1 billion, it’s been a wild and exciting ride that I’m very proud to be a part of.  From early pre-release programs like “Sahti” (Flash Lite 1.1) to the recent launch of Flash Lite 3.1 and CS4, being able to work along side such dedicated and passionate people that helped to plan, engineer, test and market these products has been amazing.  Helping to grow our mobile developer community, raising the awareness of Adobe’s mobile initiatives and seeing the diverse range of mobile applications that have been created by individuals and brands from around the world has been a rewarding experience.

I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to be an evangelist for mobile and devices at Adobe and have done so many things to help grow and interact with the community.  If you’ve had a chance to meet me whether at a conference, at a social function, through email or on the phone, I thank each and every one of you for that experience.  Having traveled to the following cities and getting a local perspective on things from designers and developers has been so benneficial for me and Adobe to understand the needs of our communities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, New York City, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, London, Helsinki, Barcelona, Bangalore, New Delhi, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong. When I look back at my travels and the people I’ve met, it really humbles me to know that I was part of something that’s special and continues to grow. 

My new position at Nokia will be Sr. Service Marketing Manager, Forum Nokia where I’ll be focusing globally on driving developer awareness around the services and sensor APIs that can be used across their platforms with various technologies.  I’ll also be involved with Nokia OVI, the Open Screen Project initiative and other consumer facing projects.  The great news is I’ll still be working with Adobe technologies as well as others technologies that developers and designers can use to create mobile experiences on Nokia devices.  So all of you that I've had the pleasure to work/interact with over the previous four years I'll still continue to work with but I'll be doing so by representing Nokia.

I will still keep this blog, as I’ve heard from developers that it has been a valuable resource for the community, and I plan on continuing to add posts but although not as frequently.  Going forward to stay up to date on the latest Adobe mobile news and developer information make sure you visit and bookmark Mark Doherty’s blog (flashmobileblog.com).  Mark is a very smart and passionate developer based in London, and is responsible for Adobe’s evangelism for mobile and devices in the EMEA region.  There’s also the Adobe mobile and devices developer center, as well as other Flash Lite community members who share ideas and their passion.  Make sure you also sign up for the mobile summit and the mobile fast pitch networking event at MAX North America so you can interact with other developers that are interested in mobile, as well as get a chance to talk to people from leading OEMs, operators and content aggregators.

My last day at Adobe will be this Friday (31 October) and in the following weeks I’ll be able to provide more details about my new position.  Some of you may have questions and if you do please leave a comment and I’ll answer them.

During the planning and development phases of CS4 I was able to help with the feature input and testing for some of the products, including Device Central. Recently Adobe gave some thank you gifts to internal team members and I was surprised and grateful to have received a very nice pen.  It has a good weight and it writes well with a constant smooth flow of ink.  Needless to say this is much better than the throwaway pens I normally use.

Adobe CS4 started shipping a few weeks ago and one of the updated tools is Device Central CS4, which allows designers and developers to learn about the capabilities of mobile devices, create new projects based on a device or groups of devices and emulate mobile content.  Some of the new features of Device Central CS4 include:

• on-line device library
• automated testing
• snapshots of content
• video capture of content
• mobile project management
• accurate network performance
• specifying security settings
  
• sending files to devices using Bluetooth
  
• integration with After Effects CS4
  

To help you better understand some of these new features, Liz Myers (one of the members of the Flash Lite community) has collaborated with Lynda.com to record five video walk throughs of the new features:

• Introducing Device Central CS4 (3:55 in duration)
  
• Automated testing of mobile content (3:41 duration)
• Creating After Effects mobile compositions (2:25 duration)
  
• Managing mobile projects (1:14 duration)
• Using the online device library (1:55 duration)
  

If you find these types of videos benneficial leave a comment to let us know.

Next Tuesday (4 November) from 2-3pm EST, Forum Nokia will be hosting a free one hour webinar covering "Flash Lite Development with Adobe CS4 & Nokia Platform Services".  Attendees will learn about the Nokia devices that support Flash Lite, new features of CS4 for developing Flash Lite applications and Nokia’s new S60 5th Edition Platform Services and why they are needed.

You can register here.

For those of you who have an interest in learning more about mobile and networking with peers as well as people from the ecosystem, we have two free events that are being held during MAX North America that you can attend.  You can register for one or both of these events.

Mobile Summit
(Sunday 16 November at the Marriott from 1-6pm PST)
Join Adobe and our partners — Nokia, Qualcomm, Verizon, Sony Ericsson, GetJar, Thumbplay, and Zed — to learn about new opportunities for mobile developers this year. Get a sneak peak at what you will see and hear at MAX before anyone else does! Hear from Adobe partners and key industry players as they present the newest mobile solutions, technologies, and distribution opportunities for mobile developers.  To learn more and RSVP for this event go to: http://www.eventsadobe.com/mobilesummitmax08/invite.html.

Mobile Fast Pitch Networking Party
(Wednesday 19 November at the Thirsty Bear from 6:15-9:30pm PST)
Adobe is hosting a special Mobile Networking Party to allow developers to showcase their mobile applications using our Adobe Flash mobile technologies. If you already have a web-based application and are thinking of going mobile, you can also present your idea and get feedback from our industry leaders. Join us to support fellow developers or to present your ideas.  For more RSVP and presentation information for this event go to: http://www.eventsadobe.com/mobilenetworkingparty/invite.html.

It's still not too late to register for the mobile sessions at MAX North America (San Francisco) and we have a lot of good sessions lined up with some of the best presenters.  From Flash Lite development, to the new features of Device Central CS4 to using the CS4 tools for designing, development and testing of mobile Flash experiences - there's something for everyone.  For me one of the best things about attending MAX is hearing from presenters that have real-world experience and seeing what they've learned and developed.

Here's a quick listing of the mobile sessions, labs and a pre-event workshop:

Sessions

• Creating Mobile Applications: A Real-World Example.  David Brown from AgencyNet will be presenting.
• Developing the Ultimate Flash Cast Channels. Evan Kirkchoff from Comrade Studio will be presenting.
  
• Flash Lite 3: Learn How to Package and Distribute Mobile Content.  Bill Perry from Adobe will be presenting.
• Hands-on: Flash Lite Programming for Nokia Devices.  Robert Burdick from Forum Nokia will be presenting.
• How to Build a Mobile Business.  Mads Djurhuus from Little Big Ideas will be presenting.
• Mobile Workflows with Creative Suite 4 and Adobe Device Central CS4.  James Talbot from Adobe will be presenting.
• Open Screen Project: Delivering Rich Internet Experiences Across Devices. Francisco Kattan (Adobe), Eric John (Forum Nokia), Anup Murarka (Adobe), Steve Sprigg (Qualcomm), Ryan Hughes (Verizon Wireless), and Paul Sinclair (Warner Music Group) will be having a round table discussion.
• Spotlight on Finetune and Teknision: Building a Multiscreen Application. Tony MacDonell from Teknision will be presenting.

Hands-on labs

• Deep Dive: Adobe Device Central CS4. Dale Rankine, James Talbot and Scott Janousek will be presenting.
• Learn About the Nokia Mobile Browser, Flash, and Flash Lite Experience. Ung-Ping Tian and Policarpo Guerrero from Forum Nokia will be presenting.
• Project Capuchin: Bridging Adobe Flash Lite and Java ME. Velimir Karadzic and Anders Corlin from Sony Ericcson will be presenting.
• Twenty Tips and Tricks for Building Top-Performing Mobile Applications. Peter Kacandes (Adobe), Scott Janousek (Hooken Mobile), Dale Rankine (Moket), Alessandro Pace (Biskero), Darren Osadchuk (Ludricous Software) will be presenting.
• Using Flash Media Server and Flash Lite to Bring Video to Mobile. James Talbot from Adobe will be presenting.

Pre-event workshop

• Flash Lite: Developing and Distributing Mobile Applications.  Dale Rankine from Moket will be presenting this full day workshop on Sunday 16 November.
  

Remember to register for the sessions you're interested in and help spread the word.

We've recently posted a case study on our site about LG Electronics and the success they've had by using Flash Lite for the UI of their phones, including touch screen phones such as the PRADA.  They've used Flash Lite in over 100 different models for UI but the PRADA phone was a breakthrough experience for them.

The tight integration between Flash CS3 Professional and Flash Lite enabled the LG Electronics mobile phone team to completely overhaul the phone’s menu structure, improve navigation efficiency, add functionality, and design an array of icons unique to the touch interface. Working in a seamless environment, the team rapidly prototyped concepts and increased their productivity.  According to Hosang Cheon, Chief research engineer, LG Electronics, “I estimate our team accelerated the PRADA phone time to market by 30% to 40% thanks to the improvements in the newest versions of Adobe Flash CS3 Professional and Adobe Flash Lite."

Here in the US some of the LG touchscreen devices are offered by Verizon Wireless that use Flash Lite for the UI including the Chocolate, Dare, Venu, and Voyager.

Often we spend our time thinking about how to create experiences for mobile phones using Flash and other technologies however have you ever wondered how a mobile phone network actually works?  It's not magic or science fiction, it's a lot of different parts working collectively to allow you to receive a call, send a messsage, call someone, get directions, etc...

There's an article I came across today that some of you might find interesting.  It goes into details on the hardware, infrastructure, and why things behave the way they do.  It's a good primer for getting into mobile.

Over the weekend I updated the supported Flash Devices Spreadsheet to include the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic device, which is a touch screen device that supports Flash Lite 3.0 as standalone applications and as a browser plug-in for viewing web content.

Here's the latest device info:

• Nokia (Global) = 94 devices
• Sony Ericsson (Global) = 75 devices
• Verizon Wireless (US) = 19 devices
• NTT DoCoMo (Japan) = 150 devices
• KDDI (Japan) = 111 devices
• Softbank (Japan) = 60 devices
  

Some additional changes were made to formatting and the Sony Ericsson page now shows all of the supported devices (previous version had some of the devices cut off).  You can download the PDF from my site or from the Adobe mobile and devices development center.

This isn't related to mobile but for you designers out there I thought this was kind of cool.  It's a color IQ test and you drag and drop the color chips to arrange each row by hue and then when you're set you select the "score test" button and you'll get your score.  It's fun so try it out.