If you're still using Flash Professional 8 and developing Flash Lite content, you can now download device profile update #6. This update includes 23 new device profiles and updates to 26 existing profiles. You can get more details on the specific devices that are included in this update on the download page. Note: this is only for use with Flash Professional 8, not Flash CS3 Professional.

This will be the last device profile update for Flash Professional 8 and we will be focusing on providing all future device profile updates for Device Central CS3 through Device Central Online.

Here's some good news for a Friday, you can now download device profile update #3 for Device Central CS3. This update includes 49 device profiles: 9 new and 40 updated existing profiles. Make sure you install any previous device profiles sequentially first before installing update #3 - this is because of the updates to device profiles.

If you're interested in what new and updated devices are covered in update #3:

New device profiles

• Nokia 3110
• Nokia 8600
• Nokia E90
• Nokia N76
• Sony Ericsson S500i
• Sony Ericsson W580i
• Sony Ericsson W660i
• Verizon Wireless LG VX 8600
• Verizon Wireless Samsung SCH-A970

Updated device profiles

• DoCoMo NEC N903i
• KDDI Toshiba A5516T
• KDDI Toshiba A5517T
• KDDI Toshiba W21T
• Nokia 6131
• Nokia E61
• Sony Ericsson K600
• Sony Ericsson K600c
• Sony Ericsson K600i
• Sony Ericsson K606c
• Sony Ericsson K606i
• Sony Ericsson K608c
• Sony Ericsson K608i
• Sony Ericsson K610iM
• Sony Ericsson V600i
• Sony Ericsson V800
• Sony Ericsson W300i
• Sony Ericsson W550c
• Sony Ericsson W550i
• Sony Ericsson W600c
• Sony Ericsson W600i
• Sony Ericsson W610i
• Sony Ericsson W710i
• Sony Ericsson W712a
• Sony Ericsson W810i
• Sony Ericsson W830a
• Sony Ericsson W830c
• Sony Ericsson W830i
• Sony Ericsson W850i
• Sony Ericsson W880i
• Sony Ericsson Z800i
• Softbank Toshiba 810T
• Softbank Toshiba 811T
• Softbank Toshiba 813T
• Softbank Toshiba 910T
• Softbank Toshiba 911T
• Verizon Wireless LG VX8100
• Verizon Wireless LG VX8300
• Verizon Wireless LG VX9900
• Verizon Wireless Samsung SCH-A990

Last week was the BREW 2007 developer conference in San Diego and it was a well attended event by BREW developers, content publishers, operators and OEMs. We (Adobe) were a gold sponsor and had a booth presence in addition to 2 speaking sessions regarding Flash Lite for BREW. This was my second BREW developer conference and it was cool to meet and discuss things with other developers and to hear first hand how they develop their BREW applications.

The Thursday session was a panel discussion moderated by Qualcomm that included people me and a person from FunMobility, Shockwave and Smashing Ideas. We discussed several topics that are relevant to the US market and opportunities for Flash Lite developers to make money with the BREW platform. Friday's topic was a joint presentation by Vinay Ramani (PM for Flash Lite) and me and was about "Exploring the Opportunities of Adobe Flash Lite". For those of you who were not able to attend you can download a PDF version of the presentation here.

One great new piece of information that we wanted to share was that as reported by M:Metrics as of April 30 2007, some of the most high revenue generating phones for Verizon Wireless support our Flash Lite for BREW extension. These 13 handsets represent 16 million active Verizon Wireless subscribers.



If you take a look at where when we launched the Flash Lite for BREW extension at MAX last October we had 2 handsets. In 8 months we've certified 11 more and we're still in the process of certifying several more handsets this year. What this means for companies and individuals developing Flash Lite applications and content for Verizon Wireless is there are 16 million Verizon Wireless subscribers that can potentially purchase your applications and content.

One benefit with developing with Flash Lite is you can target multiple devices with the same screen size using one FLA file. In the graphic below you can see how a developer would only need to create 3 FLA files to target all 13 supported Verizon Wireless handsets.



Since the APIs are consistent from device to device and verified through our Flash Lite certification process, this results in less porting and testing which results in cost savings.

Things are looking good for the total addressable market in the US and they're going to get better. Expect more BREW/Verizon Wireless developer related posts this summer.

If you're using Flash CS3 Professional and are developing Flash Lite applications you can now download Flash Lite 2.1 for BREW Publisher for Flash CS3 Professional from the Adobe mobile and devices developer site. This is an updated version of the plug-in for Flash CS3 Professional that's already available for Flash Professional 8 users.

This free plug-in for Flash CS3 Professional will allow you to export your Flash Lite applications as native BREW files (.mod and .mif) for testing using the Qualcomm BREW SDK Simulator and to transfer to a supported BREW handset for device testing.

You can get more information about developing for BREW devices and VZW here:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/brew.html
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/verizon.html

There's still time to register for this month's online Flash Lite webinar for developers: Best Practices for Performance and Memory for Flash Lite. It's an hour long webinar and will take place from 9-10am PST this Wednesday 27 June.

One of our technical engineers for Flash Lite (Prashant Panigrahi) will be discussing and showing examples of how you can improve your Flash Lite applications and content to better utilize the available memory per handset. Here are some things that he'll cover:

• How memory management and garbage collection work in Flash Lite 2.x
• How you can tune your Flash Lite 2.x application/content to make the most use of the limited memory and CPU cycles on your mobile device.
• Key points to consider for better performance while developing your Flash Lite 2.x applications/content for mobile devices.

This will be a technical presentation but I encourage anyone who's interested in developing Flash Lite applications to attend this webinar. At the end of his presentation there will be some time for a Q&A session. If you're unable to attend you don't have to worry- we will be recording it and making it available online for viewing within the next 2 weeks.

If you have ideas for future Flash Lite online webinars please leave a comment.

If you haven't already heard we've announced our upcoming MAX 2007 conferences - which are Adobe's annual designer/developer conferences. This year we'll have three conferences around the world to allow creative professionals, students and hobbyists to hear from speakers who are very knowledgeable with a wide range of topics including Flash Lite, Flash Cast, AIR, Flex, Flash, Dreamweaver, Premiere, etc... This year will be my 6 MAX US conference and I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone who is interested in developing mobile Flash applications/content as well as hearing from other speakers on what cool things they've been working on.

Here are the dates and locations of the MAX conferences:

• MAX US: Sept 30 - Oct 3 (Chicago)
• MAX Europe: Oct 15 - 18 (Barcelona, Spain)
• MAX Japan: Nov 1 - 2 (Tokyo, Japan)

For the US conference we currently have the following mobile related sessions scheduled:

• 20 Tricks to Improve Flash Lite Development
• Creating Flash Cast Channels for Verizon Wireless
  
• Creating Flash Lite Multiplayer Games
• Designing for Mobile Experiences
  
• Flash Lite 3 Development
• From Desktop to Mobile: New Revenue Opportunities
• Introduction to Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium
  
• Introduction to Flash Lite 2

As the US conference date gets closer we'll be finalizing these sessions and speakers. For the other two regional MAX conferences we're putting together a list of topics to cover but if you plan on attending these and would like to see a specific mobile topic covered, please let me know by leaving a comment here.

Starting today you can purchase the version of CS3 that you need and for those of you who have done so, planning or doing so or are still waiting you now have access to several new items of information about Adobe Device Central CS3. Things like an overview of the features, tutorials and articles that we plan on updating every few weeks and an FAQ section for any questions you may have at this time.

One of the cool things are the 4 video tutorials we've created to give you a better sense of the Device Central workspace as well as how it integrates with the various supported point products.

We value your feedback so let us know what additional information you'd like us to make available on the Device Central site.

Today we've made available a preview release of the Flash Lite for BREW Publisher for Flash CS3 Professional and you can more information here. This download is only if you're using Flash CS3 Professional for creating Flash Lite for BREW applications. If you're using Flash 8 Professional you can download the final version of that plug-in here.

Also, please post any questions or comments you have about the preview release update in our Flash Lite: BREW discussion forums.

For those of you who were unable to attend my online webinar yesterday where I walked through the new device intelligence and mobile content emulation features of Adobe Device Central CS3 and the integrated mobile workflow with Adobe CS3 tools, the recorded webinar is now available for viewing.

During the 45 minutes I show how designers and developers can create and test various types of mobile content using Adobe Device Central CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Photoshop CS3, Dreamweaver CS3, Illustrator CS3 and Bridge CS3.

There were several questions asked at the end of the webinar that I answered, however if you have any additional questions after watching the recording you can leave them here and I'll answer them.

OK, so now you've had a chance to use Photoshop CS3 beta and you may be interested in how Device Central fits into a designers workflow. I'm going to walk you through a sequence of screens of how a designer can use the integration between Photoshop CS3 and Device Central. Learn more at the Mobile Content Creation with Adobe Photoshop CS3 (beta) site.

Back on the 25th of October we made a preview release of the Flash Lite 2.1 update for Flash Professional 8 available for developers to download and try out.

Thanks to everyone who spent time testing and providing feedback and to our internal engineering and QE teams, the final version is now available for download. You can download the installer to update your copy of Flash Professional 8 for testing and publishing Flash Lite 2.1 applications and content for Symbian, BREW and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices.

If you already have the Flash Lite 2.0 update for Flash Professional 8 installed, you can install this on top of that. If you don't have the Flash Lite 2.0 update installed, you can just install the Flash Lite 2.1 update. Note: it's currently only available for PCs.

Good news for all of you Flash Lite developers/designers out there, we've just released update #4 of our device profiles. The update for Flash Professional 8 includes new devices that support Flash Lite 1.1 and minor enhancements for existing phones:

New Flash Lite 1.1 devices:

• iRiver U10
• Motorola L7
• Nokia 5500
• Nokia 6131
• Nokia 6136
• Nokia 6233
• Nokia 6234
• Nokia E50
• Nokia N72
• Nokia N73
• Nokia N92
• Nokia N93
• Sony Ericsson K610im
• Sony Ericsson W710
• Sony Ericsson W850

Minor enhancements:

• DoCoMo Fujitsu F505iGPS
• Nokia 6125
• Nokia E60
• Nokia E61
• Nokia N80
• Nokia N90
• Nokia N91

We've just posted a new technical white paper for optimizing content for Flash Lite 2.0. It's in PDF format that you can use or print out for reference. Even though there's a lot of good information in here for Flash Lite 2.0 content you can still use some of these same best practices for Flash Lite 1.1.

This is the first of several white papers that we'll be publishing for the Flash Lite community and we're interested in additional topics that you would like us to cover. Leave comments below and we'll consider them for future ideas. Also let us know what you think of this whitepaper.

"Persistent Data: Saving User Preferences and Game Scores" is a new Flash Lite 2 article available on the Adobe Mobile and Devices developer center. Written by Mariam Dholkawala (lead Flash programmer for Indiagames) this article contains sample code and technical information about how to implement shared objects for your own purposes.

If you're interested in Flash Lite 2 development, there is a new article (Mobile Charting with Flash Lite 2) up on the Adobe Mobile and Devices developer center written by Peter Baird and Clive Whitear. Included in the article are some new Flash Lite 2 charting components which they explain in detail how to use and customize for your needs.

You can now download the Flash Lite 2 Update for Flash Professional 8 for the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

If you're developing Flash Lite content you may come across various error codes when testing on mobile phones which may look something like "Problem with content: 3".

What do these error codes mean? These correspond to specific error messages that inform the developer what the problem is so they can make the necessary changes to fix their content.

Here are the error codes for both Flash Lite Player 2 and 1.1:

/// Flash Lite 2
1: Out of memory
2: Stack limit reached
3: Corrupt SWF data
4: ActionScript stuck
5: (there is no error code)
6: Bad image data
7: Bad sound data
8: Root movie unloaded
9: (there is no error code)
10: URL too long
11: Insufficient memory to decode image
12: Corrupt SVG data
13: Insufficient memory to load URL

/// Flash Lite 1.1
1: Out of memory
2: Stack limit reached
3: Corrupt SWF Data
4: ActionScript stuck
5: Infinite AS loop
6: Bad JPEG data
7: Bad sound data
8: Can not find host
9: ActionScript error
10: URL too long

It's what you've been waiting for, the Flash Lite 2 Update for Flash Professional 8 Preview Release is now available through Adobe Labs. You can learn more about it here and download the developer bits after registering.

Quick overview of what's currently available:

• Flash Lite 2 Update for Flash Professional 8 Preview Release (allows you to publish Flash Lite 2 content and test in the mobile emulator)
  
• Device profile update 2
• Flash Lite Player 2 download (for supported handsets)
  

We also have the following developer resources available to you:

• Dedicated Flash Lite 2 Developer Forum
• Adobe Labs Wiki for Flash Lite 2
  
• Code examples and sample content

We will be adding new examples, sample content and resources over the next few weeks as well as monitoring the Flash Lite 2 developer forum for any questions you may have.

For those of you who missed my online seminar this past Thursday (15 Dec) you can now watch the recorded seminar here. It's about 1 hour long and I provide a sneak peek at what the Flash mobile authoring environment has in store for Flash Lite 2 developers including building a Flash Lite 2 video application from scratch and transfering it to a Nokia 6680 handset.

Enjoy.

I wanted to let everyone know that we are releasing the Flash Lite Player 2 “early” to enable developers and enthusiasts to begin playing with Flash Lite 2 over the holidays.

This is in anticipation of releasing more "preview release" developer materials in January via Adobe Labs to support Flash Lite 2 development. These other materials will include:

• an updated publishing profile for Flash Lite 2 content
• an update to the mobile emulator in Flash Professional 8 for testing Flash Lite 2 content
• documentation (APIs)
• sample files
• other resources and benefits

You can purchase an IMEI locked version of the player through the Adobe online store for $10 USD for the following supported Nokia handsets: 3230, 6260, 6620, 6630, 6670, 6680, 6681, 6682, 7610, N70, and N90.

Just so you know, you won't be able to publish any Flash Lite 2 content until we release the rest of the Flash Lite 2 developer bits in January but you can view any of the existing Flash Lite 1.1 content available in the Adobe Flash Lite Exchange or create your own Flash Lite 1.1 content. Over the next two weeks if I have some time I may post some Flash Lite 2 content for you to download and check out.

If you have any questions leave a comment and I'll reply.

In an effort to ensure that you, our developer community, has the most current device profiles for testing with the mobile emulator in Flash Pro 8 we've made the first update available.

You can either go directly to the download page, or use the "Check for new devices" button found in the bottom left of the device settings window.

The Macromedia extension manager is needed to install the mobile device profile update.