S60 Open to new features

Björn blogged a couple of weeks ago about Flash Lite coming soon to S60 devices:

"...there is a strong expectation that many, if not most, S60 3rd Edition devices will include Flash Lite player by default."

If you are not willing to wait (and you have $10 burning in your pocket), you can buy the Flash Lite player from Macromedia's website, list of supported devices here. For a couple of days in October, Macromedia offered (accidentially?) the Flash Lite player on their website for free. But sorry folks - this time you are late.

Where to find Flash Lite apps for my S60 device?

In my opinion, the best place to start looking for Flash Lite apps is Macromedia's own Flash Lite Exchange.

In addition, there are lots of Flash Lite apps scattered around the Internet. I guess you just have to google around.

And the winners are...

During 2005, there have been many contests for Flash Lite apps:

In February 2005, Macromedia announced the winners of their Mobile Flash Content Contest. The Grand Prize Winner was NYC Traffic, a dynamic map showing live pictures of New York traffic cameras. The application is really cool, and the developer Justin Everett-Church said it took only about 20-30 hours to develop it (source: Russell Beattie).

In June 2005, Forum Nokia announced the winners of "Star Application Awards" of Mobile Application Summit in Hong Kong. The "Best 3G Application" award went to Flash SpotWeather by Foreca Ltd of Finland. This S60 app provides graphical weather forecasts around the world. Unfortunately, Foreca does not currently offer the application publicly. It's a shame, since the app is really great.

Yesterday, Macromedia's Mobile User Group of Boston announced the winners of their first Flash Lite 1.1 Application Contest. Unfortunately, "the developers will decide how to share their applications", and the apps don't seem to be publicly available for download yet.

Forum Nokia has currently "Forum Nokia S60 3rd Edition Challenge" ongoing, and one of the four categories is dedicated for applications using Macromedia Flash.

Registration for the Forum Nokia S60 3rd Edition Challenge closes December 15th 2005. Contestants need to submit their final applications by March 31st 2006. Finalists will be announced April 28th 2006 and they will be invited to the Series 60 World end of May 2006, where we will announce the winners and reward the prizes.

Why isn't Flash here yet?

Tero Lehto wondered in his blog why Flash hasn't succeeded yet in mobile devices (in Finnish). Good points and good comments. I believe we are getting there finally - and that we will see a tsunami of Flash Lite apps/content in 2006.

Why to create Flash applications/content?

It is very easy, fast, and cheap. And you have the tools to create quite cool stuff.

Why not to create Flash applications/content?

If you don't know what you are doing, you can be pretty annoying. Personally, I can't tell you how much I hate websites that use Flash in annoying ways (including nokia.com and nokia.com/nseries). And in the mobile world, where the bandwidth is limited and users pay for the data traffic, it is easy to make the end-users hate you. Big time.

Janne Jalkanen wrote last month:

An American engineer told me last week that there are two rules in introducing new technology into the USA:
1. Don't inconvenience me.
2. Don't bore me.
Wise words. Made me think

So if you are going to make Flash stuff, please don't inconvenience me, bore me, and make me pay for it.

Prototyping mobile apps with Flash Lite

Blackbeltjones wrote in June a good post "Prototyping mobile applications with Flash Lite". I don't have much more to add.

What did I miss?

As always, please continue the list of cool Flash Lite apps and sites where to find them!