I figured it’s only fair to mention this after my last post on my Flash Lite exploration, but I recently upgraded my N95 with the 20.2.011 firmware update (thanks to this Engadget post) and discovered that a lot of the issues I experienced in deployment have been addressed. Upgrade issues aside (I feel fortunate to have discovered this release and was slightly annoyed that I had to reinstall my custom applications after the upgrade . . . it sure does make the iPhone process feel more streamlined!), this firmware update removed Flash Lite 2.0 and replaced it with Flash Lite 3.0. Also, the new OS interprets Web Runtime Widgets. Oh, and on an unrelated note, the camera is much more responsive and the direct Flickr upload is a nice touch.

A friend has been keeping me updated on the Whitaker Center’s intent to run “Our Body: The Universe Within”–an exhibit presenting plasticized bodies–despite insufficient proof that the cadavers on display were legally acquired. The Universe Within Touring Company, LLC, the parent company of the exhibit, appears to be under the same scrutiny as their competitor, Premier Exhibitions (see 20/20, NYTimes, LATimes), since both companies acquired their cadavers from China, a country with a government notorious for poor human rights.

A MySpace presence has recently been created for a group protesting the Whitaker’s exhibition so long as the following requirements (below) are not met (NOTE that the group has offered to donate services to eliminate any costs incurred by the Whitaker Center). They’re encouraging visitors to “Just Skip It” since the pending PA State House Bill HB2299 won’t be passed in time to ensure such exhibits are lawful.

The list of requirements:

1. A PHYSICAL DISPLAY
   A kiosk or other physical display apparatus would be created, viewable by the public prior to purchasing tickets and entering the show.
2. APPROPRIATE LABELING
   This kiosk would be labelled so that the public is aware that it contains information on the source exhibits in the show. For example “Body of Evidence: Documents demonstrating the ethical use of bodies in this show.”
3. INFORMATIVE, NON-BIASED OVERVIEW
   The kiosk would introduce the public to the issue of ethics with regard to using bodies for educational display. For example “Shows of plasticized bodies are presented by several touring companies in the United States. These shows often raise concerns about the source of bodies and whether they were ethically obtained. People want to be sure that bodies were not the victims of mistreatment and that they were donated in an informed and legal manner. Whitaker Center respects these concerns. This kiosk contains information to show that ‘Our Body: The Universe Within’ is presenting bodies that were ethically obtained.”
4. NOTEBOOK
   The kiosk would contain a notebook or other container or presentation device which provides the following:
   1. A summary page for each exhibit in the show. This page enables viewers to get an overview on each exhibit and tells the page numberfor referencing the appropriate documentation. Items to include:- Name of Exhibit

      - Owner of Exhibit Contents (page number where document may be found)

      - Medical Institution Which Provided Body (page number where document

      may be found)

      - Death Certificate (page number where document may be found)

      - Consent Form from Donor (page number where document may be found)

      - Medical Examiner’s Inspection Affidavit (page number where document

      may be found)

      - Customs Documentation (page number where document may be found

      b. After each summary page, the documents noted on the summary page

      would be provided. Should a document not be available, it would be

      noted “Not available” on the summary page and no document page would

      be provided.

      c. The notebook would also contain a section titled “About the Show

      Promoter” or other appropriate title. This section would disclose the

      legal name of the promoter (Universe Within Trading Company), indicate

      that this promoter is a for-profit company (if it is), and that that

      this touring company is wholly owned by Premier Exhibitions, a for-

      profit company.

Dr. Michael Hanes, CEO of the Whitaker Center, responded in a Patriot News article saying that a “public information resource” would be available for visitors. Personally, I doubt that the explicit details requested by the “Just Skip It” group will be addressed since “international law forbids public disclosure of the identities of those who have donated their bodies to medical science” (NYTimes). Clearly, the Just Skip It group believes the same, as they’ve pressed ahead with their site and flyers.

I also wonder if these demands are satisfactory. Couldn’t such documents be easily forged? Can we really trust one of these exhibits before legislation regulates them (after all, the exhibit I saw and the accompanying Websites attested to the exhibit’s legality)? Shouldn’t protests be made of the touring exhibits?

I also wonder what the Harrisburg bloggers think of this topic (since I haven’t seen anything on the radar there) and how the use of the Internet impacts these types of issues.

I saw one of these touring exhibits when it premiered in New York and found it absolutely fascinating. While I won’t sympathize with my remains once I’m dead (as the Just Skip It flyers would have me do), I certainly don’t condone remains used without consent–especially those of Chinese prisoners, and probably would have skipped the NY exhibit had I been better informed. While I’d also like to think that anyone would agree to donate their remains for human knowledge, no one can ignore that there’s money being made by these exhibits.

I chose to write about deployment before covering actual development because it’s paramount to determine your target phone(s) before building a mobile application (coincidentally, this is also the mobile industry’s greatest weakness). If you don’t believe me you should check out “Designing for Different Screen Sizes” on page 22 of the dotMobi Mobile Web Developer’s Guide. The sheer number of different screen sizes depicted are almost farcical!

A. Choosing a target phone

In my case, I stuck with my trusty Nokia N95 North American 3rd Edition (the black one with 3G). Granted, the average user’s not going to pay $600 – $800 for a mobile phone, but one has to start somewhere

I actually set a fullscreen fscommand2 in ActionScript and used primarily vector graphics–meaning my game could work on other phones. Since I’m not testing on several devices, though, who knows how it would turn out.

B. Installing Flash Lite onto the phone

Flash Lite 2.0 is pre-installed on my N95 (as it is with all S60 devices running Feature Pack 1), however, I naturally decided to install the latest version: Flash Lite 3.0 Developer Edition off Adobe Labs. The new player runs fine despite not being Adobe certified for the N95 US edition, however, this installation still proved frustrating. For one thing, Flash Lite 2.0 CANNOT be uninstalled, meaning the players coexist on the same device. This also means that Bluetoothed SWFs will open in the default 2.0 player. I hope the pending N95 update will correct this, but if history serves, then OS updates are contingent upon purchasing a new phone.

Another issue I encountered is file location within the directory structure. When you open Flash Lite, it defaults to the “Others” directory on both the Phone’s hard drive and the microSD card. Files transferred via Bluetooth cannot be moved here from the inbox. The way around this is to either use a SIS installer or transfer the file using the Nokia Device Browser.

C. Finding a user-friendly deployment

It’s a bit presumptuous to assume that the typical end-user will have Nokia Device Browser installed. While Bluetooth is an easy option, it means your Flash Lite application is forced to sit in the user’s inbox. What other options are there?

Well, there’s Adobe’s Article on Creating SIS files for distribution. I fired up my trusty Dell, installed WampServer (thanks for the tip, Dave), hacked the makesis2.php file (I also had to add <?php to the first line) and sent the SIS to my phone. When run, this SIS placed the file in the right location (the “Other” directory), but there was no nifty icon representing my file on the phone.

I then moved onto SWF2Go, the 3rd party application that creates the SIS for you without having to go into that scary command prompt. This appears to generate the icon that launches your SWF in the installed Flash Lite player, however, since I’ve hardly generated a business model for this exercise, I’m too cheap to spend the $70 to buy this.

The final option short of doing extensive PKG or Symbian C++ work is the Web Runtime Widget. I equate this to Adobe AIR for S60, as it’s just a ZIP file containing Web files (HTML, AJAX, SWF, etc.) with a renamed extension (.wgz). It technically opens up the file in WebKit, but provides an icon file and can work like most any other program. The downside? Only Feature Pack 2 phones will recognize the file. I’m wondering if I should start saving my lunch money now . . .

In the next part I intend to cover some of the challenges in Flash development.

[UPDATE: Feature Pack 1 phones will now recognize .wgz files as well as install Flash Lite 3 over Flash Lite 2]

Ever since I ordered my Nokia 6682 I told myself that I was going to build a Flash Lite application for it. I purposely ordered an AT&T plan to subsidize the $600 phone cost and even paid Macromedia the $10 download fee for Flash Lite. The funny thing about working for yourself, though (and perhaps it’s the industry in general), is that you never make time for personal projects–regardless of all the personal promises and financial stability to do so.

Two years later, Macromedia is now Adobe, The Flash Lite player is free and is often pre-installed on phones (thank goodness), the latest Flash Lite Player version is 3, and I’ve since given away my 6682 and replaced it with an N95 North American edition. Oh, and I finally made the time to play around.

I decided to build a simple Blackjack game. After reading about Flash Lite’s processing limitations, I chose something rather simple. I initially intended to release the code for free under a BSD license, but have discovered the hurdles involved with Flash Lite deployment (they were hurdles I always knew to be there, but sometimes one  just needs to learn firsthand). I also considered inviting artists to create artwork for the playing cards, although I’m not sure it’s so worthwhile considering how small the cards are and how intensive bitmap caching is.

So, this will serve as Part I of an ongoing series of my experience working with Flash Lite. By the end of it, I hope to create some helpful resources for someone and possibly proceed with releasing the software for free.

Oh, and If anyone reading this is interested in learning more or testing our the beta application (and happens to have an S60 device with Flash Lite 2.1 player), I’m happy to provide it.