Archive for the ‘Lifetick’ Category

The announcement of the iPad has set off a huge Flash v. Apple the rest of the world debate.

I happen to think reasoned thought should take effect, hence I agree with the John Nack.

Flash is the closest thing we have to a consistent rich browser frame work. That is why I wrote Lifetick in Flex. I have thought about moving it to HTML only, but I don’t want to do it just yet.

Well, not until we have a richer html/javascript/css world – with a broad range of native gui controls (and which 99% of the world’s internet users have a compatible browser – no IE6, 7 or 8). Standards take time to create, to be agreed on and adopted by the masses.

However, my support of Flash has been tested, I have dropped my Flash blog, and you are now reading this in HTML. In my mind, Mac performance has never been more critical to the future of the Flash player.

btw, I find it laughable all those people who criticise Flash web ads… what do you think advertises will do if people all have flash blockers?They will make the exact same ads work in javascsript, which if written just as poorly as their flash versions, will screw up your browser just as bad, and you can’t separate that cpu thread out, or block an individual execution of javascript if it all goes bad or you want to block it. Think about it, those ads will not go away, even if Flash did.

My personal take on Flash on the iPad… Yes I would like to see it. Flash on the iPhone – I doubt it would work performance wise.

I have recently completed a project to build a web app for the iPhone.

I used Apple’s own Dashcode software (provided in the iPhone SDK) to develop the app.

I now understand why Apple originally thought people should be developing Web Apps for the iPhone instead of Native apps. Obviously there are loads of advantages to a native app, however I was surprise, if not amazing at what I was able to do in the browser.

Using Dashcode I was able to create an app which looks just like a native one! CSS transitions and animations provide simple methods to replicate the sliding menus of the iPhone, plus rounded cornered css properties make interface design even easier.

Dashcode provides several components, like the header bar, and list menu devices, so there are no excuses in failing to match your interface to the app

There are a few short comings. One, there is no way to control what sort of keyboard input you want, eg, number, email etc… Apparently there were some methods to achieve this, but they were lost in the Firmware 2.0 upgrade.

Also, Dashcode’s code is huge, I found by the end, it was best to turn off the auto code generator and hand code for a while to optimise what was happening. It is important to understand what it is doing, and manually override it at times

If you are interested to see what I created, you will need an account with http://lifetick.com or watch the tour at http://lifetick.com/tour.html

I am happy to announce that after 8 months of hard work, I (along with a friend) have launched a new Flex based Web application. It is called Lifetick and it allows you to set goals online.

From a technical perspective, I consider it a great example of what flex can achieve. It features a clean design with frequent use of Charting for Visualisation, along with bright widgets, deep linking and an emphasis on usability.

Check it out, spread the word and find out what flex can really achieve when its done right