GW2 is coming out in less than 24hrs (for those that pre-ordered as monday is official release day). Are you buying it? I am holding off until I see reviews and what people have to say. I am sure its going to be a good game but I just do not like buying these at release as I have seen too many failures.
Author Archives: admin
Recording industry wins 675k from man for illegally distributing 31 songs
This is exactly why the RIAA is evil. Come on, 675k? That is totally outrageous to expect a person to pay that.
“A federal court in Massachusetts today upheld a $675,000 damages award against Joel Tenenbaum, who was accused of illegally downloading 31 songs from a fire-sharing Web site and distributing them and was sued by the main recording companies in the U.S. ” Sources
Not that I had any after the original lawsuits, but the RIAA just lost a lot my respect.
Facebook drops HTML5 for native iOS app (Xcode)
I think this speaks volumes about the power of HTML5 vs native app development. What I find interesting is that both Apple and Google claim to really push HTML5 yet they still make sure their native apps run significantly better – for now at least because I am sure their futures OSs will offer better support. I am surprised a company like facebook even attempted HTML5 vs a native app to begin with and am surprised it held up so well to this point. This shows HTML5 does have power but not enough compared to Xcode. Xcode offers a lot more and HTML5 is really only designed for simple apps. When you are a company like facebook that has millions of users I could only imagine how bogged the app could easily get. Well here is the article for your reading pleasure:
Article: http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/23/3262782/facebook-for-ios-native-app
Another article: http://mashable.com/2012/08/23/facebook-ios-5/
Flash is dead: Why this rumor makes sense for (some) instructional designers and why it’s not true
I keep seeing forum posts like this in LinkIn and I have really been thinking a lot about it. Why have I been thinking a lot about it? Well because Flash is a very powerful software and there is currently nothing that matches its power. So how is Flash dead if there is not replacement for it? Then it all clicked and here are my thoughts….
1. HTML5 Rumors. HTML5 has been touted as a potential replacement to Flash. It does have some of the same capabilities. The issue is that HTML5 is really geared towards simple animations and interactions, not powerful animations that Flash is designed for. Thus HTML5 cannot replace Flash at this point. Will it ever? Quite possibly it will (I personally think it will be HTML6 that does it) but at this point you really need to know both Flash and Javascript so that you can offer multiple solutions to clients. I personally would not develop a game in HTML5 unless it was very simple because it just doesnt have the power to create something more in-depth.
2. Flash player is dying. Yes that is true in the mobile platform, but not the desktop/laptop. However, Adobe has instead focused on Adobe Air for the mobile platform and stopped focusing on flash player. What is Adobe Air: It allows you to publish Apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android. This leads to point 3.
3. Flash doesnt work on Apple iPad or iPhone. Well that is not true. It doesnt work in their browsers but it works very well on the devices. If you look at both Apple and Android, they are pushing apps, not the browers (at least that is what they want developers to focus on so that they can control (or make money off of) their stores). So Adobe is pushing Flash to mobile apps not the browsers (and they didnt have much of a choice as apple would not allow flash player on its browser). To publish a Flash app to iPhone or iPad, you simply click the publish button in Flash to publish as an app. And yes, there are tons of apps (some in the top 50 games) that are purely Flash based and you probably never knew. So yes, Flash does work very well on iPhone and iPad.
4. Instructional designers are not programmers. Our field is not computer science and I do not expect an ISDer to be able to program. Flash requires a lot of programming so most instructional designers cannot use it beyond basic tweens and maybe some simple interactions. As a result, they have turned to other software, such as Articulate, Lectora, PPT, Captivate, etc. that are very easy to use. That way the instructional designer can now also develop training without the need for a programmer and tout themselves as a one stop shop. The problem is that this software is not always the solution. It is simple software and produces simple training. What do I mean by simple training? I just mean training with some animation, limited interaction, and is perfect for flashcard type training (that can includes stories, cases, simple games etc.). I am not saying its bad, this simple software can create great training, just that its not a be-all end-all for training. It is not a total solution. It cannot do everything. If someone were to tell me they were going to use one of the simple software mentioned above (or any software for that matter) to develop my training without seeing my needs analysis and design requirements, I would be very very scared that they did not know what they were doing. You simply need to have Flash and other programming software in your arsenal. If you do not you are really limiting what you can do.
Just an fyi here. I am not against the ISDer being a developer or anything like that. I am an ISDer that is a developer as well. I can program and use all of the software I have mentioned above. I also like all of the software I have mentioned. I love HTML5. But I still just cannot figure out how ISDers are trying to dismiss Flash when none of the software I mentioned above matches its power. Am I biased? Well I do really like Flash but I also really like a lot of other software too. I probably like javascript the best which is what HTML5 is based on so if anything I probably like HTML5 more. I just know that most ISDers are not programmers and they are touting solutions that may not be appropriate because they want to be the one stop shop. Additionally I know that since most ISDers are not developers they are listening to a rumor and dismissing Flash just because they do not know any better because they do not know what any of this software does as they are not developing with it and thus believe this light software is actually a replacement for Flash. Maybe I am wrong? Actually I hope I am but I just do not see many other reasons.
Apple vs. Samsung: When does it stop?
If you have been following tech news or my blog you know about the patent war going on between these two companies. Here is a good article by mashable describing the ridiculousness that these patents claim. For instance, the article explains how patents are so broad that its impossible to build a phone without copying. This would be equivalent to Ford claiming that a mercedes was copying it.
The article uses this example from history with the wright brothers:
“Everyone knows the story of the Wright brothers and their historic flight in December 1903. What you may not know is that the Orville and Wilbur Wright submitted a patent for their invention months earlier, which was eventually granted in 1906. Then the airplane patent wars began.
The Wrights sued Glenn Curtiss (among others) for infringing on their patent with his company’s aircraft designs. The thing was, the Wright brothers’ patent was so broad, it was virtually impossible to build any kind of aircraft without infringing on it. Eventually the two sides were forced to settle their differences at the advent of the First World War, when the U.S. government stepped in and created a temporary patent pool for wartime production, which eventually became permanent.”
Here is the full article: http://mashable.com/2012/08/21/apple-samsung-copying/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Adobe Edge Animate
Adobe Edge, now available for free to download until October. At that point it will go on sale. So what is it? Well it is a similar program to Flash, just not as powerful. It is HTML5 though so I have a feeling this is the direction Adobe is going. My guess is that this and either dreamweaver or flash will merge..similar to what happened with Flex. Here is a table that shows where Edge fits into Adobe’s software development process:
| Product | Sample use cases | Supported technologies |
|---|---|---|
| Adobe Edge Animate | Motion and interaction design for new compositions or using existing CSS-based page layouts, content rotators, simple games, advertising. | HTML/HTML5, JavaScript, CSS/CSS3, JSON, web graphics including SVG, jQuery-based animation framework. |
| Adobe Dreamweaver | Websites and web applications for desktops, smartphones, and other devices | HTML/HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, PhoneGap, site management, FTP, CMS frameworks, SVN (Subversion) |
| Adobe Flash® Professional | Immersive interactive experiences, mobile applications, gaming, premium video, advertising | ActionScript, Flash Player, AIR for desktop and mobile |
| Adobe Flash® Builder | ich Internet Applications (RIAs) and mobile applications | Professional ActionScript IDE, Flex, Flash Player, AIR for desktop and mobile |
The platform interface looks very similar to Flash. So this looks like it will be very easy to learn if you know Flash and HTML.
Link to software: http://edge.adobe.com
My ‘about me’ Presentation in Prezi
I decided to be a little creative this year and create an about me presentation in Prezi. I am having my undergrad tech in education students create one of these next week so I thought it only appropriate that I do one myself as well when I introduce myself this thursday:
And the lawsuits continue…this time against Apple
Motorola (Well Google really as Google is parent company) is suing Apple for various patent infringements.
“Motorola is demanding a ban on the imports of the iPhone and iPad for alleged infringements of intellectual property used in Siri, E-Mail notifications, location reminders and music/video players.”
Personally, all of these lawsuits need to stop. Get rid of these patents because they are slowing down progress and innovation in the tech world.
Finally your deleted facebook photos will actually be deleted – after 30 days
As many have discovered, when you delete your photos from facebook, they are not really deleted. They are just no longer in your profile but they still remain in facebook databases and are sometimes used for ads and such. According to new sources (article here) when you delete your photos they are only used by facebook for 30 days and then deleted. While I am happy they are actually deleted, I need to ask myself, why does facebook need to use them? Should we all stop using this service due to their weird privacy rules?