How to increase the number of AIR mobile applications

目前APP Store里面使用Adobe AIR技术开发的iOS应用并不是很多,虽然其中不乏一些精品(例如曾经登上iPad排行榜榜首的机械迷城),但相对于APP Store里面50多万的应用总数还是略微少了些。

笔者认为使用AIR来开发应用,特别是游戏类应用,效率是肯定远远胜过使用Objective-C的,性能也并不差很多,况且还能不用怎么修改源代码而跨平台到桌面系统,Android系统和黑莓系统。尽管如此,为何目前AIR For iOS应用数量较少呢?Adobe又需要采用什么战略来增加这一数量呢?

我们不妨先来看看AIR的竞争对手之一,Titanium。Titanium几乎与AIR的战略一模一样,一开始AIR支持桌面的时候,Titanium也仅能支持桌面。后来AIR开始支持移动系统Android和iOS,Titanium也效仿之。但是目前使用Titanium开发的应用比AIR要多很多,据统计现在iTunes应用商店中的500,000应用中,有几乎五分之一是基于Titanium开发的。

Titanium是Appcelerator公司旗下的跨平台开源开发框架。一般来说,开发者采用JavaScript在Titanium上开发应用,不过与其他Web移动框架例如PhoneGap不同的是,Titanium独特的cross-compile的跨平台编译技术能将Web应用直接转换为各种平台中原生的应用程序。这一点大大增强了Web应用的性能,而且跟Adobe AIR技术非常类似——将Flash应用直接编译为原生应用。

Titanium的收费页面是:http://www.appcelerator.com/products/plans-pricing/

通过上面那个网址我们可以看到,Titanium的收费方式,主要是如下几种:[……]

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Top 10 external bugs of Flash Runtime in Feb 2012

Here is the Top 10 external bugs of Flash Runtime in Feb 2012, which is order by incoming votes in Adobe bug base:

1. choppy audio and video on xoom with android 4

https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3099866

2. 11.1.102.62 and Win2K install – SetDllDirectoryW not supported

https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3120661

3. Mac OSX Player Issue: kernel: IOSurface: buffer allocation size is zero.

https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3077658

4. Use of * type causes memory to explode (without any instantiation of objects)

https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3123526

5. List / Button components not rendering properly in Chrome / IE

https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3121222

[……]

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Technical news of last week (2/20/2012–2/27/2012)

Top 3 technical news

Adobe发布Flash路线图:关注游戏和优质视频

HTC推出新型手机HTC One系列

阿里拟退市:发行价回购股份

Flash/HTML5

Adobe发布Flash路线图:关注游戏和优质视频

畅游收购Flash开发者社区9RIA天地会

Adobe 宣布将停止更新 Linux 平台 Flash Player

Google、微软与Netflix计划将HTML5媒体内容加密

Mozilla将推出跨平台HTML5应用商店

开发者调查称HTML5游戏市场潜力巨大

商业周刊:HTML5前景广阔

[……]

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Flash Roadmap Whitepaper is live

We have just posted a new whitepaper on Adobe.com. The whitepaper, titled Adobe roadmap for the Flash runtimes lays out the 1 to 2 year roadmap for the Flash runtimes (primarily Adobe AIR and Flash Player). This includes information on specific planned releases, longer term player work, and supported platforms.

This is actually the third Flash platform white paper that we have released in the past week (Adobe’s view of Flex and its commitments to Flex in the future, Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR security), and is a part of a larger process of trying to provide clear and open communications around our thinking and plans for the Flash platform.

The primary goal of the whitepaper is to have a single definitive resource that provides clear insight into Adobe’s plans and thinking around the roadmap for the Flash runtimes.

[……]

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NAO AS3 API

Nao is a quite impressive humanoïd robot. It has a lot of features, from text-to-speech to face recognition. And of course, it can walk and look around… seeing it in action is actually completely amazing!

[……]

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