Flex 3 is coming and also a lots of new books!

Yes, Flex 3 is coming, we don’t know when, but there are pre-release conference around Europe, so I think it will come next few months.
Today I ask to myself: “Which books are coming on Flex 3?!”.
So I go to amazon and I make a search about Flex 3 books.
I find some interesting results, my favouorite are:

I put them in my wish list!

Flex is growing up so much and there is a big interest around this new world, I think that 2008 become Flex & AIR year!
Or almost I try to do that.

new ribbit API Beta 2

Ribbit team has just released new API (BETA 2) with new features and better performance!

In Ribbit blog, Mr. Freedman said:
“- There are more than 30 new methods and events, as well as significant changes for improving existing methods. Methods for loading messages have been modified and now support a more sophisticated ‘tagging’ model. Virtually none of the calling methods and events have been changed.
– Key performance enhancements include firewall compatibility, better voice performance and improved calling stability. There is a new set of methods for managing account information through the API, including recording and saving your Voicemail greeting, changing password and uploading a user photo.”

And also:
“- New features on the developer site, to be announced later this week, will include the ability to share your Ribbit applications and projects with other developers. Developers, especially those coding apps for the contest, will benefit from having others in the community evaluate and give feedback on their ongoing projects.”

When I tried it I was shock for the performance but if they come better…WOW, what amazing tool!
For now Europe developers could only try it with skype or with others developers that are involved in this project… I want Europe calls, please!
I suggest to take a look at this project if you haven’t done it yet.

MacWorld but also developer.apple.com

I love Apple so much!

This period is so interesting for MACWORLD and this year I’m so excite to view new iTV, new macbook AIR, new firmware upgrade for iPod Touch (finally I could see emails in my iPod Touch) and new services like rent video! That’s cool.

But also, I suggest to take a look at developer.apple.com, in particular in iPhone section, you must register for FREE and you’ll have a lots of materials about development on iPhone and so on.

There you can also submit your iPhone application and put in apple site. New opportunities ae growing up.
In 2008, I think that we’ll have a lots of changes from AIR to new Macbook AIR (everything we call AIR in 2008, it’s funny!).
I love Apple, I love AIR… and I love 2008!

My first steps with RIBBIT API

Today I spent an hour to take a look at Ribbit api and to start a first flex example with them.
For now you make a call to USA phone numbers only, in fact when you enter your Ribbit profile, you receive a USA number to use for test.
So I use Skype to make a call to my Ribbit number.
Example is very easy but with this few code you can receive and  make call to USA number (Europe number  are available  in mid 2008 probably).

After registrarion and approval from Ribbit team you can download SWC from Ribbit site that you add in your Flex application.

First of all you must create a Ribbit istance and a CallObject:

 private var myRibbit:RibbitRequest = new RibbitRequest();  private var ribbitObj:CallObject; 

Then you add listner to know when you are logged in Ribbit server, when you are making a call and when you are receiving a call.

 myRibbit.addEventListener(RibbitResponseEvent.LOGGED_IN, handleLoggedIn);
 myRibbit.addEventListener(RibbitResponseEvent.RIBBIT_SERVER_CONNECTED, handleRibbitServerConnected);
 myRibbit.addEventListener(RibbitResponseEvent.CALL_CONNECTED, handleCallActive);
 myRibbit.addEventListener(RibbitResponseEvent.INCOMING_CALL, handleCallIncoming);

So you login with:

myRibbit.login("user", "psw", "devID", "appID");

All data that you put in login method you can find in your Ribbit profile.

Then you create  function  that you define in Ribbit object listner:

private function handleCallIncoming(e:RibbitResponseEvent):void{                       receiveBtn.enabled = true;                       ribbitObj = new CallObject();      ribbitObj = e.data as CallObject;                  }              private function handleCallActive(e:RibbitResponseEvent):void{                 trace("call active man!")              }              private function handleLoggedIn(e:RibbitResponseEvent):void{                   trace("you are logged in")              }              private function handleRibbitServerConnected(e:RibbitResponseEvent):void{ 
    trace("server ok")                      makeBtn.enabled = true;              }

So now we only put in our flex project 2 buttons, one to receive a call and another one to make a call to a specific USA number.

<mx:VBox>
    <mx:Button id="makeBtn" label="make call" click="{myRibbit.makeCall('USAPhone')}" enabled="false" />
    <mx:Button id="receiveBtn" label="receive call" click="{myRibbit.answerCall(ribbitObj)}" enabled="false" />
</mx:VBox>  

Very easy to use and so powerfull API!

I remember to all that Ribbit team launch a phone contest, more information in Ribbit site

Enjoy!

Flash Lite 3: load external data

This morning I talk with Fabio, a friend of mine, and he asks me if I’ve ever loaded an FLV file in Flash Lite 3 from web.

I don’t start to use FL3 since this morning because there aren’t enable devices and also I think that we could use it only in the end of 2008 to have some devices in the market with it.
In Flash Lite 3, when you want to load web data (images, video or anything else), you MUST set, in Publish Settings, network access only.
When I worked with Flash Lite 2 we don’t need to set network access to load external data.
So for example in Flash Lite 2 we load an external 3gp video (there isn’t FLV support in FL2) we write:
//video_vd is an istance of video object that is in library 
video_vd.play("http://www.mart3.co.uk/video.3gp");
in Flash Lite 3 we use NetConnection class:
var nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection;
nc.connect(null);
var ns:NetStream = new NetStream(nc);
ns.play("http://www.mart3.co.uk/flvfl3/phone.flv")
video_vd.attachVideo(ns); 

A big THANK YOU to Alessandro!Update: Talking with Scott I found a recent post of Nick Gerig about security model of Flash Lite 3 that explains well the problem.

Nimbuzz, mobile software

Surfing on web, I found Nimbuzz a mobile software to manage your IM accounts and add into new mobile community.
It’s a J2ME software and they have made porting for a lots of devices, it’s so easy to use and it has a very good user interface.

I think that is a very cool project and it’s totally FREE, I’ll follow it to understand better the way that it brings.
There are also a lots of vacant positions in this company, take a look at About page to see them.

So if you want to add me, search lucamezzalira in nimbuzz world, see around guys!

Ribbit phone contest, don’t miss it!

We are in Xmas time and a new gift made by Ribbit team is under our tree!

Ribbit is name of new project that give us the ability to make and receive calls or messages (and more!) with new API for flex and air projects, so the team announces a new flex and air contest with big prizes like $2.500 (first prize).

In Ribbit site you can find more information about challenge:
Build the best Personal Ribbit Phone Application for either the web (Flex) or Desktop (AIR). Similar to Joe Johnston’s award-winning AIR iPhone (now considered the most downloaded AIR app to date), your personal Ribbit Phone will provide an incredible and creative experience for someone to use and enjoy Ribbit services, primarily making and receiving phone calls. “

Take a look at Ribbit blog and good luck guys! 

Flex, IE7 and HTTPservice

I’m working in a project where my application calls some web services to retrieve data for popolate SpringGraph component (very cool component made by Mark Shepherd).

After extends and change component’s classes, I find a documented issue with HTTPservice and Internet Explorer 7.

In fact you must put server header with no-cache because randomly calls to service don’t work!There is also some comments about this problem in Adobe livedocs (search “ie7” in the page).


So be careful and Flex yourself! 

First images of Zinc 3.0

Zinc 3.0 codename Pandora will be release at Q1 of 2008, but now you can see first images for Macintosh and Windows directly from Jaspal Sohal blog.  You can also try to enter in Candidate BETA program if you are registered in multidmedia.comIn fact they said:“The Public Beta will be a Release Candidate Build with all functionality that will be in the final release. Registered Users will have an opportunity to download the Public Beta and test it over the Holiday period. The Zinc™ 3.0 Public Beta will be available for both Windows and Mac OSX.”

BRIO Beta: web meeting service

Adobe release a new BETA in labs.adobe.com called BRIO that is codename of new version of Acrobat Connect (ex Breeze).
I’m working with it now, there are many alert when you try to upload files or in other featuers BUT…
… what a great UI!

It’s more easy to use, main functions are available like icons and it’s so fast!

The most impressive features you could see when you share your desktop, in fact you have a “widget” to chat with others users, you can see other users in your room and you have a little panel control to manage.
Very cool!

Now you can test it and create your room for FREE!

So go to BRIO page and test it man!