Here is some research that will allows us to find the most common controls and make sure that those controls are in the appropriate video players and that the user interaction with those controls is clear and understood.

Here are the benefits over the previous coverflow version:

• Improved Preformance
• Faster Load Time
• Easy Modification through XML
• AS3 Standardized Code
• Easy Class Structure

And of course you still get many of the benefits of the last version, such as the XML Based (Images, Links and Titles).

So please download it, play with it, make it better and post your code in the comments to help everyone out. Lets make this piece of code the best it can be!

View Demo

Hope you enjoy and post additions you would like on the next version (I’m thinking of video handling).

This example shows a map of the nation which allows the user to specify a general area and then sends them to the chosen state where it loads from an XML the locations and displays them in a nice little Lemon icon. If the user double clicks the Lemon icon it will ask for the user’s address and will calculate directions and display them on the right side of the screen. For demo purposes only California and Colorado are working.

You will need to get a Google Maps API key, which can be found at the URL below:
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html

View Demo

AIR 2 builds on the success of AIR 1 by giving developers new capabilities, and even tighter integration with the desktop. Some new features of AIR 2 include:

You can read more here:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/multitouch_gestures.html

A public beta of Flash Professional CS5 with prerelease support for building applications for iPhone is planned for later this year.

Here are some videos that get us really excited about developing iphone applications in Flash:

Some obstacles are going to be:

• Resource Management Is Now A Much Bigger Concern
• iPhone Approval Process Is Going To Be Longer Because Of The Flood Of Flash Applications
• UI Considerations are much more important as people are used to a specific UI and Flash will be changing that

If you don’t think that tapping into this resource is important, please watch this video.

• Facebook Connect increases commenting by 15%-20%
• Facebook Connect increases registration by 15%

Facebook is a huge resource for companies now who want to allow their users to quickly engage with them and uses them as a publishing outlet. The implementation of this is not out of our reach and can give us lots of possibilities in our interactive experiences.

Example:

Prototype Experience

In this example Prototype (a console game) is using the user’s information from their Facebook through Facebook Connect to bring their information into a video intro that has their content. So they see their name, place they live during this video intro. This personalizes the video intro for the user and really speaks to the narrative of the game and experience. Watch the video or experience it yourself with your Facebook account.

Pros:

• Increases engagement
• Brings the users information to the site
• Turns every user into a possible publishing outlet for viral marketing

Cons:

• Some users may not like this method of connecting
• Depends on Facebook
• Fairly new, so there is a learning curve

Why Is It Important To Us:

• We are constantly searching for the best way to connect to our users, this is a new and very successful way for users to connect to brands and engage them in a way we were not able to do
• Gives us an opportunity of using our users as a viral marketing outlet, which not only brings more people to the site, but also shows the brand as up to date with what is going on in the social space.