Adobe announced the release of Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 developers to build applications for iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry PlayBook.
Adobe
Systems announced a new version of its Flash Builder and Flex technology
for developers of smartphone and tablet applications.
The company's
new
Adobe
Flash Builder 4.5 and
Flex
4.5 software enables developers to build applications for
iPhone,
iPad
and
BlackBerry
PlayBook, as well as Android devices. Support for
Android
devices was released in April 2011. Developers now have a single platform for
building mobile applications that can be distributed via the
Android
Market,
Apple
App Store and
BlackBerry
App World. Offered standalone or as part of
Creative
Suite 5.5 Web Premium and
Master
Collection, Flash Builder 4.5 enables the creation of applications that
work seamlessly across leading mobile-device platforms, Adobe officials said.
Meanwhile,
Flex 4.5 features productivity enhancements that allow developers to rapidly
build applications for the desktop, Web and top mobile platforms. Using best-practice
code templates, code-completion and code-generation features in Flash Builder
4.5, developers can accelerate the creation of Flex and
ActionScript
applications and deploy them using
Adobe
AIR software, Adobe's runtime for standalone applications, Rob Pinkerton,
senior director of product marketing at Adobe, told
eWEEK. This enables developers to reach more than 80 million
Android devices, BlackBerry PlayBooks, iPads and iPhones in the marketplace
today, Adobe said. By the end of the year, more than 200 million mobile devices
are expected to support AIR applications.
"The reaction
from developers to the new mobile capabilities in Flash Builder 4.5 and the
Flex 4.5 framework has been absolutely fantastic," Ed Rowe, vice president of
developer tooling at Adobe, said in a statement. "They are amazed by how easy
it is to create great mobile apps for Android devices, BlackBerry PlayBook,
iPhone and iPad. Companies can now effectively reach their customers no matter
what type of device they have."
"We saved a
significant amount of development time using Flash Builder 4.5," Nahuel Foronda,
owner and president of
AsFusion,
a development shop that specializes in creating Rich Internet Applications, said
in a statement. "We used 100 percent of Conqu's initial code base and logic to
quickly deploy to several mobile platforms, including Android, BlackBerry
PlayBook, iPhone, iPad and the Barnes & Noble Nook Color."
"Flash
Builder 4.5 allowed us to develop our Mr. Mixit and Pyramix apps and use the
same code base to quickly and easily deploy them to multiple platforms," Sean
Carey, president of
HD
Interactive, said in a statement. "To create an app natively for one
platform would have taken at least three times the amount of time-and then we
would have had to start from scratch all over again for a native app on the
next platform. It's unbelievable the amount of time we save using Flash Builder
4.5 to build and deploy our apps."
Many
applications built with Flash Builder and Flex have already been published to
the Android Market, Apple App Store and BlackBerry App World. A sample of those
applications created for
Android,
BlackBerry
Tablet OS and
iOS
using Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5, leveraging existing code and logic to
quickly deploy to leading mobile platforms, include the following:
- Conqu
is an easy-to-use yet powerful task-management tool designed to help conquer an
email inbox and get things done.
- Mr.
Mixit is a spin-based matching game in which users must frantically mix
record labels against the clock.
- Muni
Tracker tracks San Francisco Muni locations and arrival-time predictions on
a map, updating live every 10 seconds. Favorite transit stops and lines can
also be bookmarked for easy access later.
- Netflix
Queue Manager lets users browse, search and manage their Netflix Queue on
the go. New features include viewing queues, updating queues, and
adding/removing/viewing movies.
- PolitiFact
Mobile App helps you "find the truth in politics," with features including
the Truth Index, Truth-O-Meter and Flip-O-Meter. PolitiFact.com is the
fact-checking Website of the St.
Petersburg Times and received a Pulitzer Prize in 2009.
- Pyramix
is an easy-to-learn, highly addictive word game that combines the strategy of
Cryptoquote with the simplicity of Boggle.
"PolitiFact's
fact-checking journalism is ideal for a mobile app because it's backed by solid
reporting and presented in a concise, creative way," Bill Adair, editor of
Politifact.com,
said in a statement. "You don't have to be a policy wonk to understand the
Truth-O-Meter. The app allows us to present our journalism in lively new
ways."
"The new
mobile application-development capabilities in Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 allowed
me to create Netflix Queue Manager quickly, and debug the application across a
variety of configurations," Jonathan Campos, founder of
UnitedMindset,
said in a statement. "I can now create, develop and test mobile and
multi-screen apps in one place, ultimately bringing our apps to market faster
on multiple devices."
The Flex and
Flash Builder news accompanies Adobe's announcement of the Adobe Digital
Enterprise Platform. With consumers increasingly engaging with more content on
smartphones and tablets, large enterprises are required to add mobile
applications as a core part of their marketing strategy. And IT organizations
are looking to build business-process, CRM and other employee-productivity
applications to support the broad range of devices and platforms in use today.
Using Flash Builder and Flex, enterprises can now use one tool, one framework
and one code base to create applications that run on desktops as well as on
smartphones and tablets, Adobe said.
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