With all the hype surrounding the impending arrival of Flash 10.1 on the major mobile OSes and AIR on Android, those of use who live in the northern climes of the Dominion of Canada have for months coveted our southern neighbours' access to Google's Nexus One, the undisputed heavyweight champion of Android smartphones.
Well, covet no longer ye denizens of the North, your prayers have been answered!
Rejoice Canuck Mobile Flash Developers
Google has just launched the unlocked (i.e. contract-free) Nexus One to Canada. It supports three 3G bands (850, 1900 and 2100 MHz) and four GSM frequencies (850/900/1800/1900 MHz). This means than unlike the previously available US-only model, it is fully compatible with the Rogers 3G network and is being officially sold into Canada (for $520USD).
The Specs of this phone are currently pretty much unparalleled in today's market:
- Its 3.7" touchscreen runs at a resolution of 800 X 480 (dwarfing the iPhone 3GS' lovely 480 X 320 screen).
- It runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm "Snapdragon" CPU and 512MB of RAM.
Other notable goodies:
- GPS
- 5MP camera (w/ up to 20fps video)
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR w/ stereo A2DP support
- Android 2.1 OS (aka "Eclair") running a full suite of Google-centric apps integrated with Google Search, Google Maps, etc. etc.
The key (for me):
- Coming soon: Full Flash 10.1 and Mobile AIR support (Boo-yah!)
One negative:
- No multi-touch (darn!)
Thou Shalt not Covet
The best way to get to know the Nexus is to visit the Nexus One YouTube Channel set up by Google. Sure, it's a marketing site but it really shows off how they designed and manufactured this juggernaut of smartphone prowess.
If and when I manage to close out this current project and if I get approval from my boss, I hope to soon launch into serious Flash/Flex/AIR development targeted at phones such as this and the incoming crop of Android Tegra II tablets. I'll surely be blogging soon about this new adventure.
In the mean-time, check out these demos of Flash running in the browser on a Nexus One:
Flash Demos on Nexus One
Rather than show you "official" videos from Adobe or the Open Screen Project (you've probably seen them), here are a couple of other cool demos that give an idea of Flash performance on the Nexus One.
Michaël Chaize, a pre-sales consultant from Adobe France put together the following demos of Flash on Nexus One using various Flash apps. The second features the awesome Japanese site Roxik.com from Kido Masayuki. Kido wrote his own Flash 3D engine from scratch! It's definitely worth digging around his site because he is a truly gifted Flash developer with a great (and quirky) imagination. I can't wait to play around with his engine once he releases it as open source (he promised!).
The following is a short demo from Scott Janousek of various websites that use Flash content running in Nexus One. It gives a good idea of the "full" web experience you can get with a powerful Flash enabled touch-screen phone.
Rather than show you "official" videos from Adobe or the Open Screen Project (you've probably seen them), here are a couple of other cool demos that give an idea of Flash performance on the Nexus One.
Michaël Chaize, a pre-sales consultant from Adobe France put together the following demos of Flash on Nexus One using various Flash apps. The second features the awesome Japanese site Roxik.com from Kido Masayuki. Kido wrote his own Flash 3D engine from scratch! It's definitely worth digging around his site because he is a truly gifted Flash developer with a great (and quirky) imagination. I can't wait to play around with his engine once he releases it as open source (he promised!).
The following is a short demo from Scott Janousek of various websites that use Flash content running in Nexus One. It gives a good idea of the "full" web experience you can get with a powerful Flash enabled touch-screen phone.
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