Making my game in Flash - a few questions

Hello all, I am quite new to Flash but I have a few years of experience in the other CS software, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I downloaded the trial version of Flash and started working through some tutorials last night so I can get my feet wet with it.
Anyway, I have a game that I would like to create, and I never considered making it Flash-based until I started working with Flash yesterday. I made this game in a board game form about 8 years ago, and it revolves around giant monsters ala Godzilla, etc. It is turn-based and two players move pawns space-by-space around the board and attack by rolling a die and then using a corresponding attack on the card. There are also some simple environmental objects, such as buildings around the arena that can be destroyed and used strategically. I would describe the game as a strategy game with elements of a card game and also simple RPGs. There are five levels of cards, and when you score a certain number of points, you level up to the next round of cards. You win the game by reaching a certain number of points. When I made this game, I also included very detailed rules and such with it, so that part is finished at least.
Is this a feasible project to use Flash to do?

Though the nitty gritty details haven't been disclosed, it sounds like it should be do-able in Flash. I could say it would be easily created with Flash, but I don't want to give the impression that you personally can just pick up Flash and get it done without a good amount of learning to tackle in the process.

Similar Messages

Pros/Cons to Flash & a few questions

I am hoping to tap into the greater power of collective thinking to get a better idea about pros and cons about using Flash within web sites for a meeting I have next week. The following sentence was included in the appointment invitation: “They would like to talk with us all about what we might be able to do to get us all up to speed on the latest and greatest with Flash” – rather vague, but I’m trying to be prepared.
To start things off with, here’s my brief list of pros and cons…
Pros:
“Wow” factor
(I’m sorry – I really can’t think of anymore Pros, which is probably why I am asking here.)
Cons:
Time-intensive to learn (especially to do properly)
Time-intensive to maintain (my impression)
Usability/Accessibility issues
I’d appreciate any additions and/or input the community has on the above list.
Several additional questions that I have:
Realistically, how time-intensive is Flash to change/maintain? We help maintain and manage over 100 websites and most of that falls on my shoulders to support. (Mostly school/district web sites and a few chamber/city sites.) Additionally, I do a bit of video production as well as web development. Needless to say, this makes time a factor.
How easy is it to integrate Flash into Drupal? If so, are there any good online tutorials for it and is it worth the effort?
Why should Flash be used instead of alternate methods (CSS menus, for example, or javascript for rotating images.)
Is Flash aging technology? I certainly wouldn’t call it “new” anymore. Wouldn't it be better to devote time/energy/money into HTML5 & CSS3?
I should probably note that I know a little about Flash and the various things that it can do on web sites, but have never successfully managed to actually learn to use the software (although I have made the attempt at several times). Mentally I have had a hard time grasping the various means of accomplishing an end result (be it navigation buttons, video interfaces, or animation, etc.). The only real plus I can see to using it is the “wow” factor that it can add to web sites. In terms of usability and accessibility across platforms and browsers, there seems to be a whole realm of issues that can crop up and need to be adressed when building a site.
Thank you.

i would say:
Pros:
No. 1 (by far), cross-browser consistancy. nothing that i know of (ajax, html5) comes close to being consistant across the various browsers.
Cons:
Time-intensive to learn (especially to do properly). same as everything else. if oop is new to you, it's difficult to learn.
Time-intensive to maintain (my impression). not true.
Usability/Accessibility issues. not true.
that said, if you're an html5 and/or ajax guru, there's not much reason to learn flash unless animation is critical. i'm finding less and less that flash can do that can't be done with ajax and/or html5. (but there's significant amount of duplicate coding with html5 and ajax and none with flash.)

OK. I'm making the switch...a few questions....

I have current software for Windows XP from a prior purchase of a Dell. Will that XP simply install and run properly on the new Apple MacBook? Do I need anything else(software) to make it work?
Also, once I install the XP, will my current programs designed for XP then work on the Apple? I am thinking of getting my new Apple with Word for Mac installed, but would that be wasting money if I already have a Windows version of Office?
I waited a few weeks before buying in hopes that a sale for the holidays would take place. It paid off in that the MacBook now has the C2D processor, and the ram I wanted is now standard. My question now is, does Apple usually run any type of sale during the holidays? Say, between Thanksgiving and Christmas? $$$ off, free item with purchase, etc? I have checked the Apple site as well as MacMall, and as of todays date, it seems I will get a $100.00 rebate(and some additional savings on a printer, etc), if I ordered it from MacMall. What's the catch? If I go to an Apple store in person, will I also get a deal like that?
What are your suggestions? Right now, it appears my best bet costwise is to NOT get it direct from Apple, and that makes little sense to me.
Also, seeing I am new to the world of Mac, you can feel free to offer any other bits of help or info you may feel of benefit to me during this "switch", based on your own experiences. Any information is helpful, and appreciated. I'm not a computer guru, and this has be a bit apprehensive. What little I do know is all PC.
Thanks in advance for any answers/help.

Whether your XP install disk will work depends on whether Dell ships a real XP install CD or an install CD that only works on Dell hardware. Legally you cannot install XP on your Mac while it is being used on your Dell so whether it actually works or not is one question - being legally compliant with Microsoft's license is another.
I've tested BootCamp on both my MacBook (and then wiped it away) and on my Mac mini (which I've kept) and I'm quite pleased. So pleased that I sold my PC. When I boot into XP on my mini it is just like using Windows...including the need to keep my virus and anti-malware software up to date. Due to how I use my MacBook I decided to give Parallels Desktop a try and found that it is just what I need - for that computer.
Parallels Desktop lets me run XP in virtualization so I can have both the MacOS and WinXP running at the same time. I can switch between them instantly and cut and paste data between them. Because I do webpage creation on my Mac this is great because I can see how IE6 and IE7 mangles (I mean renders) my pages instantly rather than shutting down the Mac and booting Windows.
Should you buy Mac Office when you already have Win Office? Good question. I belong to the campus computer users group and among switchers I see three groups: those who switch, hate the Mac, and sell off quickly. In most cases these people expected their Mac to work just like their Windows computer and hated that it didn't. To me that makes as much sense as buying a motorcycle and expecting it to drive like a car. The second group go to the other extreme and fall way into the Mac camp, eventually selling off their Windows stuff. The third group find that they like Win better for some things and OS X better for others. Why not wait until you get a sense of which camp you fall into?
I have just a few words to say about MacMall. "Run Away brave Sir Robin" Getting a rebate out of MacMall can, getting service from MacMall, can be a most frustrating and fruitless activity.
Apple tends not to run sales on currently shipping hardware though they sometimes offer bundle deals - buy the computer and get a printer free, or such like. Amazon is often the best place to find currently shipping computers at slightly lower prices.

Adobe to ditch flash for mobile devices! A few questions

Just read the news. Have a few questions
1. Is AIR still going to be used for cross platform deployment as that is what I am using now ie: will it be used to deploy html5 apps/programmes?
2. What tool/IDE will adobe be using for html5 - flash? flex?
3. All of our multimedia swfs etc... - can they be exported/used in an html5 environment
4. html5 coding - is it similar to actionscript 3 ie: do we have to start all over again - back to school?
5. Games coded with actionscript 3. Can these games be exported to html5 or must they be rewritten?
Flash stays for pc it looks like.
So it is no longer multiplatform - we will have to code for flash on pc and html5 for mobile devices - is that right or will there be some kind of packager that will export our flash to html5
Just a few questions

I don't work for Adobe so my understanding may not be 100% accurate but here we go...
1. Is AIR still going to be used for cross platform deployment as that is what I am using now ie: will it be used to deploy html5 apps/programmes?
Adobe will be concentrating on developing AIR for packaging apps for mobile devices. AIR is ActionScript based and it does not produce HTML5 apps.
2. What tool/IDE will adobe be using for html5 - flash? flex?
HTML5 itself is just a flavour of HTML and therefore Dreamweaver is the Adobe tool for it For Javascript based timeline animation etc, Adobe has Edge http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/edge/
3. All of our multimedia swfs etc... - can they be exported/used in an html5 environment
Adobe has Wallaby http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/wallaby/ for this - I'm not sure how active the development is lately though. In any case it's impossible to replicate all features of Flash in HTML5.
4. html5 coding - is it similar to actionscript 3 ie: do we have to start all over again - back to school?
Again HTML5 itself is just a simple set of HTML tags. JavaScript is very similar to ActionScript, as AS is based on JavaScript (ECMAScript). For example HTML5 Canvas drawing API is very similar to AS3 drawing API. Therefore if you know AS, at least you know the basics of JS syntax.
5. Games coded with actionscript 3. Can these games be exported to html5 or must they be rewritten?
If you want it to run on browsers, yes. If you want to convert into apps then AIR does that.
Kenneth Kawamoto
http://www.materiaprima.co.uk/

Few questions - game loop, data types, speed

Hello, I have a few questions after studying some topics in this forum regarding game creation:
1) What's the fastest way to wait in the game loop? I've seen two approaches:
thread.sleep(10)andsynchronized(this) { wait(10); }2) What data types shall I use? In C++ I use to prefer int over short in all cases, because 32bit hardware works faster with integers. Is this same on cell phones?
3) Speed of applications is slow. I just wonder wheter it's my fault. I was testing application, which only cleared the buffer and outputted FPS and I got around 20 frames. It was Nokia 6300 with 240x320 display. After testing on other phones I've found out that the bigger the resolution, the slower the game is going. Is this normal?
Thanks for replies...

1) You're not going to notice any really speed difference between the two code snippets. Read up on 'Threads', and you'll see why one may be used in place of the other depending on the situation. In general there may be a slight performance loss, however unnoticable, when using the synchronized version, but when you are multithreading it is likely necessary.
sleep(int) is impossible to interrupt, so it's generally a no-no in most situations. However we are talking about devices where every bit of performance helps, so as long as it works for ya, it's not a big deal.
2) The performance difference is fairly negligable, if any. The biggest thing to consider is memory requirements, and shorts take 1/2 the data.
Also, many phones don't support floating point data types, so you'll likely need to use ints/longs to calculate your values if you want to have any accuracy beyond whole numbers. Doing something like shifting bits or using 1000x values in your calculations can get around most of the problems when you can't use floats.
3) The biggest performance killers are IO, memory allocation, screen drawing; pretty much in that order. So I imagine that you are re-creating a new String object every time you output your FPS value on screen right? Doing that every frame would destroy any hopes of getting high-performance.
Just be careful, and never allocate objects when you can avoid it. anything where you concat String objects using + will cause your performance to die a horrible painful slow death. Remove anything that says 'new' from your main loop, and all String operations, and it'll likely speed things up a lot for ya.
Does your main loop have something like this?
g.drawString("FPS: " + currentFps, 0,0,Graphics.TOP | Graphics.LEFT);
This is very bad because of the String operation. It'll create a new String every frame.
If you have any more specicif questions, or you'd just like to pick the brain of a mobile game dev, stop by my messageboard:
http://attackgames.proboards84.com
Message was edited by:
hooble

A few questions about Adobe Flash

questions:
1.Can adobe flash use web services?
2.How does adobe flash handle the back button or bookmarks?
3.Can adobe flash interact with javascript on a page? Like
call a javascript function and pass it XML as a
parameter?
4.How does adobe flash handle asychronous post backs?
5.Can flash interact with cookies or store information on the
users computer which the flash file can interact
with?
6.Can a adobe flash file be created dynamicaly on the server,
so the flash file the user receives will be more
tailored to them? Or is the Flash file just a static compiled
file thats imported into the html? By this I
mean can the information and images and menus the flash file
will display be pulled from a database and
dynamically generated per user?
7.I've read somewhere a while back that google was trying to
make flash files serchabe so that they can be
listed on googles search engine. Is this an easy
implementation or can only professional flash programmers
accomplish this?
8.Whats the learning curve for learning adobe flash, if I
have many years experience in programming web
applications using html, css, vb.net, and javascript? Not
just learning actionscript but also learning how to
use Adobe flash to create full flash websites?
Okay, so thats more than a few questions :) Once I started
writing my first few I just couldn't stop. But please anyone who
can answer these would be of great help to me in deciding if I
should invest any time into adobe flash.
Thanks for your time,
Evan

>>1.Can adobe flash use web services?
Yes
2.How does adobe flash handle the back button or bookmarks?
It doesn't, but you can use SWFAddress to do just that. Works
great.
3.Can adobe flash interact with javascript on a page? Like
call a
javascript
function and pass it XML as a parameter?
Yes.
4.How does adobe flash handle asychronous post backs?
All net calls are asynchronous - you can use
LoadVars.sendAndLoad or
remoting... I like AMFPHP for remoting.
5.Can flash interact with cookies or store information on
the users
computer
which the flash file can interact with?
Yes - you can use a server-side language like PHP to set
cookies directly,
or use Flash's built in cookie like feature: The Shared
Object
6.Can a adobe flash file be created dynamicaly on the
server, so the flash
file the user receives will be more tailored to them? Or is
the Flash file
just a static compiled file thats imported into the html? By
this I mean
can the information and images and menus the flash file will
display be
pulled from a database and dynamically generated per user?
Entire flash sites can be dynamic - it's what I do... I use
PHP / AMFPHP and
MySQL to build dynamic flash content.
7.I've read somewhere a while back that google was trying to
make flash
files serchabe so that they can be listed on googles search
engine. Is
this an easy implementation or can only professional flash
programmers
accomplish this?
Easy is a relative term... the best way right now is to use
SWFObject
(Google for swfobject seo) - essentially you build an html
site inside the
Flash's <div> so the spiders will see the alternate
content.
8.Whats the learning curve for learning adobe flash, if I
have many years
experience in programming web applications using html, css,
vb.net, and
javascript? Not just learning actionscript but also learning
how to use
Adobe flash to create full flash websites?
If you have experience programming the curve will be
smaller... but there
are lots of elements to absorb. And no matter what, you
always have more to
learn.
Dave -
www.offroadfire.com
Head Developer
http://www.blurredistinction.com
Adobe Community Expert
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/

A few questions on making animated buttons for a website Nav

Hello, I have a few questions on creating some animated buttons for a nav.
There are 2 actions I want to trigger on moue over.
If I want to use a static (PNG) image that I created in Photoshop for the actual button, can I use that? I want to smoothly slide button down on mouse-over and slide back up on mouse off. If I push part of the button off the "canvas" (sorry, this is coming from a Photoshop guy) will it disappear in the final animation? Another way to put that is, if I put an animated element off the white area, will it no longer show up in the movie (.swf) when it's published?
For the second part; you can see a bit of what I want to do if you look at this website's top Nav: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/index.html
I need the "light" above the button and it's going to be on another colored <div> so I can't set one solid BG color for my flash document. But I want to achieve the effect of the "bar" lighting up above the button and the actual button sliding down upon moue over.
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,
Regarding this button problem mentionned by kglad, it is easily overcome with a little trick.
I call this the undesired "jumpy button". Your button starts to hesitate down-back-down-back quickly, like it's a bug, and then it settles.
What you could do is create a simple sprite or movieclip containing only a simple shape, whatever the color, put it on top of your button's graphic, change this sprite/movieclip's alpha to 0, then add your mouse events on this invisible "target" instead of your graphic. So, when you mouse over, you have the graphic move, not the invisible "target".
Sometimes, for this invisible target, you will be using a movieclip, not a sprite, so you can easily add your own properties on it.
Example:
var graphicBtn:Sprite; // your png
var targetBtn:MovieClip; // your invisible target, created with code or not
targetBtn.graphics.beginFill(0x000000);
targetBtn.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, graphicBtn.width, graphicBtn.height);
targetBtn.alpha = 0;
targetBtn.mygraphic = graphicBtn;
targetBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, onOver);
targetBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, onOut);
addChild(graphicBtn);
addChild(targetBtn);
function onOver(event:MouseEvent):void
TweenLite.to(event.target.mygraphic, 0.25, {y:40, ease:Back.easeOut});
function onOut(event:MouseEvent):void
TweenLite.to(event.target.mygraphic, 0.25, {y:0, ease:Cubic.easeOut});
So you see, you can have only one function (well, 1 for over, 1 for out) used for all your buttons. You can add as many properties you need on your movieclip to make that one-function flexible.
Here I used GreenSock's tweening engine, but use the one you prefer (Here, I am moving the graphicBtn in y for 0.25 second).
Design Cyboïde
Création de sites web

Considering ipod touch over ipod classic, a few questions

Hello, I was hoping some of the current users of the iPod touch 2nd generation cna answer a few questions for me concerning the ipod touch, particularly those with an ipod classic as well.
I have had a 160 GB iPod classic for about a year. I had to take it back to be replaced twice because of harddrive failures. After I got the last new one I was fed up and decided to sell it on ebay. I have heard there were issues with the 80 and 160 GBs and the 120 is much better. There is a software upgrade that includes using the genious feature on your ipod for the 120's that was never available for the 160's. And since they discontinued the 160's, I'm assuming there was definately something wrong with that and Apple is too proud to admit to it, so they just roll with the 120's. So with that in mind I figured I'd sell my current 160 since the worst I could do is get the better model of the classic?
So then I started thinking, what about an iPod touch? Here are my concerns with goign with a touch over a classic...
The WiFi would be a huge benefit. I travel a lot and often don't feel like bringing my laptop with me. So when browsing the internet, I was wondering how it worked with Hotmail? With facebook? I know youtube works, but how does it work with other sites that are heavy with Adobe FlashPlayer, like Hulu.com? Or watch news clips from CNN or other things like that.
I use my ipod a lot in my car, and I don't think the touch screen would be very good for this to switch songs, anybody have any experience with this?
The flash drive is very appealing to me since I had 2 classics harddrive fail, but the small size is a concern, anybody have any opinions?
Can the touch be used in disk mode? Does it store full resolution files of photos?
I'm not big into games, but if I had a touch I know I would start.
Will I just get spoiled and wish it was an iPhone or something with 3G connection to the net?
Thanks for any help!

The 160GB Classic was essentially the 1st Generation Classic, it was replaced by the 2nd Generation 120GB Classic, which as you have pointed out has the Genius feature etc. With the exception of the most recent Shuffle, Apple always discontinues production of the previous generation, and it has nothing to do with Apple admitting to anything. I too had to go through 2 160s before the 3rd one worked correctly, it happens. Did the Classic you sold on eBay work correctly.
Thanks to changes by Microsoft you can now use the mail app on the Touch with a hotmail account.
There is a Facebook app in the iTunes App Store, I don't use it so I can't vouch for it but you can go to the Apps Store and read the reviews.
There is no Flash plugin available for the Touch and it is probably going to be 2010 before one is available so no you won't be able to use Hulu.com, etc.
It will be harder to switch songs on the Touch in your car unless you install an iPod connection kit (if your radio supports it, the will allow you to control the Touch from your radio/steering wheel/whatever.
If you have a large iTunes library and want it always with you then you need to lean towards the Classic. If you can live with swapping things around you can go with the Touch. A big advantage to the Touch is the plethora of applications that are available on the iTunes Store, many of them free.
You cannot currently use the Touch in disk mode (don't know if version 3.0, coming this summer will add this) and it does not store full resolution files of photos.
I had a first generation Touch which I purchased on the same day that I bought my 160GB Classic. I sold the Touch and moved to the iPhone, you get spoiled with 3G access.

(MS-6729-IL) A few questions

Recently brought a new system (spec below), at first had problems with it freezing during games, however with help from you guys managed to fix it by better cooling. Below are a few questions I have concerning my motherboard…
1.   Is there a specific manual for the MS-6729-IL motherboard, at the moment I am using a K7N2 one which most of the info is relevant but the motherboard layout is slightly different.
2.   One of those D-Brackets is installed however the LED’s are not working. Looked at its connections, the USB’s are connected to a connector however the LED connector is not connected at all. Looked at the K7N2 manual at it shows two connectors, one to a USB and another to an LED connector. However when I opened up the case to look for the LED connector, I could not find one where it shows it to be in the manual. Is the MS-6729-IL compatible with the D-Bracket?
3.   I’m still having sound problems with Ubisoft games (Raven shield and Splinter Cell1 and 2) with the music and voices stop playing about 10 mins into the game. I’ve tried the 4.31 audio drivers from NVIDIA’s website, but have had no luck. I was wondering if it could also be a heat issue as the sound problems happen when the game has been running a while.
4.   When looking in Device manager it shows that about 5 memory controllers do not have any drivers installed. Tried reinstalling 3.13 and 4.13 system drivers but it still showing no drivers installed. It hasn’t caused any problems. I’m just curious as to why this is so.
5.   I’m also having problems with my dial-up internet connection; it randomly disconnects, making downloading files very frustrating. Tried different ISP and modem drivers with no luck. Could this be a motherboard issue?
Any help on the above questions would be great. Thanks for your help so far guys.

Sorry if I'm wrong, but seems you missed place to post your thread. This is Via forum and your Mobo seem to be Nvidia.

Few questions about the MacBook

Hi.
I'm gonna buy a macbook within a few months, and I have a few questions for you all!
Here are the questions:
1. ) Is it worth $1,299 + Tax, USD?
2. ) When will Apple release the next gen. of macbooks?
3. ) How well does it play games?
4. ) How heavy is it?
5. ) How does the keyboard style feel compared to other laptops?
6. ) How long does the battery normally last while using wirless?
7. ) What is the Macbook lacking?
8. ) Does it get as hot as a car, like its predisesor?
9. ) Can you please send some pics of one next to some thing that we all have, like a quarter? (For comparison.)
And finally, is there any thing I should know before buying?

Here are the questions:
1. ) Is it worth $1,299 + Tax, USD?
Yeah. You are going to NEED that 1 gig of ram that's for sure. Plus, you get a double layer DVD burner, 20 extra gigs of hard drive space and a tiny speed boost from the 1.83 GHz. All this is costing you about $200 extra. The Ram and DVD alone would cost that much if you got them after words.
However, I got the cheap $1100 one because none of those features are really that important to me. I really couldn't tell the difference between 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz and I doubt anyone else could either. I don't need a DVD burner built in because I have access to an external one. Maybe latter I'll upgrade to a larger HD (something like 300 GB though!). So, the only thing that really was lacking on my MacBook when I bought it was the the RAM. So, I spent about $140 for a 1 Gig stick and I feel a lot better now.
2. ) When will Apple release the next gen. of
macbooks?
They already did. The Core2 Duo will most likely stick it out for a while. I could see them upping the MHz every now and then(this will happen more frequently with the Intel chips eg. quad core MacBook Pro or a 2.5 GHz MacBook ) but I wouldn't expect them to upgrade to a new hardware platform for the next few years. Not to mention that the MacBook is essentially a new product at the beginning of it's life-cycle. I could be wrong but I believe that this is it for a while.
3. ) How well does it play games?
Actually, I was surprised to find that it does pretty good. Since the video card shares memory with the system, Performance is very memory dependent. If you plan on playing a lot of games, go ahead and upgrade to the full 2 Gigs of RAM. I play Halo now and then without much of a problem.
4. ) How heavy is it?
Not at all. It's very thin and light weight.
5. ) How does the keyboard style feel compared to
other laptops?
Well, different to be sure. But not in a bad way at all. In fact, I tend to have less typos then before because my fingers can fell the edges of the keys now. I actually like it a lot to tell you the truth.
6. ) How long does the battery normally last while
using wirless?
About 3.5 - 4 hours give or take 30 minutes or so. I tend to close the lid a lot during the day when I'm not directly using it so that saves a huge amount of power. Seriously though, I was blown away by how long the battery lasts on this thing when I got it. My previous laptop (Sony Vaio), I could maybe get about 1.5 hours out it without being plugged in. No, this thing rocks as far as that's concerned.
7. ) What is the Macbook lacking?
Metal case, back lit keys, PC card slot, FireWire 800 and... well, if those things matter to you then you better get a MacBook Pro. Although is battery life is important then the MacBook will beat the pants of the Pro.
8. ) Does it get as hot as a car, like its
predisesor?
By Predecessor do you mean the iBook? or the first gen/hot off the assembly line MacBooks? Either way, they do get hot. You can use one of the many fan control software to cool it down but most of us have just gotten used to it.
9. ) Can you please send some pics of one next to
some thing that we all have, like a quarter? (For
comparison.)
Sorry, I don't have one at the moment. It's definetly larger then an iBook but smaller then a MacBook Pro if that helps. I would suggest making a trip to your nearest Apple store.
And finally, is there any thing I should know before
buying?
Universal Binary! That will become a very important word for you. Although the list grows day by day, the lack of Adobe products is like a stain on the MacBook/Pro. There is an entire industry that uses nothing but Adobe products. For them, Intel Mac's are not an option at this point in time.

New to IPhone and have a few Questions?

To start I want to say that I am a long time (25+ years) veteran of technology but am new the the IPhone. My IPhone is not Jailbroken and would like to keep it that way if I can. Allthgouh I did jailbrake it with blackra1n for about 30mins then I did a factory reload and let it be as it started acting stupid once I started installing apps from unofficial sources.;) Im a x86 nerd and NOT a MAC guy. I haven't sat down at a MAC/Apple in about 15/20 years.
I just got my first IPhone 3Gs/16GB. (Coming from a BlackBerry Curve 8310) the other day and although it is taking some time getting used to, I think I will like it more then I do once I get used to it.
Anyhow I have a few questions to start off with. I did some googleing already but just want to make sure I understand a few things.
All though I did the BlackRa1n jail break thing and installed a few apps then it locked up and failed to turn on or something so I did the whole reload from itunes and now its all good. Anyhow.....
1.) It appears as if one can not run a program from the home sreen and have it run in the background while doing other things? Take the many SIP Clients I have played with in the last 48 hours. Once I open the SIP Client and connect if I hit the physical button below the screen the program closes, thus the sip client no longer works. Pretty much most if not all apps iv installed from the App Store act like this. Is this the case? Does the IPhone not mutitask at all or verywell?
2.) Are there any SIP Clients that work over 3G? All the ones iv tried say they are for WIFI only. The SIP Clients work fine when on WIFI. It sounds like this is Apples way of controlling/monopolizing the voice/data/voip aspect of the platform/device. Im sure they would lose a lot of money if everyone did what I am trying to do.Just my opinion.
3.) Maybe I play with it to much but **** the battery dies fast. Is there anyway to optimize the battery at all other then for me not to use it as much?
4.) How can I remote lock it if I lose it or it gets stolen? I read somewhere this could be done.
5.) Are there any other Shells/HomeScreens/Themes that can replace the standard 4x4x4 row icons?
6.) The speaker phone (when on a call) seems kinda low even when turned all the way up. Is there any way to make it louder?
7.) I am using the built in VPN client to connect to my works PPTP Windows 2003 VPN server but the client randomly disconnects through out the day. Is there any way to have some type of keep alive set or are there any other VPN Clients that I can use?
Sorry for all this just thought I would ask for feedback.
Many thanks for any help anyone can provide,
SomeOneOnLine

1.) It appears as if one can not run a program from the home sreen and have it run in the background while doing other things? Does the IPhone not mutitask at all or verywell?
The iPhone SDK does not permit ANY 3rd party apps from running in the background or multitasking. It does provide for push notifications which can simulate certain background activity in terms of receiving external notifications while the app is actually closed. This works reasonably well with IM apps, news, sports, weather, travel updates and some peer-to-peer games.
2.) Are there any SIP Clients that work over 3G? All the ones iv tried say they are for WIFI only.
Just how would the SIP server connect to the cell carrier 3G network? Do you know of ANY that do??
3.) Maybe I play with it to much but **** the battery dies fast. Is there anyway to optimize the battery at all other then for me not to use it as much?
3G voice and data connections are culprits. Avoid email push and frequent fetching. See this Apple article for detailed suggestions.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html
4.) How can I remote lock it if I lose it or it gets stolen? I read somewhere this could be done.
MobileMe Find My iPhone will locate, set a passcode lock and optionally wipe all data from your iPhone. You have to be a MobileMe subscriber.
5.) Are there any other Shells/HomeScreens/Themes that can replace the standard 4x4x4 row icons?
No. Apple does not permit this.
6.) The speaker phone (when on a call) seems kinda low even when turned all the way up. Is there any way to make it louder?
You can troubleshoot your iPhone as described in the User Guide - restart, reset, reset settings, restore. Or, get hearing aids
7.) I am using the built in VPN client to connect to my works PPTP Windows 2003 VPN server but the client randomly disconnects through out the day. Is there any way to have some type of keep alive set or are there any other VPN Clients that I can use?
See this Apple support article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1980
BTW, discussion of "unauthorized modifications" such as jailbreaking is prohibited under the forum Terms of Use you agreed to when joining. Best not to even mention it or risk getting your post deleted.

Few questions on Flex customization

Hi,
I've just started to customize a LiveCycle instalation for the first time. I'm using Flash Builder, and Flex 3.4.1. - LCES2 as SDK.
I have a few questions:
1) The process of building (with Ant) is painfully slow. It lasts over a minute (1:03) to build and publish the ".ear" file (the CPU is Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q 6600 @ 2.40GHz).
Does in have to be like that or am I doing something wrong here? Do I have to use "Cray" os something?
2) As I see, the Workspace version we are using is built from the 'old' Halo components, and not Spark components.
Is it because we have an old LC version? Can it be updated to a Flex 4 version? Can it work with the same server-side? Does a newer version exist?
3) What we NEED to use (bottom line) is TLF (Flex Layout Framework). It depends on Flash Player 10. Can it be done with Flex 3.4.1.-LCES2?

1) The process of building (with Ant) is painfully slow. It lasts over a minute (1:03) to build and publish the ".ear" file (the CPU is Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q 6600 @ 2.40GHz).
Does in have to be like that or am I doing something wrong here? Do I have to use "Cray" os something?
One minute is about right. This is because ANT is packaging the compiled source into an WAR and EAR file. If you just want to work with the code and not deploy it, you can switch back and use the "Flex" builder. You will see some unresolved SWCs. Just resolve each error by point to the SWC file that is created undre the export folder for each of the api and foundation projects. If you need more details, let me know.
2) As I see, the Workspace version we are using is built from the 'old' Halo components, and not Spark components.
Is it because we have an old LC version? Can it be updated to a Flex 4 version? Can it work with the same server-side? Does a newer version exist?
No. You must use 3.4.1 from the LiveCycle ES2 DVD or the FLex SDK from the Workbench ES2 folder. 3.4.1 is the only version that has been tested and certificated with the release.
3) What we NEED to use (bottom line) is TLF (Flex Layout Framework). It depends on Flash Player 10. Can it be done with Flex 3.4.1.-LCES2?
Sorry, I'm not familiar with that but I can run Workspace using the latest version of Flash Player 10.2. But if the TLF was introdced post Flex 3.4.1, then it probably won't work. Try checking the Flex forums for that answer. Again, apologies, I don't have an answer for this.
Hope that helps!

Thinking of moving to iMac from PC, got a few questions

I'm thinking of moving to an iMac for my next computer, probably in the next 6 months or so, but I have a few questions I wondered if you might be able to help me with.
I'm planning on getting Parrallels Desktop and installing Windows. Now I know Time Machine takes backups every hour. But I was wondering if it will also backup not only the Mac side but the Windows side too.
For example, if I install a program on the Mac side, edit a file, delete a file etc, Time Machine will backup the changes on its next backup. If I done the same while running Windows, i.e install a program on the Windows side, edit a file, delete a file etc, does Time Machine backup these changes for the Windows side too.
Presently for my backing up purposes. I have a hard drive caddie which has a esata connection as well as a USB connection. I have a 3.5 inch 1 TB sata drive that slides in and out of my caddie by way of (for want of a better word) a cradle. I'm planning on getting a 3.5 inch 2 TB sata drive and an additional cradle so that I can have a large collection of backups.
Now with the hard drive caddie I've mentioned above, to use it on an iMac, I would only be able to connect it via USB. My fear with this is that it will be a lot slower at taking backups to what I am currently used to seeing when I have it connected to my PC via esata.
I thought about this and noticed the LaCie eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series on the Apple website http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H8875ZM/A/lacie-esata-hub-thunderbolt-series?f node=5f&fs=m.tsConnections%3Desata
From what I can gather, it would allow me to connect my current esata caddie up to it and it would increase the performance of it to Thunderbolt performance and also would allow me to make use of my current hard drive in the process. I was wondering if anyone has used this hub and if so, is the performance significantly improved. I thought that Thunderbolt would be a good and extremely fast way of taking backups. I will point out that I find that the taking backups every hour with Time Machine, for me would be a bit of an overkill, so I'm planning on just switching Time Machine off when I don't need it to take backups, and then switching it back on when I want it to take a backup. Doing this could result in larger backups than if I had it doing it hourly, so again I thought something that would give me Thunderbolt performance would be good for this scenario.
Any help and advice would be appreciated.

By default TimeMachine does not back up your Parallels virtual machine and if you think about it that's a good thing. Since the Virtual Machine is in effect a hard drive, just booting up Windows or launching a program changes the VM file as temporary files are created. My VM is 25GB so not only would TimeMachine be making a copy of the VM every hour that Parallels is running, it would be copying 25GB! Not good.
There are a number of solutions. On my desktop I use a different program to backup my VM each evening about the time I eat dinner. On my notebook I have a repeating reminder that asks if I've backed up my VM recently. As far files go, my solution is to save all my files to my Mac drive space so that TM backs them up.
USB is slower than eSATA but for day to day use, USB is fine for TimeMachine. The initial backup will be longer and OS updates will result in longer backups but otherwise....I have a USB drive connected to the computer I'm using right now. On most hourly backups TM is running a couple minutes and it doesn't require much bandwidth or CPU so the only time I really notice it running is I look at the drive light.

A few questions about common "issues" before buying New iPad

I am hoping to pick up the new iPad in the next few weeks, however I have read up on some issues which I'd like some information on.
I have been using my GF's iPad 2 a lot and I really love it, however I am dead set on buying the new one, I have become pretty resolution-spoilt by the awesome screen on the 4S and this is the primary factor in wanting this new model.
With the following concerns, assuming that an iPad that I may buy might have one or more of them, could you please inform me of: any currently known official or unofficial fix, if the problem could most likely be resolved in an update or if it is likely that since the problem came to light that the later runs to be built were adjusted to avoid the problem? Thanks.
OK- first up, the bad wifi problem that people have. This is the biggest concern to me, as I use wifi a lot and won't have access to 4G, and only occasionaly access to 3G.
Secondly, the heating... OK this is not a deal breaker, I understand that it isn't a real problem however if it could be solved so that it runs almost as cool as the 2 that would be great.
Thirdly, charge times and the extra hour over 100%... Again I do realise that these aren't so much issues as just the way that it works, however I would hope that now lots of people have complained, an update would adjust the display to be more accurate, to say 100% only when it has fully charged, purely because I would rather know... Or perhaps have 100% change colour on absolute 100%. The other thing, 7 hours charging, is there a more powerful adaptor that 1: reduces the charge time, and 2: if you are using a powerdrinking app while charging, will actualy continue charging rather than just slowing the battery drain (I read that some apps will keep draining battery while on charge).
finaly, I have read about screen hue problems, this wont be too much of a problem, as I will be able to check this in store to be sure that the screen is nice, colour balanced and free of dead pixels, I will compare it to my GFs iPad 2 and also the iPhone 4, because I know that the iPad 2 is supposed to look a little more blue to give it a cold feel, while the new model and the iPhone 4S have a slightly yellowed screen for warmth, it's just that lots of people have complained about theres' being too yellow.
Thanks very much for any useful info on this.

What are all the differences between the iPad 3rd Gen and the iPad 2? Is the iPad 2 worth the cost savings?
http://everymac.com/systems/apple/ipad/ipad-faq/differences-between-ipad-3rd-gen -2012-ipad-2-2011.html
What are all the differences between the iPad 3rd Gen models? Which should I buy?
http://everymac.com/systems/apple/ipad/ipad-faq/differences-between-ipad-3rd-gen -early-2012-models.html
Should I Buy a New iPad? Or an iPad 2?
http://www.maclife.com/article/blogs/should_i_buy_new_ipad_or_ipad_2
iPad Q&A
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ipad/ipad-faq/differences-between-ipad-3rd -gen-early-2012-models.html
A Few Questions (and Answers) About the New iPad
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/a-few-questions-and-answers-about-the- new-ipad/?ref=personaltechemail&nl=technology&emc=edit_ct_20120315
New iPad: A Polishing of the Old
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/technology/personaltech/the-new-ipad-is-much-t he-same-only-better.html?nl=technology&emc=edit_ct_20120315
iPad 1, 2 and New Specifications
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ipad/index-ipad-specs.html
If you think you may get an iPad 2:
Refurbished iPad Prices
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad
New 16GB iPad 2 Prices
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad/select_ipad2
A lot of the posts about lack of charging is because iPad "3" users are trying to use an iPod charger, iPhone charger or connected to their computer where they get the "Not Charging" indication. A few others had a defective charger that was replaced by Apple. It remotely possible that a few iPads have defective batteries or charging circuits.
Many of the wifi connection problems are related to the users brand of wireless routers, the router setup, or the need to select a different wireless channel due to interference.
The high temp problem seems to be when users are charging AND running games with intensive graphics. The display on the new iPad takes a lot more power than the iPad 2 display.
Overall I would guess that the chance of a defective iPad is less than 1%.
 Cheers, Tom

A few questions and some things we found about Memory Management

We have been development a pretty complex RIA in flash; true
we probably should have used flex but we are very heavily invested
in flash and moving to flex was not really an option due to time
constraints and the learning curve associated with changing. That
reminds me are the Flex UI Objects going to be made available for
Flash CS3 I mean that advanced datagrid would be nice?
The application is a order processing and document
management system that has around 150 swf’s and I am posting
here to let people know what we found through our development and
testing cycles and also have a few questions that I am hoping
someone will at least point me in the right direction.
We were kind of disappointed to find that you could no
longer duplicate Movies and were forced to reload them if we wanted
different instances, but we got over that fast. Keeping this in
mind we decided to make as many dynamic screens as we could but
these turned out to be horribly time consuming. I mean sure we
could make the fields jump around like fleas on a dogs back (and it
was a great joke) but not very practical. So back to the IDE and
fla creation we went. This leads me to my first question has anyone
see heard of or thought about a SWF file reader that would read the
layout of a SWF and then generate the actionscript as output?
As we were developing we found that it was more complex, and
I think unnecessarily so, to get connected to a database. We use
ColdFusion as our “middleware” so it wasn’t to
bad and this leads me to my next question. Is there or has there
been any indication that Flex data services or well I guess BlazeDS
now is available for Flash CS3?
So we went on our merry little way and everything was going
great until testing this is when we started to see what kind of
memory flash really eats up. In the beginning our app would take up
a gig through the course of a day.
Any Class that we created we added a CleanUp method to it.
Yes we used weak listeners, yes we destroyed, and all references to
the main movies, and yes that was it the main movies.
Don’t be fooled the same way we were. The Garbage
collection simulation
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/garbage_collection.html
does not really tell you the whole story. Even though if you cut
the line from the root the simulation suggests that the rest of the
objects that you have created within that object will be marked and
collected. Not so.
After much testing we found that if we wanted a full recovery
of memory the object and it’s sub objects and sub sub ojects
within arrays also with sub objects must be deallocated and then
assinged null to get full collection, I say full but really mean
between 90-95% reminds me of my C programming days.

We have been development a pretty complex RIA in flash; true
we probably should have used flex but we are very heavily invested
in flash and moving to flex was not really an option due to time
constraints and the learning curve associated with changing. That
reminds me are the Flex UI Objects going to be made available for
Flash CS3 I mean that advanced datagrid would be nice?
The application is a order processing and document
management system that has around 150 swf’s and I am posting
here to let people know what we found through our development and
testing cycles and also have a few questions that I am hoping
someone will at least point me in the right direction.
We were kind of disappointed to find that you could no
longer duplicate Movies and were forced to reload them if we wanted
different instances, but we got over that fast. Keeping this in
mind we decided to make as many dynamic screens as we could but
these turned out to be horribly time consuming. I mean sure we
could make the fields jump around like fleas on a dogs back (and it
was a great joke) but not very practical. So back to the IDE and
fla creation we went. This leads me to my first question has anyone
see heard of or thought about a SWF file reader that would read the
layout of a SWF and then generate the actionscript as output?
As we were developing we found that it was more complex, and
I think unnecessarily so, to get connected to a database. We use
ColdFusion as our “middleware” so it wasn’t to
bad and this leads me to my next question. Is there or has there
been any indication that Flex data services or well I guess BlazeDS
now is available for Flash CS3?
So we went on our merry little way and everything was going
great until testing this is when we started to see what kind of
memory flash really eats up. In the beginning our app would take up
a gig through the course of a day.
Any Class that we created we added a CleanUp method to it.
Yes we used weak listeners, yes we destroyed, and all references to
the main movies, and yes that was it the main movies.
Don’t be fooled the same way we were. The Garbage
collection simulation
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/garbage_collection.html
does not really tell you the whole story. Even though if you cut
the line from the root the simulation suggests that the rest of the
objects that you have created within that object will be marked and
collected. Not so.
After much testing we found that if we wanted a full recovery
of memory the object and it’s sub objects and sub sub ojects
within arrays also with sub objects must be deallocated and then
assinged null to get full collection, I say full but really mean
between 90-95% reminds me of my C programming days.

Making my game in Flash - a few questions

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