Howard Baines

With the popularity of Adobe AIR growing over the last year we have been engaged in a number of conversations with users and clients about the technology and its selling points. The ability to re-use familiar technologies (such as HTML, CSS) and workflows (for building web apps) to create cross-platform desktop apps is great. The integration with the OS that AIR provides is also powerful and provides a number of user benefits (drag and drop between app and desktop for example).

However, the number one feature that people most value is one that AIR does not even natively provide a specific framework for: Toast windows.

The ability to take web enabled functionality and run it outside the browser and offline has benefits but the key thing people want is to be notified. Notified when their friend uploads a photo, notified when their favourite team scores, notified when a new song by their favourite band is released and so on. It is the little window that appears in the corner of the screen which alerts to some key information while they are doing something else that is the power of these applications.

Whilst writing this I checked out the Adobe AIR Marketplace and both feature apps plus 4 of the 6 “Staff Picks” on the homepage use toast windows. In fact many of these apps are specifically about notifying users when something happens out there on the World Wide Web. Any company thinking about producing a technology that runs outside of the web browser must include this capability. Otherwise there is no real benefit to being outside of the browser.

Why would I simply want a website in a different type of window, I still have to open that window, constantly check back on that window to see if anything has changed. What I want is to leave that application to run in the background and to be alerted when something requires my attention.

The only problem will come when there are so many toast windows that they’re constantly conflicting with one another for the same piece of screen.

Today saw the first public betas released of Adobe’s new Flash Platform tools, Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder. This marks the beginning of a major marketing offensive over the coming months to promote the new designer/developer workflow and productivity benefits these tools will provide.

To demonstrate the key features of both products Howard Baines collaborated with Adobe to create a project using both tools. Over the last month we have been working with the pre-release builds to design and develop a RIA experience that would mirror real world examples and show just how these tools will change the dynamic within agencies and benefit their clients.

Last Friday we had the opportunity to share our experiences at a press day to announce these releases. The video of our presentation is below and the files for our demo app will be available on adobe.com in the near future.

These are early versions of both products with a number of features are still to come but they clearly indicate the benefits both will bring to designers and developers. From our experience we found that Catalyst does indeed give designers far greater control over the user experience than ever before. In our application a designer was able to import their original design file from Illustrator and create working components such as data lists, text inputs and buttons as well interactions such as fades and rotations.

By the time a developer gets their hands on the project all the components, controls and transitions are in place. It is simply a matter of hooking the interface up to whatever data source lies behind the application. This could be a database or a web service and while only a couple of backend platforms are supported in the beta the final product will support all of the most popular.

Certainly the data management features in Flash Builder are far superior to anything found in the current FlexBuilder product. They make consuming, manipulating and publishing data as easy as drag and drop in some cases. This type of development will be familiar to many already but enabling it for the Flash platform will make creating browser based and desktop RIA solutions faster and easier. Specifically for developers who currently build traditional HTML and AJAX based websites and applications but do not have Flash Pro in their toolbox.

Catalyst and Flash Builder will bring the power of the Flash Platform to a vast number of developers across all platforms and lead to a significant increase in great user experiences across the web. The final version of Builder will be available later in the year and Catalyst in early 2010. So it’s worth getting ahead of the pack and start trying the betas now.

If you would like to know more about working with Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder please get in touch.

Our Robot Configuration application is now available on our website at http://www.howardbaines.com/RobotBuilder

Remember the personal homepage? The excitement of dragging and dropping widgets around the page. Customising your news widget. Setting up your weather widget. This was the birth of AJAX. The dawn of personalisation. Personal homepages have not gone anywhere. Just the other day someone told me with great excitement how Google had "built a page for them". While the Web 2.0 world may have moved on the personal homepage seems to be going increasingly mainstream. Perhaps also the widget is making a comeback.

At last year’s MAX Adobe announced a new technology built around widgets that allow a user to drag a widget on a web page onto the desktop. Microsoft has been selling the idea of ubiquitous gadgets (web, desktop, device) for a while. Windows 7 allows gadgets to live anywhere on the desktop and not just in the sidebar (just as Mac has done for some time). Now you can easily build gadgets using PopFly. Nokia refer to widgets when talking about applications that run natively on S60 based phones.

All of this seems to lead to one conclusion; the widget is due for a comeback.

The problem with widgets was that they were so locked into the platform that they were built for. A widget on a personalised homepage could only ever live on that page (or perhaps another browser based page). Mac widgets were not Vista Gadgets and both were tied to their respective desktops. What we need from widgets is the ability to create once and run anywhere. I want a widget that will run on my desktop, run in a browser, run on my mobile. As a developer I don’t want to be building the same widget a hundred times over for every OS.

Thankfully there are now technologies moving in this direction. With users growing needs for aggregated data and small chunks of data regularly updated the widget seems like a great solution. We just need to get the technology right.

I am not convinced that this second coming would mean a new swathe of personalised homepages. The widgetised page has its own issues and indeed with the popularity of services such as Twitter and FriendFeed one would argue strongly that the list has many advantages over using widgets to display data from different sources. No, I think the widget is a technology device that allows fragments of data or applications to exist across multiple platforms and applications. The ability to have your FriendFeed data stream exist in different locations through the use of a widget is the power of this device.

For some time now we have heard how the OS is dead and the browser is the new OS. Desktop applications are done and Facebook or Google are the new platform. If this is true then how come Adobe AIR is doing so well? How come Microsoft is creating “Out of Browser” experiences with Silverlight 3? How come there are now open source technologies such as Titanium for building desktop applications? How come developers were so excited to build native iPhone apps rather than Safari based ones?

This is not the first time that we have raised these questions. I think that it is important to separate the internet from the web browser. Certainly the internet is the next platform and as such the OS will become less relevant, or at least more simplistic. We will need an OS to handle tasks such as printing for some time to come but much of the heavy lifting of the business logic within applications will migrate to the cloud.

The argument that I would make however is that the internet is the platform and that many different types of interface applications will be built upon it. The browser is simply one interface which works well on the traditional desktop. But think about the other internet enabled devices out there; phones, music players, games consoles, cars, fridge-freezers and so on. Many of these have very basic operating systems and no web browser of any kind. Yet they are still internet enabled and running what are essentially internet applications.

When you think about it the web browser has itself become rather outdated. RIA technologies such as Flash and Silverlight are thousands of times faster than JavaScript running in the browser. Building these types of apps is much easier and faster than having to handle the multitude of browser/OS permutations of AJAX apps. The security sandbox of the browser is limiting both in terms of access to other resources and interactivity.

The browser isn’t going anywhere, its benefits in the majority of scenarios still outweigh the downsides but I think it is clear that the browser will by no means be the single platform of the future. Instead we will be using a common set of technologies and frameworks to build a variety of applications for a variety of hardware platforms that will communicate with cloud based API interfaces.

Yesterday we launched v3 of our AlertThingy project which marks the final realisation of a vision we had a year ago. The initial idea was always to build an application that aggregated multiple networks into a single stream of data. At the time we built v1 we were simply experimenting with Adobe AIR and only wanted to dedicate a week to the project so FriendFeed provided a fast way to go. With the new v3 we are there ourselves with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Yammer, Basecamp, Huddle, Jaiku, Ping.fm and more.

Not only is v3 a product milestone but is also the latest step in what has been an interesting journey for us. We have gone from previewing v1 at Adobe’s OnAIR event in London to being flown to the US by a potential investor with a host of interest from various media outlets along the way. We have learnt a lot more about the experiences that many of a clients go through and that gives us a better understanding of the needs and issues facing start-ups.

So how did we get here? v1 was designed and built in 1 week proving how fantastic AIR is as a platform for re-using traditional web development skills and work flows to deliver cross platform desktop apps. We wanted to use it as a vehicle to promote Howard Baines and as such had a combined development and marketing plan. This worked better than we could have expected and led to us re-visiting the idea with a view to ways in which it could be taken forward.

We never wanted to be the perfect Twitter client for power Twitter users or the ultimate Flickr app. Our aim has always been to provide the majority of main stream users with a quick and easy way to manage their online life.

v2 was a major change in the way the app was built with most significantly a move away from an AJAX based app to Adobe Flex. We designed and built v1 with a view to integrating multiple networks and services. However, the move to Flex provided an opportunity to re-enforce this architecture based on what we had learnt and user feedback. This re-engineering took us some considerable time as AlertThingy has always been a side project for Howard Baines. By the time we reached the end of 2008 we just wanted to push something out and so we launched v2 in December.

This release was by no means perfect but it did prove that the fundamentals were in place. AlertThingy could now support an ever increasing number of networks and services with the integration of new ones very quick and easy for us. Underneath the shiny new interface we have a host of possibilities around further integration between services, functionality to extend our user list capabilities, multi-language support and more. While v3 adds new networks, new features, a new look and addresses a number of user experience issues and bug fixes it is what’s under the hood that’s important. As always AlertThingy is still an internal project for us but the possibilities it presents are more exciting than ever.

We would like to thank our friends at UserVoice for support with their API (now integrated into AlertThingy) and all those users who provided valuable feedback.

So give AlertThingy v3 a try today and let us know what you think.

For FriendFeed users we still have our AlertThingy FriendFeed Edition and we have some exciting news about our continued support for FriendFeed coming soon.

Working out how to suceed in any competitive market is hard, but learning how to fail can be even harder! It’s easy to know when you have found success but accepting you’ve failed and moving on can be just as rewarding. Find this out soon and you might find yourself with enough time and energy to give another idea a go. After all why should any entrepreneur learn the fine arts of marketing, designing, UI, UX, building, contracting, maintaining etc their application and business first time? 

When you started building your application/business you probably had a lot of really strong ideas about what kind of company you were going to build and what kind of business idea you thought was going to be a success. Have things changed? If you have an application that has been running publicly for over year, you might have found those ideas and principals have be blurred. If you have heard or said the following statement one too many times this year, it might be time to evaluate if you’ve failed.

“If we just add X then I think we will turn the corner”

Especially if X was never on your business plan! 

So how do you know that it’s all gone wrong and how do you make sure you don’t quit too early just before you might turn that elusive corner? Well I would like to propose you try the “Howard Baines 10,000 users or bust list”

What is “10,000 users or bust”
In very simple terms, it’s a list that states all the things you think your website or application needs to prove your concept works. None of the frills! None of the extras or ‘nice to haves’. The very basics that are needed to prove that people want/need your application and they are going to get hooked. monetization is not a basic. You can’t monetize less than 10,000 users in a way that will create a serious business. 

Remember If the basics of your application aren’t inspiring users then no amount of fluff and extras will lure them in either. 

When everything on your list is checked off, Market your app like crazy. Spend 100% of your time marketing and nothing on development (bug fixes are ok). If you can’t get 10,000 people using your app on a daily basis then rethink your idea and your basics. Above all DON’T ADD FLUFF!

Why 10,000 users?
It’s not too hard to get 1,000 users a day playing around with a site, 5-10k and you might have a niche site. more than 10,000 and you can start to think about making money. That is exactly the next piece of development you should be thinking about.

Economic downturn, recession, depression, global meltdown, Armageddon, whatever you call the current situation it involves falling sales, lower prices, unemployment, bankruptcies, repossessions and cost cutting by businesses. Apart from a few like pharmaceuticals every business is going to experience changes related to the economy.

However, those of us who work in Internet related businesses should not be so gloomy. For some see the Internet as the solution to the current problems. The Internet is not going to save the economy (leave that to the new US president) but it could provide opportunities for companies to survive the downturn.

Traditional business is expensive; large overheads in property, people and equipment combined with limited customer reach (few people travel across countries to visit a particular store!). The Internet offers lower overheads and a bigger customer pool. This does not just apply to B2C but B2B as well. For many companies their online business will allow them to continue trading while they downsize their physical investments.

I know this argument is old but surely now it is even more relevant. We are already seeing some companies starting to invest in their web activities which perhaps have lost focus in recent times when the economy was booming. For web based businesses this could be a time of extraordinary opportunity.

For example, as the high street banks suffer with their balance sheets and having to cope with the cost of running branches online banks can avoid these overheads. They could be better placed to not just weather the storm but perhaps pick up business from their more traditional competitors.

For start-ups the situation is just as good. Many VCs still have funds available and often look beyond the current economic period anyway. Although a serious contraction in the angel market is probably unavoidable. For those with funding there are many advantages to the current situation. Smaller head counts, lower property and equipment costs and the low cost of technology (open source, vendor programs such as BizSpark and cloud computing) combined with a more agile business model provides a competitive advantage over perhaps bigger but more traditional competitors.

Such companies should not be complacent however and it is right that we’re seeing lay-offs in the start-up industry just as everywhere else. There has been a trend in recent times for start-ups to bloat with excess people and perhaps unnecessary spend (upgrading to better office locations for example). The economic downturn may help to get back to the leaner, meaner style of start-up that we used to see more of and perhaps avert a dotcom style problem in the future.

One of the constant issues in IT whether amongst start-ups and traditional companies is excess in terms of people, infrastructure and wasted spend from inefficient processes. This gives all of us an opportunity to reflect on how we run our businesses and manage our development teams and processes. It is always surprising what amazing things can be produced by small teams, in short timescales. Many start-ups often begin this way and then feel the need to expand as the funding comes in.

Now may also be a good time to investigate some new technologies such as cloud computing that can reduce overheads. We have documented in previous blog posts and through various projects how some of the latest technologies can seriously reduce and even avoid software and hardware costs.

Our AlertThingy AIR application costs us nothing in infrastructure costs but only distribution (download bandwidth). “Meet with Approval” that we built last year utilised Microsoft’s Express range of development software that is free. The new BizSpark program provides a wealth of development and production software at no cost now. A very recent blog post discussed some of Adobe’s new cloud services that seriously reduce the cost of building collaborative software.

So now is a time to be sensible but certainly not panic as what may prove the end of an era for come businesses may just be the start of a bright new era for others.

One of the problems with working at Howard Baines is the temptation to play with new stuff. We have often put this to good use by producing what we call “hobby apps” such as Meet with Approval and AlertThingy. The latter half of 2008 was crammed with cool new things to play with from Microsoft and Adobe. Some of this new stuff will make it into our “hobby apps” and be seen within the coming weeks and of course our client work however some of it is just a bit too “cutting edge” at the moment.

At Adobe MAX in Milan last year we got our hands on preview copies of Adobe “Gumbo” (FlexBuilder 4) and Flash Catalyst (formerly the coolly named Thermo). A number of cloud services coming from Adobe also caught our eye amongst which was Cocomo. Having just completed the Yammer integration into the forthcoming AlertThingy v2.01 it seemed obvious that Gumbo, Cocomo and Yammer fitted together neatly and so Yammo was born.

So, what is all of this stuff?

Adobe Cocomo is a real time collaboration cloud service that Adobe is currently developing. It allows users to gather in “rooms” and collaborate in different ways such as chat, whiteboards and webcam. What previously required a heavy server side investment is now far more economical and faster to implement. Cocomo is in development and so only available to folks with an Adobe ID but the SDK makes it very easy to integrate with Flex.

Adobe Gumbo is the latest incarnation of Adobe’s Flex framework and development IDE FlexBuilder. Currently in pre-Beta the latest preview version provides a sense of what the next generation Flex development experience will be like. Gumbo provides a number of significant improvements that really enhances the dev experience and shows Adobe taking major steps towards delivering a mature IDE which is essential to the success of Flex.

Yammer is Twitter for enterprise. Instead of having hundreds of random followers and following hundreds of random people Yammer uses your organisation to create a group (or groups) of users who you “follow” and vice versa. This makes Yammer a great short message communication tool for use within organisations. It also makes it a very neat fit for Cocomo as this extends what is already a collaborative environment by adding great real time features. It also inherently adds presence capability to your Yammer account letting you know which of your colleagues are currently online.

Apart from some geeky fun is there a point to this?

Yes, both RIA (Rich Internet Applications) and hosted (cloud) services are becoming increasingly relevant. Developing an early understanding of these concepts and services and the business opportunities they present is important. An awareness of what companies like Adobe will be doing in this space is also useful.

In the case of Yammo the benefits include: Combining multiple services provides a more powerful application than one service alone; Gumbo offers rapid development of applications with good user experience (UX) and that keeps build costs low; Cloud offerings provide access to services that previously would have been expensive to run in a more cost-effective way and removes the significant time/cost issues of hosting and scaling.

To try out Yammo you will need a Yammer account and Adobe AIR already installed on your machine (PC, Mac or Linux). Then click here to download the .air installer file. This is a proof of concept application built with pre-release software using a pre-release cloud service and Yammer’s beta API. Therefore it is completely unsupported but it does give you an idea of what is possible with Gumbo, Cocomo and AIR.

While Yammo will not be an officially released product much of the functionality will be appearing in AlertThingy and we always welcome any feedback.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to an issue with some of the pre-release software used in this build we are not able to push updates. Therefore if you are interested in any changes to Yammo please check back at howardbaines.com. Also we were unable to bundle custom icons and no designer was involved (or harmed) in the production of this application (although some may be offended).

It’s finally here. After months of talking about AlertThingy v2 today it arrived and about time too. To all those who have been waiting we apologise for the delay but we think the wait was worth it. While AlertThingy took us a week to design and build v2 has taken a little longer. Much of this has been due to the significant expansion in the services offered and the functionality of those services available. In v1 you could Tweet but in v2 you can update your Facebook status, post to Tumblr, and upload to Flickr, Digg items in the stream and much more. V2 is also a cool RSS reader and comes pre-loaded with some of the best RSS feeds on the web to choose from.

For the techies out there we have also moved from using AIR with AJAX, HTML and CSS to a fully, 100% Flex based application. This has allowed us to provide a superior user experience, better performance, more functionality and delivered in a package a quarter of the size of v1.

We have also left ourselves room to add more networks, services and feeds. Any one out there wanting to get their network or service into AlertThingy please let us know. We already have plans to add our favourite wish list site Boxedup and the latest, greatest enterprise Twitteresque service Yammer. Proving that web apps and AIR is not just for lone geeks (like us).

One thing some of you may notice is that we no longer support FriendFeed. This may come as a surprise as FriendFeed was the foundation of AlertThingy v1. Removing FF was a difficult decision but one that we felt we had to take in order to move the product forward. However, we are FF fans and it is still the best API that we’ve worked with. For that reason we have given FriendFeed its own AlertThingy. “AlertThingy FriendFeed Edition for desktop” is a revision of v1 providing all the FF functionality we had before. If that were not enough we have further FF editions of AlertThingy in the works and there will be news on this very soon. So fear not FriendFeeders you will still have a great desktop app and we have even given created an FF specific icon.

As always we live on your feedback and much of what people said about v1 has gone into v2 (yes, clicking on the system tray icon now opens the app!). Again we welcome your thoughts which can be placed via the AlertThingy website and soon via AlertThingy itself due to the fantastic support of our friends at User Voice.

We look forward to hearing what you think.