Recent Posts

Why is it important to dedicate enough time to design your app? let me show you how we did it for Conqu, what worked, and what didn't work.

It's possible that AsFusion was bitten by the app bug. Soon after releasing Conqu, we decided to create another app called OnePound. OnePound is a weight tracking app for Android tablets, BlackBerry PlayBook, and the Nook.

One of the components that is very common in a mobile app is the Switcher component. The on/off switch is usually available on IOS and Android devices. This component is like a toggle button but with a skin that makes it look as a Switcher.

This is part 5 of my series on item renderers. As you may know, the Mobile Flex Framework does not have a DataGrid, mostly because a DataGrid control uses a lot of real state and the phone has a small screen. But, we have tablets too and a Grid makes complete sense. However, the regular flex DataGrid will not work as it is too heavy for that. We also want gestures and bouncing like the mobile List has. So the workaround is to make an ItemRenderer that mimics a grid.

This is part 4 of my series on item renderers. This time we have a more real example that includes two states (selected and up) plus and avatar image and a bunch of text fields.

What I choose as the example is a TweetRenderer that shows the picture of the user, the user name and the content of the tweet.

This is Part 3 of the series "Mobile ItemRenderer in ActionScript". This time we are going to use a different option to add the drop shadows to the text. We will be using a filter instead of having an extra text field.

This is Part 2 of my series "Mobile ItemRenderers in ActionScript". This time I will explore how to apply drop shadows using a second TextField.

If you are starting to do mobile development and are used to create all your ItemRenderers in MXML, you may notice that the small devices like phones and tablets do not perform as well as the desktop does and you need to start looking closely to different ways to optimize you app.

...when running your app on a small, high screen-density device.

As you may know, we are developing a GTD application that runs on the Blackberry Playbook and Android tablets (others to come) called Conqu. When we started, back in November, we were making designs as normal with Photoshop at the right size, and what we liked the most when looking at the designs (even when made small to fit the size of the device) were usually not all that good on the device. Since we hadn't developed the app yet, we only had mockup images to see. So what we did was browse those images to see how the actual app would look like.

This is what we learned.

The idea for Conqu was hashed long before the Android or Blackberry tablets were even a rumor. However, the idea sat on the back burner for several years until finally the first production tablet devices were on demo at Adobe MAX in late 2010. At that point the hardware finally caught up to the requirements of such an app. It was time to un-shelf the idea and put forth the effort to create an exceptional app for the Blackberry Playbook.

At MAX we were shown, in a glass case, the new Blackberry Playbook. I am personally super excited to try it out and start developing for it. First, you build apps for it using Flash (pure ActionScript or MXML), second, their store will be free (at least for some introductory time) and third, the hardware specs makes it the best on the market (1 GB RAM and 1 GHz dual-core processor??). Interestingly, their first development platform for it is Flash, and they said that later they will allow you to use Java and C++, so you can imagine that at this moment, Flash is as good as native.

And there is more. If you develop an application before the Playbook's launch and it gets approved, you'll be able to get a free Playbook from RIM. The launch date is not yet announced, but I would get started as quickly as I can.

There are weekly webcast series you can attend. Those are hosted by RIM and usually Renaun Erickson from Adobe also shows relevant ActionScript code. They are a good starting point. You can find the link to those, the Getting Started guide and the documentation at the BlackBerry Tablet OS Development Resources. 

What are you waiting for?

Hello everyone, I wanted to introduce myself as the newest member to join the ranks of ASFusion. I was hired on November 1st as a designer and front end developer, and I am excited to work with a team of people that really understand how the web works, and has a good sense of how to make the impossible happen.

About me: my name is Mark Aplet. If your familiar with Mango Blog, then you may have already heard my name before--or perhaps my username (visual28)--I design and develop themes or "skins" for Mango Blog users to dress up their blogs. I have also developed a number of free plugins for mango blog that are available from my personal website. I have been fairly active in the Mango Blog community since I was introduced to it about two and a half years ago. So if you have a theming question, I am a pretty good person to ask.

I have been working in the design industry for about 10 years. Then specifically in web design for about 7 plus years. In that time I have taught myself html and css, and even a little ColdFusion. In fact my very first ColdFusion app was MyCFNuke (no longer available). The ColdFusion clone of PHPNuke. I don't conceder myself to be a ColdFusion programmer in the least. I know my way around CF, but feel more at home in HTML and CSS. Languages that I hope will be put to good use while employed here at ASFusion.

When I am not designing or developing websites, I enjoy getting out of the house with my wife (BFF) and or family pet Henna--a very energetic golden retriever--for a trip up to the mountains for some camping, fun in the snow, or an all out off-road adventure in a heavily modified 1942 Jeep rockcrawler.