I managed to pickup a copy of Dale Rankine’s “Total Training Flash Lite 2.1″ DVD that is out and about. For obvious reasons, I can’t review it “as intended” (a training tool for those fresh to Flash Lite 2.1). However, I can tell you that on a personal level, I had a bit of fun watching Dale in action throughout the entire DVD.

Yes, it’s about 5 hours of pure, unadulterated Dale discussing Flash Lite 2.1 and Mobile Development through some exercises, as well as covering many of the prominent features that make Flash Lite a powerful delivery platform for mobile applications, games, and other content.

As a contributing author on the Foundation Flash Applications for Mobile Devices book, that is now out as well, I can tell you that the DVD is a great additional resource for any serious Flash Developer looking to get into Flash Lite 2.x specific development.

But you might be thinking … now that Flash Lite 3 has been announced at 3GSM, isn’t Flash Lite 2.x “finito” with when it is estimated to launch later this year?

The answer to that is: I think you have to read the press release very, very, carefully … and then think about how the roadmap has progressed thus far in terms of what the Flash Lite player has been able to offer on existing devices today in regards to 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1 …

You must also take into consideration how long it normally takes from beta, launch, as well deployment/integration. The last one is huge. In the mobile world, the adoption rate is typically much slower than desktop in terms of software.

Lastly, we have to remember that some device platforms never upgrade. Take for instance the iRiver u10 or Clix. These still run both Flash Lite 1.1 and 2.0 with no way to upgrade (outside of buying newer devices or a potential firmware update). Bottom line? Developing for certain mobile platforms sometimes means you have to be agile with the toolsets you must deal with.

Anyways, irregardless of the Flash Lite 3 announcement and support for FLV … a lot of core fundamentals, development approaches, mobile challenges, and features that are presented and addressed in both Foundation Flash Applications for Mobile Devices and Total Training Flash Lite 2.1 DVD are still applicable and extremely useful today and for some forseeable future.

My thoughts on both the book and the DVD:

book + DVD = a powerful combo

The combination of the two will get you up to speed for what is sure to be an exciting year for Flash Mobile!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 10:27 am and is filed under Flash Lite, Flash Lite 2.1, Flash Lite for BREW, flashmobilebook.com, tutorials & books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.