Adobe Flash Cast 2 FAQ

Overview information
Technology details
Developer information
Availability
Customer support
Other frequently asked questions

Overview information

What is Adobe® Flash® Cast™?

Flash Cast is a rich offline portal solution that enables wireless operators and content providers to deliver compelling, branded data services that are highly personalized, as well as easy to discover and use. Flash Cast services enable consumers to subscribe to mobile applications, or channels, of their choice, such as news, sports, music, and so on. Content is delivered to the consumer proactively so it is always available on the device regardless of network coverage. Unlike traditional on-device portals, Flash Cast enables experiences that are much more expressive, enabling the operator to differentiate its brand and increase service adoption and use.

What is a "channel"?

A channel in the Flash Cast portal is a lightweight, dynamic Flash mobile application that delivers content to a consumer from Adobe Mobile Server via an operator's mobile network as part of an integrated and branded channel lineup. Each channel typically contains a data feed and is available for subscription from a catalog on the device.

Who is Flash Cast for?

Flash Cast is primarily for wireless operators who want to differentiate their brand and increase data ARPU. Content providers, developers, and OEMs who want to offer their own branded experiences are also playing a key role in building the content ecosystem.

Why choose Flash Cast?

With Flash Cast 2, operators can differentiate and reinforce their brand consistently across a wide range of handsets. Built on the Adobe Mobile Platform, Flash Cast enables you to provide instant access to rich, personalized content in an intuitive user interface that can be easily updated over the air. Adopted by more than 15 million NTT DoCoMo i-channel™ subscribers, the Flash Cast portal experience is proven to drive wide consumer adoption and use, as well as generate new revenue opportunities.

How does the Flash Cast solution help increase data revenue and drive differentiation?

By simplifying the discovery, promotion, and use of data services, customers who have not previously tried data services become much more likely to use them. A Flash Cast service allows subscribers to enjoy personalized and relevant experiences that increase data use and user satisfaction. Operators can also brand and customize their Flash Cast services to achieve differentiation as well as a consistent look and feel across a wide range of devices.

What are the key features of Flash Cast?

Flash Cast is designed to solve many user experience challenges in today's mobile data services. Flash Cast has a number of features and benefits that enable engaging mobile experiences, including:

Key features	Benefits
Flexible and extensible solution	Maximize ROIs by using the SDK as part of Adobe Mobile Server software to customize, expand, and integrate with existing back-end infrastructure, including billing and reporting systems.
Multiplatform support	Deliver rich and high-quality experiences consistently across a wide range of handsets and platforms.
Tailored content delivery	Target users with specific channel bundles that meet their interests and are scaled to their device capabilities, whether lower end or higher end. Allow users to personalize content through preference settings and channel selection.
Customizable user interface	Integrate brand elements as an extension of corporate identity. Easily update branded portal user interfaces over the air.
On-device catalog	Enable users to quickly access, preview, and subscribe to new and existing services through a rich mobile catalog that can be updated over the air. Easily promote new premium services for additional revenue streams.
Rich media support	Deliver true engaging experiences — including high-quality animation, video, audio, images, RSS, and podcasts — through a new generation of data-enabled Flash channels.
Optimized network efficiency	Increase network efficiencies and improve user experiences through differential updates and cached content to ensure instant access to current information, even when reception is spotty.
Interoperability	Extend portal experience and capabilities through interoperation with third-party applications, including browsers, media players, productivity tools, and more.
Integrated authoring environment	Speed up mobile application development and testing processes using market-leading authoring tools, including Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, new Adobe Mobile AppBuilder software, and a set of prebuilt reference channel applications.
Service management API	Use the web services application programming interface (API) of Adobe Mobile Server and development tools like Adobe Flex® to integrate with existing web-based user tools. Provide subscribers the ability to manage their Flash Cast channel subscriptions from their desktops through a branded rich Internet application.

What’s new in Flash Cast 2?

Flash Cast 2 provides a number of new and enhanced features, including:

Smaller and faster client
The new Adobe Mobile Client runtime in Flash Cast 2 supports a much broader range of devices and requires less RAM and CPU.
Tailored content delivery
Adobe Mobile Server in Flash Cast 2 detects and adopts any changes to user device capability and delivers an optimized channel experience.
Flexible channel size
To improve user experiences, Flash Cast 2 offers greater flexibility in terms of the memory size of each channel. For example, a video channel may be configured for 300KB and a weather channel for 100KB.
Enhanced rich media support
Flash Cast 2 supports content published with Flash 6 (upgraded from Flash 4 for Flash Cast 1.2) and the rendering of device video and other rich media content.
Improved on-device catalog
The new on-device catalog provides a central hub that facilitates discovery, trials, preview, and purchase of individual channels, service bundles, and data-enabled homescreens as a part of the same portal user interface.
Service management API
Mobile Server provides a web services API to allow operators to integrate with their existing web-based user tools, and offers subscribers the ability to manage their Flash Cast channel subscriptions from the desktop through a branded rich Internet application.

What are the components in Flash Cast 2?

Reference applications including a portal, channels, and a shared on-device catalog
Adobe Mobile Platform (including Adobe Mobile Client and Adobe Mobile Server)
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional and Adobe Mobile AppBuilder authoring tools
Professional services for assisting in customization and deployment
Training, maintenance and support

How does Flash Cast 2 work with Adobe Flash Lite™ software ?

Flash Cast 2 uses Adobe Mobile Client, a new version of the Adobe mobile rendering engine, to render rich Flash based content on mobile devices.

Which mobile devices can run Flash Cast?

Adobe Mobile Client is operating system independent and can be ported to a variety of mobile operating systems. The first two reference platforms are Nokia S60 3rd Edition and BREW® 3.x. In addition, device support is expanding to other platforms through Adobe's operator/handset manufacturer-specific porting efforts.

Technology details

What is the Adobe Mobile Platform?

The Adobe Mobile Platform is an extensible client-server platform designed to manage and deliver innovative applications across a wide range of devices. Built on Adobe Flash technology, the Mobile Platform provides instant access to data-enabled applications that deliver engaging mobile experiences, even in areas where network coverage is spotty.

What is Adobe Mobile Client?

Adobe Mobile Client is the foundation of Adobe's next-generation mobile platform on mobile devices. It includes a high-performance Flash based rendering engine, data store, and device APIs. Adobe Mobile Client is a key component of the Flash Cast and Flash Home solutions.

What is Adobe Mobile Server?

Adobe Mobile Server consists of a set of carrier-grade J2EE servers that serve as an intermediary between Mobile Client and third-party content providers. The main functions of the server software are to:

Aggregate, normalize, and deliver content to various devices
Manage subscribers and preferences
Support a flexible billing model with optional integration
Offer optimized network performance by delivering differential updates

Mobile Server is designed to provide optimal network performance, reduce costs, and ultimately support tens of millions of users. By decoupling the communications between third-party content feeds and consumer devices, service providers gain unprecedented flexibility and management capabilities.

What are the system requirements for the Adobe Mobile Platform?

Adobe Mobile Client:

Client can be made available on any mobile operating system (reference platforms include Nokia S60 3rd Edition and BREW 3.x)
390KB client size for data services
850KB of RAM
1.5MB of file system space (2MB or more recommended)
ARM7 75MHz processor for a 176x220 display

Adobe Mobile Server:

Sun™ Solaris™ 10
BEA WebLogic 9.2 MP2
Oracle 10g Standard or Enterprise Edition

How does Adobe Mobile Client integrate with phone functionalities including browsing?

Adobe Mobile Client provides an object-oriented extension mechanism for easier and faster integration with the most common phone-specific features such as system information, monitoring battery life, signal strength, network names, and others or device applications sending SMS messages, call logs, and contacts, as well as invoking browsing or initiating a voice call.

Can I add additional extensions?

Yes. In fact, Mobile Client includes a simplified extension mechanism for OEMs and operators that accelerates the creation of new extensions based on a function table mechanism that creates a direct correlation between the ActionScript™ method call and the C API method implemented in native code.

Which version of Flash does Adobe Mobile Client support?

Mobile Client supports Flash 6 content, ActionScript 1.1, and a subset of ActionScript 2.0 commands.

How does Adobe Mobile Client support video?

Mobile Client supports device video such as 3GPP, but does not support the Flash compatible video format using the On2 or Sorenson codecs. For device video, Mobile Client passes the video data to the handset for decoding and display directly to the screen using the device native video functionality. Content providers can use the full expressivity of Flash to design and develop content around the video.

Does Adobe Mobile Client support streaming video?

Yes, Mobile Client supports streaming of device video such as 3GPP using standard streaming protocols such as RTSP. Examples of 3GP streaming servers that can be used with Mobile Client include the QuickTime streaming video server.

How is Adobe Mobile Client different from Flash Lite 3?

Flash Lite works across smart phones and consumer electronic devices. OEMs and device manufactures can implement Flash Lite for web browsability, customized user interfaces, and standalone content/applications.

Adobe Mobile Client contains a new rendering engine optimized for devices with less memory and processing power. Thus, Mobile Client can run on many lower specification devices. Mobile Client is also optimized to provide integrated data services using the Flash Cast and Flash Home solutions and connections to Mobile Server. Mobile Client has a built-in data caching capability and many other features that enable engaging mobile experiences.

Can Mobile Client and Flash Lite 3 be used together on a device?

Absolutely. For devices capable of supporting Flash Lite 3, Mobile Client can also be implemented to support customizable data services for homescreens and channels.

Are Flash Cast channels or Flash Home homescreens compatible with Flash Lite [1,2,3]?

No, not directly. Content developed in other versions of Flash Lite will have to be republished as Mobile Client 1.0. There are also guidelines available from Adobe on how to transition content for Flash Lite or Flash Cast 1.2 to Mobile Client 1.0.

Why should I use a 1.0 release?

Although this version of the technology is being referred to as a 1.0 release, the technology and the products have actually been in commercial deployments for several years. Mobile Client is the next version of the previous client technology that was called Flash Cast 1.2. Likewise, Mobile Server is the next version of Flash Cast server software.

Does Adobe Mobile Client support hardware acceleration?

This release of Mobile Client does not support hardware acceleration. Adobe, in conjunction with a number of specialist firms, has done significant investigation of hardware acceleration implementation. Based on these investigations, Adobe hopes that future versions of the client technology will support hardware acceleration. Several Adobe customers have implemented their own hardware acceleration mechanism based on specific aspects of their devices. OEMs are free to implement their hardware acceleration systems as long as compatibility with Flash is maintained. Adobe's customer engineering team can work with the OEM engineers to offer device implementations that will maintain conformance with Flash technology.

Is there a Java™ version of the Adobe Mobile Platform?

No. The Mobile Server part of the platform is a J2EE application running on a J2EE application server infrastructure. The Mobile Client component is available in a number of reference implementations for several open handset platforms.

Does the Adobe Mobile Platform support prepay billing?

Yes. If a service provider wishes to offer the service to prepaid customers, it can. Mobile Server can be directly integrated with operators' billing systems. As a result, services can be offered according to a variety of billing options, including prepaid, postpaid, subscription, and free trial options.

Do I have to use WebLogic or Solaris?

At this time, Mobile Server has been extensively tested, benchmarked, and certified on a reference configuration of hardware and software in order to achieve the reliability expected of telecommunications systems. See the platform system requirements for details. However, there is nothing in the platform that limits it to this particular configuration. It is certainly possible to test and verify the system on other configurations should the circumstances and market requirements justify the effort required to do so.

Why is the protocol of the Adobe Mobile Platform better than open standards/HTTP?

The client/server protocol in the Adobe Mobile Platform has been developed to optimize the use of network bandwidth compared to a standard HTTP session. For example, comparing a weather channel with twice daily data updates to a user visiting a weather web page twice a day, the monthly data transfer for a Flash Cast channel would be 88KB of data compared to 2,128KB of data using the standard HTTP connection to a web page.

How are channels and homescreens different from widgets?

The term "widget" is used in many different contexts. Channels and homescreens are complete lightweight Flash applications. Widgets tend to be low-level components that still must be assembled into an application. They are used most often to provide an onscreen representation of a UI control that can be manipulated by a user with a button or scroll bar. Channels and homescreens, on the other hand, provide a complete application framework with built-in navigation, data integration, preferences, and UI components that significantly speed up application development and content delivery.

What benchmark data does Adobe have relating to performance, memory, and scalability?

Adobe has performed extensive performance and memory scalability benchmarking. This data is available in a separate case study document that is available upon request. As an example, this new release of Mobile Server can support more than 500,000 sessions on the reference hardware platform, compared to 350,000 previously. The benchmarking white paper explains in detail the performance factors and the operations mix, including number of subscribers/devices, number of active subscribers/devices, frequency of updates (GetData requests), average size of update (per channel), average number of channels subscribed per device, frequency of subscription changes, frequency of preference changes, percentage of preference-sensitive channels, number of preferences per channel, number of subscriber login requests, number of new activations per day, overall maximum size of client-side cache per channel, and system constrains for both the delivery server and database server.

Developer information

How do developers create content for Flash Cast and Flash Home?: Developers can use Adobe Flash CS3 Professional and new Adobe Mobile AppBuilder software to create, assemble, test, and publish Flash mobile applications and custom feeds as either channels or homescreens. The integrated authoring tools allow developers to develop the mobile applications and publish them directly to a hosted development server for testing the applications on their desktop using a mobile client emulator and device profiles, which dramatically shortens the develop-test-debug cycle. This streamlined workflow makes it easier for developers and designers to publish high-quality channels and homescreens for Flash Cast or Flash Home deployments.
How can a developer start developing content for Flash Cast and Flash Home?: Adobe offers a private developer program for Flash Cast and Flash Home. Given the nature of the mobile ecosystem and operator implementations, the developer program is initially being made available to developers by invitation only. Only program members have access to Adobe Mobile AppBuilder and the hosted development server. However, we expect that the developer program will be opened to a broader array of developers in the future.

Availability

Which customers have launched Flash Cast and Flash Home?: NTT DoCoMo, the largest wireless operator in Japan, is currently using Flash Cast to power the i-channel service, aimed at leveraging existing i-mode sites and content and bringing those services to subscribers who currently have limited or no mobile data use. This group accounts for roughly 40% of i-mode subscribers, and thus i-channel taps into a huge potential additional revenue source for NTT DoCoMo. Since its launch in early September 2005, i-channel has steadily gained increasing numbers of users, currently accounting for roughly one-third of those subscribers who have purchased i-channel enabled mobile phones. Outside Japan, Adobe is working with several other Tier 1 operators worldwide. Reference customers for Flash Home have not been announced.
Does Adobe provide a hosted solution?: Flash Cast and Flash Home can be implemented as a hosted solution. Adobe hosts several development servers both for developers at large and for specific customer implementations. Adobe also offers a proof of concept and trial system for interested parties.
Are Flash Cast and Flash Home available for my mobile phone?: Operators choose when and which phones to enable with Flash Cast or Flash Home. Both solutions will be uniquely branded to fit into specific service offerings. Check with your operator regarding Flash Cast and Flash Home availability in your market.
How can I find more information about the Adobe Mobile Platform, as well as the Flash Cast and the Flash Home solutions?: For more information, submit your inquiry online. We will direct your questions to the appropriate sales representative in your region.

Customer support

Will downloads for Flash Cast and Flash Home be available from the Adobe website?: No. Flash Cast and Flash Home are licensed directly to operators and OEMs. Adobe works with these companies to implement the Flash Cast and Flash Home solutions to support innovative mobile experiences. Check with your operator regarding the availability of Flash Cast and Flash Home in your market and how to obtain the service.
Can I pull content in my channel/homescreen directly from a third-party web service?: No, Adobe Mobile Client does not directly support web service protocols such as SOAP. Rather, it supports the ability to directly use the loadMovies and loadVariables methods in ActionScript to access content directly for a remote network location.