Fake Adobe Flash Player Install - Don't Be Fooled

You are surfing along and when you land on a site that contains any type of flash movie (and some that don’t!), you get a popup box that says your Adobe Flash version is out of date and needs to be updated.

Since it appears real enough, and because most computer users know they have Adobe installed, many will click on it. Don’t. It is Malware.

Malware often use many techniques to manifest itself onto their host, including these fake warnings to update something on your computer. This piece of malware masquerades itself as a flash player plugin for the Firefox browser (detected by Sophos as Troj/FFSpy-A, and TrojanClicker.VB.395 as detected by TrojanHunter ).

To Repair Your Machine

Take these steps to clear your machine, and remember, a daily complete virus scan by reliable scanning software can save you a lot of grief.

First, since this is a FireFox Addon, open FireFox –> Tools –> Addons

You are looking for an addon that looks something like the one above. Remember it has undergone revisions over the years, so it might not appear exactly as shown. Uninstall this nasty little guy.

Next, the extension works in conjunction with a trojan executable. In the recent past it was smc.exe, though there are probably others by now. And if you are running SyGate as your firewall, smc.exe is a legitimate file! You will need an up to date virus and Trojan scan to remove the rest of the malicious software from your machine. TojanHunter is not a bad tool to add to your arsenal. You can download a free 30 day trial at that link.

To Determine Your Real Version Of Flash

When in doubt, you should always visit the Adobe site for your downloads. In fact, this is true for ANY legitimate software or extension you have installed. Just like the fake email’s from PayPal or your bank, don’t trust the direct link. Type it into the address bar or closely review the link you are about to click. It should not have any extra characters in the link (for example www.AdobeX.com).

To determine the exact version of the flash player you have installed on your computer, you can visit Adobe’s Version checker at http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

Flash is Belong to Adobe

So when Adobe contacted Envato, an Australian startup that operates a set of popular marketplaces for digital creative goods to change one of their marketplaces names, Envato had no choice. Envato operates a property called FlashDen, which sells Adobe Flash and Flex files like preloaders, galleries, site templates and utilities. Files are created and sold by a huge community of authors from all over the world.

Last week Adobe contacted Envato and asked Envato to change the name and URL of FlashDen so that it would no longer contain the term ‘Flash’, which is a registered trademark of Adobe. With little time, Envato changed the name from FlashDen to ActiveDen.

Seeing this change, we reached out to Collis Ta’eed, the CEO of Envato, and he mentioned that Envato received a letter from a law firm representing Adobe asking to change FlashDen’s name. Envato followed through, not wanting more legal problems with Adobe. Ta’eed also mentioned that “FlashDen” was filed as a trademark in Australia in January 2008 and entered on the Australian trademark register in August 2008. Envato is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Toggling _focusrect

Rather than Flash lite 2.x, you can not modifications its _focusrect property. By default _focusrect be yellow box around.

You can toggle _focusrect by using
_focusrect = false;

Using the SetFocusRectColor command within your Flash Lite 2.x and 3 applications is easy, as there is a custom fscommand2.

fscommand2("SetFocusRectColor", 0, 0, 0);
Selection.setFocus(any_mc);

You need to set the color to replace 0,0,0.

Memory Limitation for Flash Lite Game

You may have flash lite application on your project which need to be so an adventure-like game. Ever wonder how many Megabytes are acceptable for Flash Lite applications?

A Flash Lite application should be in the kilobytes range not megabytes. Remember everything runs in memory. Test using Device Central and look at the memory consumption.`Usually is around 2MB for S60 phones.

On the phone you will get a prompt asking to access the network. Usually only once.
If you are not distributing your application to the public you really do not need to go through the Symbian singed process.

2 Way and 4 Way Navigation

Ever wondered why some flash lite application can use 2 way navigation, while other can use 4 way?

This not because if specific script to push some application only working in 2 or 4 way. That because you set it on different device. Some device, mostly japanese one, only support 2 way navigation. That's why you can not make 4 way navigation for their market.

You can have this device to test on 2 way navigation :

Fujitsu F700i, Fujitsu F700iS, Fujitsu F901iC, Fujitsu F901iS, and Mitsubishi D901i. Those are working for flash lite 1.x.

To check on your computer, you can open C:/Program Files/Macromedia/Samples and Tutorial/Samples/Flash Lite 2.0.

_focusrect in input text

Usually if we create flash lite application, we use input type to collect some data. It can any variable to send to database or any query to specific URL.

While you doing that, sometime you want to disable any focus rectangle (yellow box) on button. You can use this code that apply to button :

on (rollOver) {
_focusrect = true;
}

While you leave those button away from yellow box, you can enable each input type by adding code to first frame :

tex1._focusrect = true;

That if you already set input text name as text1.

Place Movie Clip On Specific Area

I have one movieclip or MC, and I want to have it on top of the page. Maybe it would be so easy to do so. You just make an movie clip in flash lite, and then put it whit align help panel to set it right in the center area.

Done.

But how if you dont know the size of mobile screen size. It has different size, from 240*320, 176*208, 352*416, and so on. First, you need to get information about size. You can use Stage.width; (get width) and Stage.height; (to get its height). So for example, you make stageWidth_txt text with variable name : stageWidth_txt. Then in first frame you type :

onEnterFrame = function()
{
stageWidth_txt.text = Stage.width;
}

Then it will tell the width of the screen size.

With this information, when you make a movie clip with name : box_mc, you can set it to get middle and top of screen with :

onEnterFrame = function()
{
setProperty( "box_mc", _y, 0 );
setProperty( "box_mc", _x, (Stage.width/2) );

}

Trial Versions of Flash CS4 is Avalilable

Yes, by middle of this November, Adobe released Trial Version od Flash CS4. Now everyone can try it. This trial versions are available for both Mac and PC in the languages Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.



Click here to download the trial. Have fun!

Looking for Flash Lite tester in Japan

Japan is still main target of some flash lite developer. Well, we know, they started to develop it since few years ago. And ever since, they still busy to develop and create more and more flash lite application on each telecommunication provider. Like NTT docomo, AU, etc.

Some of my flash lite project are targeted for japan market. Even I can not understand Japanese Language, I'm so lucky I have friends there. They will help me to do some test out before my flash lite release in Japan. They can tested out to their own phone or just bring the application and go to nearly shop that provided some handset to be tested.

And if you are in Japan, you can also help some developers are really like to launch a flash lite product in Japan. If you don't work, then some of developers want to pay to make any necessary modifications to make it work. Like instinct.co.nz who now looking for helper with flash lite tester in japan or outside japan with Japanese phones.

Looping for specific time in movie clip

File size are really matter when you working with flash lite. Specially when you making application with flash lite 1.* or 2.*. They will asking for lower than 100 kb as file size.

So, coding will be important. When you create movie clip and asking it for looping only several times, you will rather using coding than making movie clip many. So, for example, you want to have a movie clip only looping 3 times or 5 times, you can try this one.

Put a code in frame 1 :

var countMe = 0;
var howManyTimes = 2;

(Notes : 0 is included as a number..This would loop 3 times)

Then on frame 2 add keyframe, and do nothing.

On last frame :
if (countMe==howManyTimes) {
stop();
} else {
countMe++;
gotoAndPlay(2);
// note: cannot go back to frame one because countMe var
// would get reset if that frame is entered...
}

And, you are done!

More Flash Lite Forum on Uservoice.com

So, you already know how to get Flash Lite Forum. But there are more to go if you really want to know.

Since last week, we have 2 URL which talking about Flash Lite Forum :

http://flashlite.uservoice.com and http://flashMaD.uservoice.com



So you will get help to make AS3 work on Flash Lite, enforce instant full screen on Flash Lite or Symbian, add profiles of touchscreen devices to CS3 and many more.

Micro payment API for you to make money on your game

What is API and where you can get and host your free Multiplayer API is what we discuss in my last post.

Now you can even get Micro payment API for you to make money on your game. What great about this is a payment API for flash games.

Nonoba Payment is a Flash API, for ActionScript 2 & 3, that allows any game developer to charge real money, from a few cents to hundreds of dollars, for their in-game content. The developer receives 70% of all revenue, while we use 30% to cover transaction-fees, fraud and management of purchased items. It’s the same split as Apples iPhone App Store, and we think it's a pretty good deal and a great way for a game developer to make some actual money from their hours of hard work.

Games developed with Nonoba Payment works everywhere on the Internet.

How payment works:
Payment happens inside the game, and when the payment is done, the user can continue playing the game with the additional unlocked content. While we currently only support PayPal as a payment method, we’re hard at work negotiating deals with additional payment methods like Premium SMS, promotion based payment, and credit cards for all countries.


Opportunities for the developer:
Game developers have complete freedom over what they want to sell, and the price they wish to charge for it. The system is not limited but supports a lot of different payment models: trial-to-purchase, level packs, upgrades, micropayment for mini-upgrades, or simply asking for donations. It’s up to the developer to figure out how they want to monetize their game.

Multiplayer API and big contest:
Nonoba Payment naturally works really well with our other APIs, like our hosted multiplayer API for hassle-free building of flash multiplayer games. It’s already been used to build a bunch of great games, and we’re still accepting entries into our Multiplayer Kick-off competition, which runs until 1st of November with total prizes for $ 20.000 USD.

Visit our multiplayer section to learn more: http://nonoba.com/developers/multiplayerapi/overview

Flash Lite 1.1 Player Error Messages

While you finish the rest of your flash lite application, sometime you keep press Ctrl+Enter to check your application on Flash Emulator. Once you have problem with those, you will see any error message that will appear on the emulator.

This can help you to get away from more problem when you test on real handset. Like when I try to place movie clip into movie clip with loadMovie(url,"some_mc");, I found problem on it.


It is said :

Problem with content: 5 - Invalid ActionScript in SWF data.

So what is Problem with content: 5 anyway?

Adobe developer center bring solution with describe all this code problem.

Here's a complete list of the "Problem with content: number" messages you may encounter, listed by error number:

1. Out of memory
2. Stack limit reached
3. Corrupt SWF data
4. ActionScript stuck
5. Infinite AS loop
6. Bad JPEG data
7. Bad sound data
8. Cannot find host
9. ActionScript error
10. URL too long

Usually after the Flash Lite 1.1 player prompts you with a message, you need to exit the player, relaunch it, and open the SWF file again.

PDF File for Quick Learning 4 Ways Menu

While you doing an application in Flash Lite with 2 way or 4 way navigations,you will need a brief guide about it. It will guide how to create a key catcher button,create and use a key catcher button, creating a simple menu using movie clips,create a simple menu using movie clips,handling button events, create a button event handler script.

I love all this things all wrapped out by simple .pdf file. You may have it by free. Just go to this link , click smallpdf icon with "FREE DOWNLOAD THIS TUTORIAL" on right side.

You will have a pop up window, then you know how to download this file.

Xuinet FlashR Developer Challenge Launched

Last few days ago, I got an email from Esther for the Xuinet team.

Here the content :

In conjunction with Adobe, Millennial and DeviceAnywhere, Xuinet is leading the search for the best in class mobile Flash application. $10,000 in cash and prizes are up for grabs for the most downloads and best in the following categories:

o Blogs, forums and social networks
o Fun-n-games
o Images/slide-shows
o Sports
o On-the-go-travel, weather, news, etc.

To participate, Flash developers simply download the SDK at www.xuinet.com, create their content and publish it to the Xuinet network to enter before November 3, 2008. Further details on the FlashR Developer Challenge can be found at www.xuinet.com/2008FlashR.

Random Welcome Screen

I love tricky way to generate random frame to be stopped. For example, you have frame 1-10 with different movie clip on it. So,whenever user click a button,they will get surprises with different welcome screen.

Here we go.

on (release) {

// Sets the number of digits in the random sequence:
var mySetting = 3;

// Creates a random number:
myNumber = random(mySetting)+1;

// Checks to see if it is repeating itself:
if (myNumber == myTemp) {
// If it is repeating it generates a new random number:
myNumber = random(mySetting)+1;
gotoAndStop(myNumber);
// Continues as above:
if (myNumber == myTemp) {
myNumber = random(mySetting)+1;
gotoAndStop(myNumber);
if (myNumber == myTemp) {
myNumber = random(mySetting)+1;
gotoAndStop(myNumber);
if (myNumber == myTemp) {
myNumber = random(mySetting)+1;
gotoAndStop(myNumber);
}
}
}
}
// Displays the random number:
myDisplay = myNumber;
// Resets the variable to the new random number:
myTemp = myNumber;
}

Thanks for Phil Sculz for sharing this.

Bvlgari In Action

Last week,I met my friend who visited bandung, and show some cool wallpaper on his Sony Ericsson Phone. First, I was so amaze with his screensaver,which is running a new type of Bvlgary newest collection over in Japan.

While I saw this,I try to open his menu. What a great phone. I heard the have many application for flashlite. Games,menu, also all develop by flash lite. So i try to imagine what will flashlite do next. Not only in Japan,but also here in Indonesia.

Free Download Flash Lite Wallpaper

Have you seen what minutebio.com guys doing with Flash lite? they did great.I like its presentation of creating analog clock wallpaper. Specially Edgar Allan Poe wallpaper with clock.

It has simple presentation, but one thing is cool : Analog clock with the image of Edgar Allan Poe's ghost appearing and disappearing depending on the hour, minute and second. You can download here.

This because they create a movieclip that directed by fscommand2 GetTimeSeconds, GetTimeMinutes and GetTimeHourss.

Streaming Live Video with Flash Media Server

Having thought of using Webcam and compile it as part of Flash project? Student of Tom Green do. In fact, you should come and see what he doing to make it happened.

What we need, just do the following:

- Use a webcam and Flash Media Encoder 2.5 to create a stream.
- Use the FLVPlayback component and one line of ActionScript to feed that stream into a browser.

There are 6 articles for this :

Part 1: Installing Flash Media Server 3
Part 2: Streaming video with Flash Media Server 3
Part 3: Using ActionScript 3.0 with Flash Media Server 3
Part 4: Streaming audio through Flash Media Server 3
Part 5: Security features in Flash Media Server 3
Part 6: Streaming live video with Flash Media Server 3

Interesting huh? go and get it via Adobe Developer Center.

Flash Lite UI Component Examples

Here are some nice and lightweight components directly from the Experience Design team at Adobe Mobile and Devices.

What will you get from them:

* Discover how to create low memory yet rich components
* List, Slider, Tile, NavModel and Gapper components for Flash Lite 2.x/3.x
* Carousel, Menu, Story and scroll bars in Flash Lite 1.1
* Key Handling for Flash Lite 1.1 and Flash Lite 2.x/3.x
* Image Handling, loading and unloading etc (TileMenu)
* Creating device UI and multi-screen applications (NavModel)


Grab this here.