Inside the Chumby

From Embedded.com, an inside view (electronic part) of the Chumby...if you don't want to open it, someone made it for you !

Chumby à Paris

2 months ago, I said Chumby will be 'soon' available in some Europeans countries.

It's done ! You can now buy Chumby if you live Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France and UK !
Shipping cost is 24.95$ ... and doesn't move if you add TShirts!

So, I'll definitly get one soon !

Flash lite on linux ?

Since I just discovered the Azingo phone, I made some research on Flash Lite from Linux based devices...
Please note these devices uses or can play Flash Lite. I'm not sure how and what for (ie UI, browser, standalone, widget ?)

For mobile, I so found
- Azingo
- QTopia based devices, using FLite player port from Calsoft Labs (see below)
- Linux 2.4 based devices, using FLite player port from BSquare

I thought the ALP based devices will add Flash Lite support too, since they used NetFront browser but I can't find any information..


For others devices, I found
- Chumby (Chumby Power!!!)
- SysGo
- QNX (Flash Lite 3.1.7)
- BSquare
- Calsoft Labs


I also found the Freescale optimized chip for Linux based device which will compet with ARM, Adobe partner ?

Chumby will rule the world!!!

After USA, Japan and Australia, Chumby is now available in the UK.
and...Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal soon !!!!!
I'm pretty sure it will be a success in Italy, since there is a lot of FLite developers.
I'll finally be able to buy one !


Now, they only have to include Upnp support and it will definitly become my most-needed tool, with a N8x0...

Chumby on the news

It's fun...while I'm looking at Chumby, it comes in the news!

Via Dale, Chumby is now available on Australia throught Internode. Also coming soon on Japan.

Internode also sells 'skins' for Chumby


At the same times, I discover the Chumby 2009.
The most noticeable change is the long awaited 'reboot after power outage'.

Thanks Chumby !

Yesterday I won 12 months of free access to the Lynda.com Online Training Library.
It's so great! I already know which trainings I'll see first!

How did I win this ? Dale launched a caption competition 1 week ago and I won...thanks to the Chumby!

When I said that to my wife she asked me about the Chumby.
I so linked her to some reviews on the Web and.... I hope DC4 has the Chumby template because she really liked it :)

I just need to find a way to buy them...since I'm out of USA, I can't buy them from Chumby's store...too bad :(
It seems I'll have to add a favorite search on eBay...
Contact me if you know how to import them in France !

Screen sizes

Last week, I finally found some times to look a recorder eSeminar of Dale Rankine (Mocket) : Tips and Tricks for Effective Adobe Flash Lite.

In this cool eSeminar, Dale gave this tips :

Set Stage to minimum screen size, then bleed visual assets around the stage to allow for screen resizing

I'm actually using fsCommand2("FullScreen", true) to avoid problem with screensize but Dale came again with an alert

SE devices will not scale up but will scale down

ouch!
So the first tips is finally a great idea but when you see all the different screen sizes existing....wait a minute...which screen sizes EXACTLY ?

I so jumped to Bill Perry's Flash Lite enable phones sheet
I only develop for FL2.0+, since I'm not an AS1 guy so I looked to all FL2.0+ phones screen size and, well, screen sizes do not change as much as I though.
It seems I kept FL1.x phones enable screen sizes in memory.

Let's see which screen sizes exist

• 800x352 : 1 phone (Nokia E90)*


• 320x240 : 1 phone (Nokia E71...my future phone ? to replace my Samsung I320)


• 320x239 : 2 phones (BREW LG)


• 240x320 : 73 phones (56 Nokia + 17 SE)


• 240x300 : 8 phones (BREW)


• 240x266 : 9 phones (SE Cxxx phones ...even on the C905-capuchin inside)*


• 176x220 : 1 phone (SE V640i)


• 176x204 : 9 phones (BREW)


• 128x160 : 6 phones (only Nokia S40 3rd FP2 phones)

*E90 also has a secondary display which is 240x320

So...what does this mean ? What I see is that a lot of phones are 240x320 (or near)...
Personnaly, I'll try now to make applications in 240x320 with a 240x266 effective view (27 pixels up and down for other phones)
"Wait! you loose 20 phones!"
Well, if you really want to support the others size, just use some math ;)
128x160 is a 240x300 scaled down
176x204 is a 240x278 scaled down
176x220 is a 240x300 scaled down
320x240 is a 240x320 flipped...you'll need to handle that (and the controls!)
320x239 is near a 320x240, no ? ;)
for the E90...I don't know if FL applications could be launched on the secondary display. If so, it's a 240x320!

This post is what I'm actually testing...I don't know if you should do the same.
I just point out some details which could give you some ideas for your futur development. It's up to you and the main goal of your application.

oh...and the Chumby need a 320x240 SWF ;)