Flash

Last week, Steve Jobs posted a "Thoughts on Flash" article to Apple's website discussing Apple's decision to not pursue Flash on iPhone.

Google VP Andy Rubin responded to this by saying, "sometimes being open means not being militant about the things consumer are actually enjoying." Jobs wants us all to use HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, but despite the growing capabilities and support of those standards, Flash is still the right tool for some jobs, and despite Jobs' complaint that most Flash sites weren't designed for touch interfaces and will probably be broken, a lot of them will probably still be usable, or easily fixed by developers who care.

While I'm a happy Mac user — happy about everything, that is, except Flash video performance — Jobs' fourth point, on battery life, "The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained," and the implied conclusion "therefore you should not be allowed to watch software-decoded videos on the 45 minute bus ride between your charging station at home and your charging station at work" typifies what really irks me about Apple, why I tend to disagree with Apple's so many of Apple's technological policies, and why I'm happy there's a Droid in my pocket and not an iPhone.

Outsight Interactive is very pleased to announce that it has been selected as a winner for the 2007 MITX Awards. Outsight was awarded the top prize in the category of Applied Technology for their work on the FootJoy "DryJoys Microsite".

The DryJoys micro-site was created to highlight the latest in FootJoy shoe technology -- the new DryJoy’s Stability Pod™ outsole. The new outsole places each of its seven spikes on a hard plastic “pod” surrounded by soft plastic allowing the pods/spikes to move independently of each other, thus maintaining a better grip on the ground especially over uneven surfaces.

Outsight took a three-fold approach to present this complex technology: Animations were created from details of the shoes to highlight the product features. In addition, a full swing was presented, showing key points of the sequence where the pod technology really comes into play. Lastly, within the swing sequence a “heat map” was shown of the bottoms of the shoe to show how the pressure moves to various parts of the outsole through the swing sequence to further demonstrate how the independently moving pods can help afford greater stability.

But that was not the end of the DryJoys story -- a style carousel was created to present all 11 diverse styles and a Team DryJoys area was created to highlight the product's acceptance and use by PGA tour players.
Finally, a contest was created to create buzz around the new product and site.

Outsight announces the launch of a banner campaign promoting the new colors and team logos (Collegiate and Major League Baseball) FootJoy is now offering for their MyJoys Shoes. Subtle animation is used to show the changing colors and logos on the shoe, showcasing the new product enhancements.

This is the latest in a series of banner campaigns FootJoy has done to promote their new products and keep interest in their site.

Outsight is pleased to announce the launch of the DryJoys banner campaign.

This is the latest in a series of sweepstakes FootJoy has done to promote their new products and keep interest in their site. Each contest is supported by a Flash banner campaign, a targeted email campaign, and a homepage hero image on FootJoy.com. Each contest has attracted tens of thousands of entrants, roughly 85% of which are return users to FootJoy.com. This demonstrates a growing, loyal following for FootJoy.com.

Outsight is pleased to announce the launch of Licensed MyJoys, an extension to the award-winning FootJoy MyJoys application. The application was extended to offer Major League Baseball and Collegiate licensed shoes and gloves.

Outsight is pleased to announce the launch of the FootJoy: DryJoys microsite. Read more about the DryJoys project in our Portfolio or visit the microsite.

Challenge
You’re working on an animation in Flash on your main time line. You then decide that you want to convert your animation into a movie clip. Should be easy right? You select all of your frames on the main time line, copy them, insert a new symbol (in this case a movie clip), and paste them into the new clip. Should be set to go, but what happens? All that wonderful animation that you spent so much time on goes wonky. Frames that once ended at frame 50 now continue to play until the end of the movie (frame 300). Now you have to go back in and delete the frames in each layer that extended to the end of your time line, and hope that you don’t forget anything as you fix your animation. What a waste of time and energy. Drives me nuts.

Solution
It’s so simple… finally figured it out last week. All you need to do is insert a blank key frame at the end of each animation layer before you copy and paste your frames into a new movie clip. Inserting a blank key frame will keep your tweens in place, end frames and all. No more images overlapping, no more deleting frames, and no more wasting time.

If you have had a similar problem, I hope this gives you back some time (Flash always seems to steal mine). If you have another solution for this problem, I would love to hear about it.

Outsight announces the launch of a banner campaign showcasing the new Spring colors that FootJoy is offering for their SciFlex gloves.

The banners are running for a week beginning 4/20/2007 on Golf.com, Golf Channel, PGA Tour, Golf Week, Golfstat, and Junior Golf Scoreboard

Outsight announces the launch of a banner campaign showcasing FootJoy's latest development in golf shoe technology -- ReelFit.

By incorporating a BOA lacing system into their golf shoes, players can achieve a truly custom fit. FootJoy needed a banner campaign that was as "edgy" as their new product and that ties in seamlessly with both the print campaign and the Microsite.

The banners are running the week of 3/19/2007 on Golf.com, Golf Channel, PGA Tour, Golf Week, Golfstat, and Junior Golf Scoreboard