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MAX 2010 Recap

Eric Snowden — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:00:05 +0000

It’s taken me a few weeks to catch up after back to back conferences in Minnesota and LA, but this weekend I finally got around to jotting down my thoughts about Adobe MAX 2010. The yearly Max conference is always a highlight for me, and this year was no exception. Throughout the conference Adobe set a magnanimous tone regarding HTML5, positioning Flash/HTML as complimentary and not an either/or choice. It was great to see them paint the future of the web as a place where multiple methodologies can thrive with Adobe creating tools to support creatives regardless of technology. Here are some highlights from the conference.

My Panel

While I hate to list this as my first highlight, it was my reason for attending the conference. I spoke on a panel about Adobe’s InMarket program – a multi-store distribution platform for applications. InMarket allows you to push AIR applications to multiple stores from one easy to use interface. It was a great conversation between myself and other executives from Atari, Graphic.ly, Shufflr.fm and Thumbplay. Its great seeing Adobe take steps to fix a serious productivity problem for app developers regardless of platform.

Netaverages from Omniture

Adobe announced NetAverages from Omniture, an analytics tool that averages traffic across all the sites that Omniture tracks. It shows everything from browser usage, to screen size and mobile capabilities. You can set up alerts to be notified when browser usage hits a certain percentage, or mobile capabilities reach a threshold you set.

Check out Netaverages here.

iPad Magazines

The Adobe Digital Publishing Suite is set of tools for creating digital versions of magazines. Using InDesign and HTML5 print and web designers can create digital magazines like WIRED, The New Yorker, iGizmo and Sabado Bicentenario on the iPad as well as other tablets coming to the market.

Check out the Digital Publishing prerelease program.

Connected TV

A huge priority at Max this year was Flash for televisions. Adobe announced AIR for TV, which allows content providers and app developers to create applications for connected televisions. Google TV, and the device’s Flash enabled browser were also showcased with companies building websites formatted specifically for televisions.

Check out HBO GO for a great connected TV experience.

Blackberry Playbook

In the day one keynote we were treated to the first glimpse of the Blackberry Playbook in action. It’s built on top of the QNX OS (which powers the connected car prototype Fanbase runs on) and includes AIR at a very low system level. In fact many of the native Playbook apps, including the photo viewer, were written in AIR.

Flash Next

While HTML5 was a huge focus of the conference, MAX was not without some impressive Flash announcements. Adobe showcased game controller support for Flash and the impressive 3D capabilities of an upcoming version of Flash Player codenamed “Molehill”. The player has the ability to playback full 3D games at 0% CPU usage with hundreds of times more polygons than the current Flash player. Also showcased were upcoming enhancements to StageVideo that allow for full framerate playback of composited video and 4k video playback within Flash.

Muse

The final product that I was demoed during my three day stay was an upcoming piece of software codenamed Muse. Muse is an AIR app which can most easily be described as Flash Catalyst for HTML5. It allows visual/graphic designers to build out websites with complex functionality without needing to write any code.

Conclusion

All in all I had an amazing time, caught up with friends in the industry and collected enough inspiration to carry me through the rest of the year. Looking forward to MAX 2011!

Rob Thomas Android Launch

Eric Snowden — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:43:14 +0000

Today we launched a new version of Fanbase on the Android platform. Rob Thomas is our first artist, but we have launches planned across several WMG labels coming in the next few months. This compliments our Nokia and iPhone implementations of Fanbase Mobile and ads one more touchpoint to our group of desktop, social, mobile and connected TV applications.

Get the app in the Android Marketplace.

Open Screen Project

Eric Snowden — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:52:37 +0000

This may have been up for a while, but it’s new to me. We’ve been working closely with Adobe for a few years on their multi-screen initiatives and are now officially a member of the Open Screen Project. Were listed among some pretty impressive partners and are glad to be part of the project.

In addition to this, we are part of a concept video on the OSP homepage. The first video in the carousel titled “Fun with Friends” includes a conceptual mockup of what our AIR Application Fanbase could look like in the future. It’s just a concept at this point, but is fun to see. The folks at Adobe did an amazing job putting this together.

Check it out.

My Pic In Billboard Magazine

Eric Snowden — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:26:06 +0000

A picture of the panel I was on at NARM 2010 showed up in Billboard Magazine this week. I’ve been interviewed by Billboard before but have never seen my picture in print without knowing about it beforehand. While this may only be interesting to my friends and family, I wanted to post it here for posterity.

With the cover

Detail

NARM 2010 Mobile Applications Panel

Eric Snowden — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:47:29 +0000

Today I was on an amazing panel at the 2010 NARM Convention discussing the use of applications in the music industry. While the focus was on mobile apps, we discussed desktop apps, widgets and the mobile web as well. The panel was moderated by Tom Constabile from Verizon Wireless and contained experts in design, development, and publishing. It was a great honor to be included in a healthy debate on an important part of the music business. I’ll be posting a link here once the video is online.

NARM 2010 Convention link.

NARM 2010 schedule of events.

Talking about the iPad with Alternative Press

Eric Snowden — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:17:48 +0000

Check out my thoughts on how the iPad may effect the music industry at AltPress.com. Looks like I made the cut and was quoted a few times talking about the device. The interview was purely conceptual as none of us had seen the actual hardware, but I think everything we said holds up well post-launch.

Check out the full article here.

SXSW – The Future of Online Music Videos

Eric Snowden — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:15:24 +0000

Yesterday I spoke on a panel at SXSW titled The Future of Online Music Videos with Nick Stahl from Brightcove, Alexander Kisch from VEVO, John Sasso from SONY Music Entertainment, Inc and William Wilson from NARM. We discussed different delivery points for video online, from band’s direct to fan sites to large destinations like YouTube and Vevo, and how the right blend of these options can help build a band’s brand and drive revenue.

Read the full description on the SXSW website.

Read the review on Pop Matters.

QNX Connected Car case study on Adobe.com

Eric Snowden — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:04:22 +0000

There is a new article on Adobe.com talking about the success of the Connected Car project by Alcatel-Lucent and QNX software. The article focuses on the development platform QNX has created for automobiles using Flash Lite, and mentions the success Atlantic had porting our Fanbase application to the platform. There is also a short quote by yours truly. A great project to be a part of and continued success to QNX.

Check out the full article here.

Fanbase Desktop featured in the Adobe Download Manager

Eric Snowden — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:42:38 +0000

Fanbase desktop is now a featured app in the Adobe Download Manager. Adobe customers who download Acrobat will also be given the option to download several AIR applications, Fanbase being among them. A great promotion for our application and our artists from our partners at Adobe.

Avatar Fanbase Launch and New Press

Eric Snowden — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:47:01 +0000

Two mentions for Fanbase came out in the wake of our launch of the Avatar Soundtrack Fanbase. We worked alongside Fox to launch both Fanbase Social and Fanbase Desktop for Avatar.

Check out the link on the official movie site below.

We also received two great mentions for the platform with TrendHunter.com calling Fanbase “trail blazing music promotion” and GetToTheFuture.com giving us a great review. Check it out!