The mobile version of the site contains a wealth of information on events, attractions and accommodation in and around Colchester and displays a nice take on mapping for venues.

The website was designed and built by Severine Vidal and and is based on NVG‘s mobile modular CMS Pro. It features a host of new options and modules to maintain and update the site.

The site also has some lovely imagery, so it is definelty worth having a look!

Click here to visit m.visitcolchester.com

Good times

Since the integration of the Flash and PDF ( since ColdFusion 8 ) platforms, more and more developers are flocking towards ColdFusion again, and it is seen as a great alternative to meet business needs quickly and effectively, and more and more businesses are hiring ColdFusion developers because of that.

Read more about ColdFusion 9′s key features and download links…

Some of the Coldfusion 9 features include:

• ColdFusion Object Relational Mapping (ColdFusion ORM) – a powerful Rapid Application Development (RAD) solution for building data-centric applications
• Offline application support for AIR applications
• Enhanced Flash remoting capabilities
• A broader set of Ajax controls that leverage the new Ext JS 3.0 library
• Improved PDF functionality
• Integration with other products and technologies such as Microsoft SharePoint and OpenOffice
• Server Manager – an AIR-based desktop application to centrally manage multiple ColdFusion servers from a single location
• Powerful search capabilities using Solr, an open-source enterprise search server based on the Lucene Java search library
• database enhancements and significant performance enhancements such as, granular control over caching, in-memory file capabilities, and improved clustering
• many language and CFC enhancements

You can download the ColdFusion 9 beta here, the ColdFusion builder beta can be found here (Adobe Labs membership required). As always, these are betas and may still contain a ton of bugs, so make sure you backup and existing projects, just to be safe

Read on after the break what has changed in beta 1, screenshots and how you can get hold of it…

Most notable changes in beta 1 (version 1.0b1)

• Implementation of Mozilla’s Tracemonkey Javascript engine – this should boost the speed of both the browser chrome and web content massively for mobile devices!
• Faster application start-up time
• Faster panning
• Faster zooming
• Initial implementation of bookmark folders and bookmark editing
• Support for plug-ins

The feature list builds on the existing alpha features, such as the Smart URL bar (“awesome bar”), tabbed browsing, access to multiple search engines, password manager, popup blocker or the Javascript API to get the devices location.

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Screenshots

Here are some screenshots from the alpha2 release (beta1 kept crashing on me):

Main screen

Easy to use tabs screen

Plugins screen

Preferences screen

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Installing Fennec

Fennec is currently only available for Windows Mobile devices (since alpha 1.0a1) and Nokia N810 Internet Tablet tablet devices running OS2008 (“chinook” or “diablo”). The browser is also available as a standalone pack for Win32, Mac OSX and Linux.

All releases can be downloaded here, and a step-by-step installation guide for WinMo and N810 can be found here.

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Hunting for bugs

Mozilla is hoping to get feeback from developers and encourage add-on developers to port existing add-ons across. If you are interested in helping out or testing this or the next betas as well as add-ons, why not jump over to Mozilla’s newsgroup and provide feedback?

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Related links

• Flash for mobiles – Adobe’s Flash Lite Distributable Player
• Designing for the mobile web
• The mobile web-adding value to your website

After installing Personas and restarting FireFox you are able to install skins via a new icon through the new Personas menu, enabling you to browse through the most popular skins, latest skins or simply just through all existing categories, and with the click of a button you can preview what your browser will be looking like before applying it with a single click.

Feeling creative and want to know more on creating your own skin? Then read on…

Make your own Persona skin

Creative minds have the option to register a profile on the Personas website and adding them to the public gallery, including stats on how many users are using your skin on a daily basis. Even better, all rights remain with the designer (you!). There is even a how-to on the Personas website for you to start designing right away!

My current favourite skin - Strata Black

Interested in Personas?

• Get Personas now! (free download)
  
• Browse the gallery (link to most popular skins)
  

This new player will enable developers and integrators to create rich, expressive applications targeted to the latest version of Adobe’s Flash technology, with the ability to distribute their apps including the runtime installer to millions of open OS mobile devices with a streamlined workflow and reduced time to market.

For now, the distributable player is only available on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile devices, but more devices are to follow very soon…

An integrated, updatedable solution

The runtime is part of a solution that includes the Flash Lite 3.1 Distributable Player and Adobe Mobile Packager, with authoring support provided via Adobe Flash CS4 Professional and Adobe Device Central CS4 (or via Adobe Flash CS3 Professional and Adobe Device Central CS3). Adobe Mobile Packager is a desktop tool enabling developers to transform an swf file into an install-package for S60′s and Windows Mobile devices.

The distributable player works in a similar way to Adobe’s Flash 10 Player – once installed and if you have a mobile device that allows OTA (over-the-air) updates, the application will update itself, ensuring that every user has the latest version of the mobile player installed.

The distributable player solution allows you to create rich mobile applications that:

• Target the latest Flash Lite player, by mimicking the successful Flash Player desktop model of content triggered downloads but for applications. Developers no longer need to worry about whether the device has the latest Flash Lite runtime.
• Reach millions of open OS smartphone users in the US, UK, Italy, Spain and through free direct-to-consumer distribution, new off-deck aggregator partners (GetJar, Thumbplay, Zed), or your existing distribution channels.
• Improve end user experience through easy installation and visual icons for Flash Lite applications.

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Easy distribution and marketing

There are several ways that a user can discover the application you developed, depending on the distribution channel, some examples of how the consumer may discover the application are:

• Catalog of one of Adobe’s Aggregator partners such as GetJar, Thumbplay and Zed
• Your own/the aggregator/other distribution channel desktop or mobile website
• A print or TV ad, with an SMS shortcode or web address

At the moment, Adobe’s Flash Lite solution is only available on Windows Mobile and S60 devices in India, Italy, Spain, UK, and the U.S., however additional countries will be added over time.

If you would like to give this new distributable player a try and work on your own mobile Flash application, why not have a look at the link below.

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Related information:

• Adobe’s Distributable Player Solution information (Abobe Labs)
• Download the Distributable Player

Bespin is an open, extensible  web-based framework for code-editing with the aim to increase productivity, promote open web standards and egage users and developers on a high level of user experience.

Replacing HTML authoring software – features of Bespin

Mozilla Labs has come up with a set of features, based on community feedback for its existing products and its own goals for open web development. In brief:

• Ease of use – Bespin is set up to let users get access straight to the code from within the dashboard without having to load any additional software
• Collaboration in real time – Bespin enables users to share work with colleagues via live coding sessions
• Extensible and self-hosted – The interface and capabilities of the web application will be highly extensible and easily accessible to users
• Integrated command line
• Accessible from anywhere – No matter where you are or what device you are on, the code editor should work, from any device, using any modern standards-compliant browser
• Wicked Fast — The editor will be smooth and responsive, regardless of file size

Currently in beta (release 0.1.6 “Nutritious Nimbus”), the editor is very easy to look at and use, allowing users to edit a number of different filetypes and previewing the outcome in a browser as well as exporting and importing projects. Below are two screenshots of Bespin’s Dashboard and open sessions as well as Javascript editing facility

Bespin Dashboard and open sessions

Bespin Javascript editing in Action

Try it for yourself

If you would like to try Bespin for yourself, why not visit:

• Bespin.Mozilla.com (free registration)
• Mozilla’s Bespin Wiki for tips and tricks