Kutung

What’s Next for Adobe Flash?

arun — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:59:32 +0000

Remember Flash, the omnipresent plugin that used to run any and all rich media content on the web, from simple ad banners and web animation to games, videos and complex internet applications. Flash has seen its use cut down quite significantly since the 5 variety of HTML was introduced, coupled with increasing use of Jquery, the Canvas element and Ajax. The gauntlet was dealt when the late Steave Jobs said no to Flash in the IPad and IPhone and to prove him right Flash never took off in the Mobile Sphere.

True Flash code can be ported to create IOS and Android apps, but in all probability developers coding in native code will not switch over to the Flash environment anytime soon. So where does that leave Flash now?

Flash was and is still is the de facto platform for 2d web games, especially those massive multiplayer games on Facebook (Farmville anyone) and looks like Adobe wants to take it up a notch. The latest ver. of the Flash player (ver 11.2) boasts a number of high-end gaming features — from 3D graphics to easier mobile porting and they are also launching a partnership with Unity Technologies, maker of the Unity 3D game engine.

Adobe wants Flash to become a platform to develop console quality games for the web, this means that browser-based games and Facebook titles will be able to take a big leap forward in graphics fidelity and 3d acceleration and potentially offering a big boost for the whole game industry. Will the potential be converted into profits for Adobe, only time will tell.

Too Many Desserts on the Table!

arun — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:04:40 +0000

Most would agree that there are way too many ver. of the Android OS floating around. Since the 1st ver. of the Android OS, the code-nameless 1.0 was released, Google have been sending out updated vers. of their mobile OS in rapid successions and without any semblance of a release cycle. There has been the Cupcake, the Donut, the Eclair, the Froyo, the Gingerbread, the Honeycomb and now the Ice Cream Sandwich. Yummy sounding dessert names which are incidentally code-names for a significant vers. of the Android OS.

A case of too many desserts on the table perhaps, but Google, I guess intends to flood the market with its desserts, a dessert for every type of phone, from the entry level basic ones to those running on super processors and mega RAMs. Google do have to keep up with constant hardware updates in the new phones that manufactures keep developing, phones with bigger screens, more advanced camera technology, multi-core processors, faster chipsets, better radios etc. and some level one can sympathise with that and the haphazard releases.

I’m not going to take up the plight of the app developer here, who I’m sure are equally troubled if not more by these haphazard ver. updates, but where does it leave us the end users, should we really be bothered if our phones runs on an ‘Eclair’ or a ‘Froyo’ or the ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’? And the answer is simple a no, not till Google gets some order to their Android release cycle, maybe an annual release cycle and not till they give us timely options update the OSs in our phones.

We just don’t just choose our phones based on the ver. of Android it runs on, we choose them for various other reasons too and I’m sure that the ver. of Android it runs on is the optimal one for it. Most apps are developed for the lowest common denominator and would run on most vers. of Android unless you are still running on the Donut (ver. 1.5) or lower. That said, Google still has to get the “release cycle” house in order and educate Android users and potential users on the various options available.

IE6 RIP

arun — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:15:13 +0000

Microsoft celebrates the imminent demise of version 6 of its Internet Explorer browser by baking a cake.

The software giant held the light-hearted celebration as it revealed that the program was used by less than 1% of US internet surfers. It is keen to kill off the old version of the browser and persuade users to move to IE8 or 9.

Source : bbc.co.uk – 4 January 2012

What most men miss

Yagna — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:57:53 +0000

Lifecell, India’s first private cord blood bank, facilitates the cryogenic preservation of umbilical cord blood stem cells at its unique facility in Chennai. When they wanted to launch a new variant they took a pure digital route and asked Kutung to develop a launch plan. What we did was the usual- unconventional and risky.

We launched a microsite with a concept core to the product- about women and how lucky they feel to be a woman- by submitting one-liners and share it across social media. This was coupled with a Facebook initiative that included an app – where women could send “miss”iles to all the men they know- and the microsite with one-liners was the missile factory, so to speak.

The numbers were not what we expected- We got 16000 “likes” in 10 days and a ready audience for a product the day it was launched- on Women’s international day. The subsequent acticity on the product page on Fb is now hovering around 16000 likes- a happy place to be for the client and us.

Look it up:
The viral “app” page on Facebook
The product page on Facebook
and the viral site.

Door in a Keyhole

Yagna — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 04:26:51 +0000

In the lovely French quarters of Pondicherry you’ll find this paradox as you come around the corner- don’t miss it.
Real-life paradoxes tend to wake up the senses and experience the world as we were intended to- with curiosity and awe. I know it’s impossible to, stuck in our everyday tedium. But we try.

the 4-day week

Yagna — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:19:09 +0000

With 3 days to do nothing most of the team has been inventing excuses to come to work- turning the tables on monday blues. The lab-mode idea got a big boost this weekend- we had a HTML5 skinning to do and lots of looking up and looking down to do. And with the 4-day week giving us the 3 days to fool around, everybody declared the remaining weekend as lab mode as this project fell on both sides, conveniently ( a silent trend creeping up on us). Of course needless to say, the weekend beer flowed and some good conversation happened.

Experience golf lifestyling

Yagna — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:27:45 +0000

Kovai Hills, a golf-centric integrated township in Coimbatore, needed a solid web presence to communicate the scale and premium nature of the project. Set to be built on an 1000 acre property that’s host to hill ranges, an 18-hole championship golf course and unparalleled luxury amenities, this project required an interactive presence more than just a pretty brochure.
We did a site visit and we we’re mesmerized. We promptly included a 360 immersive panorama as the primary navigation – and built it in flash. The rest of the site stays within the same grid.

Visit www.kovaihills.in

Luxury down south

Yagna — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:08:41 +0000

Chettinad culture has spread far and wide just as much as the influences the culture has subsumed into it- its an unique blend of European and dravidian architecture, marked by a cuisine that’s now truly international. The Bangala, an elegant heritage home stay does a fantastic job of recreating the Chettinad experience for the discerning traveller- featured in Condenast Traveller and the New york Times.
We created an information architecture schema that allowed the user to straddle the cultural experience and checkout the stay details at the same time.

Visit www.thebangala.com

Holiday planning

Yagna — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:06:07 +0000

Yatra, one of India’s largest travel portal wanted to create an engaging holiday planning module. We took them through various workflow schemas, wireframes and design options and eventually created a UI that was well received by the market. it was also a great learning experience for us in terms of scale of operations, remote management etc.

Visit www.yatra.com

Process branding

Yagna — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:42:14 +0000

Saaki and Argus, an executive placement consultancy, has been consistently delivering the goods for a while and the success rate meant very little marketing- it was always a referral. As the organisation started scaling up the need to create a branding was felt- we quickly focussed on the differentiator. A robust filtering process that was at the heart of their success- we called it “Matchbox”, defined the workflow and the management was thrilled to own a branded process as IP.
The name lent itself to intrigue, so we used a guessing game as a conversation starter.

Visit www.saakiandargus.com