Max Media | Mostly Mobile

Flash Lite and iRiver Clix 2: first impressions

Author: Maxim Antinori

The iRiver Clix 2 just started shipping in the US recently, and having enjoyed my adventures developing for the first generation Clix (and the u10), I was excited to try out the new evolution of the Clix and see what, if anything, was added to the implementation of Flash Lite 2.

Before getting to that, a couple words about the Clix 2. It’s slimmer, with a more rounded “sexier” look. The flat pill-shaped buttons of the Clix 1 are now thin black buttons that in my opinion are definitely a step backward ergonomically. They are harder to press, and due to no longer having iconic labels on the buttons themselves (icons are next to the buttons on the back of the device) harder to identify. Also I’ve noticed the hold button is easier to accidentally switch on or off due to protruding more from the body of the device.

The AMOLED screen is a definite improvement, and all in all I think the biggest plus of the Clix 2. It handles glare better, and renders images (and Flash graphics) beautifully. A nice canvas on which to experiment with all those Flash themes you can create now on the Clix 2…a bit more on that later.

The screen still acts as the “d-pad”, clicking the screen itself to navigate menus, interact with Flash games, etc. Perhaps as a result of the slimmer form factor, however, I find the screen bevel buttons do not feel quite as solid as the Clix 1. Time will tell how well they hold up under repeated use, but for some reason the screen bevel clicks on the more brick-like Clix 1 inspired a bit more confidence.

Flash Lite changes
In my initial tests, it appears that the Clix 2 now supports the XML class, and so loading of external XML files. Definitely a welcome addition. Dave Yang was nice enough to confirm that finding with some tests of his own, as well as confirming that loading of external text files is supported as well. I presume that is through loadVariables, but will correct this entry if otherwise once I’ve had a chance to test myself.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like iRiver has added anything beyond that to its Flash Lite 2.x implementation on the Clix 2. So no video support, and no persistent data. The latter one was more surprising to me, just because it seemed that at the very least they’d beef it up to allow the fscommand2(“SetPersistentData”) as the u10 did with its FL 1.1 implementation. But neither that nor local SharedObjects are supported on the Clix 2 as far as I can tell. Sound object support is a no-go as well, so no loading those external mp3′s. SWF’s and Jpegs load as before, however, via loadMovie, so at least nothing got lost from the Clix 1 implementation (whew!).

Clix 2 Hijinx
Now for some fun sharing of my “idiot-boy” moment shortly after unwrapping my brand-new Clix 2. Like most honorable techno-geeks, I ignored the manual and fired the device right up (surprise surprise it was fully charged out of the box!). I had heard that the Clix 2 had a UMS mode (instead of the MTP mode that was the only option on the Clix 1), and because I develop primarily on the Mac, my first task was to switch it over to this mode so it would be recognized when I plugged it into my Mac’s USB port. I found the place to change this setting, saw the warning dialog saying the device would be formatted, and happily clicked ok. Why? Not sure, I think some overly confident voice in my head told me that whatever I lost from the preinstalled contents would surely be on the CD-ROM that was surely included in the package of materials. Well, there was a mini CD-ROM included, bad news was it didn’t include any of the preinstalled content! I won’t waste time in this blog ranting about how silly it is NOT to include that content, but I will offer up some links and resources to those who end up in my situation.

First, a few good iRiver sites to warm up to if you want to become one with your Clix:

http://www.misticriver.net/
http://www.clixhere.net/
http://www.gadgetkorea.com/

All three I believe require registration to take part in the forums, but it’s free. GadgetKorea also has some “content” areas for Flash Lite that look promising, but require certain number of posts to gain access (20 I think for the basic content). There’s lots of good info in the regular open-access forums though, included this nice post about saving persistent data on the Clix (via FL 1.1).

If you do what I did and accidentally lose all your preinstalled Clix 2 content, here’s some helpful places to try. To resurrect some of the pictures and theme files, check out this forum entry on clixhere.net.

To download an actual Flash theme template for the Clix 2, check out this link on iriverfans.com. I don’t believe this comes with the Clix 2, but after I nuked everything, who knows?

And for those who speak Korean, or want to learn, here’s a nice pseudo-tutorial on working with the theme template .fla.

If folks see any errors in anything above, please feel free to comment with your own Clix 2 experiences! I will add more as I use the Clix 2.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 11:33 pm and is filed under Flash Lite, Mobile General, iRiver. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.