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NEW YORK -- A simple hiking stick was way too low-tech for Macromedia Flash expert Phillip Torrone.
So Torrone equipped his stick with GPS and Flash applications that let him identify trails and track information on local flora and fauna -- and leave messages for other hikers.
He'll show off the hiking stick and more of his quirky creations, such as a digital belt buckle made from an old Palm V, when he discusses wireless fashion at a Flash conference here Friday.
His inventions are sure to delight his geeky audience of developers and designers at FlashForward. But his audience will start taking notes when he brings out mass-market, Flash-enabled devices such as a Microsoft Pocket PC Phone Edition and an O2 XDA, two Pocket PCs that are also phones.
Flash developers believe mobile devices like these are the wave of the future, Torrone said. "Last year, wireless phones outsold PCs for the first time," he said.
Flash is software that creates interactive multimedia content and applications. It is widely used to create content aimed at PC users surfing the Web -- but Flash is popping up on all kinds of platforms.
Torrone's session at FlashForward is not the only one that will reflect this trend. The three-day conference, which begins Wednesday, covers Flash for Sony's PlayStation 2 gaming console, DVDs, and broadcast and interactive TV. One session will even discuss karaoke that can be played on any Flash-enabled handheld or other device.
Multimedia author Lynda Weinman said this year's conference will cover more platforms than in the two years since she and Stewart McBride of United Digital Artists launched it.
As devices proliferate, designers and developers are turning to Flash because it offers compelling advantages over other tools, Torrone said. He recently co-authored a book on Flash for mobile devices, TV and video game consoles: Flash Enabled: Flash Design & Development for Devices.
Flash is vector-based, meaning that it works with mathematical formulas rather than pixels. As a result, Flash files are generally light and download quickly -- a big plus for people using mobile devices on wireless networks.
Flash's vector graphics are also scalable: They can be displayed at any size, from a tiny cell-phone screen to a giant movie screen.
Another advantage of Flash is that its applications and content can be easily transferred from one platform to another. Unlike Java and C++, Flash is not device-specific, Torrone said.
"Right now, if you create something in Java on one system, it probably won't work on another," he said. "C++ -- if you code an application for your Windows PC and you put that file on your mobile device, it's not going to run. But something like Flash, you can assume that it's going to run."
Torrone said advertising agency Fallon Worldwide, where he works as director of product development, easily repurposed a Lee Jeans ad campaign created in Flash, the Buddy Lee Staring Contest. It was created for a website, then modified for use on Pocket PCs.
"Just as an idea, we said, 'Oh, maybe this will run on a mobile device,' and it did. Just a couple of modifications, and it was a full-blown application," he said.
The campaign recently won an award in the wireless category at One Show Interactive.
So with all Flash has to offer, does Torrone have it in his digital belt buckle he'll be showing at FlashForward on Friday?
Not yet, he admitted, but he won't content himself with such a retro fashion accessory for long. This summer, he plans to make a new one from a Compaq iPaq Pocket PC that will be fully Flash-driven, with video and motion graphics. "That'll be my Version 2," he said.
