You might be starting to notice that Update isn't a regular conference. It kicks off with the Royal Banquet at a palace (for which there are still a few tickets you can buy to attend), continues in the premier concert hall in Brighton, and ends with the A Night at the Museum after-party at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. It is a tightly-scripted experience, with 18-minute inspirational talks punctuated by Geek Ninja Battles, tech beats, and live/interactive music and visualization acts. And, unlike other conferences, we're approaching sponsorship differently too.

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Last week, my friend Mike Downey (who now works at Microsoft) tweeted:

Wow - can't believe we are giving away free laptops to all paid PDC attendees! Very cool! #pdc09

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As a Flash developer, I'm happy whenever anyone licenses anything Flash for any purpose whatsoever. It strengthens a platform that I love developing for. However, the news that Microsoft has licensed Flash Lite for its Windows Mobile phones doesn't excite me too greatly.

Flash Lite definitely has its place on mobile phones but that place is not to play back web-based Flash content. Flash Lite plays back Flash Lite content specifically created for phones and other devices like the Chumby. The best uses of it that I've seen are to build interface elements and other apps that integrate into the phone's operating system. Flash Lite cuts down development and testing time (and thus costs and time-to-market) considerably for such use cases.

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Typical, I spend the morning with my accountant and the blogosphere erupts with news of Microsoft's take-over bid for Yahoo!

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