Ok, it has been some time since the last time I blogged. I have picked Adobe AIR as today’s topic as I think I have collected some really nice examples of it lately. Adobe AIR has been here for quite a while (over two years to be precise) and I have had the love for it right from the beginning.
Ok, so what is Adobe AIR anyway? In short Adobe AIR is a runtime which enables Flash Developers to use their existing ActionScript skills to create applications for desktop. Which means that we Flash developers can now bring our web applications to desktop without learning any new programming language. You can read more about it here.
Essentially, Adobe AIR is a tool which can work both online and offline, is cross-platform and has access to platform’s own filesystem and thus can read/write files locally.
Let me show you some examples.
Whoever has a Twitter account and a lot of following/followers, has to be using either TweetDeck or DestroyTwitter. Both of them are built using AIR. TweetDeck allows integration of Facebook and LinkedIn accounts as well.
GMDesk allows you to access your email right from your desktop. TimesReader allows you to read NewYork Times newspaper’s desktop version.
I don’t know if anyone has seen it already but the movie “Avatar” has an interactive trailer built using AIR which is done quite brilliantly and can be found here (Click on “See how it was made”, then the third thumbnail from the list to download the application).
And Adobe AIR is also used in Motion Pictures industry because of its ease-of-use and the interactivity it provides. Here is a full interview of OOOii owner Kent Demaine of him explaining the way they used Flash and AIR to let the actors interact with the holographic interfaces on set of movies like “Minority Report” and “Star Trek”. More about OOOii here.
And for those interested in numbers, Adobe AIR has way passed 200 million mark long ago.
So yes, Adobe AIR is very cool and the scope it provides to us Flash developers is huge. I am working on an AIR application as well and will share once done. Cheers. 🙂
Moving Pixels 