RefreshingApps.com

Blimey Adobe have been very busy and there is now so much focus on AIR and AIR applications, it’s an exciting time.
Adobe announced a few days ago a new pre-release program called Adobe Wave.

It’s a desktop notifications system using a hosted API by Adobe to enable single call updates for trusted social networks and newsletters. It is a SaS (Software as a service) system by Adobe using a REST API that gives developers the ability to reach users without having their own desktop presence like ...

The new Adobe software code named Thermo has been demoed at conferences and online quite a bit since Max last year. It is still very much in pre-release development however Adobe have released the actual product name for Thermo – Flash Catalyst. I think it is a very good name due to the very nature of where the tool sits within the new CS4 suite and upcoming Flex 4.

If your not familiar with what the application offers, it works with the new FXG format that Adobe is integrating with Flex 4 ...

I heard this rumor sometime ago but Adobe has now made a statement at it’s Max conference in San Francisco. The technology will work on ARM powered devices to enable Adobe Flash 10 and Adobe AIR on supported devices. This will provide hardware accelerated media and graphics to not only mobile phones but also set top boxes and in car systems that use the ARM chip.

This is game changing and the though of being able to deliver AIR applications for mobile devices is very exciting. Will be ...

Yes the next big release for Adobe AIR is finally out in the wild. The pre-release guys have had access for a while but now all of you can get the latest update and start playing with Flash player 10 goodies, encrypted local database and for HTML developers the new JavaScript engine Squirrelfish that offers up to 35% faster performance.

So head on over to the download center to grab yourself the new SDK and go here for the Adobe AIR runtime.

Adobe have been hard at work getting Growl support for AIR applications when used on the Mac OS X platform. While you can achieve cross platform notifications using AIR, Mac fans appreciate the Growl integration of native apps and it has been requested many times.

So Mike Chambers has announced that they have been working with the Growl team and it is now possible to get Growl support into your AIR application. Read the blog post as you will need to get the bleeding edge version of Growl and ...

Everyone is jumping on the desktop bandwagon these days. So Yahoo have come to the part with BrowserPlus. It is a a way of getting web apps to have desktop capabilities.
They look to be offering a set of JavaScript API’s which you can try in the Service Explorer.

I don’t see this as competing product to Adobe AIR however it’s an interesting concept to be aware of. Check out the API and the support forums.

Recently I have seen many sites offering AIR installer files for their application only to find that thy are not being delivered using the correct MIME type. This means the browser thinks that the AIR file is a compressed ZIP file and on my Mac gives the .air a .zip extension as well.

To many new users to AIR this can be confusing and some are not sure why the AIR app is not auto installing. This can be a big drop out point for your new users well before they have even started the AIr ...

For those of you on a Mac who do any kind of development there stands a good chance that you own a copy of Textmate. I came across a new bundle for Adobe AIR that you can add to your installation. Check it out here.

Ted Patrick has started to collate a list of ActionScript 3 API’s primarily for the Adobe MAX keynote but should be a great source of info for all you AIR mashup people out there.
https://adobemax.dabbledb.com/page/cloudapis/IylZKLSG

Fround this useful link from a post on Twitter about how to trick Adobe AIR into installing properly on OS X (10.5.4). Not had any issues myself, although looking through the coments it seems to a have been a workable solution to a few.

So check out Andrew Petersons post out here.

The ‘Skin to Win’ competition over at Scalenine has ended and the winners have been announced. There are some interesting skins there and you can go and preview them all here. The first place entry was by Alberto Alcaraz with undefined and it’s a lovely skin with lots of detail you can check out a live example over at Scalenine.

The BBC have announced their plans to take the iPlayer concept cross platform using the power of Adobe AIR. The blog post by Erik Huggers (director of Future Media and Technology) outlines the future vision for the iPlayer to conform to the corporations platform neutrality aspirations.

Primary drivers for this move are cross platform desktop application that works on Apple OS X, Windows and Linux. The ability to locally save programmes for viewing later or even offline, gives the license fee ...

Bit late on the uptake with this but early this morning Adobe released Flash Player 10 for general download and announced that Creative Suite 4 can now be purchased.
So go and get your hands on the greatest Flash Player ever.

Following the £5k Future of Web Apps competition to turn your ideas for a great AIR application into reality, the winner is UpshotApp.com. Following a Dragons Den style panel (called the AIR dragons!) the winners had to pitch their ideas for an Adobe AIR application.

Adobe will be on hand to help as you define the scope for your AIR application and will also help promote your application upon release through the Adobe AIR Marketplace

Yes and not forgetting RefreshingApps.com ...

I’m thrilled to be speaking at this years Adobe Max conference in Milan (December 1st – 4th). My session is titled ‘Perfecting the users experience with Adobe AIR’ and is scheduled currently to take place on Monday the 1st December at 14:00.

Don’t forget to check out the other Brit’s speaking at Max Europe this year, Andrew Shorten has the lowdown on his blog.

So if you are heading along to Max Europe this year stop by my session or tap me on the shoulder for a chat.