Yesterday,
Adobe released a beta version of its framework for Rich Internet
Applications. The framework, previously known by the codename ‘Apollo’
is now called ‘AIR’ : Adobe Integrated Runtime.
Shame that they gave it such a ‘techy’ name, because it’s actually
something really pretty: It allows you to port Rich Internet
Applications from the web to the desktop.
And so the lines between Internet and desktop applications are starting to blur…
AIR is a small (9MB) piece of software you have to install on your
computer. Once installed, you’re ready to run any AIR application
available. Think of it like the Flash plug-in: you install it once and
you can see all flash-enabled websites. The beauty is that, just like
Flash, AIR applications are also platform-independent. After you
installed your version of AIR, you can run any AIR application you want
on your desktop, whether you’re on Mac or PC!
To create AIR applications, Adobe pushes of course it’s own Flex
development environment, which is kind of the programmers equivalent of
Flash aimed towards creating Rich Internet Applications. But you could
also use the plain old HTML and JavaScript web technologies (and AJAX)
to built your web application and port it to the desktop using AIR.
Needless to say that AIR will also be fully supported by Adobe’s Flash
and DreamWeaver products in the new CS3 product suite…
To make the story complete, Adobe teamed up with Google to deliver
real off-line capabilities to online applications using Google’s
recently launched Google Gears.
This open-source browser plugin installs a very light-weight database
on your computer that can be used when online applications -which often
depend on a database- are taken offline. As an example of this, Google
made it’s own RSS reader
available offline. If you have a Google Reader account, be sure to
check out the ‘Offline’ link at the top of the application. It allows
you to read your RSS feeds even when you’re not connected to the
Internet!
Although all this may sound very technical, it really is the next
big killer app out there. And what’s more: it’s a nice example of the
convergence trend going on between Internet applications and desktop
applications. It’s a new game and all the big boys are playing: Adobe
(AIR), Google (Google Gears), Microsoft (SilverLight), Sun (JavaFX),
…Time to place your bets…
Here’s a demo of the eBay AIR application given some time ago by Mike Downey from Adobe:
