Adobe just added new video content to its AIR-based Media Player, but it all pretty much sucks in one form or another. The Adobe Media Player is a slick media browser that can play and subscribe to videos from the web, and it also provides somewhat high-resolution content from Adobe's media partners such as MTVN and Comedy Central.
Despite the fact that the player is very visually appealing and easy to navigate, it's just not that useful. It's possible to use any regular, free browser such as Firefox to watch online video content, allowing web-travelers to avoid the installation of an extra app. As a result, the main reason for installing the app (unless you really, really like the subscription feature) is to watch the 25,000+ videos provided by Adobe.
And that's exactly what's wrong here. Adobe's video library is still weak, and most good of the good TV shows aren't full episodes but rather short clips. Furthermore, the full videos Adobe is adding aren't current TV hits like Lost or Battlestar Galactica. Instead, Adobe partnered with CBS and Sony to add tons of clips and a few movies/episodes from old stuff like Men in Black, Jerry Maguire, The Love Boat, Beverly Hilly 90210, Family Ties, and even The Price is Right. They might as well call the app something to the tune of Adobe Senior TV On Demand.
Sure, Adobe has the money to keep it up and running, but why bother if the company isn't bringing its best to the table? Why not partner with Hulu and create an official, fully functional Hulu AIR app instead?
It may seem illogical to tie Meebo to a desktop app, but that's exactly what's going on here. Meebone uses Adobe AIR to bring Meebo's services to your desktop through a dedicated app, but it's still in beta. So if you're down to try it, keep in mind that you'll probably encounter some problems... just like we did.
When attempting to login to AIM, Meebone was confused by a space in one of our user names. Other IM clients and services -- even Meebo itself -- aren't usually bothered by spaces. But that was our only major issue with the AIR-based app. And we're hoping it will be fixed before Meebone graduates from beta.
We tested the app with Google Talk and AIM accounts. Each logged-in successfully, brought up buddy lists, etc, etc. In other words, it introduced a basic Meebo set-up to our desktop, and we liked it. Just barely, but we did like it even though it sort of defeats the purpose of Meebo itself.
Adobe AIR apps are the new hotness. We're seeing more and more pop up every single day. It's looks like the AIR platform is turning into the Facebook Platform on steroids.
Why? Because it's cross platform, and what a brilliant move by Adobe on that. You can install an AIR app on Mac or PC in a blink. Not only that, but it runs lightweight as all heck.
The latest app that has everyone talking is a desktop compliment to the increasingly popular FriendFeed. Introducing Feedalizr.
With FriendFeed's pretty neat Remote Key system, you can allow apps to access your FriendFeed stream. So getting Feedalizr going once you have Adobe AIR installed is a snap.
Some of the things that Feedalizr lets you do from your desktop:
Filter updates by service, such as Flickr, Pownce, and Twitter
Post videos - which is rather seamless, and records right from your cam in the app
Drag and drop photos and upload right to Flickr
Get instant updates in that nice slick slidey fashion on the bottom right hand side of your desktop
FriendFeed has a public API and has no official apps, but this appears to be as close as you could possibly get to one. It's very slick, and gets the job done.
What's your favorite Adobe AIR app? Drop a link in the comments!
Although some of the best-known Adobe AIR apps thus far are Twitter clients, you don't have to be a Twitter freak to get in on the action. In fact, you just have to be hungry for pizza. Pizza Hut has released a desktop pizza-ordering app , and it's built on AIR. If you thought AIR hadn't hit the mainstream yet, this might change your mind.
Pizza Hut Shortcut is basically a slicker-looking, easier to use version of the familiar online ordering system. It has the current specials built in, so you might be able to skip the "Googling for coupons" phase of the order. We suspect this app is targeted at true pizza addicts, because you can still order almost as easily from the web interface. Also, the feature that saves your last order for easy reordering was a bit of a giveaway.
Adobe has released a public alpha of Adobe AIR for Linux, which means you can now run applications built using the Adobe Integrated Runtime on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. Adobe AIR is an environment that lets user run online applications offline. For example, here are a few of our favorite AIR applications:
Adobe is also joining the Linux Foundation today, joining other companies including HP, Google, and Nokia. The group encourages Linux development, and the addition of Adobe AIR could really step things up a bit, since developers can now create applications for a single platform and have them run on Windows, Mac, and Linux boxes.
Adobe hasn't officially ported Adobe AIR to Linux yet, but Ubuntu Unleashed figured out that you can install AIR using the WINE windows emulation layer for Linux. Installation isn't exactly painless, and when all is said and done, there are a bunch of AIR applications that won't run. But some will.
Note that the instructions at Ubuntu Unleashed tell you how to install Adobe AIR beta 3. But read on and we'll show you how to install Adobe AIR 1.0.
What a time for 1.0. Hot on the heels of Adobe's official release of AIR version 1.0 comes the 1.0 version of eBay Desktop. The two releases are so close you would think the makers of eBay Desktop planned it (which of course they did).
eBay Desktop 1.0 provides a desktop alternative to the eBay website - you can use it to search, browse, bid, keep track of your auctions, and more. And because it uses Adobe AIR, it runs on both Windows (XP and Vista) and Max OS X (10.4 and 10.5).
The eBay Desktop installer weighs in around 7 MB (the AIR installer is included if you don't have it installed on your system already). Install was quick and easy, though getting the program to run was a little more work: on our test Mac, the program kept crashing until we went to the Applications folder and opened the program manually.
When you first start the program, you'll be met with a nifty little video introduction to the eBay desktop. The eBay desktop home page allows you to track all your bidding and watching activity, and there are separate tabs for finding items, tracking and paying for your winning bids, and a feeds tab.
eBay has put a lot of work into this desktop application, and it shows. The interface is clean and very intuitive. The one major drawback is the lack of features for sellers. You can't track the items you're selling or your past sales. At this time, eBay desktop is definitely a buyer's tool.
With a plethora of other methods to post to the 140 character short message service, why do we need another? Snitter could be why.
Yes it takes a download of the Adobe AIR runtime, but what is 9mb's really? Nothing nowadays. Sure it has its good and bad, but give it a shot if you haven't already. DownloadSquad covered it here. Snitter started out as a little project by Jonathan Snook to test out Adobe's AIR. And why did he pick Twitter as a good API to use it with? Bad feelings about the Twitter website that he felt he could upgrade a little. The application works on both Mac's and PC's thanks to Adobe AIR, and is a quick download. It is a compact application that sits on the desktop much like an IM, and can be resized to fit in nicely with what's going on in your space. Tabs make it easy to check out the archive, replies, friends, and followers list, with a clear tweets button and refresh tweets button to clean your space. Messages that are sent directly to you with @, get highlighted which makes them stand out. One drawback is that only the past 20 recent items on your timeline show, which is a little annoying at times especially if you didn't have time to check in one day.
It's a great tool for Tweeting if you don't mind installing the Adobe runtime.
Are you a designer? developer? Like color? Want to do some cool things with Adobe's Kuler application? Now you can.
The Adobe Labs project Kuler, is a hosted color picker application that allows for inspiration, creativity and sharing, they now have an API for developers. This new Kuler API allows developers to request RSS feeds of the highest rated or most popular color themes, and incorporating them into web project and web sites.
Check out some Kuler API usage in the Showcase. Warning, most do require users to have Adobe AIR installed.
MyMovieMatch from Matchmine is a 'media discovery platform'. What exactly does that mean? They will port together information it generates from you and will spit out some recommendations based on your personal tastes.
MyMovieMatch basically helps match up movies when you just cant decide. It gets to know people's likes and dislikes, then scowers its shelves to find the best movie, video or music option for them. It's another one of those AIR applications that was built using Flex 2. So you are required to install Apollo to run this sucker as it is the glue that holds your desktop and web together in order for the app to work properly. The process is started off by training the application as to what types of content the user likes. This is then exported as a MatchKey, which is a 'sophisticated mathematical representation of your personal interests' file to your desktop.
It's a neat idea, but strikes us as a little to complex for a movie picking application. It does get the job done if you want to spend a little time with it, however. Is it really necessary? It could be if you just don't have the time to stop by your local video store and ask an employee for a recommendation.
As we reported earlier today, switching gears from alpha into beta, Adobe has revealed Apollo's true name, AIR. Short for Adobe Integrated Runtime, the framework remains largely the same but gains some new functionality under the hood. Expect to find embedded SQLite support, WebKit HTML rendering, drag & drop support, support for PDF and general improvements to window management and networking.
So what's in it for users? Sure, its got some great functionality geared towards web developers, but what's the use unless there are some real useful applications for AIR? I did some digging around and have found 3 AIR apps that I think have some usefulness, and show some promise for AIR. If anything, by the end of this article you'll get tired of reading the acronym AIR.
Salsa - A simple Amazon S3 client Salsa is a super simple client to copy files between Amazon S3 and your computer. It's just a simple uploading and downloading interface, that's all. Amazon S3 has been called a cost-effective backup solution, and this app could make that practical on a desktop level. Salsa is considered 'alpha' quality, but if I needed a simple, secure method for backing up files I can see its value. Salsa is available on the Adobe Labs AIR:Applications:Samples wiki page. It would be great to see this little app mature a bit and move beyond the lab.
Tweetr - Twitter client Yeah, we love Twitter around here at DLS, it's a little shameless. There's no shortage of ways to go about tweeting, and Tweetr is a nicely done implementation in AIR. The interface reminds me of a little bit iChat, a little bit Twitterrific. While not perfect, it's lightweight and does a fine job. I like how you can view your replies and direct messages as well. Check it out at http://www.tweet-r.com.
Fresh - RSS feed reader Another one straight outta Adobe Labs is Fresh, a straightforward feed reader app. What I like about Fresh is that it's pretty full featured for only being a sample: OPML import/export, tabbed interface, integrated web view for stories, themes and more. Obviously an application like this isn't very innovative or groundbreaking, but it's a good demonstration of AIR's abilities: structured content, feed retrieval, ui elements, and HTML rendering. Check it out on the Adobe Labs AIR:Applications:Samples wiki page.
If you'd like to keep an eye on upcoming AIR applications, here's some good sites to keep your browser or feed reader pointed at:
So Apple went and released Safari for Windows. It is interesting why Apple did this. Safari may be faster, as the Royal Steveness claimed, and provides a number of nice features that are not in IE7 or Firefox by default (e.g. Forms auto-fill and resizable text fields) but I am not sure it would get much traction in the long term once the novelty factor has worn off.
Steve Jobs also announced that 3rd party developers will get access to the iPhone via web apps. Traditionally, cell phone application development is 'hard'. Hard in the sense that, by nature, cell phone manufactures are not software companies, so either the software development kit (SDK) use lower level languages (C++, etc.), an unsupported developer community (compare with web or desktop development), or antiquated OS (Palm OS 5.x). Whereas web development has a much lower learning curve as well as much bigger pool of developers to pull from.
It is obvious, at least to me, that releasing Safari for Windows is primarily a move to open up the iPhone's development environment to the largest audience possible. If Apple were to actually make a proper SDK for the iPhone, it would mean the SDK would have to support the Cocoa framework on OS X, and either port Cocoa to Windows (possible), or use 3rd party framework for Windows (not likely, given how much Apple likes to be in control). Either way, I doubt this hypothetical SDK would be OS X only, and asking 3rd party developers to purchase a Mac just to develop for the iPhone would be the death keel that many have been predicting.
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