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Posts with tag adobe air

Hulu on AIR, kind of

Posted Jun 16th 2008 5:00PM by Christina Warren
Filed under: Fun, Internet, Video



Here at Download Squad, Hulu has become our favorite way to watch television online. With ever-expanding content choices, good quality and a nice interface, Hulu is almost as good as TV (as long as you live in the United States, that is). One of the few downsides is the need to use a browser to access content. Paul Yanez has created a program that aims to to solve that problem and make Hulu even better.

My Media Player is an Adobe AIR app that is designed to act as a Hulu portal of sorts. Launch the AIR app and you can choose from a categorized list of TV shows and movies available from Hulu. There is also a search function located within the player window so that you can find episodes or shows by title and also clips from Hulu.com

You can resize the application so that it can be docked to the side of the screen (if you want to watch a show while also doing some "real" work) and Paul designed the application to scale to fit a 30" monitor.

One of our favorite features of My Media Player is the ability to search for shows without stopping the program. Instead, the show continues playing in a small window in the left side of the application screen.

We really like the concept behind My Media Player and think it has terriffic potential, but there are a few issues that will probably keep us from using it as our primary method to access Hulu. Because My Media Player works by using the embedded versions of the programs from Hulu.com (Hulu.com allows you to embed all or part of a show onto your own webpage), the quality isn't as high as it is accessing the show directly from the web. And although we really like the ability to dock a Hulu playing window to the side of the screen in a small, unobtrusive size, we wish we had the ability to view the program in full screen. As it stands right now, expanding the window to cover our entire screen is both kludgy and unattractive, due to the aforementioned embedded version issue.

Still, if you want a way to watch shows without having to use your web browser, give My Media Player a shot.
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Grab your shades, uvLayer has a bright future

Posted Jun 5th 2008 10:00AM by Drew Olanoff
Filed under: Video, Web services, VoIP

You watch videos online. From Youtube, from other people's blogs, and so on.

But more than likely, you're not currently getting a desktop type experience with online video.

uvLayer is a web based application that is similar to other web-based desktops. But there's a twist. uvLayer is built around search, discovery, and sharing of online video.

You add friends, and they show up on the left hand side of your uvLayer desktop. Search for videos, and drag them out to your uvLayer desktop. If you want to share a video with someone, simply drag the video onto your friend. It's that easy.

Watching videos is pretty simple and it all stays within the uvLayer web environment.

They have an Adobe AIR app which is pretty nice as well, but we think the value here is the in-browser experience.

If you're into online video and hate that you have to hop around different sites, copy and paste code, and jump through the normal hoops, then uvLayer is for you.
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Ever use Pandora? Ever use Pandora...on AIR?

Posted Jun 3rd 2008 9:00PM by Drew Olanoff
Filed under: Audio, Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Pandora on Adobe AIRThe holy grail for die-hard Pandora users has been a desktop application. While there have been several third party solutions, Pandora has announced the launch of an official desktop client.

Using Adobe AIR, naturally.

It's a trend we're seeing, as we mentioned before, and it's nice to see Pandora jumping into the game.

You can use all of the features that you'd expect from the website, the ability to create channels, listen to your current channels, and navigate the social networking features as well. It's slick and fast, and being able to use Pandora without a browser is quite a treat.

If you're not sure, Pandora is a music streaming service that is dubbed the "Music Genome Project", which basically means that they have trained music experts who give "DNA" to pieces of music, so that they can recommend music that you'll really like. They base it on song, artist, or lyrics.

Being able to see what's playing, change channels, or create new ones right on your desktop has been a private dream of ours for years.

They want your feedback, so install it and test it out. Knowing those guys like we do, they'll listen to the community and build it up to what the people want. The way it should be done.

Welcome to the desktop Pandora!
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Introducing Feedalizr - Is Adobe AIR better than the Facebook Platform?

Posted May 26th 2008 10:00AM by Drew Olanoff
Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

feedalizrAdobe 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
  • Filter updates by friend, so if you just want to see Robert Scoble's mega-galacta-stream you can
  • 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!

[via the inquisitr]
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Pizza Hut hops onto the Adobe AIR bandwagon

Posted May 25th 2008 12:00PM by Jay Hathaway
Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Adobe

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.
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Snackr: a new way to get your RSS fix

Posted May 21st 2008 12:00PM by Jay Hathaway
Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Productivity

Snackr is an Adobe AIR-based RSS ticker that pulls random headlines from your RSS feeds and scrolls them along the bottom or the side of your screen, letting you click through to read anything that looks interesting. It's not a replacement for your regular RSS reader, but it makes a great supplement. Snackr's well worth checking out if you're an information addict who has to have the fire hydrant open at all times.

Because it's an AIR app, Snackr is cross-platform and sports a look that won't feel out of place on your OS. Ticker speed and position on screen are adjustable, and you can force the ticker on top of your other windows if it suits you. Snackr supports OPML files, so it's very easy to populate with the feeds of your choice. It also minimizes to a tiny tab when you want to put it away for a while, and shows a preview of each story you click on, instead of going directly to your browser. Snackr doesn't interrupt what you're doing unless you want it to.

All in all, this is one of the most useful, best-designed AIR apps we've seen yet. It's essential for heavy RSS users, or anyone who wants to stay on top of breaking news. Don't ditch your full-featured feed reader, by any means, but do supplement it with Snackr if you're looking for a faster, more dynamic way to consume information.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

EDIT: The URL for the first link is fixed. It's Snackr.net, not .com. Thanks Ian, Jake and David!
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Interview with Adobe AIR Evangelist Ryan Stewart

Posted Jul 9th 2007 3:00PM by Ian Smith
Filed under: Developer, Internet, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Adobe, DLS Interviews

Adobe AIR Evangelist Ryan StewartRyan Stewart, Evangelist for Adobe's Integrated Runtime project (AIR), takes a few minutes to tell us what all the fuss is about. Ryan taking part in Adobe's live cross-country bus tour to promote AIR. The tour kicks July 10th at the Elysian Brewing Company in downtown Seattle.

DS: Can you briefly describe Adobe AIR?

Ryan: Adobe AIR is a cross-platform runtime that allows you to build desktop applications with web technologies. It runs on top of your operating system so that developers can build applications in AIR that take advantage of OS features without having to develop the application for a specific operating system. And instead of needing to learn desktop languages like C or Coco, you can take Ajax or Flash and build desktop apps with them.

DS: Why should consumers and average computers users be excited about Adobe AIR?

Ryan: I think the biggest reason that users should be excited is because they'll have a lot more applications to choose from. Web apps have become all the rage and part of the reason is that they're easy to build and people can jump in quickly. We wanted to capture some of that with AIR and bring it to the desktop. Hopefully users will see more apps like the Pownce desktop client, Finetune and Tweetr.

DS: Can you give an example of how an Adobe AIR application could use a web service and a person¹s computer hard drive to build something that isn¹t possible with the web alone?

Ryan: Being able to read and write to the hard drive gives you a lot of storage options and also lets you hook into parts of native applications. For instance the Finetune desktop client looks at your iTunes.xml file and figures out which artists you might like. It then allows you to listen to a radio station based on those artists. With AIR you can also associate files with your application, so you can create your own new file format or write a viewer for other file types.

DS: What is the coolest AIR application you¹ve seen so far?

Ryan: I really like the way Finetune integrates with their website, but I just got to check out Pownce, Kevin Rose's new project, and their desktop client is pretty cool. For pure silliness Dryerfox is classic. There are a ton of AIR applications at AirApps.net and ApolloHunter.com for people to try.

DS: What type of services or assists can Adobe AIR applications connect to?

Continue reading Interview with Adobe AIR Evangelist Ryan Stewart

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Build your first Adobe AIR application with Aptana

Posted Jul 2nd 2007 2:00PM by Ian Smith
Filed under: Developer, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Adobe, Open Source

Aptana and Adobe AIRRecently Aptana added support for Adobe AIR (the platform formally known as Apollo) to their Open Source IDE. Why is this cool? Well Aptana is a standalone web/JavaScript development application that is built on top of Eclipse. Best of all, Aptana is free. This is a great alternative to locking yourself into Adobe's Dreamweaver or Flex builder plugins.

You can download Aptana here. Once you have it installed, open it up and look at the Aptana start page under Plugins. Here you will be able to walk through the process of downloading and installing the Adobe Air Runtime, SDK, and the Aptana Plugin.

Once everything is setup simply go to File > New > Project and select Adobe Air. Fill in the project name and description and then import your preferred Ajax Libraries to start coding with. There is a host to libraries to choose from including YUI, jQuery, and ProtoType.

The pre-created project includes all of the Javascript needed to start writing your application. The AIRAliases.js file maps all of the local OS and file system functions to JavaScript so that you can, within AIR, make calls directly to the users computer. I recommend trying out the sample text-file editor application from the Adobe's QuickStart page to get a sense of how easy it is to build AIR applications and what is possible using this new framework.

Once you have your code ready to test, just hit the green "Play" button and Aptana will compile your app and launch it within Adobe AIR
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