Fresh is a great little Mac app from Ironic Software -- probably better known for their file browser, Leap -- that gives you easy access to "fresh" items on your Mac. When you click on Fresh, all your recent downloads and recently edited files are right in front of you in an attractive dock-like display. If you want to keep a file fresh, so it's always quickly available, just drag it to the "cooler" section of the Fresh dock.

You can customize what shows up in Fresh by filtering out specific files or file types -- if you never want Fresh to show you applications, for example. Everything in the Fresh dock can be dragged into other apps, like Finder or Mail. With a right-click on any file, you can also tag it. This is great because you can now find that file by tag either using Fresh or by searching in the Finder.

So, with Fresh, you get a recent file manager and a system-wide tagger in one. Not a bad deal, especially considering that you can have Fresh for free right now at Macheist. That's some smooth promotion by Ironic, because Fresh is even more useful in conjunction with their slick-looking system-wide file browser, Leap.

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:

• AIRApps.net
• Mike Chambers' Blog
• Adobe Labs Wiki: AIR