I recently did an interview with Computerworld’s Heather Havenstein for an article about Adobe AIR. Heather also posted a brief Q&A with me discussing the types of applications that can be built with AIR. As I told Heather in the interview, AIR can be used for developing a wide range of applications from consumer-facing to line-of-business software. 

Chuck Joiner of MacVoices recorded the audio from a presentation that I gave to a large number of Mac-related user group managers while at Macworld Expo in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. This was my standard Adobe AIR overview which was followed by Adobe’s Dave Helmly giving an impressive demonstration of Adobe’s Production Premium suite and Adobe’s Terry White diving into the Creative Suite design tools. Terry was the MC of the event and managed to change my title when he introduced me (though we did write it down for him). So if you listen to the recording don’t think that I’ve changed jobs again.

Hello everyone - I’m on stage at Macworld showing off the Bee sample application for Adobe AIR. Find it on the samples page at labs.adobe.com.

PC Magazine reports that AOL is working on a new interface for it’s Xdrive service will be based on Adobe AIR. It’s great to see major offerings from media giants like AOL utilizing Adobe AIR to deliver integrated desktop applications built around web-based technologies and services. I can’t wait to try this out.

The new interface for Xdrive, codenamed “Oxygen” will offer an Adobe AIR-based desktop client that will give access to media and files on your local machine in the same interface in which you access your Xdrive contents. Any devices connected to the PC will also show up in the client, and you’ll be able to drag-and-drop their contents to your Xdrive storage. This interface targets less-sophisticated users who may struggle with the concept of file system integration already available in Xdrive. The AIR client will eventually look identical to the web client, so that no adjustment will be needed on the part of user when moving from one to the other. The new Xdrive clients will be available as a public beta on February 8.

Grant Skinner first showed me his components for spell checking in Flex, Flash, and AIR at MAX Chicago. I was interested in them because they were being used in Buzzword (which Adobe recently acquired), and because I’m always interested in checking out Grant’s latest work. I also wanted to see them because they were built partly as a result of a challenge that the AIR team gave Grant: the first versions of his spell check engine used server side spell checking, and we challenged him to make it work client-side so it could be used offline with AIR applications.

The thing that really stood out for me after looking the components over is how polished the whole product is. The code is very slick and optimized, the API looks really robust, the documentation is complete, and the whole package is really well organized. Grant also made it really simple to implement: drag a component onto a textfield or component in Flash to add spell checking, or add a simple tag in Flex. The Flash community would really benefit if there was a wide variety of professional components like these.

This latest update improves Flex integration, and makes it behave more like spell checking in Word or Pages.

Check out the SPL product page for more info, and demos of the components in action.

Last September we previewed Flash Media Server 3, which will be shipping later this month. In December we made the official announcement but, based on questions I’ve been getting recently, I think a lot of people missed the details due to the holiday break. I thought I would summarize some of the more interesting details.

1. New product editions: “Interactive” and “Streaming” (full comparison of editions here)

Flash Media Interactive Server 3 - Full ver licensing starts at US$4,500

This is the full-blown FMS version that gives you all the bells and whistles. Notable new features:

1. Major performance gains over earlier editions, which mean more streams and users per server.
2. More secure content delivery via the new RTMPE protocol, offering high-performance 128-bit encryption. This also includes a verification feature for protecting SWF files from being reused, modified, or hosted in unauthorized locations.
3. H.264 video and HE-AAC audio for streaming video up to 1080p HD resolution
4. Improved Live video support via Flash Media Encoder 2
5. Mobile delivery to Flash Lite 3
6. New plug-in architecture that allows you to integrate with other back-end servers and services.

Features of Flash Media Interactive Server 3 that are NOT included with the lower-priced Flash Media Streaming Server edition:

• Multi-way applications (think Adobe Acrobat Connect)
• Unlimited scalability with Origin/Edge (replicate content from an origin server to an edge server)
• Plug-in architecture for LDAP authentication
• C++ Plug-in architecture
• Multipoint publishing (for live stream posting to multiple origins to automatically reflect the stream)
• Server redirection (used for authentication, requests can be redirected based on business logic)
• AMF3 support (for data communications)
• Server-side playlists
• Video recording

Download the free Developer Edition (Currently FMS 2, will update to FMS 3 when it ships later this month)

Flash Media Streaming Server 3 - Full ver licensing starts at US$995

This is a more affordable step up from progressive download. It allows you to gain the benefits of streaming such as improved performance, especially over slower connections, and the ability to seek forward into video content that hasn’t been downloaded to the user yet. It also allows unlimited bandwidth and users. This is a huge benefit compared to the old licensing model.

Starting on January 15, 2008, Ebay is holding a cool contest to build Flash or Flex-based widgets with a US$10,000 prize per winner for up to five winners! I’m starting to think it would be possible for a good Flash/Flex developer to make a living off of Flash/Flex contests.

The winners will be announced on March 7, 2008. See the site for details.

Want to learn more about Flex 3 and AIR - for free? Check it out:

Flex and AIR User Group Pre-release Tour

Flex 3 and AIR are getting close to launch and in preparation, the Adobe Platform Evangelist team is traveling to select cities to show off the great new features and some brand new demos.

Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.

Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, extending rich applications to the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write desktop applications using the same skills that you’ve been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see and hear about this highly anticipated release of Flex 3 and AIR during this special pre-release tour. Plus, in addition to giving away some one of a kind Flex/AIR branded schwag, we will also be raffling off a copy of Flex Builder 3 Professional (pending availability) and a full commercial copy of CS3 Web Premium at this event!

Check out the comprehensive listing of dates at flex.org/tour to see if the tour is coming to your city!

Happy New Year! I feel totally refreshed and ready to start platform evangelizing again. If you’ve sent me any important emails over the last two months you might want to send again because my inbox is very full.

We have a lot of exciting events, releases and announcements coming up so keep an eye on adobe.com, MXNA, and the Adobe blogs I’ve listed in the sidebar.

Also, I’m going to be spending a lot of time producing video content over the next few weeks so let me know what you’d like to see more about. Interviews, demos, you name it.