RefreshingApps.com - News

cyn.in enterprise desktop client in AIR

2008-11-28T09:13:41+00:00

cyn.in is an enterprise collaboration system that allows users to share documents, applications and digital content within a secure environment.

As part of the offering that Cynapse is an Adobe AIR desktop client that keeps users constanlt updated with a streaming supply of information.

The cyn.in desktop client keeps users updated with its unique activity stream while enabling instant discussions within any document, file or content.

Google API now has support for Adobe AIR

2008-11-23T10:49:30+00:00

Back in May of this year I wrote a news article about the Google Maps API and AS3. Great we though here come some fantastic AIR app map mashups, however that was not to be and broke the terms of service for the API.

Now I have been informed by Google that the Maps API does now fully support Adobe AIR applications! According to Pamela Fox who works on the API team, it’s all go for AIR apps with maps with the latest update and the terms of service have been altered too. There is a supporting blog post on the Google Developers blog.

So get your fingers coding and let’s see some great AIR apps with Google Maps!

Posted in: Code

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Adobe Wave - trusted hosted notifications with AIR

2008-11-20T09:13:14+00:00

Blimey Adobe have been very busy and there is now so much focus on AIR and AIR applications, it’s an exciting time.
Adobe announced a few days ago a new pre-release program called Adobe Wave.

It’s a desktop notifications system using a hosted API by Adobe to enable single call updates for trusted social networks and newsletters. It is a SaS (Software as a service) system by Adobe using a REST API that gives developers the ability to reach users without having their own desktop presence like an AIR application.

This looks interesting and developers can apply for the pre-release programme here if you fancy giving it a whirl.

Posted in: Adobe, Code, Conference, Releases

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Thermo is now called Flash Catalyst

2008-11-18T09:08:52+00:00

The new Adobe software code named Thermo has been demoed at conferences and online quite a bit since Max last year. It is still very much in pre-release development however Adobe have released the actual product name for Thermo – Flash Catalyst. I think it is a very good name due to the very nature of where the tool sits within the new CS4 suite and upcoming Flex 4.

If your not familiar with what the application offers, it works with the new FXG format that Adobe is integrating with Flex 4 code named Gumbo and CS4 apps. It’s a new application to aide in the designer developer workflow. Designing and prototyping interactive apps destined for build in Flex or AIR has always been tricky. Designers have great ideas but can’‘t always realise their vision without code and have to rely upon static images, this falls down when creating rich immersive content with Flash, Flex and AIR. Flash Catalyst aims to fill that gap.

Those who are lucky enough to attend the keynote session at Max will get a disc containing a pre-release demo of Flash Catalyst and trial serial number.

I’m really excited by the prospect Flash Catalyst offers, so please share any thoughts positive or negative with the community and the Adobe team so they can make Flash Catalyst a success.

Flash is now a platform for full end to end RIA development for cross platform development and soon mobile.

Posted in: Adobe, Code, Releases

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Adobe announce AIR is coming for mobile devices

2008-11-17T13:59:34+00:00

I heard this rumor sometime ago but Adobe has now made a statement at it’s Max conference in San Francisco. The technology will work on ARM powered devices to enable Adobe Flash 10 and Adobe AIR on supported devices. This will provide hardware accelerated media and graphics to not only mobile phones but also set top boxes and in car systems that use the ARM chip.

This is game changing and the though of being able to deliver AIR applications for mobile devices is very exciting. Will be interesting to see how much interoperability we get between and AIR app and the device it’s running on. I’m thinking GPS for location based awareness right down to access to device information like battery and signal strength.

So now developing for mobile using ActionScript 3 is going to become a reality. I’m already there with a mobile section of RefreshingApps ready to roll!

Posted in: Adobe, Releases

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Adobe AIR 1.5 is now go!! Update yours now

2008-11-17T10:16:25+00:00

Yes the next big release for Adobe AIR is finally out in the wild. The pre-release guys have had access for a while but now all of you can get the latest update and start playing with Flash player 10 goodies, encrypted local database and for HTML developers the new JavaScript engine Squirrelfish that offers up to 35% faster performance.

So head on over to the download center to grab yourself the new SDK and go here for the Adobe AIR runtime.

Posted in: Adobe, Code, Releases

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Growl support for Adobe AIR applications

2008-11-13T21:20:31+00:00

Adobe have been hard at work getting Growl support for AIR applications when used on the Mac OS X platform. While you can achieve cross platform notifications using AIR, Mac fans appreciate the Growl integration of native apps and it has been requested many times.

So Mike Chambers has announced that they have been working with the Growl team and it is now possible to get Growl support into your AIR application. Read the blog post as you will need to get the bleeding edge version of Growl and the open source AS3Growl ActionScript library hosted on Google code.

We await all the Twitter applications to integrate Growl support. Who will be first.

Posted in: Adobe, Code, Releases

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Yahoo launches BrowserPlus

2008-11-12T12:48:48+00:00

Everyone is jumping on the desktop bandwagon these days. So Yahoo have come to the part with BrowserPlus. It is a a way of getting web apps to have desktop capabilities.
They look to be offering a set of JavaScript API’s which you can try in the Service Explorer.

I don’t see this as competing product to Adobe AIR however it’s an interesting concept to be aware of. Check out the API and the support forums.

Posted in: Code, Releases

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Adobe AIR MIME type

2008-11-04T21:46:11+00:00

Recently I have seen many sites offering AIR installer files for their application only to find that thy are not being delivered using the correct MIME type. This means the browser thinks that the AIR file is a compressed ZIP file and on my Mac gives the .air a .zip extension as well.

To many new users to AIR this can be confusing and some are not sure why the AIR app is not auto installing. This can be a big drop out point for your new users well before they have even started the AIr application. So to make the users experience, it’s best to tell your webserver how to handle the .AIR file type. This can be done many ways but one of the easiest for those on Apache systems is to place the following line in the websites .htaccess file:

AddType application/vnd.adobe.air-application-installer-package+zip .air

This makes sure that the correct MIME type is assgned to the .air extension.

Posted in: Code

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Textmate bundle for AIR developers

2008-11-02T14:50:29+00:00

For those of you on a Mac who do any kind of development there stands a good chance that you own a copy of Textmate. I came across a new bundle for Adobe AIR that you can add to your installation. Check it out here.

Posted in: Code

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