Adobe's Apollo platform, now called AIR, goes beta
16593
Adobe Integrated Runtime paves the way for Web applications that perform like desktop-bound programs.Images: Building apps on AIR
589386
Adobe unveils Flash Home, a mobile version of Flash, and Flash Cast 2, an 'offline portal solution.'
9498
Photo organizing, editing tool emerges from beta test.
594182
Adobe Systems Monday released Acrobat 8, a new version of its popular document authoring and reading software that will run natively on Intel-based Macs, and integrated it with its upgraded Creative Suite 2.3 Premium (which remains PowerPC-native, at least for now).
600558
It looks like an unlikely collaboration. Adobe rules in desktop publishing and imaging applications while Yahoo! was once the king of online search.
497280
Adobe Integrated Runtime, formerly dubbed Apollo, paves the way for Web applications that perform like desktop-bound programs.Images: Building apps on AIR
118629
Blog: In a major revamp, Adobe LiveCycle customers can choose between PDF or Flash for Web-based workflow applications.
266403
(InfoWorld) - Adobe Systems Inc. has officially named its new Apollo runtime "Adobe AIR" and will release a beta of the technology Monday along with a beta of the next version of the company's Flex development environment. Public betas and software development kits (SDKs) for both AIR and Flex 3 will be available Monday, marking the first time Adobe is simultaneously releasing its programming model and runtime for building rich Internet applications (RIAs) that can be run both on the Web and locally on the desktop, said Michele Turner, vice president of product management and developer relations at Adobe. Together, Flex and AIR are designed to bridge the gap between developers who write code and designers who use tools such as Adobe Dreamweaver and Flash to build Internet applications that have rich multimedia capabilities. MicrosoftÂ is encroaching on the space Adobe currently reigns, however. The company has integrated a version of its .NET runtime into its newÂ Silverlight Web technology which is aimed squarely at Adobe Flash. Silverlight can run video and multimedia applications cross-platform within different browsers. Both AIR and Flex 3 betas can be downloaded from Adobe Web sites. Adobe AIR (which stands for "Adobe Integrated Runtime") lets developers take applications built not only in Flash, but also in HTML, AJAX, and other Web-development languages and create them to run locally on a user's desktop. Flex is the development environment that can be used to build applications for AIR. AIR works as a wrapper, which makes it easy to take code from an existing Web application, wrap it in the runtime, and transfer it to the desktop. Developers can use Flex Builder to transfer Web applications into the AIR runtime, which must be installed on the desktop or embedded directly in the application to enable it to run locally, similar to how the Flash player runs Flash applications in the browser. New features for AIR that can be found in the beta are enhanced support for HTML, Ajax and Javascript, as well as the ability to integrate the PDF (portable document format) into AIR applications. The beta also includes tighter integration with Adobe's Dreamweaver Web design tool so developers can easily repurpose Dreamweaver applications to run on the desktop using AIR. Adobe also has added new features to Flex 3's beta, including tighter integration with Adobe's Creative Suite 3 package of Web, multimedia and image creation and design tools. The test version of the Flex 3 also includes a new tool that analyzes the performance of an application while it's being built to let a developer know where it might be running slowly and how it can be optimized to run more efficiently and faster. Additionally, Adobe has reduced the size of files created with Flex 3 so any application built using the tool will inherently run faster than applications built using Flex 2, Turner said. Â
72390
Adobe Lightroom beta 4 for processing "raw" camera images will get its first technology from Pixmantec acquisition.
570095
TechWeb - The trial version of the software can be launched from within Ulteo's Online Desktop package, which is itself currently in beta testing.
596689
New service lets Adobe customers transmit documents for commercial production.
667948
Adobe plans to provide technology from its LiveCycle Data Services suite of development tools to the open-source community.
277873
(InfoWorld) - BEA Systems and Adobe Systems are partnering on rich Internet application development in an arrangement incorporating both SOA and Web 2.0 concepts. The deal is being announced Tuesday at the BEAWorld San Francisco conference. BEA will bundle Adobe Flex Builder 2 software with the BEA Workshop Studio Java development environment. Through this bundling, developers can build cross-platform rich Internet applications that integrate with SOA and Web 2.0 infrastructure. Enterprise mashups also can result. "[The agreement] gives our developers access to the most innovative, rich Internet application platform," said Bill Roth, vice president of BEA's Workshop business unit. In the second part of the announcement, Adobe will distribute evaluation licenses of the BEA WebLogic Server Java application server with Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite software for building customer engagement applications. Combining Flex Builder and Workshop Studio is intended to give developers a workflow for building applications like interactive dashboards, customer and employee self-service applications, and business-to-business systems, BEA said. Applications are deployed using the Adobe Flash Player runtime. BEA's Workshop Bundle includes Flex Builder 2, Adobe's Eclipse-based IDE, and the Adobe Flex SDK, which is slated to be released under the open-source Mozilla Public License. The bundle is to enable developers to add rich interactivity to enterprise applications. While Workshop already features an SDK and IDE, Roth insisted there was no redundancy. Both Adobe and BEA have built on the Eclipse platform. "That allows both Workshop and Flex Builder to exist in one IDE." Roth said. "Eclipse provides the basic IDE framework. Workshop and Flex fill it out." Rich Internet applications developed with Workshop and Flex can be integrated with other BEA products, such as offerings from the WebLogic and AquaLogic families. This provides enterprise benefits pertinent to Web 2.0 and SOA, BEA said. Applications can be deployed using the planned Adobe Integrate Runtime technology for extending rich Internet applications to the desktop. "The Web 2.0 angle is, I think, really where Flex is really strong in allowing a more focused user interface and allowing a richer environment," Roth said. "Web 2.0 is about collaboration," and interacting with the customer, he added. For SOA, Adobe's architecture offers the notion of presentation services as well a framework for Flex applications to integrate with standard enterprise Java applications and SOA, Roth said. BEA's endorsement of Flex does not necessarily mean the company is choosing it over the popular AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technique for Web development. "In fact, we view both AJAX and Flex as being important rich Internet options, and our customers are looking for that," Roth said. "We found that segments of the customer base that are more developer-centric have a preference for AJAX while those who are more concerned with the interaction and have fairly significant interaction needs in terms of flexibility and creativity tend to go with Flex," especially in an enterprise context, he said. AJAX leverages HTML and JavaScript while Flex runs in the Flash Player, extends the browser, and has capabilities around graphics rendering, animation, and client code performance, said Adobe's Phil Costa, director of product management for Adobe Flex and ColdFusion. The Flex programming model focuses on data-driven applications as opposed to HTML, which was developed primarily around a documents paradigm, Costa said. Workshop bundled with Flex Builder 2 is due to be available by the end of the year with pricing starting at $899 retail. Also under the agreement, customers can deploy LiveCycle ES applications that leverage characteristics of WebLogic Server including Java Message Service to support business events, clustering and failover. Web services interoperability technologies are supported such as WS-I Basic Profile 1.1. While LiveCycle has worked with WebLogic Server before, users with this announcement will be provided with turnkey infrastructure for enterprise deployments. LiveCycle with WebLogic Server will available as a turnkey product early in 2008.
147906
Adobe's Creative Suite 3 programs are not fully tested with 'Leopard.'
752565
The new beta API for Adobe ActionScript will allow developers to build Web-based applications using Adobe Flex and Flash software using a native API for improved performance over current methods, MapQuest said.
73227
Online music service Finetune and eBay are among those that have written applications on the Apollo AIR platform.
569790
Adobe Acrobat 7 will be available in December. It will support 3D images and complex electronic forms through an additional product called Adobe Livecycle Designer 7. Mark Wheeler, senior enterprise marketing