Ajaxian.com has posted about the new "AIR for JavaScript Developers Pocketguide" which has been updated for Adobe AIR v1.0. The PDF download is FREE! Get it while it's hot!

Adobe announced today the release of the Adobe Media Player. This new product is sure to get the attention of video content producers as it hosts a slew of features that will make it attractive from a distribution perspective. Key features include:

• Cross platform AIR application (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• Support for Hi-Def video in 1080p, 720p, or 480i
• Extensive catalog of shows and content for consumers

In addition, through their partner program, Adobe will allow content publishers to brand and theme the video player as well as targeted advertising opportunities for specific marketing campaigns.

As you can see in the image above, the Food Network has specifically targeted advertising for their channel and this is the type of opportunity Adobe is offering to its partners.

More details about Adobe Media Player are available at http://www.adobe.com/go/mp

Continuing their march into the RIA space, Adobe announced today the official release of AIR v1.0 and Flex 3.0.

Adobe AIR

The AIR runtime and SDK has gone through an especially long beta cycle (since June 2007) to ensure that both security and compatibility with existing frameworks was achieved. Some key new and/or updated features include:

• Enhanced Desktop Fucntionality: Drag and drop to the operating system, copy and paste between applications, launching of AIR applications from the desktop or the browser, and run in the background with notifications.
• Data Access: Adobe AIR now provides both synchronous and asynchronous access to the local file system, as well as structured data within a local database. This database is implemented using the open source SQLite database.
• JS Library Support: Most major Ajax frameworks can be used to build AIR applications. Supported frameworks include jQuery, Ext JS, Dojo, and Spry. Adobe AIR integrates JavaScript and ActionScript to allow cross-scripting between the two languages, and integrated rendering of Flash and HTML content.
• Security: Applications built on Adobe AIR can only be installed through a trustworthy install process that verifies that the application is signed via industry standard certificates, providing users with information about the source and capabilities of the application.

Flex 3.0

Adobe's Flash-based RIA development platform, Flex, continues to mature and has been picking up steam in both the corporate space as well as sites such as blist and Scrapblog who have embraced Flex whole-heartedly. Some of the new features in Flex 3.0 include:

• Intelligent coding, interactive step-through debugging, and visual design of user interface layout
• New capabilities for creating RIAs and building applications on Adobe AIR
• Integrates with Adobe Creative Suite® 3 making it easy for designers and developers to work together more efficiently.
• New testing tools, including memory and performance profilers and integrated support for automated functional testing, speed up development and lead to higher performing RIAs.

One of the most compelling parts of the Flex announcement is the fact that Adobe has released the Flex SDK under the open source Mozilla Public License.

Adobe is working hard to raise the bar in the RIA space by giving developers more tools with great functionality. 2008 is panning out to be an interesting year in web development.

It looks like within the next 5-10 years, Adobe will have completely transitioned all of their desktop applications to an Internet-based subscription model. Via Reuters:

Adobe Systems Inc. is working to deliver all of its software via the Web as a service rather than a packaged product, but the transition to earn money from subscriptions or advertising could take a decade.

Adobe, a leading maker of graphic and Web design software, earns most of its money through the sales of packaged software that runs locally on a computer's hard drive but it has started offering some of its applications online as service.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Adobe Chief Executive Bruce Chizen said running software on the desktop is still optimal for most of its customers, but that will change over time.

This is going to be interesting but I'd like to see how they're going to offer a full-blown Photoshop experience (not a trimmed down version) via the Internet.

Full article here

Man, now wouldn't this be a nice thing to have in CF8:

Ext 2.0 Web Desktop w/ Start Menu

The start menu mod was created by Ext community member mxracer.

Just awesome.

Adobe has released AIR Beta 2.

What's new: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR:Developer_FAQ#What_are_some_of_the_features_included_in_Adobe_AIR_Beta_2.3F

• System Tray icon/Dock Bar Bounce
• Synchronous database API
• Native menus
• Drag and drop enhancements including bitmap support
• Windowing improvements such as Z-order control and enhanced
• Activation and focus support
• Improved Install dialog look and feel
• Application-initiated runtime updates
• HTML security model improvements
• Mouse support for double-click and scroll-wheel
• Per-machine runtime installs
• Performance and memory enhancements
• XSLT support
• Support for Windows 2000
• Hundreds of bug fixes

Adobe AIR
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/

Develop with Adobe AIR with HTML and JavaScript
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/develop_ajax.html

Developer FAQ
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR:Developer_FAQ

Migration instructions (moving from Beta 2 to Beta 1)
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR:Migration

AIR HTML Security FAQ (covers additional changes)
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR:HTML_Security_FAQ

Get it here.

Two days ago, I posted about a very cool new technology that allowed you to resize images in real-time. Well, I hit Digg and find out that Adobe just hired one of the inventors!! This is going to be HUGE.

I have to give props to TechCrunch's Michael Arrington for catching this!

On CF-Talk, there's been an ongoing thread about Railo's blazing performance. Railo has always been known for its blazing speed and I'm glad people are finally taking notice. David Low posted an interesting speed comparison between CF8 & Railo. David's tests show Railo clearly outperforming CF8 and by a healthy margin.

This must've really set some things in motion because Adobe decided to run their own performance comparison. Adobe's Damon Cooper posted the following performance stats on CF-Talk today and I have to say I was impressed & surprised by CF8's results:

"OVERVIEW: In all load tests here, we see ColdFusion 8 outperform Railo everytime.

Testing Scenarios: All tests were run with 100 Virtual users on Windows 2003 Sp2 Server with dual 3.60GHz CPU's and 2GB RAM.

Because we do not support TomCat running on Beta virtualization software ( Apple Bootcamp ) the following tests were run on a fully supported server platform.

The following tests mirror some of the tests that were posted on your blog.

Test 1. Simple CFM page outputting a string.

• CF 8: Requests per Second: 800.94
• Railo: Requests per Second: 721.22

Test 2: Simple MySQL query returning 241 records.

• CF 8: Requests per Second: 279.15
• Railo: Requests per Second: 187.22

Test 3: Simple page with 5 cfincludes:

• CF 8: Requests per Second: 633.33
• Railo: Requests per Second: 631.43

I'm not sure why in your testing you are seeing CF 8 take one second longer for queries to MySQL. Railo ships with an older MySQL driver ( MySQL Connector/J 3.0.1 ). CF 8 ships with MySQL Connector 5.0.5. In our testing, CF 8 and the newer driver were substantially faster when running queries."

These results show that ColdFusion 8 outperforms Railo! That was a real stunner especially in light of David's results.

This looks like its going to turn into an interesting debate.

Adobe's Jason Delmore just sent me a bunch of "Powered By" logos for ColdFusion 8. These are fresh of the presses!

Flash developer Sean Moore has created a very nice Adobe Air cheat sheet. Be sure to get a copy here:

AIR Cheatsheets! FREE 7 Page PDF Download!