Adobe's AIR 1.0 Bridges Gap Between Desktop and Web

Adobe Systems Incorporated today released the long awaited software that the company boasts enables computer users to use online applications offline.

On Monday, the US software company officially released AIR 1.0 (Adobe Integrated Runtime), Adobe's cross-platform software technology combining HTML, Ajax, Flash and Flex to bring rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

The San Jose, CA-based leading graphics and desktop publishing software company released the beta version of AIR last year. Adobe Air is a mechanism which lets developers build Flash-based applications that can run on the desktop. The technology allows developers to build tools that still have some functionality even when a computer is no longer connected to the net.

"Air is going to allow applications that run on the web today - that run in the browser - to be brought down to the desktop," said Andrew Shorten, platform evangelist at Adobe. "It's about taking existing web applications and adding extra functionality whether you want to work offline or whether you want to access data on your disk."

Since the release of the beta version of AIR, several organizations adopted the technology to bridge the gap between the Web and the desktop. The companies already running beta versions of AIR include NASDAQ Stock Market Inc, AOL, EBay, the American Cancer Society and many others.

“RIAs have moved beyond the stage of early adoption. They are being deployed by organizations worldwide that have recognized and embraced this revolution in Web software,” said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe, according to a press release.

A free download will allow users of Macs, PCs run any Air applications, while Linux machine users will be able to use the applications later this year.

Adobe on Monday also released Flex Builder 3, its free commercial Eclipse-based plug-in for developing RIAs. Adobe Flex 3 is a tool that comes embedded with Adobe's Creative Suite 3 set of tools to make it easier for designers and developers to work together.

Flex Builder 3 will be available in two versions: The standard edition is $249, while the professional version costs $699, Adobe said.

With the release of AIR, Adobe comes in direct competition with other similar offerings like Microsoft’s Silverlight, Google Gears and Mozilla's Prism.

Adobe also announced the availability of BlazeDS, an open-source tool intended to boost the data transfer capabilities and performance of RIAs.

Made up of components from Adobe's LiveCycle Data Services suite, BlazeDS enables more efficient connections between server-side databases and the Flash player.