Adobe’s Breath of Fresh AIR

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 AIR, a new software development system from Adobe will power tens of thousands of new applications to connect internet and PC (and also PCs and new mobile devices like smartphones).

AIR will help developers create apps that exist in part on a user’s PC or smartphone and in part on servers. Applications will look and run the same whether the user is on his notebook, at his desk or using a mobile device or at an internet kiosk. The AIR applications can mimic the functions of a Web browser but do not require a Web browser to run.

The first commercial release of AIR takes place this week, but dozens of applications have been built around a test or beta version. New AIR applications exist (from beta sites) with companies such as Salesforce, FedEx, eBay, Nickelodeon, Nasdaq, AOL and Yahoo.

Like Adobe’s Flash software, AIR will be given away. The company makes its money selling software development kits to programmers.

Fresh AIR