Adobe AIR Apps

With the school year closing and exams coming closer and closer, I have been bogged down with homework and had little time to get on the computer. But I have been able to play with some Adobe AIR apps. Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is a relatively new product from Adobe that helps bridge the gap between desktop programs and web apps. Some of the more popular AIR apps are Twitter apps such as Twirl.

Since the release of FriendFeed, I have been looking for a good AIR app to replace Twirl as my AIR app of choice. Not too long after FriendFeed's release did I find Alert Thingy, which is now quickly surpassing Twirl, which I haven't used in a long time now. I also have tried MySocial, unsucessfully. It would not connect properly and I cannot seem to get it to work. I really enjoy Pandora internet radio, and I found a cool PandorAIR app that allows me to listen to Pandora without opening my browser (a godsend).

There has been a lot of talk about if desktop programs such as MS Office and the like are obsolete compared to online web apps, like Google Docs. I haven't really taken much of a side on this debate, but this is my opinion and feeling on the subject:

I cannot stand keeping a browser window open for all my online services like Google
Reader, Pandora, Twitter, FriendFeed, and the like. I have tried to find services such as
Pageflakes to keep everything in one place, unsucessfully. When I heard of AIR, I was
very excited to have this new product coming from Adobe. It has really impressed me,
and I hope that it will grow more mainstream so that there are more apps available.

My favorite aspect of AIR is that all the programs are super light and have an almost unnoticable footprint on your RAM and computer performance.

Are there any other great AIR apps that I have failed to mention?