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The AIR up there

There’s been way too much going on lately! Flex 3 beta is now available on Adobe Labs, as well as the beta of Apollo (now called AIR, Adobe Integrated Runtime). There are some huge advances for developers and users alike.

One of my favorite things that is a part of Flex 3 is the ability to cache the Flex framework. This means that swf files don’t have to contain all the framework components every time. This will make your compiled swfs incredibly smaller. I love Ted’s blog on the subject.

Here’s where I see the future going:
Flash content will become as prevelant as html on the web, since the hurdle of filesize (the biggest drawback to using Flash) is going away. Creating engaging Flash/Flex applications is getting easier and easier and with Flex going open source, developers will feel really good about using it.

Lately there seems to have been a step back in much of the design of Flex apps. Not with the bigger design firms but just in general. I admit I’m guilty of it too. Being that it’s so easy to drop in the default controls without changing the look and feel, it can be too tempting. But I urge the developer community to join me in breaking out of that, and developing RICH Internet Applications. Rich with customized graphical elements!

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