Andrew Shorten @ Adobe

Today saw the release of a new desktop Twitter client – *chirp. It’s not like we needed another desktop client for Twitter, what with TweetDeck, DestroyTwitter, Spaz, Twhirl and others already available, but the unique feature of this new application is that it runs on Windows Vista only

Whilst there are undoubtedly many use-cases for building native OS desktop applications, I’m not sure that a Twitter client demands it, even if the animations are ‘beautiful’ (I don’t know if they are, as I can’t run the application here on Mac OS X).

Looking at this from both an application developer and end-user perspective, it seems pretty clear why AIR offers such a compelling solution. Take a look at my experience at trying to acquire a Twitter desktop application from the web:

*chirp – what do I do with this?

DestroyTwitter (built on Adobe AIR) – badge-based installer works on Mac, Windows and Linux.

Bottom line: if you want to reach the maximum potential audience for your application, build it on Adobe AIR.

Whilst AIR makes it really easy for web developers to build and deploy cross OS desktop applications, it’s important to consider whether a desktop application is the most appropriate way for your target audience to access your RIA. It often takes some time to establish best practices as to when you should and shouldn’t use a new technology and with AIR it’s no different.

There will always be a place for fun, highly branded consumer applications on the desktop – of which Desktop Keeley still stands out from the crowd – but for the development of tools and applications that could be deployed either on the web or the desktop, it is important to consider how an AIR application will enhance the user experience and/or make the user of the application more productive.

Several customers have asked me whether Adobe has guidance on where AIR should be used – going through the documentation you can of course determine where AIR could be used, by understanding the features and APIs provided by the runtime; but could and should are two different things

I thought I’d have a go at writing a quick checklist of the questions you might ask when determining whether you should build your application on AIR (or determining whether there is benefit for both a web and desktop version, with enhanced features in the AIR application). Here’s what I came up with:

#1 Is the application likely to be used on a regular basis (daily)?
If yes, then access via desktop icon, start menu or launch upon login is more convenient than browser shortcut

#2 Is there potential for conflict between the application UI and that of the browser?
If yes, then native windows, native menus and custom application chrome improve user experience

#3 Does the user require access to the application or the associated data when offline?
If yes, then local filesystem access and SQLite database access provide the user with offline usage

#4 Does the user need to work with large volumes of data within the application?
If yes, then local filesystem access and SQLite database access can improve application performance, rather than relying upon remote data storage

#5 Does the data the user is working with change on a regular basis and is it important that the user is alerted to such changes?
If yes, then desktop notifications provide a convenient way to receive updates whilst the application is closed/minimised

#6 Is the user required to upload files or transfer data from other desktop applications?
If yes, then cut/paste from other desktop applications and drag/drop from the local filesystem makes the user more efficient

Obviously the more questions you answer yes to, the stronger the use case for deploying your application using AIR; although, just one or two initial features implemented in AIR could mean the world of difference in productivity for your user when compared with a browser-based application.

It is also important to remember that there are some AIR features that, if used inappropriately, may actually annoy your users or make them less productive – check out Serge’s post for advice on how to make sure that doesn’t happen.

If you come up with any more qualifying questions for whether a RIA should run on the desktop or you’ve built an AIR application that doesn’t fit with the above criteria I’d be interested to hear from you.

On the same day as Adobe announced that the final release of AIR 1.5 for Linux is available for download, the BBC have launched iPlayer desktop for Mac, Windows and Linux users, built on Adobe AIR.

BBC iPlayer desktop allows those in the UK to download their favourite BBC programmes and watch them when they are offline. The new desktop edition compliments the existing streaming service, which is available in the browser using Flash Player.

The application was built using the Flex 3 framework, runs on top of AIR 1.5 and makes use of the Flash Media Rights Management Server (FMRMS) to DRM-protect content which is downloaded to the user’s desktop.

The BBC iPlayer really demonstrates the power of the Flash Platform, enabling users to enjoy high quality video content on the web and on the desktop, across all major browsers and operating systems – congratulations to the BBC for launching so quickly after we delivered AIR 1.5 for Mac, Windows and Linux users.

If you’re in the UK you can download BBC iPlayer desktop here (note: you MUST be signed up as an iPlayer Labs user before the download option on iPlayer content will appear on the website).

For those outside the UK, there are some screen shots of the application below… I’m looking forward to playing with this some more tonight

One of the new services that we announced at MAX this year was Adobe Wave, an Adobe AIR application and Adobe hosted service that work together to deliver desktop notifications to users.

Adobe Wave lets consumers opt-in to receive messages from their favourite online brands and aims to overcome the spam and phishing concerns associated with using email to receive alerts and notifications.

Whilst this will primarily be of interest to publishers (wishing to distribute messages/offers/news) and consumers (wishing to receive such information), it also demonstrates how Adobe is leveraging its own platform to deliver new services, which will in turn further distribute the AIR runtime and make it easier for us all to deploy desktop applications.

One of the launch partners for Adobe Wave in Europe is lastminute.com; as the name of the company suggests, a big part of their business is providing last minute deals and offers on travel and leisure activities, such as holidays, hotels, theatre breaks, etc.

Adobe Wave could allow you to sign up to receive specific notifications when particular activities or destinations are on offer (using a badge like the example above), with notifications appearing as toast-style alerts, allowing you to make a quick decision on whether to investigate the soon-to-expire offer.

Of course, you could also use Adobe Wave to get notifications from sites like MySpace when one of your friends sends you a message or from Digg when particular news stories are published.

Given that news readers and notification applications have been an easy starting point for a publisher exploring AIR, Adobe Wave also solves the issue of having to run multiple applications to receive notifications/messages from different companies – now you can get everything in one place and you stay in control of what is/isn’t delivered to your desktop.

There will be more on Adobe Wave in 2009 when we officially launch the service, in the meantime we’re running a pre-release programme for publishers interested in trying out Adobe Wave – more information on Adobe Labs.