No More Apollo? And Flex 3 Beta Available

Adobe has replaced the "Apollo" codename with Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR. AIR M4 build is now available on the Adobe Labs site. Adobe has added improved support for HTML as an application base. As I mentioned in an earlier post, AIR also includes integrated SQLLite database for storing data while the application is disconnected from the internet.

Adobe has also posted a new Developer Derby for the runtime formerly known as Apollo. 5 category winners will EACH receive "The ultimate development environment."

• A Mac Pro 8Core with 4 gigs ram, 1.5 TB (2x75) of storage.
• (2) Dell 2707WFP 27" widescreen monitors.
• (1) one Sony Playstation 3.
• (1) $200 gift certificate to Amazon.com.
• (1) Herman Miller Aeron chair.
• (1) Bose Quiet Comfort 3 noise canceling headphones.
• (1) copy of Adobe Flex™ Builder™ version 3, Macintosh edition.
• (1) copy of Adobe Creative Suite® 3 Master Collection for Macintosh.
• And one squishy stress ball.
• A trip and conference pass to the Adobe MAX 2007 annual user conference.
• Your application showcased on Adobe.com for the world to see.

Also available on Labs this morning is the first public beta release of Flex 3. You can find Adobe's new Open Bugbase for Flex 3 here. With the release of Flex 3 will come a "minor" update to Flash Player 9. Some of the new features that Ted Patrick has blogged about include: improved quality and rendering in downscaled bitmaps, multi-threaded vector renderer (up to 4 cpu's), multi-threaded bitmap filters, multi-threaded video decoding for the VP6 codec, full-screen mode with hardware scaling, transition effect into full-screen mode, performance tweaks and bug fixes...

Today, I can officially declare that I am not disappointed by Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia. Adobe is delivering.

UPDATE: I'm not sure how I overlooked this, but there is a Grand Prize in this developer derby. Details below:

Grand Prize / Best of Show
The Best of Show winner will receive the trip of a lifetime, a travel certificate valued at up to US$100,000, to be used for the travel of your choice!