26-02-2008, 09:29 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 25,326
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Adobe Blurs
Adobe Blurs Line Between PC and Web
(excerpt: very minimal i.e. long article)
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: February 25, 2008
Quote:
SAN FRANCISCO — On sabbatical in 2001 from Macromedia, Kevin Lynch, a software developer, was frustrated that he could not get to his Web data when he was off the Internet and annoyed that he could not get to his PC data when he was traveling.
Why couldn’t he have access to all his information, like movie schedules and word processing documents, in one place?
He hit upon an idea that he called “Kevincloud” and mocked up a quick demonstration of the idea for executives at Macromedia, a software development tools company. It took data stored on the Internet and used it interchangeably with information on a PC’s hard drive. Kevincloud also blurred the line between Internet and PC applications.
Seven years later, his brainchild is about to come into focus on millions of PCs. On Monday, Mr. Lynch, who was recently named the chief technology officer at Adobe Systems, which bought Macromedia in 2005, will release the official version of AIR, a software development system that will power potentially tens of thousands of applications that merge the Internet and the PC, as well as blur the distinctions between PCs and new computing devices like smartphones.
Adobe sees AIR as a major advance that builds on its Flash multimedia software. Flash is the engine behind Web animations, e-commerce sites and many streaming videos. It is, the company says, the most ubiquitous software on earth, residing on almost all Internet-connected personal computers.
But most people may never know AIR is there. Applications will look and run the same whether the user is at his desk or his portable computer, and soon when using a mobile device or at an Internet kiosk. Applications will increasingly be built with routine access to all the Web’s information, and a user’s files will be accessible whether at home or traveling.
AIR is intended to help software developers create applications that exist in part on a user’s PC or smartphone and in part on servers reachable through the Internet.
To computer users, the applications will look like any others on their device, represented by an icon. 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 on Monday, but dozens of applications have been built around a test or beta version.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/te...b0a&ei=5087%0A
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