Lost in an Adobe AIR information flood? Here is my Adobe AIR quick list of useful resources.
Examples
No better start to familiarize yourself with AIR than with a list of interesting Adobe AIR example applications, or the most popular AIR for Android applications on AppBrain.
Future
The latest official source is the the Adobe Roadmap for Flash Runtimes.
Adobe continues to actively invest in enabling developers to create and deploy Flash based content as mobile (and desktop) applications via Adobe AIR. […] [Adobe AIR 3.2 will have] Hardware-accelerated graphics/Stage 3D support for Apple iOS and Android via Adobe AIR. […]
Adobe is currently working closely with Microsoft to finalize details around supported configurations for Flash Player and Adobe AIR on Windows 8. This document will be updated once this has been finalized and release schedules are available. […]
We are firmly committed to the television space and will continue to optimize our technology for TV hardware that enables great video and gaming experiences. […]
A lot more details, definitely worth reading the full white paper.
Video
This blog featured some in-depth articles, including The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Advanced Video Delivery with AIR for Mobile, 720p Video on iPad and Android Tablets with Adobe AIR, and AIR 3.2 Enables Astonishing Video Experiences with HD Video, Stage3D and HTML.
The Adobe AIR category will continue to feature up to date articles.
Gaming
Best sources are the Adobe evangelists, including Tom Krcha and Lee Brimelow. With the availability of Stage3D for mobile it’s worth monitoring the Away3D, Alternativa and Flare 3D weblogs and examples. Also check out the top Stage3D resources you shouldn’t miss, and Five AIR 3.2 Stage3D Mobile Demos That Will Knock Your Socks Off . There are plenty of other examples of Stage3D for non-gaming use cases, keep monitoring the 3D section.
Frameworks
Starling is a 2D framework that will take full advantage of Stage3D on mobile. It empowers games like the Facebook edition of Angry Birds.
Apache Flex provides a UI framework to easily create applications with UI controls that have a native look and feel. Michaël CHAIZE has some interesting mobile resources. In addition, there is Eskimo, a native skinning library for Apache Flex.
Native Extensions
A key feature to include native code in your application. Adobe’s website has a section for extensions, as well as interesting examples like push notifications or game center support for AIR for iOS.
HTML5
HTML5 support in AIR is simple – StageWebView. Full native performance.
Performance
This blog posted some performance optimization tips prior to Stage3D support. With Stage3D support, performance increases drastically. More information in the release notes.
Success stories
Again, Tom Krcha has the most complete list of success stories, with highlights games like Machinarium.
Power tip to help porting Flash games to iOS
Join multiple SWF files into one with AIR for iOS.
Nice article.