Adobe AIR getting native Android app compilation
By Chris Ziegler 
posted June 3rd 2010 4:47PM
posted June 3rd 2010 4:47PM
[Thanks, bono]
posted June 3rd 2010 4:47PM
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@Professor Hubert J Farnsworth
Maybe Adobe is a business and not a fanboy? Just a thought...
@Professor Hubert J Farnsworth Why do you find it odd? Their flagship product (CS) has both a Mac and Windows version, and they can run Mac OS X and Windows natively on a MacBook Pro. And develop AIR apps (for Android) on either.
IRONIC..THIS WHOLE ARTICLE AND PICTURE ARE....
@summerboy18
No Adobe Dev tools for Linux or Unix.
Windows or Mac...pick your poison
why am i responding to a troll?
@SirNoDroin "Why am I responding to a troll"
They're hard to tell apart from the apple fanboys since they both make the same type of statements, just one realizes the stupidity behind it and the other doesn't.
@summerboy18
don't you need a mac to develop for the app store (not sure)?? Even with that being said, judging from the stickers on the laptop, i guessing that is his personal laptop. He can use whatever he wants and your saying 'they' like he is adobe when he is not.
I have air running now and its smooth, have 4 games on it and they run amazingly
CS4 stickers optional.
And he is rocking a MacBook Pro! Love it!
-sigh-
When will immature ADHD teens and twenty-somethings realize that it's not just about the quantity but quality? It’s like cable TV. Do you watch all those channels? Does anyone? Will you need all those apps that do the same exact things? How will having 10 or 100 similar apps destroy and dilute the profit of that one that’s truly worthy and unique, and eventually drive it out of business?
Do you whippersnappers ever think more deeply than on a superficial level where, MORE = CHOICE = BETTER??? Perhaps being on the planet a bit longer will give you the experience and perspective that MORE does NOT always = BETTER.
@NoobsRUs
More opportunities = greater chance of a better outcome.
Pretty basic law of probability that one.
@NoobsRUs
That's a really uninformed comment. What makes you think less choice is better, or more to the point, that less choice equals higher quality? Do you really want to defend the best selling iPhone app, iFart, as being superior because it's developed for a closed, restrictive platform? Do you really want to defend the position that CEOs limiting consumer choice is good for the marketplace?
Obviously you're not a developer, much less an informed consumer so why are you even bothering to open your pie hole? If you don't know the particulars of why developers choose certain platforms, then you have no clue what's at stake in this debate and therefore should refrain from weighing in.
Just sayin'
@beenyweenies Because I'm speaking from experience of seeing how more is often less. These things always disintegrates into aiming for the lowest common denominator.
Take a look at for example, the PC space. It's been around for almost 3 decades now. Anyone could develop for the platform right? In the beginning, there were also tons of garbage developers with thousands of apps. Guess what? After a couple of decades, the majority of users now use the same handful of truly useful apps. Most others are now dead. So what's the point of doing this all over again? It's NOT about the quantity, it's about the quality.
The fact that Adobe's flash and air are resource hogs notwithstanding, having choice to keep such a POS around much longer instead of dying quickly will only make everyone's lives miserable as it delays the truly next generation app from becoming into being.
Stickers and Apple laptop aside, this guy's title is 'Technical Evangelist'
Really?
Wouldn't it make sense if it was say... 'Adobe Evangelist' or 'Adobe Air Evangelist'?
@decypherSMC er, I guess it does say "Technical Evangelist, Adobe Systems" but the evangelist title seems rather silly.
@decypherSMC I'm not sure why it seems silly to you...?
I'm going to write my own post rather than reply to the above so I don't get stuck in that conversation, though it's related.
I suppose having AIR support on Android means more choice for developers, but if AIR on Android is anything like AIR on every other platform, all the apps will be slow and use massive amounts of memory. Being an iPhone user waiting to switch to Android, I like Apple's stance in kicking Adobe to the curb since that needed to happen a long time ago, but at the same time, while I'd like to see people not use their products, I still don't want to be limited in it not being possible to use them if necessary. Trust me, I hate Flash as much as Steve does, but if a site uses it, I'd still like to be able to access the site. Same with AIR. The concept is good, the execution hasn't been impressive so far though.
@Smoke Monster Oh, no, I don't expect very many good apps to come from this at all. Like I said, most Adobe AIR apps I've used have been slow and use HUNDREDS of MBs of memory for absolutely no reason.
That said, no one said you have to use a single AIR app on your phone, however, if someone DOES come out with a good AIR app, I'd rather have the option to be able to use it than be in a closed system where "the man" tells me what I can and can't use.
Trust me, I think Flash and AIR are worthless, it's just about having that choice.
@John Locke
Video tape, hi8 and digital8 were all accepted standards until better technologies were widely adopted by consumers, and proven to be viable long term. Only then did the "old" technology begin to wither away. That withering process can take a decade or two, even for technologies with 1/10 the market penetration that Flash enjoys. You can, after all, still buy VHS tapes.
No current technology out there can meet or exceed Flash's broad capabilities, nor displace it's 1.5 million developer-strong community of users, nor supplant its 98% user base / install rate on all internet-connected computers. In short, there is no suitable replacement and there will not be one any time soon, so your entire post is without so much as a shred of merit.
As for this assertion that you can only fully leverage a platform by coding for it natively, that's nothing but a red herring. 90% of the apps on Apple's app store do not "fully leverage" the platform at all. Most of the apps I've used, including some of the most popular and useful apps available, do not use any special features of the platform aside from the prefab buttons and sliding screens. Most of the apps, in fact, are nothing special AT ALL - they use Apple's prefab components like buttons, tabs etc. so they may LOOK legit to consumers, but under the hood they are nothing special, and certainly nothing that would be hard to do with Flash/Flex or even Javascript.
At the end of the day, none of this even matters. Developers will decide how this battle ends, not whiny fanbois. If history is any example, developers/businesses will choose the platform with the widest audience, the most profit potential, and the least restrictions both creative and technological. Android will pass iPhone in number of users, that is not even up for debate. iPhone apps are lucky to break even much less turn a profit (go look it up), and the restrictions are completely and utterly laughable.
Apple's place at the top of the smartphone heap is temporary, I assure you, and your hatred for it notwithstanding Adobe Flash/Flex is going to play a huge role in this. Get over it.
I thought flash is the COBOL of the web
@jacobian64 ...that shows how clueless and brain washed you are. Really. You probably ride the "html5 will save us all" short bus too.
While I've no problem with flash coming to android (backwards compatibility is always good), AIR is the worst piece of software I've ever seen(not really), and in the future there'll be AIR apps hidden on the market? I can't see anything good coming from this.
Flashing is working great on the N1. Don't hate the players hate your Iphone.
@fort
I see what you did there!
@jasonhaley
"just one realizes the stupidity behind it and the other doesn't."
You think?
@summerboy18
no one at adobe was bashing apple (nor was i if you were referring to me), if I'm not mistaken apple started the bashing. Most people never complained or thought about flash (except if you a mac, which is partly if not mostly apple's fault) before the rant by jobs. Jobs does not know what is coming in the future cause that will just make him literally a 'magical' psychic. But what he is trying to do is to ensure he promotes technology that will make him and Apple money, which i have no beef against cause i would do the same thing.
@summerboy18 Apple started it jackass..... Job's actually sent out a letter named "my thoughts on flash" (correct me if im wrong on the name) meant to do nothing but bash flash, then blocked flash from developers. This is Adobe retaliating or more so defending itself and it's products. Adobe actually had flash working on the iphone from what I understood from the previous interview on engadget.
I might have to learn me some flash/air
Does that mean anyone can basically create cool and useful Android apps without knowing any code?
I'd love to create apps but find the Android-specific parts of the language (ie frameworks etc) quite confusing.