Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
can still be related in one way or another. For example, you may
present the idea of a branded weather application to an automobile
company. While you may not include a form for users to customize
and order a new car, it would allow them to check weather condi-
tions before they get on the road and they would do so with your
client
s brand right in front of them.
Another more related example might be an application that
allows users to topic their travel arrangements (flight, hotel, car,
and so on) without ever opening a browser. Obviously, this one
would be designed around the brand of your travel company client.
As you can imagine, the possibilities are pretty much only bound
by your imagination
'
andmaybealittlebydeadlines.Formore
specific examples of how companies are using AIR to extend their
brand to the desktop, go check out the Adobe AIR showcase at
http://www.adobe.com/products/air/showcase/. At the time of writ-
ing this, companies listed include names like eBay, Nickelodeon,
AOL, and The New York Times.
…
AIR Overview
So what is Adobe AIR? Well, in a nutshell it
s a runtime that allows
developers to create desktop applications with their choice of
HTML, Ajax, Flash, and/or Flex. The compiled fruit of that develo-
per
'
s labor yields a single installer that can be successfully run
across various operating systems in much the same way that a
Flash site can be built once and viewed across various browsers. It
provides a great way to keep the user engaged with your client
'
'
s
brand even while their browser is closed.
One of the many cool things about an AIR application is how it
can work with a user
s Internet connection (or lack thereof). In the
weather example I mentioned earlier, the user would definitely
need to be connected to get the most up-to-date weather condi-
tions. On the other hand there are also cases, like a game of
solitaire, where the user may not need to be connected at all. On
the third hand (what, you don
'
thavethree?),thereareplenty
of good reasons that an application could work offline and then
perform some action once the user gets connected.
So let
'
stalkaboutacoupleofbenefitsofAIRwhenitcomesto
your clients. Obviously, the big value is that users continue to interact
with the brand even after they leave the browser, but there are some
others as well. For example, if developed to do so, an AIR application
can push notifications to the end user. Imagine a user is planning on
booking a flight for a trip in the near future, but he or she
'
'
s waiting
for a good price before doing so. I
'
m sure the user would appreciate
it very much if your client
s application was kind enough to inform
him or her that it had found a flight below a certain price that he or
she had set in advance. Another benefit would be in the case of a
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