Here are some excerpts from an article i came across that would be useful to get to know Adobe AIR.

Published 28 May 2008 by Gil Harland

AIR stands for, the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and is one of the latest interesting development from Adobe.

AIR runs on Windows, Mac OS X and a very usable Beta version for Linux. It installs the first time you download and run an AIR application, much in the same way that Flash is installed on a computer if the user visits a web site using Flash and they don’t already have it installed.

AIR applications run on the desktop and are half way between web based applications (which run in a browser) and full blown desktop applications such as Word or Photoshop.

Developers can create AIR applications using the HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash, Flex (A flash framework) and PDF knowledge they already have and AIR acts as a wrapper that allows them to run on the desktop and go beyond the limitations they would normally have if they were running in a web browser.

AIR applications differ from current web applications because AIR applications do not run in your web browser and therefore are able to use desktop features such as full drag and drop between applications, save files to the local hard drive or network and store data locally in a database.

When compared to traditional desktop applications, AIR applications are simple to deploy, easy and cost-effective to build, have better web integration and will run on all three of the major operating systems.

AIR is also smart enought to know when it is and isn’t connected so you can create programmes that work with online data and use the local database as a fallback if the connection to the internet is dropped.

more on AIR at Adobe® AIR™ Applications Wiki

Download the latest version of Adobe AIR

RefreshingApps.com – Showcase for Adobe AIR Applications and Resources

10 Adobe AIR -Must See- Applications

Adobe AIR Marketplace

As more applications are moving on to the internet, it is getting more challenging to create user experiences for the non-IT savvy people.

10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of is worthwhile read, found when i was browsing for more categories to be added to the customised usability checklist, while doing a Heuristic Evaluation of an application.

Thoughts on Interaction Design is added to my blog roll , i have found Welie’s Pattern library extremely useful for UI patterns while designing for webapps.

A neat tool, to compare type on screen, 3 at a time!!
Typetester is a cool web app whose primary role is to make a designer’s life easier

Bumping into many web apps and facing a shortage of time to blog all of them.

I have created a page name “Web Apps 2.0″ to keep a track of them

Are you one of those people who have the OCD of updating your friends about your travel exploits?
Finally after uploading your holiday snaps, you are a in a desperate need to color correct them? or remove the red eye which spoil many of the digital images?
Wish you had you laptop with you on your holiday? (with Photoshop installed?)
No need to fear,  Photoshop Express is here!!
You can upload digital images to the Service and to organize, store, edit and share those images with family and friends and/or with the general public.
Also create and share albums, slide shows and online galleries containing your images and other content.
Apart from signing up for the  2GB storage (Adobe clearly states to keep a back-up!), you also get to create a Personal Sharing URL such as your_name_here.photoshop.com.

Though i am really not sure why this service allows access to external sites such as facebook, picasa and photo bucket, maybe they (Adobe) plan to have some sort of collaborative integration

Came across this topic that talked about Kuler being ripped off from ColourLovers.com
I am not being biased with any group but i think both the interfaces do not match each other and their interactions are totally different.

I  first started out with Abobe Kuler, got the hang of creating themes sooner than ColourLovers.com
ColourLover.com seemed more community based with lot of things happening, which i really didnt have time to check out.

I just needed to create combinations and deploy them on my design at work and the time factor matters!!
Whenever i have some time or a break, i go back to re-edit the name and tags at Kuler.

I agree with the differences (comments) stated by Josh Chernoff on Chad Udell ‘s site that:

1. colourlovers is more community based. forums and blogging and a better commenting rating system
2. Kuler is more technical and logical. Provides CMYK, LAB and RGB with color theories and a over all a better color wheel).
3. Kuler is more API friendly with a great deal of redevelopment emphasis.
4. The web technologies are different. Kulers was in a way to provides a better understanding of Action Script’s capabilities as kuler surfaced just about the same time AS3 was introduced.

Working on Adobe Kuler has been quite an experience for me. Though i am a person who loves color, creating new themes was something i thought need major skills to come up with combinations!
Though i have done Color Theory in grad school, i still think you need to be a pro with colors to come up with breakthrough combinations with restrictions/constraints haunting your head.
So i played around on it for a while, didnt make any combinations public for obvious reasons.
Couple of months later i have edited and made them available publicly after checking out major funny combinations people have posted!
Hey you need a learning curve right? so from 6 combinations to 18 to 24 combos, 4 have been downloaded at least once, 1 twice, another 1 thrice and 1 has been downloaded five times….
hmm….not bad for a start i think

So have you tried it yet?