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Adobe Releases AIR 2 Beta, Promises to Be Less Memory-hungry

Simon Mackie — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:17:45 +0000

Adobe has released new betas of AIR 2 and Flash 10.1, James over at jkOnTheRun reports. Both products now support multitouch, but most interesting for me in this news is that AIR 2 promises to be less memory-hungry than the previous version. I’ve shied away from many useful desktop apps that rely on AIR (TweetDeck, for example) because they hog so much memory — hopefully this new release will have much more reasonable usage of my computer’s resources.

Do you avoid AIR apps because they are so resource-hungry?

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Skimmer, a New Lifestreaming Client

Simon Mackie — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:12:38 +0000

If you constantly find yourself flicking between clients and browser windows for the different social networking apps that you use, you might like to try skimmer, a new lifestreaming app that launched into public beta today that aims to streamline your consumption of social media.

skimmer is a cross-platform desktop client, built using Adobe AIR, that gives you a single interface to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube and Blogger. Even in beta it works pretty well, and has some nice touches, such as displaying Twitpic images inline so you don’t have to open another browser tab. Think of it as a Tweetdeck-like app that also allows you to keep an eye on what’s happening with your friends on Flickr, Youtube and Blogger. You can also use it to upload photos and video. It is a very elegantly designed application that looks great.

If I wanted a full-screen Twitter/lifestreaming client I would probably consider using skimmer, but it’s a bit too heavyweight for me. I prefer having a small, unobtrusive twhirl window at the side of my screen to keep up-to-date with what’s happening on Twitter. While you can set skimmer up in a “widget”-size window, it still takes quite a lot of screen real estate; it’s probably best to run skimmer on a second screen.

I’d also caution that the app takes a lot of memory to run (a common problem with AIR applications). skimmer is currently using nearly 200MB of memory on my machine – hopefully this is something that will be addressed in a future version.

Have you tried skimmer? What did you think?

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Adobe Launches Adobe Photoshop Express

Jason Harris — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:15:19 +0000

When working on the web, an aggravating task is working with images. There are image manipulation software tools, but most are costly and poorly-implemented. Today, Adobe has released a tool that will ease frustration when it comes to working with, sharing, and storing images.

In a long awaited move, Adobe opened the door for mass use of their Adobe Photoshop Express online tool. This web based tool is a diluted version of the very popular (and expensive) Adobe Photoshop application that is the defacto standard for image manipulation. This “cloud based application” allows users a simple way to enhance, share, and store photos.

After completing the sign-up process, users begin their journey in the MyPhotos gallery of their images. To start, Adobe grants 2GB of online storage for your photos. You can use MyPhotos to upload, rate, organize, and caption your photos. From within MyPhotos, you can easily rotate, email, embed, and download photos. As a very welcome feature, Ssearch is supported as well.

Double clicking on a photo will bring up the editing menu. Users of photo tools will recognize the main features including Crop and Rotate, Auto Correct, Exposure Fix, Red-Eye Removal, and so on. There are even ways to distort the image, apply pop colors, and adjust the hue, for the more advanced photo editors.

It is apparent that Adobe created Photoshop Express with usability as a main focus. The developers built in appealing transitions when interfacing with windows and application features. The application, even through it’s running in Flash, is very responsive and snappy.

Adobe has built relationships with third-parties as well, adding to Photoshop Express’ appeal. Currently the partners include Facebook, Google’s Picasa, and Photobucket. For example, you can open your Facebook photos from within Photoshop Express, edit them, and save them back. Adobe is planning on releasing an API, which will only add more usefulness to the application going forward.

Keep in mind Adobe Photoshop Express requires Adobe Flash 9 to run. Adobe is said to be working on an Adobe AIR application that will allow for Photoshop Express use outside of a browser in multiple operating systems. Currently, Photoshop Express only works with .jpg files, but additional image file format support is in the works along with support for audio and other media.

Adobe’s intent in releasing a free version of the very popular Photoshop is to enable upsell of their traditional products including Photoshop Elements which is currently priced at $99. Additionally, Adobe will charge for premium features and additional storage.

Adobe’s Photoshop Express gives a great impression to potential Photoshop users. It’s ease of use, easy storage capability, and sharing functionality make it a winner in the online photo editor market.

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