Adobe Apollo = Acrobat Reader + Flash Player

It's certainly an interesting concept, but I can already see both HTML, Flash, and PDF. It's called a web browser. I don't see why Adobe needs to re-invent the wheel. Besides, the only improvement I can think of is to get websites to use Flash and PDF's less not more.

Now, if they wanted to release a free standards complient web browser that had built in functionality for PDF's and Flash, that sounds like a good idea, but something tells me that the HTML rendering (the important part) is going to suck.

Label me as a skeptic.

We are not combining the Flash Player and Acrobat reader plugins.

One of the primary reasons for the success of the Flash Player is that we have been able to keep the download size small. While the size will grow in the future, we are not going to do ANYTHING that jeopardizes the ubiquity of the player.

The "universal client" mentioned above is referring to the Apollo project, which is a project in its early stages focused at creating a client that allows developers to create and deploy apps and content using a combination of Flash, HTML and PDF. You can think of it as a successor to Central.

The only public discussion we have had about Apollo has been in some recent keynotes, where Kevin Lynch laid out some of our early ideas / thoughts about Apollo.

You can find a summary of Kevin's Apollo discussion at MAX here.

You can view a video of Kevin's discussion of Apollo during the MAX keynote here (Day 1 - Platform Future).

Kevin Lynch has confirmed at the FTC that Adobe Apollo download will start early next year.

At FlashForward Austin, Mike will give an overview of Apollo APIs and functionality, and will go through a number of examples to show how to leverage Apollo APIs to create desktop based RIAs.

Apollo is designed to give developers a way to create applications that can render Flash animations as well as HTML and Acrobat files (PDF). That approach preserves the benefits of the Web but allows room for programs that can't be included now, Lynch said.

Apollo programs will function when a person is offline and automatically update data when the user gets back online. For example, a person could book an airline ticket from a handheld or laptop offline; when the person reconnects to a network, the software will complete the transaction.

In addition, Adobe Apollo applications will behave like other desktop programs: They will have a separate icon for launching the program and appear in operating system utilities, like the "Add or Remove Programs" feature in Microsoft Windows, Lynch said.

Mike Chambers will also give an overview of Apollo, discuss how it aims to make RIA development and deployment better, and show how to get started developing for it.

Apollo is a natural evolution to what Adobe already provides, and it will allow the company to package Adobe Reader (for PDF files) and Flash Player in a single product, Burton Group's O'Kelly said.

Lynch said that Apollo will be a separate download from its Adobe Reader (for viewing Acrobat PDF files) and from the Flash Player, and that those products will continue to be developed and distributed separately.

This sounds like a colossal waste of time. If there was two applications that Adobe (now) makes that I wish would go away forever it would be Acrobat and Flash. They make my web (and now desktop) experience slow, inaccessable, and frustrating. Why I would want to have that on my desktop as well I have no idea.

The only thing that would make me happy is if instead of combining these two bloated applications if they actually spent some money to explain that Flash should not be used to deliver content and PDF's were optimized to be viewed faster and be much smaller in size.

All sounds a bit familiar. Tools like MDM Zinc have been around for a while and allow you to build Flash projectors and deploy to Windows, Mac and Pocket PC platforms and don’t require a plug-in (see www.multidmedia.com).

Will be interesting to see what becomes of Apollo though and whether it’s just a re-hash of Central.

Apollo is going to open up a World of possibilities. Being able to write applications using JavaScript and Html alone is going to open the doorway for Web Designers to have a new medium to work with. Yes, Flash has received a bad name, mostly from people using it to create large advertisements and complete web pages that are almost imposable for anyone with dial-up to download. When Flash/Flex is used for more then effects it is probably the most powerful RIA development platform available and Flash/Flex is only going to get stronger with the release of Apollo. Microsoft’s WinFx could be in trouble in the RIA Market.
I check Adobe Labs everyday hoping to see the release of the alpha version.
Travis Decker
www.decker0004.com

Sigh; the guy who posted on 12.5.06 is a complete idiot. Those two products are one of Adobe's greatest assets. And flash is far from slow, only a biased and irrational person would jump to that conclusion. Have you ever tried using a Java applet? THAT is slow. And to not use Flash as a content provider, are you serious? You'd rather use Windows Media Player/Quicktime/Real Player or any of the other myriad of media players and their bloated plugins over flash? As for Flash being frustrating, i can't understand that claim either. That's the use of the technology and not the technology itself, and that argument can be applied to anything. As for your last comment, Flash... bloated? The plugin is roughly 1mb, what are you talking about? Acrobat reader, i can agree on with you, since i found FoxIt i haven't looked back.

How different is this from microsoft WPF/e or .NET 3.0?

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