At FlashForward 2006, Adobe Chief Software Architect, Kevin Lynch and Ed Rowe, a senior Adobe engineer, provided new details about the upcoming Adobe Apollo software, a successor to Macromedia Central that combines Flash, PDF and HTML formats.You can contact the Adobe Apollo Team @ wish-apollo@adobe.com
Inside Mac Radio has posted the complete audio from Adobe Keynote with Kevin Lynch . Subscribe to Adobe Podcast here.
Ed ran a small Adobe Apollo demo showcasing an audio media player outside the web browser interface that looked like a standalone desktop application.
Adobe Apollo cross-platform desktop applications will be installed and deployed from a website. Since Apollo uses no stand-alone installer, cross-platform deployment will be possible.
Adobe Apollo lets you create applications using HTML / JavaScript / Ajax just like you will be able to with ActionScript / Flash / Flex.
Ed explained that Adobe sees the browser as limiting; because it was designed for documents, the browser “chrome” (the browser itself) is always in the way. You always have to be online, and there is limited ability to work with the local environment.
Adobe Apollo is all about creating an environment - based on Flash, HTML, and PDF - that can do everything a browser can do and more.
Mike Chambers says that Apollo is not a widget engine. You can build full featured desktop applications with Adobe Apollo.
Adobe Apollo is a next generation platform for deploying Flash / HTML based applications to the desktop. Apollo will provide all of the desktop APIs and functionality you would expect from a desktop application, while allowing developers to leverage the technologies the are already familiar with (Flash / Flex / JavaScript / HTML / Ajax).
The installed Apollo "widgets" can be run like any other stand-alone software application. The look-n-feel (UI) can be customized as well.
Sources: FF2006 Seattle | Jen deHaan | Streaming Media | Mike Chambers