I was recently interviewed by Dan Wilson, a zone leader at DZone, about Flex, AIR, and the twitterAIR application I created. The interview has been published and you can read it or vote on it using the links below.

Read the article:
http://ria.dzone.com/articles/meet-man-who-set-twitter

Vote it up:
http://www.dzone.com/links/the_man_who_set_twitter_free.html

Recorded in Nashville, TN at the Flex 3 / AIR 1.0 launch event on 2/25/2008.

Recorded in Nashville, TN at the Flex 3 / AIR 1.0 launch event on 2/25/2008.

Recorded in Nashville, TN at the Flex 3 / AIR 1.0 launch event on 2/25/2008.

Last night the Nashville Flex User Group and Nashville ColdFusion User Group held a special Flex 3 and AIR launch event. We showed the exclusive user group video produced by Adobe which included an inside look at the AIR project and the team behind the release. I gave a presentation on the business case behind Flex and AIR which included info on all the new features of Flex 3 and initial features of AIR 1.0.

We had food and drink and celebrated the event with a Flex/AIR cake (pic below). Lastly, I recorded eight 30onAIR videos which have been uploaded to YouTube and will be blogged here over the next few days.

Thanks to all those who came out for a great event. Congrats to the following people for winning our giveaways:

Enrique M. - Adobe Flex 3 Professional
T Scott C. - Sony Playstation Portable
Scott L. - ActionScript 3 Cookbook by Joey Lott
Steve B., Cutter B., and J.J. M. - Limited Edition Adobe AIR 1.0 Launch poster

twitterAIR has been updated for AIR 1.0 skipping right over AIR Beta 3. Not much has changed in the new version though. I squashed a few bugs, got rid of the zip file download (which means I can't track downloads anymore) and implemented a seamless badge install.

If you don't have the latest AIR runtime (1.0) on your machine, the twitterAIR installation will install the runtime for you. If you're running an older version of twitterAIR, just use the badge install to update your copy.

For more on the announcement of Flex 3 and AIR 1, click here.

Get twitterAIR here!

As you may have heard, Adobe has announced the release of Adobe Flex 3 and Adobe AIR 1.0.

Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder. Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, delivering rich applications on the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write RIAs on the desktop using the same skills that you've been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.

For a more in-depth look at Flex 3 and AIR 1.0, come out to our special meeting tonight at Dealerskins! Adobe is sponsoring this meeting with food, giveaways and a raffle copy of Adobe Flex Professional. We'll also be giving away some special goodies that won't be announced until tonight.

Links you should check out:

AIR Showcase
http://labs.adobe.com/showcase/air/

AIR Marketplace
http://www.adobe.com/go/marketplace

Adobe Open Source
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/site/home

Sample AIR apps
Adobe Sample Apps: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/samples/
Digimix: http://www.digimix.com/
AOL Top 100: http://music.aol.com/help/syndication/desktop-widgets
eBay Desktop: http://desktop.ebay.com/
Google Analytics: http://www.aboutnico.be/index.php/google-analytics-air-beta-sign-up/
Parleys.com: http://www.parleys.com/display/PARLEYS/Parleys.com+V2+BETA+Program
twitterAIR: http://www.trajiklyhip.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/2/25/twitterAIR-v120-for-AIR-10-Released

Opensource BlazeDS
http://opensource.adobe.com/blazeds/

30onAIR
http://www.30onair.com/

Flex Showcase
http://flex.org/showcase/

http://www.30onair.com/
Ted Patrick blogs the project

Mike Chambers and the Adobe crew have announced the Europe version of the onAIR bus tour. Full details are on the onAIR site. You can also read Mike's blog post about the event.

Lastly, there's a Facebook page with tour info.

Adobe's RIA technologies enable you to rapidly build and deploy the most engaging applications across browsers and on the desktop. The 615Flex user group and the Nashville CF User Group are hosting a special live event to share exciting new information on Adobe's platform tools and technologies for building RIAs. You'll see an exclusive user group video presentation by Adobe CTO, Kevin Lynch, hear some important product news, plus get your hands on some exclusive schwag and other giveaways. Be part of the fun and excitement and join the rest of the Adobe developer community by participating in this very special event.

When:
Monday, February 25 at 7:00pm CST

Where:
Dealerskins Office
404 BNA Dr.(Suite 600 (Building 200)
Nashville, TN 37217

Map and directions:
http://tinyurl.com/36gw67

Ben Forta's Flex 3 / AIR pre-release tour has already begun and the Nashville stop on the US portion of the tour is this week. Any Flash, Flex, AIR, or ColdFusion developers are encouraged to come to the event and learn more about the next major release of Flex and the new Adobe Integrated Runtime product release.

Attendees are encouraged to register for the event so we can plan appropriately for the number of folks coming. Registering will also enter you into the drawings for Flex 3 (prize awarded when Flex 3 is launched), some cool Flex/AIR schwag, an iPod Nano, and 4 iPod Shuffles.

Subs, pizza, cokes and beer will be provided. All you have to do is show up! Considering the excellent speaker, fantastic product information, and free food and goodies, you'd be crazy to miss this event.