I checked out this technology review site from a Tweet earlier today to read review their review of 14 productive AIR applications. There are some definite gems in here. Today, I downloaded and am now using two of them, one of which is really awesome.
EspressoNewsReader:
This application connects to your Google Reader account. Might not seem like much, however, it has some pretty sweet options. First, you can Tweet a post you like. That's a nice bonus. But what I really like is that you can toggle between the "text" view and a "browser" view. In the Google Reader interface, you need to open the link to the post in a new window or tab (or the same window and lose your Reader window). Here, you click the Browser button and your blog page opens up in the application (replacing the text version). Very nice.
It's a beta product but thus far no real problems (memory issues always seem to plague beta AIR applications).
Doc?:
Okay, this one is just plain awesome for developers. It provides a local application in which you can use/read your Flex or Flash (read: MXML and AS3) LiveDocs. It breaks the docs from your IDE (Flex Builder, Gumbo, Flash CS3 or CS4).
To get it to work, you create a series of "books" in the application. A book is nothing more than a pointer to the folder containing the LiveDocs for a given application. For example, I created a book for Flex Builder. I pointed the book to a folder in my Flex Builder application directory On my Mac, it happens to be /Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3/plugins/com.adobe.flexbuilder.help_xxxx.xxx/doc/langref. In my installed version of Doc?, I have a book for AS3 (from the Flash CS4 help), Flex Builder 3 (using the newest SDK, 3.3), and one for Gumbo (Flex Builder 4/SDK 4).
It's WAY nicer than having to use a local web site or the IDE itself.
Anyway, both are great applications and free!
Fortunately, the Doc? site has detailed information where various books reside within each application supported.
EspressoNewsReader:
This application connects to your Google Reader account. Might not seem like much, however, it has some pretty sweet options. First, you can Tweet a post you like. That's a nice bonus. But what I really like is that you can toggle between the "text" view and a "browser" view. In the Google Reader interface, you need to open the link to the post in a new window or tab (or the same window and lose your Reader window). Here, you click the Browser button and your blog page opens up in the application (replacing the text version). Very nice.
It's a beta product but thus far no real problems (memory issues always seem to plague beta AIR applications).
Doc?:
Okay, this one is just plain awesome for developers. It provides a local application in which you can use/read your Flex or Flash (read: MXML and AS3) LiveDocs. It breaks the docs from your IDE (Flex Builder, Gumbo, Flash CS3 or CS4).
To get it to work, you create a series of "books" in the application. A book is nothing more than a pointer to the folder containing the LiveDocs for a given application. For example, I created a book for Flex Builder. I pointed the book to a folder in my Flex Builder application directory On my Mac, it happens to be /Applications/Adobe Flex Builder 3/plugins/com.adobe.flexbuilder.help_xxxx.xxx/doc/langref. In my installed version of Doc?, I have a book for AS3 (from the Flash CS4 help), Flex Builder 3 (using the newest SDK, 3.3), and one for Gumbo (Flex Builder 4/SDK 4).
It's WAY nicer than having to use a local web site or the IDE itself.
Anyway, both are great applications and free!
Fortunately, the Doc? site has detailed information where various books reside within each application supported.
