News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

March 19, 2007

software

Will Apollo take Adobe to the moon, or crash into my desktop?

Posted Mar. 19, ’07, 4:45 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen
Category | Software

apollo.jpg

Right from the Adobe Labs, Adobe has announced the free preview of its forthcoming technology, code-named Apollo. It’s described as…

…a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

What this means is that web developers will be able to use technologies they know and love to create cross-platform desktop applications (as opposed to web applications, which run in your browser).

Personally, this does not make me jump around in exhilaration. What this reminds me of is Java apps. Am I the only one who has ever used a Java app? To give you an example, Talkshoe’s “desktop” client is built with Java, and the interface is awful. These kinds of “web interfaces” just scream with the rest of the OS. Don’t get me wrong, there are great web apps out there, like Gmail, but to have those right in my dock doesn’t enchant me much. Of course, we can hope the UI designers will create pleasing interfaces, but if the eBay app built with Apollo that Adobe showed at DEMO 07 is any indication, you can expect some not-so-hot “eye-candy” right in your dock later this year, courtesy of Apollo.

Of course, this is only one side of the debate: Apollo’s big advantage is that it’ll enable web developers to easily move out of the browser and into the desktop. What do you think, good or bad?


1 Comments

definetheline said:

The UI's can be developed more over time...what I am really excited about is the fact that the web apps can be used both online and offline. This could be the turning point in how we use web apps. Imagine. Google Docs and Spreadsheets can be used even offline. This can really bring some innovation to the table, when web developers see that their apps are now on the desktop and can be accessed offline. Everyone claims their browser as their "most used app", however, the REAL future of the internet, is the integration between to desktop, and the web...something which I believe is yet to come! All I can say, is that I am pretty excited for the future of this product (I hope it's free)

March 19, 2007 5:16 PM

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