Adobe announced the availability of Adobe AIR and Adobe Flex 3 software, furthering the Adobe technology platform for rich Internet applications (RIAs).

Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex and Adobe Flash Player software are the foundation of the Adobe technology platform for RIAs. Adobe RIA technologies include tools, frameworks, servers, services, and runtimes that work together. There are a variety of learning resources at the Adobe Developer Connection (developer.adobe.com ) to help developers immediately start building RIAs for the browser and the desktop.

Adobe AIR enables developers to create RIAs on the desktop using the skills and Web technologies ? such as HTML, Ajax, PDF, Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex ? they already employ. Applications deployed on Adobe AIR have the advantages of browser-based RIAs, such as speed of development, ease of use, and access from virtually anywhere. Yet they also have the benefits of desktop applications, such as the ability to read/write local files, work with other applications on a user?s computer and maintain local data storage on the desktop.

Flex is a free, open source framework for building highly interactive, expressive RIAs. Adobe Flex Builder 3, an Eclipse based development tool, accelerates Flex application development and includes new capabilities for deploying RIAs on Adobe AIR. Adobe Flex Builder 3 integrates with Adobe Creative Suite 3 software making it easy for designers and developers to work together more efficiently.New testing tools, including memory and performance profilers and integrated support for automated functional testing.

Major portions of Adobe AIR, such as the WebKit HTML engine, Tamarin ActionScript Virtual Machine, and SQLite local database functionality, are open source.

Adobe AIR and the Adobe AIR SDK are available immediately as free downloads in English and offered for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Upcoming versions are expected to be available for Linux and other languages. For more information, please visit www.adobe.com/go/air .

The Adobe Flex 3 product line is available now in English and Japanese, and offered for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. The open source Flex 3 SDK is available free of charge and a beta version of Adobe Flex Builder 3 for Linux is freely available on Adobe Labs (labs.adobe.com). Adobe Flex Builder 3 is available as a standalone product or Eclipse plug-in, with the Standard edition priced at US$249 and the Professional edition at US$699. For more information about system requirements and supported platforms, please visit www.adobe.com/go/flex.