Adobe Apollo Groundswell!

I am an evangelist! I evangelize things. How did I become an evangelist? Simple - I declared "I am an evangelist" and went forth and evangelized. So what do I evangelize about? A lot of things but nothing that I am not excited about. Today I want to talk about Apollo.

Apollo is the code name for 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. The possibilities and results are truly amazing. I compiled my first Apollo application while Mike Chambers was doing his talk at MAX. The process is fairly easy, especially if you are familiar with Flex Builder. When you set up your Flex project, all you have to do is import an extra *.swc file for the Application Window and use it in your project. There are some minor tweaks that need to be done now such as manually adding a new namespace but for the most part, the Application Window is the big item. It hosts the flash application but unlike the Flash Player which acts as a sandbox to run flash apps within a browser, the Application Window runs the flash applications as standalone apps with access to system resources. Give the power of Flex is you can rapidly build applications, these two technologies are going to be the cornerstone of new app development in the next decade (me thinks).

So how many people are getting stoked on this stuff? 4-5 months ago I did a search on google for "Adobe Apollo" and got 3,500 hits or thereabouts. Today it is at 196,000 - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22adobe+%2B+apollo%22&btnG=Google+Search

Tschuss!