If Adobe AIR is something new to you and you’re not familiar with what it has to offer, here are my top five reasons why AIR is great!

• It’s fast: Performance increases were a major objective for the release of Actionscript 3 and Adobe AIR takes full advantage of the new performance gains.
• It’s cross platform compatible: This means that you don’t have to get involved in any Mac vs PC debates, leaving you more time to spend on the actual application. (The latest version of AIR also supports Linux so everyone can enjoy using your application.)
• It’s beautiful: Flash has always been a favourite for designers because it is ideal for creating rich UIs and animations. It also handles audio and video with ease too.
• It’s re-usable: Actionscript 3 is at the core of the runtime so much of the development can be ported back to the browser at a later date if you need.
• It’s Ajax friendly: AIR uses the WebKit rendering engine (used in Safari) allowing it to handle a variety of existing web technologies (XHTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash and PDF).

If you want to find more AIR applications the best place to start is the Adobe AIR Marketplace. You might also like to try some other great AIR applications. Here are a few to get you started:

• Times Reader
• Kuler desktop
• LDBK Player
• To do mailer
• Pixus