Today we are very excited to announce the availability of the Adobe AIR 2 beta (runtime and SDK) for Windows, Mac and Linux. At Adobe MAX, we provided you with a preview of Adobe AIR 2 and now you will have a chance to test drive the beta version. AIR 2 builds on the success of AIR 1 by giving developers new capabilities and even tighter integration with the desktop. This is the first time we have sim-shipped for all three major operating systems for both AIR and Flash Player (also in beta) and represents a major step forward in delivering on the promise of the Open Screen Project. In addition, the Flash Player team has also announced the availability of Player 10.1 on Adobe Labs.

Next steps:

1. Download the Adobe AIR 2 beta runtime and SDK from Adobe Labs
2. Explore the AIR 2 Release Notes, Developer FAQ and documentation
3. Download source code and sample applications
4. Ask questions and provide feedback in the the AIR 2 beta forum

In addition, we are making the following articles available today in the Adobe Developer Center:

• Read the "What's New in AIR 2" article by Rob Christensen by Rob Christensen
• Using drag-and-drop support of remote files in Adobe AIR 2 beta by Christian Cantrell
• Creating a socket server in Adobe AIR 2 beta by Christian Cantrell
• Exploring the new file capabilities in Adobe AIR 2 beta by Christian Cantrell
• Using the Microphone capabilities in Adobe AIR 2 beta by Nicholas Kwiatkowski
• Creating accessible Adobe AIR applications with the Adobe Flex SDK by Daniel Koestler

Join us today as we start the next step in the evolution of Adobe AIR. On Adobe Labs you will find articles, videos, documentation, and sample applications with code to get you started with AIR 2. The beta forum will also be open to post questions, provide feedback and share your experiences with the beta. We look forward to your feedback and thanks for your continued support. See you all in the Adobe AIR 2 Beta forum!

One of the new capabilities that will be available in our upcoming beta release of Adobe AIR 2 will allow developers to build applications that can detect the mounting and unmounting of mass storage devices. What is a mass storage device? Examples of such devices include USB flash drives, hard drives and certain models of MP3 players and cameras such as the popular Flip HD video cameras. Using these new API's, developers will be possible to build new classes of applications that were not possible in AIR 1. For example, it is now possible for a developer to build an applications that automatically synchronizes data between a local hard drive (or in the cloud) and a mass storage device.

Christian Cantrell, a member of the Adobe AIR team, posted an excellent blog post with code samples where he provides example code how these new API's will work. In addition, he also recorded a demo of an AIR 2 application he made available as open source called FileTile.

Andrew Trice of Cynergy Systems recently wrote a blog post summarizing his experiences building multi-touch applications using Adobe Flex and an early version of Adobe AIR 2. In his post, he shares a number of excellent video demonstrations, code samples and design considerations that developers thinking about multi-touch development may find valuable.

In addition, Dave Wolf, also of Cynergy Systems, wrote a blog post discussing the development of an application for the Adobe MAX keynote. At MAX, Dave recorded a video demonstration of that application from the event floor that I have embedded below.

Lastly, if you are interested in learning more about multi-touch, please be sure to watch Andrew's talk titled "Multi-touch Development with Adobe Flex" that he presented at Adobe MAX earlier this month.

Adobe AIR team member Oliver Goldman presented a session titled "Explore Deployment and Distribution Options for Adobe AIR Applications" at Adobe MAX last week. This is an excellent session for IT administrators, developers or architects that are interested in learning more about the distribution and deployment options for AIR. Oliver also previews some of the new capabilities we are working on related to native installer support in AIR 2 (see 38:30 if you are interested in this specific topic).