I’m proud to announce the beta release of my first Drop.io desktop AIR application called Droplet. I built the application using my own Drop.io AS3 library. The application is very simple and offers the fastest way to upload a single file to Drop.io. Just open the application, choose your file, and Droplet uploads your file to a generate drop. Once uploaded, you have the option to upload another file (to a brand new drop) or view the drop you just created with your file!

If Droplet gains enough support, I would love to see further renditions of the application to allow more support for other Drop.io features. Until then, be sure to leave your thoughts in a comment below!

System Requirements:

• Adobe AIR Runtime 1.5 or higher
  • Will run on Windows, Mac, or Linux

UPDATE: This application has been altered. The finished product is called Droplet and be viewed HERE

Over a year ago I had the pleasure of working on the team that created Drop.io. I had built the original Flash uploaders. Since then, the Drop.io team has been hard at work and just last week released a new version of the site with a TON of great new features. My absolute favorite is the new Drop.io API. Getting a FREE key is simple and very quick (possibly faster than getting a FREE drop)! With only an hour into it, I’ve already managed to move, delete, and add assets quickly and painlessly. I can’t wait to get some more time into this and build out a drop manager in Adobe AIR.

Keep checking back for more status updates, I hope to have the Drop.io Desktop Manager available soon!

Until then, check out some of my other AIR apps…
Super Duper Desktop FLV Player
The File Furnace

UPDATE: After dealing with a couple bugs and missing features (clickable links), I switch over to Twhirl for my Twitter AIR app. I’ve been using it for a couple weeks now and it is fantastic!

I’ve been using the Ubiquity plugin for Firefox to do most all of my twitters, but I just stumbled upon a GREAT AIR app that offers far more features. It’s called TweetDeck. I’ve only been using it a very short while, but have high hopes for this beta. Be sure to grab a copy and give it a go!

I had started creating AIR apps since the first beta release and I love how easy it is to create a simple customized tool quickly to help with day to day activities. Until now I’ve been using the WimpyFLV Player with limited success. It was ok, but would have issues playing back files on the network. So I developed my own player that is simple and straight to the point. For development purposes I have the dimensions of the video file in the upper right hand corner and the length of the video in seconds. This helps since you can’t just view the properties of an FLV to get this information. Check out the link below to download the .air file.

Adobe – Adobe AIR Marketplace Photo & Video

An Adobe Air app that I created a while back seems to have been added to the software site Softpedia and deemed 100% clean!

Download File Furnace 1.0 – Permanently deletes files and directories you drag onto its main window – Softpedia

I had a hard time finding a simple intro to using the NativeMenu, so here is some code for a basic Hello World NativeMenu demo.

import flash.display.*;
import flash.desktop.*;

stage.nativeWindow.menu = new NativeMenu();

var menuItem:NativeMenuItem = new NativeMenuItem("Hello!");

var subMenu:NativeMenu = new NativeMenu();
var btn1:NativeMenuItem = new NativeMenuItem("World");
btn1.addEventListener(Event.SELECT, itemClicked);
subMenu.addItem(btn1);
menuItem.submenu = subMenu;

stage.nativeWindow.menu.addItem(menuItem);

function itemClicked(e) {
   trace("You Selected: ", e.target);
}

Source

Adobe takes it a step further and launches the Open Screen Project

“The Open Screen Project is working to enable a consistent runtime environment – taking advantage of Adobe® Flash® Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR™ — that will remove barriers for developers and designers as they publish content and applications across desktops and consumer devices, including phones, mobile internet devices (MIDs), and set top boxes.”

• Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
• Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
• Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services
• Removing licensing fees – making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

[ via BigSpaceship ]