14 DAY TRIAL // Along with the first beta of the upcoming Adobe Flash Player 11, comes the beta for the AIR 3 runtime. AIR integrates Flash at its core, so it comes with all of the new features and functionality in Flash Player 11. One interesting feature in AIR 3 for developers is the ability of bundling the runtime with the app, removing one installation step.
Unfortunately, Adobe won't be releasing the SKD for AIR 3, so developers won't be able to start using specific features in the beta phase.
"Captive Runtime for AIR: This popular feature from AIR for iOS will now be available on AIR for desktop," Adobe announced.
"Simplify the app installation process, reduce testing and certification cost by encapsulating the AIR runtime in your Windows, Mac and and Android apps," it explained.
Adobe is only releasing an AIR 3 Beta at this point to test compatibility with older apps built for AIR 2.7 or previous versions. Developers are encouraged to see that their current apps work properly for users with the AIR 3 runtime installed.
However, they won't be able to build apps against the AIR 3 specifications. If you really want to get started on AIR 3 apps, you need to apply for Adobe's private pre-release program.
"The AIR 3 desktop runtime beta is provided to ensure current AIR 2.7 and AIR apps targeting older version of AIR are compatible with this upcoming release of AIR 3. At this time the AIR 3 SDK and AIR 3 specific features (e.g. captive runtime) will not be available in a public beta," Adobe explained.
The company has said that the Adobe AIR 3 SDK will be made available, through Adobe Labs, at a later date.
However, users will eventually be able to benefit from the new features in Flash Player 11 in their AIR apps as well, things like the new low-level, GPU-accelerated 3D graphics API, Stage 3D.
Adobe AIR 3 Beta for Windows is available for download here. Adobe AIR 3 Beta for Mac OS X is available for download here.
Adobe AIR SDK for Windows is available for download here.