Adobe's AIR rolloutCNET News.com
Last night I was among many across the world to attend one of Adobe's Air roll-out events. Whether I should have swooned with excitement we're not sure. (Actually I swooned at the thought of all these branded apps clogging up my and my customers systems with malware and brand-ware).

Perhaps it was the monotone verbatim delivery of Adobes Powerpoint slides by their Cleveland user group rep. Maybe it was all the time I've invested in Rails.

Still, there is coolness here. With Air, apps that are too slow to run in the browser can enjoy a certificate process backed by Adobe. Air provides a local SQL service, so your app doesn't have to run to the server to register every user action. It also supports binary transfers for when XML is too slow. And of course options for customizing the UI chrome. It probably fills a gap.