I have decided to do a weekly showcase on this site. This will be a video showcase in which I will demo an AIR application of my choosing that I think is not only illustrative of what an AIR application can and should be, but is just plain cool and useful. If I have time, I may even interview some of the creators of these applications and get some insight into their work.

I have some ideas about which applications I am going to showcase first, and there are definitely quite a few to choose from now that the AIR Developer Derby has finally complete. But if you want to have your AIR application moved to the top of the list, or just want to make me aware of what you are working on, please feel free to contact me.

I will probably be starting this showcase next week, so keep an eye out here on my blog.

Every once in a while you get a link to a site that you have to send around, or blog in my particular case. The application is called Retrievr and by its unique spelling it is obvious that it is related to Flickr. What is not so obvious is how addictive this application is once you get a handle on it.

In a nutshell, it provides a unique search interface for a subset of flickr photos. By sketching out a drawing using a Flash based widget embedded in the page, the application makes calls to an algorithm that matches your drawing, colors and all, to photos retrieved from the Flickr database. It makes use of AJAX to incrementally make calls to the service so that as you are drawing your sketch you can see your results updated in real time.

I love to see applications like this that take advantage of numerous ‘Web 2.0′ technologies and ideas to subtly combine them in this way (I could write an entire post on how many indiscriminate uses of tags I have seen in the past few months.) The site and interface is clean, and it just works how you would expect. No fluff, just a great application that is a lot of fun to play with.

CNN has started offering free video streams and is delivering the video via Flash Video. It looks very well done and is a great example of how Flash Video can enhance existing video services. Now if they would just use Flash in the popup version of the video player.

View the videos here.

I found this really great example of a social networking based app built in Flash for Pocket PC devices. This application was developed as part of Steven Blyth’s thesis project. Not only is it a great example of Mobile Flash, but it illustrates a powerful application of social networking software.

Quoted from the project site: “Idea/problem/context: While tending not to let things slide in professional environments because of the immediate repercussions, we often neglect our personal lives, where the effect of our actions are less apparent. Good at building systems that assist us in structured environments like the workplace, we find it difficult to design for the ambiguous, less tangible nature of our social lives.

What it is: The Social Fabric is a representation of your social world, displayed as a single visual array on your mobile phone. It does not replace your address book or calendar but keeps you subtly informed about which relationships are prospering, which you have neglected, and the overall state of your social fabric.

How it works: Your phone’s screen shows a crowd of human figures, each an avatar of one of your friends, acquaintances or relatives. The frequency of all digital communications between you and each person, which the system monitors, determines that avatar’s posture: an alert stance indicates frequent recent contact, for example; a lethargic posture or turned back means neglect. You can also register non-digital contacts manually. The avatars can be grouped manually according to sentiment, category, and so on, or programmed to begin clustering together before an upcoming event: your family before a birthday, say.

Value/potential: More generally, this project shows how, as well as hard information (amply served by current applications), personal management tools can also record and represent the ’softer’, more ambiguous, but still central aspects of our lives - and with no less elegance and power.”

From the article: “One of the novelties with this phone is the use of Macromedia’s Flash for the user interface. There’s a bunch of animations and it is all pretty smooth. The theme of the UI is “Racing”. Each model has its own UI theme.”

It appears that Mountain Dew is now using Flash Video to deliver advertisment in-page at SI.com.

It may not always show up at this link, so you may have to refresh the page a few times to see it:

SI.com Mountain Dew Ad

You might be wondering where I have been lately. To say I have been busy is an understatement. I transitioned to the Flex team and am now working on something I can’t exactly tell you about :) I am having a blast though, and enjoy the flexibility Macromedia gives us in being able to innovate on new projects. I should have more to tell you about what I am working on in the future.

To get to the point, I was ordering pizza just a few minutes ago (which I am now anxiously awaiting) on the Pizza Hut website. What blew me away was the subtle yet powerful use of Flash Video. Years ago when multimedia on the web was a pipe dream, I think pizzahut.com really represents how I thought it would be used. It doesn’t overwelm you when you see it, but it definitely made me crave that pizza I saw.

Check it out here: http://www.pizzahut.com