Look what Adobe has added to their amazing collection of development tools - it is none other than the all powerful AIR 2.5. If you happen to be a Flash developer you know what that means - it is your chance of putting in less effort and distributing your apps accross a diverse and wide range of platforms which includes smartphones, desktop, tablets and the latest of them all Web TV.
So what does Adobe AIR allow you the developer. Here's the official and descriptive answer:
Developers are able to use familiar tools including Adobe Flash® Professional CS5, Adobe Flash Builder™ and Flex to build rich standalone applications.
A slew of new features are making their debut with the arrival of AIR 2.5 which will definitely take the rich application experiences to the next level. Support for accelerometer, camera, video, microphone, multi-touch and gestures just give you a hint of how cool and powerful this technology has become.
Addition of geo-location feature makes it possible for us to enjoy location-based applications and services. AIR 2.5 is also able to display native browser controls within the application allowing for the integration of HTML and .SWF content. Version 2.5 of Adobe AIR will definitely please the developers as it allows them to easily store and cache databases inside an AIR application. Last but not the least , hardware acceleration for Adobe AIR is enabled across all major silicon partners including Broadcom, Intel, nVidia, ST Micro, Trident, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and others.