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In my continuing evaluation of the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, I was delighted to see that Adobe Flash was included as part of the web browser. This means that I can watch Strongbad’s Emails and Youtube from a device that fits in my pocket.

However, I am disappointed that the version of flash installed does not recognized the built in camera or microphone. This means that I can’t send video messages to my friends on Facebook.

So, plus on the fact that flash is included, but a small negative because the flash doesn’t support that camera.

Today, Adobe announced a new product: Adobe Air. The basic concept of this is that you can compile a web application that you’ve developed to be a run-time on a users system. Adobe accomplishes this through distribution of the WebKit HTML rendering engine. Basically, your apps run like they would in a web browser, except that they look more like they are a standalone desktop application.

Adobe has done a good job at allowing Air applications integrate well with the desktop.

Adobe isn’t the first to use internet delivery technologies for desktop applications. Mozilla’s XULRunner allows developers to create and package multi-platform programs based off the same technology that powers Firefox. However, Adobe has done a good job at making it simple to publish very traditional AJAX apps as desktop apps.

Adobe’s big problem is they only support Windows and Mac. There is no Linux support, at least not yet. One of Adobe Air’s big selling point is that it makes it easy to create cross-platform applications. However, without Linux support, the most Adobe can advertise is dual-platform apps.

For a great demo Air app, look at this complex YUI example.