O’Reilly: Inside RIA

We need your help. O'Reilly is conducting a competition to highlight the best RIAs of 2009. We have been compiling a list of noteworthy applications, but we want to make sure we aren't missing any. It can be especially difficult to find independent developers that aren't receiving as much attention as they might deserve. Upon completing the list we will begin voting here on InsideRIA. The finalists will be showcased at a special session at MAX 2009 where we conduct and in-depth look at each app and conduct a Q&A with the developer/development team. Please leave a comment with any submissions/suggestions. The only requirements are that the application be created/powered with Adobe tools and that they were either created, released, or updated in 2009.

InsideRIA has some exciting news about Adobe MAX that we will be sharing very soon. In preparation for one of our planned sessions, we would like to know which Flex Frameworks (micro-architectures) you would like to see us debate in...

No, this isn't my new perspective on using the Google Maps API. In fact, it's much more exciting. Google recently released a new addition to the Maps API for Flash, including 3D perspective, and a new control set that is reminiscent of the controls in Google Earth! Straight from Google: "With a perspective map, the map is projected on a viewport (the screen) using a virtual point of reference in front of the screen (the camera). These three components (the map, the viewport and the camera) form a perspective on the viewport which gives the illusion of depth perception to the map."

Recently, Barry Diller, chairman and chief executive officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp, said that he believes that in the near future Web users will have to pay for what they watch and use on the Internet. Other media moguls including Liberty Media...

Augmented Reality has been a hot topic lately. I have recently been playing around with AR both in the Flash Player as well as my G1 Android phone. To this point, I can say that the technology is very cool but also has a lot of growing up to do.

In case you missed it earlier this week, Adobe has recently released ColdFusion 9 beta on Adobe Labs and ColdFusion Builder on Adobe Labs. I was lucky enough to catch a presentation of the new features at last night's DC Flex User Group by Adam Lehman (CF Product Manager), and I have to say, it certainly looks intriguing and very promising.

Recently, Flash Camp Atlanta was announced, and it will happen on August 28th at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. This event is shaping up to be an amazing one!

Flash on the Beach is fast approaching this year, tickets are selling out faster than ever and we're promised this is going to be the best yet! But don't just take my word for it, I managed to wrangle a few minutes from John Davey, organiser and head honcho of Flash on the Beach, to ask him a few questions about why this is one of the hottest events on the conference calendar.

One year and ten months is how long it's taken Microsoft to release their third version of Silverlight. From the beginning, Silverlight has been media and consumer focused. Projects such as the NBC Olympics, Wimbledon, the NCAA March Madness basketball video player have defined what Silverlight is. What isn't as well known is that Silverlight is quickly becoming a viable option for RIA development.

Last week's announcement of Google Chrome OS is another move in the direction of netbooks and the cloud. Software as a service providers are working hard to move you away from the desktop and client-side apps and towards hosted services...