Adobe’s offensive to take over the Web with rich content applications built on its platforms reached another stage: Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR-formerly known as Apollo) and Flex Builder are now available.

Adobe Flex 3 is a cross platform, open source framework for creating rich Internet applications that run identically in all major browsers and operating systems.

Adobe Flex Builder 3 public beta is an early public prerelease version with support for the new Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), code refactoring, advanced DataGrid (a new component that adds commonly requested features to the DataGrid such as support for hierarchical data, and basic pivot table functionality) and Web service introspection. It also allows for SWF file size reduction through persistent framework caching and memory profilers.

Back in April, Adobe released the source code for Adobe Flex as open source under the Mozilla Public License. Launched in June 2006, the Flex product line provides developers with a comprehensive, integrated set of tools and technology for fast, end-to-end development of rich and innovative web applications. Using the development framework, programmers create an application that can run within Adobe's Flash Player or Apollo, its "player" for desktop applications.

Since the launch of Adobe Flex 2, the product line has been enthusiastically embraced as a win for Web application developers, with over 100,000 developers downloading the technology.

„Flex 3 is focused on enabling more people to participate in building rich Internet applications and enhancing the platform with the top features requested by existing users” said Matt Chotin from Adobe.

On the other side, the Adobe Integrated Runtime (Adobe AIR, formerly known as Apollo) enables developers to create applications that combine the benefits of web applications—network and user connectivity, rich media content, ease of development, and broad reach, with the strengths of desktop applications—application interactions, local resource access, personal settings, powerful functionality, and rich interactive experiences.