Adobe AIR came along and changed the application world overnight. Developers could now use their web app knowledge and translate that to an application that ran on a PC, Mac or Linux desktop. For users, such as myself, we all of the sudden had the ability to find desktop apps that we loved, and use them across all of our systems in the exact same way.

With this new age of “application neutrality,” I wanted to take a brief look into some Adobe AIR apps you have to at least try. Each one is focused on increasing an area of productivity.

For the business owner, blogger, or developer, Twitter has become a must-use tool to maintain a healthy network and customer base. TweetDeck is, in my opinion, the top of the line when it comes to Twitter interaction.

View your feed, all replies, trends, and even searches in just a single window! Another great feature of TweetDeck is the ability to sort your contacts into Groups. I have a group for work and a group for Madison, WI that keeps my peep-tracking on easy street.

Tip: Instead of using the standard reply section in TweetDeck, setup a search for variations of your username, full name, business name, etc. This allows you to capture ALL mentions to you! My reply search looks like this: @ielliott OR @ielliot OR “Elliott Kosmicki” OR “goodplum.com” OR “Good Plum.”

If you’ve used WriteRoom for Mac, Q10 for PC, or PyRoom for Linux (all of which I use), you will more than likely find Focused of interest.

Focused allows you to write in fullscreen mode. This removes distractions while writing and is now the only way I write (as I am far too easily distracted). So instead of using a different program, depending on your platform, you can simply install Focused on Adobe AIR on each of your systems.

For those who use 37signals’ Basecamp product, you might want to take a look at Compuccino instead, as it integrates directly into your tasks there. For the rest of us who want a simple way to track time on projects, there’s Kronos.

Simply setup projects and start tracking how much time you’re spending on them! It’s a great way to either find out how you’re spending (a.k.a. wasting) your time, or just as a simple way to stay on task.

This is an early but very delicious release. If you have a blog that receives a regular stream of comments, it’s always in your best interest to moderate them as often as possible (as well as reply and build relationships, of course).

Moderator allows you to do all this right from within an Adobe AIR program window. Know in advance you’ll also have to install a plugin on your WordPress site for this to work, but it’s worth the few extra minutes of time spent!

I don’t know if Google Reader needed improvement, but this Adobe AIR app called ReadAir has me hooked. Essentially, the application allows you to read your feeds in an email-like interface - I love having my reader open in a separate window anyway. The OSX-like theme is just icing on the cake (they’re working on Windows themes, too).

If you’re a programmer or writer that constantly re-uses bits of texts, this may interest you. Snippely allows you to categorize bits of text information that you can easily recall at any time.

The interface and organization of Snippely is awesome, I just wish they would allow two things: keyboard shortcuts to auto-enter a snippet, and some type of server-sync so I could access my snippets from any computer. Nevertheless, a great product.

If you use Remember The Milk, RTM Notifier may be a handy add-on you’ve missed. It adds some basic functionality to your RTM workflow in a simple, small application you can leave open in your system tray.

Check it out, but as it did with me, it may leave you wanting more.

Note - Toodledo users, there is also a very basic Adobe AIR app for you too. Check it out here.

There REALLY is a glaring hole in to-do apps for Adobe AIR. Anyone have anything planned you’d like to share?

A late entry into my list comes AlertThingy 3. Version 1 was a FriendFeed-only application and I just never tried version 2. Version 3 integrates Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Yammer, and many more tools I use daily into one interface. Similar to TweetDeck (#1 on this list), you can expand the program to see multiple lists of information such as your Twitter feed, a Twitter search, plus your Facebook news feed. You can update all of these services right from AlertThingy as well.

I’m not sure if this will replace TweetDeck for me, but it really is nice to look at and seems to do much of what I need (except groups). Now if it could only add Digsby-styled instant messaging and run to Starbucks for me!

Please note, this is NOT yet released. However, the developer had previously released an Adobe AIR application to digest your Google Analytics which is now unavailable. The success of that product has spawned an entire suite of new products, soon to be released.

Imagine having all your Google Analytics data sucked-in to an AIR app that will allow you to pick it apart and analyze it in all new refreshing ways.

If you’re interested (as I am), be sure to find out more at the Desktop Reporting site.

No matter what you do, there will always be a never ending stream of applications released. Whether it’s for Adobe AIR, the web, or the latest mobile phone. Go ahead and try things, but if there’s one tip I can recommend the most it’s to pick something and stick with it - at least for a while. Otherwise, you might end up needing an app for your Attention Deficit Disorder, which isn’t in beta until winter of 2012.

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