The Digital Movement

*update: Would not be fair to mention apollo with out mentioning the other engine that aims to achieve the same kind of richness and offline-online synergy. :)

With Mike Downey coming down next week, thought we will do a little profile of the baby he is going to show us, and glean a little bit of insight as to why Adobe is touting Apollo as the new engine that is going to play a major role in encouraging rich applications on the web in the years to come. (Perhaps similar to how Flash allowed us to have all the wonderful flash intros! :P )

Instead of writing a long boring post of what is it, thought we will just pull up Youtube and show you a video of Apollo. The first result we got was Mike Downey’s demonstration at the highly popular Demo’07 Conference, so here goes…

In the video, Mike gives a walkthrough of Ebay Desktop, an application developed using Apollo technology. The application has various functions and a user-friendly interface that greatly enhances the user’s Ebay experience. One of the functions that shocked me was how you can continue using the application even when disconnected. Mike demonstrates how you can snap pictures and set up an auction page while you are offline, and have the system automatically synchronize and upload the data the moment you are back online.

Cool stuff, no?

Here are 2 highly recommended links:
Check out Techcrunch’s review of the Best Apollo demos, as well as How eBay is developing with Adobe’s Apollo project.

Will end off with a quick definition…

In short, Apollo is a cross-operating system runtime that allows you to install desktop applications built using web technology like HTML, JavaScript and Flash. Its applications can engage audiences anywhere, anytime, allowing users to interact with RIAs, to experience interactive media and to collaborate on information and documents outside the constraints of the browser.

That’s all peeps, remember to catch Mike Downey at the New Media Forum! Register now ya? ;)

Su Yuen