Lots of updates on Adobe Labs

I was away for a week at an Adobe conference in San Jose and missed a number of updates to the Adobe Labs website:

• Adobe AIR Beta 3: As we get closer to the eventual 1.0 release next year, Beta 3 on Labs includes a number of updates. Best place to get the skinny is the release notes page.
  
  
• Adobe Flex 3 Beta 3: This is supposed to be the final public beta release, so look for lots of quality and performance improvements.
  
  
• AIR extensions for Flash CS3, Dreamweaver CS3: Package and preview .AIR files directly within Flash CS3 and Dreamweaver CS3.

I hear other updates are on the way. Stay tuned :)

Next generation of Adobe Acrobat Connect on Adobe Labs

Interesting addition to Adobe Labs today - a preview of the next generation of Adobe Acrobat Connect, Adobe's web conferencing and collaboration platform.

The beta version will let you host an unlimited number of meetings with up to 3 people and gives you access to the usual web conferencing features - screen sharing, chat, whiteboards, multi-point video, multi-point VOIP and file sharing. Audio conferencing is also included for the 3 meeting participants, but long distance charges may apply to the callers. I have a flat-rate North America calling plan on my landline and mobile phone, so not really an issue.

If you haven't tried Connect before, one of the nicest features of the platform is that meeting rooms are persistent, just like your office or the boardroom down the hall. You set up your meeting room with a personalized address (I chose http://connect.acrobat.com/rizvi). Your room will always be available to you, as long as you have an Interne

t connection and Flash Player 9 installed. Of course, because it's based on Flash, Brio will work for both Windows and Mac users (no reason why we can't just get along!).

All you need to sign up is an Adobe ID. Get more information on http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/brio/.