My first impression playing with Adobe’s TV/Media player has left me with two overwhelming reactions:
First is that if the Adobe TV content channel for professionals keeps growing there may be an enormous opportunity to carve out a niche for researchers, professionals, DIYers and just about anyone else looking to learn or spread knowledge. I just fired up the Flash in a Flash episode and immediately saw the potential. Now they just need ot beanch out beyone using Adobe apps and encompass many other areas of science and technology. Leave YouTube to the kids, this can be a great professional resource. But it has to remain free. And ditch the third-rate B-roll content from the Fodd network (pitcured above) and others. Waste of time.
The second is the feel I get when using this “app”. Ahhh Adobe AIR. Taking all of the power of Flex and the experiential richness of Flash to the desktop for use on and off line. But just because applications are being written with richer toolkit doesn’t mean they should utilize glows and tweens and transitions and blurs too liberally. I still like my applications feeling zippy. Especially once I’ve left the exploratory experience behind and I’m just looking to drill down into the content I’ve self-identified to. I first encountered this issue when I was at AOL with Boxlee, again with using the first release of Adobe Bridge and now with Air apps (yes I’m generalizing). How come every Air app feels the same? Somewhat sluggish in response to the user’s wishes. Overly caught up in transitions. Chuggy. They all feel like Adobe Bridge CS2. I actually think this Media Player app is one of the better Air apps in that it commits these transgressions the least (I’m looking at you Ebay Desktop). Is is just me? Nah mean?