Adobe AIR v14 Is Out With Support For x86 Chips And Using Your Device As A Gamepad For Web Games

Yes, Adobe AIR is still a thing, and now Adobe has released v14 of the AIR runtime with updated support for the x86 architecture and gamepad support for web games. AIR didn’t make the splash in developer circles Adobe was hoping for, but it’s still inching along.

In case you’ve forgotten, AIR is a runtime that can be used to build apps that work across platforms and devices with fewer compatibility issues. Many AIR titles are available on iOS as well as Android, but the new x86 support will obviously only affect the Android side of things. The gamepad support actually refers to a second-screen interface for web games, which might be neat. Basically, your device is the gamepad.

AIR is not often used in heavy or high-performance apps and games as those do better with native code, but there are still plenty of apps that use AIR. So, this is mostly a developer facing change. It’s not likely you’re going to need to worry about what is and isn’t supported by AIR. You’re probably not even going to run into AIR apps that often, though Adobe says there are over 50,000 of them.

[Adobe]