Flex and Flash developers have long had the capability to create interesting, rich Internet applications that were hosted within the browser. With Adobe AIR they can now easily create applications that are installed onto the desktop. Of course, this brings new facilities to the environment, such as interactions with the file system, monitoring network connectivity and accessing databases.
What Lott et al have managed to achieve is a perfect book for experienced Flex/Flash developers - they largely ignore HTML/JavaScript development for AIR in this book - in that the book assumes that you already know Flex/Flash and just want to learn about AIR programming. I, for one, have great respect for their approach. The book is short and punchy as a result of their decision, which means that you feel that you're getting just what you need to know without lots of superfluous padding; a real boon in these days of 1000+ page programming books. Of course, if you don't have the prerequisite experience with Flex/Flash, then this book is not for you.
The book is well focused, well written and does precisely what it says on cover. I liked it, and if you're planning on using your Flex skills to write AIR applications, this will rapidly get you started.
<Reviewed in VSJ>