We just added a new sample on the Samples page: a simple slideshow playing random images from your Orb account. It's an Apollo application, written in Flex. Apollo is a cross-platform runtime recently released by Adobe, that lets you build Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) using different technologies (HTML, Ajax, Javascript, Flex, etc.), then deploy and run them on any computer, Mac, PC, and so on.

Although not familiar with Flex, I have to say that Adobe Flex Builder 2 and the Apollo Extensions for Flex Builder made it very easy to write this sample.
First of all, creating the user interface is fast and straightforward with the 'design view' and built-in components. Writing the corresponding MXML code would probably be as fast for an experienced Flex designer, since it's less than 50 lines in total. The rest of the ActionScript code is just as simple, whether you are comfortable with Javascript or not: it takes care of authenticating the user, retrieving a list of random images, and displaying them. When sending a request to the Orb API in Flex, make sure you ask for the result to be in the 'e4x' format: this simplifies a lot extracting the data from the XML.

The Apollo runtime is still in alpha, but it already looks very promising since it will seamlessly open the world of desktop applications to web developers.

So checkout this new sample, it's a good demonstration of the simplicity of creating an Apollo application, and using the Orb API in Flex/ActionScript.

We're excited to announce the release of the Orb 2.0 API to the public. The Orb API is a set of Web Services that let developers create or enrich desktop and web applications with Orb functionality including TV streaming and recording, media playing and sharing, file browsing, contacts, etc. This means that anyone can write or customize a program to search, present, play and manage content from an Orb-enabled computer, using any programming language they like.

We've been busy working on this release, trying to provide the most complete set of API methods. Our focus is to give outside developers all the tools they need to build applications as complete as our own Mycast Web Application. Our plan is to keep updating the API with new functionality, so feel free to make suggestions and recommendations. We have been testing it for a few months now and have already seen much enthusiasm from the Orb engineers and testers who quickly got addicted to its simplicity and power. In fact, many ended up developing their own widgets to address some of their personal Orb needs!

With the API release we've also launched the Orb Developer Center at http://developer.orb.com -- it's the official location for all developer information including what you need to get started with the API, documentation for all methods, links to the API forum, how to contact us, and so on. Check in frequently, as this is all brand new and we will be updating it regularly. There is no API mailing list, but we will post all announcements here. So be sure to subscribe to this blog to make sure you don't miss anything, including new features, updates, fixes, samples and so on.

All of us at Orb are excited about the release of the API, and we are committed to making it a great and powerful tool. We are anxious to see all the creative new implementations of Orb technology. So go to the Developer Center and get started today!