1. Seesmic Desktop

Seesmic Desktop is one of two Adobe Air apps that help you keep on top of your Twitter and Facebook accounts. It supports Twitter lists, so you can keep up with your own, and the ones you are following. Another great feature of this application is that you can add the URL shortener and/or image sharing applications that you usually use. Seesmic bought Ping.fm late last year, so soon you will be able to update more than 50 social media sites in an instant. It is definitely a must-have Adobe Air app to have.

2. aSnippet

aSnippet is a great way to store snippets of code while sharing it with others. If you create an account, you are able to add other users and chat with them while using the Adobe Air app. It’s great because if you are stuck trying to figure something out with your code, you can use social networking to find the answer. Also, it supports various programming languages, so it provides versatility.

3. Klok

Klok helps you keep track of where your time goes. It can be used for personal, business, or both. You are able to create multiple projects, and within these projects, you can further break them down into sub-projects. It automatically keeps track of your time by pressing the Start/Stop buttons. The reports are a good way for you to view what areas need improvement.

4. Ora Time and Expense

Ora Time and Expense helps you manage your time and create invoices. This is a great Adobe Air app that has a variety of reports that you can use to see where your time has gone. It works with Projects and Types, which are similar to sub-projects. In addition to managing your time, it also gives you a way to track your expenses. A great app that provides a variety of functionality.

5. GmD

GmD brings all the Google applications (i.e. Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Reader, and Picasa) in a standalone application. The Adobe Air app also allows you to add another Google app rather than the regular ones by adding the link. It would be great if the developers would allow the different Google applications to be viewed at once.

6. Snackr

Snackr is a RSS ticker that allows you to see the RSS feeds that you are subscribed to. There are four ways to pull in RSS feeds:
1. Google Reader
2. Import OMPL file
3. Snackr suggested feeds
4. Manually enter feeds.

It’s a great way to view your RSS feeds without having to log into any application.

7. Flickroom

Flickroom is an Adobe Air standalone app that allows you to view photos on Flickr beautifully. One of the great things about this application is that you do not have to authorize it to your Flickr account, if you choose not to. This is something many other Flickr apps do not give an option for. You can view your photos in three ways (i.e. Grid, Filmstrip, or Map). It has a search function very similar to the one on the Flickr site. It’s a great application for photo lovers.

8. uvLayer

uvLayer allows users to discover, share, and watch videos throughout the webosphere. You can add RSS feeds from various sources, even other users’. The format is great because you can drag the different video windows around, so you can organize it any way you want.

9. Polaris

Polaris provides a way for you to view your Google Analytics right on your desktop. There used to be a Google Analytics Adobe Air app, but unfortunately, the links no longer work. Therefore, Polaris is a good alternative to use. You are given all the options you would get if you were on the Google Analytics site. Polaris also offers various reports that you can use to check how well your site/blog traffic is. It would be great if you could view different views of your web traffic at the same time. However, just being able to view Google Analytics on your desktop is useful already.

10. inPreso Screens

inPreso Screens is an Adobe Air app that allows you to create mock-ups for web site and blogs. It has tons of different tools that you can use to aid you in creating a design that will improve usability with users. There is a premium version that will provide you access to additional tools. However, the free version has an abundance of features that you can easily create a great mock-up.

As I stated before, there are new Adobe Air apps popping up every day, so this list will probably change, if the developers do not upgrade their applications to the newest and latest features. If you want to view more, you can go to RefreshingApps and Adobe Marketplace to search and find other Adobe Air apps.

Which are the Adobe Air apps you can’t live without?

If you want to check your Google analytics data from desktop, then here is a very good Adobe Air app called Trakkboard. It let’s you check Google analytics data of different website accounts from your desktop. You do not have to keep your browser open all the time and be logged in at Google Analytics anymore.

How to Download Trakkboard

In order to download the Adobe Air application, you have to first register with the site. Just head over to this page and submit your email address to request a key.

Hit the “request Key” button and you will receive an email containing the verification link to verify your email address. Click the verification link and you are done with verifying your email address.

Once you click the link, you will be redirected to a page containing your Trakkboard license key. After that click the “install now” button and the application will start  to install Trakkboard in your computer.

Immediately after the installation you will receive another email containing your Trakkboard license key. Do not lose this License key as you will need it to start the desktop application.

That concludes the installation part. Now let’s see what Trakkboard has to offer.

How to use Trakkboard to View Google Analytics reports from Desktop

After the installation is complete start the application and put the Trakkboard license key and hit next.

The next step involves choosing a password for Trakkboard. This password is not your Google analytics account password. Instead, this password is used to protect your Trakkboard data in case anyone else wants to sneak peak into it.

After choosing your password, you have to enter your Google analytics account details. This will be used to Login to your Google analytics account and let you see the website data from desktop. If you have multiple Analytics account, don’t worry as you can always add another account later on.

That’s it. Hit the Finish registration button to complete the installation. Now you are ready to use this amazing software.

Using Trakkboard – Features , Widgets and Interface

The entire Trakkboard interface works in widgets. You have to select a website profile from the upper bar and select the corresponding widgets to display them into the application.

Just select a time span and the widget type. After that click save and your widget is placed in the application panel. Here is how the Trakkboard panel looks with all the custom widgets set up.

You can drag and drop widgets to your preferred locations. If you feel the application is getting cluttered with too many widgets, you can always open a new tab and organize your data.

Available Widgets in Trakkboard

There are quite a number of widgets to choose from. And they are :

1. Total visits over a definite time span.
2. Total number of page views
3. Traffic sources
4. Medium
5. Top Keywords
6. Bounce rate
7. Time on site

I guess all these features are more than sufficient for you to analyze the data. However the benchmarking feature hasn’t been implemented yet.

Adding a New Google Analytics account

If you have multiple Google analytics accounts, then you can add them up from the control center.

Well that’s about it. Have you tried out the new desktop client for Google Analytics ? tell us what you think about it.

Installing Adobe Air for Linux in Ubuntu Intrepid

If you have previously installed the beta version of Adobe Air for Linux, all the AIR applications that you have installed will break and become non-functional with this latest version. Before you install this newest version, make sure you remove all instances of Adobe Air (and application) in your system.

In your terminal,

sudo apt-get autoremove adobeair1.0

Download the installer – AdobeAIRInstall.bin to your home folder.

Right-click the file and select Properties. Go to the Permissions tab and check “Allow executing files as program”. Click Close.

In your terminal,

sudo ~/AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

You will see the installer window. Follow the instructions to install Adobe Air.

Once you have finished the installation, you will be able to install your favorite Air application (such as twhirl).

In case you have not update your Flash player to Flash 10, here’s what you need to do:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

That’s it!