Although I am more interested in the Flash Builder 4.5 update that will allow me to export my Flex-powered mobile applications to iOS, we have to take babysteps.

First up, Adobe AIR 2.7 must be released into the wild, which it has today!

The most notable improvement is the dramatic increase in performance of Flex applications on iOS devices (4x faster in CPU mode). If anyone has seen Terry Paton’s Flash-based Meteor Storm (http://pixelpaton.com/?p=3475) running on an iPad, you were probably wondering how it played so well. Terry was given premature access to AIR 2.7. Without it, the game’s performance would have suffered immeasurably.

Meteor Storm running on iOS from Terry Paton on Vimeo.

For a quick video example, watch my former employer Renaun Erickson, Adobe Flash Platform Evangelist, show you an example of the speed improvements:

“Adobe is pleased to announce the availability of Adobe AIR 2.7 SDK and the Adobe AIR 2.7 runtimes. Adobe AIR 2.7 includes new features for both desktop and mobile applications with mobile support for Android 2.2+, BlackBerry Tablet OS* and iOS 4+ operating systems. Companies can build and deploy AIR 2.7 apps using Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 with an upcoming update to AIR 2.7 later this month.”

http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2011/06/adobe-air-2-7-now-available-ios-apps-4x-faster.html