Adobe Air And Friends: What's Going On Desktop/Web Integration?

This weekend I spent a lot of time surfing through and playing with various Adobe AIR applications. What can I say, I was a bit bored, and there's been lots of buzz around this whole Web App/Desktop hybrid lately, so I figured I'd take a gander at what's available and try some stuff out. And while I can't hide the fact that I love Twhirl for my Twitter Application, I have to admit, I didn't see too much else that I was excited about just yet.

If you're not familiar with Adobe AIR, it's essentially an environment that allows you to run web-based applications like desktop apps. You may have heard of Google Gears, which is a similar idea, or Microsoft Silverlight, which is pretty much a direct rip. The idea is that things like Twitter are great, but with open API's abounding lately, why not create more innovative ways to interact with those web apps? Like I said, I love me some Twhirl. It's rich, well-developed, easy to use and make Twitter easier to be involved with on my computer. That's the essence of what AIR is suppose to accomplish, but to be honest, aside from Twhirl, I wasn't much impressed.

So I put the question to my dear readers: What AIR apps do you use, if any? Screw that, expand this to what Silverlight or Gears apps are you using? I'm really excited about the possibilities of this web and desktop integration, but is this something that we need to wait to mature more to see the usefulness of it, or are there other, truly exciting things out there now to sink our teeth into?

Leave a comment here on the thread and let us know what you think.