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People who in the next few years solve big problems in Information Overload are going to be very important, and some of them are going to be UI and UX (user experience) designers.

German ISP T-Online demonstrated a big multi-touch screen right out of Minority Report at the CeBIT conference in Hannover this week (see this and other videos below). Many other designers are working on variations on that theme. Other designers still are aiming to bring game-like interfaces to other data-centric experiences. What would you like to see in interface design?

We have two winning comments today, from Michael Lambie and Vibhu Norby. Michael's comment was on our post The Best Things About Adobe's AIR Platform. He suggested that AIR could be used to create an offline browser. Vibhu's comment was on Microsoft: ROI Measurement is Broken - he thinks that "Microsoft is looking a step before the search". Well done Michael and Vibhu, you've each won a $30 Amazon voucher - courtesy of our competition sponsors AdaptiveBlue and their Amazon WishList Widget.

Adobe's AIR platform allows developers to create web applications that run on your desktop without the need of a web browser. Now that AIR has dropped the beta tag (see our previous coverage), it's time to look at some of the AIR apps you can use today. And if you want to know why we here at Read Write Web are so excited about AIR, read more of our analysis about the platform to get caught up. Did your favorite app make the list?

Adobe is launching out of Labs today the Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR. AIR is a really exciting platform that combines qualities of the web with a presence on the desktop by making it easy to build attractive Internet connected applications that live outside the browser. As part of today's launch, new AIR apps from Salesforce, FedEx, eBay, Nickelodeon, Nasdaq, AOL and The New York Times Company will be demonstrated at the Adobe Connect conference in San Francisco.

Lots more AIR apps are coming soon and that's great news. Some of my favorite words to hear these days from startups are "we're working on/have an AIR app."

Adobe today will bolster its "Platform for Rich Internet Apps" with the full release of a trio of developer tools. Each of the tools Adobe is releasing is either free or open source. Along with the boost to Adobe's RIA platform, a number of companies are also announcing applications built on Adobe's cross platform system runtime, AIR.