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There’s been a bit of static on the airwaves this week about a new мека мебелAdobe AIR based digital magazine that Time Warner currently have in development.

Initially being trialed with Sports Illustrated, the upcoming digital publication (code named the ‘Manhattan Project”), is being developed by New York based The Wonder Factory. The aplication is chock full of social, and rich media, functionality and uses a gesture based UI targeted primarily at touch-screen, based tablet hardware such as the HP Tablet (or maybe the upcoming Apple tablet device).

The crew over at TechCrunch took an early prototype of the ‘Manhattan Project” for a test drive and were suitably impressed. Saying that “The tablet format is much easier on the eyes than reading the same story on the Web, and you get the added bonus of full-screen slide shows or videos. You can also flip through photos within the text, while continuing to read. Sports scores and other data can be dynamically updated from the Web, or you can share stories and photos via email, Facebook, or Twitter.”

Sports Illustrated editor Terry McDonell mentions that given one of the main reasons consumers purchase Sports Illustrated is for the quality of the photography, the digital format of the publication seems a much better fit for this purpose. McDonell goes on to mention that theoretically the new format would allow Sports Illustrated to show readers more of the photos which never otherwise make it into the magazine. Added to which, McDonell indicated that based on preliminary research they’ve conducted, some users have said they would be willing to pay $50 more a year for the digital version if such enhanced features were included.

For what its worth, Time Warner aren’t the only ones here leaping into the digital magazine based pool. Back in October, Wired Magazine’s parent company Condé Nast, revealed its plans to work with Adobe to re-purpose magazine content for upcoming digital devices, including the Apple tablet.

An interesting side-note to all of this. Another AIR based digital publication, which was released in May this year, the New York Times Reader 2.0 last week won the Digital Publishing & Advertising Awards (DPAC) - Best Digital Publishing/Content Platform Award . Which leads one to believe, if the digital publishing industry itself is now endorsing new delivery platforms such as this, there must be some truth behind the argument this is the future of digital publishing as we know it (all they need to do now, is just figure out how to monetise the damn thing!).

Sarah Perez over at ReadWriteWeb has just given a heads up that Atlantic Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, has just launched an new AIR app called Fanbase. This app has to be one of the best examples of AIR i’ve seen to date.

Rather than just taking the easy route and simply re-inventing the MP3 player in an AIR based format, Fanbase combines music, video, chat, and images. Fans can even customise the app by choosing which artists they want it to display from the dropdown menu or the “Manage” screen. Whilst we’re talking about artists, Atlantic Records has some huge ones with their roster including big names like Death Cab for Cutie, James Blunt, Buckcherry, Gnarls Barkley, Jet (great Aussie band), Panic At The Disco, Paramore, Rush, Staind, Rob Thomas, Simple Plan, Missy Elliot, and a stack more.

Atlantic Records collaborated with imeem, the music social networking site that lets users upload, create, and listen to music. Through the integrated imeem music player, Fanbase will automatically capture the latest music from any particular artist and stream it directly into the player. Fanbase’s video content comes from YouTube and Brightcove and the chat feature is provided by Meebo.

“We’re always looking to elevate the experience and interaction our fans have with our artists,” said Eric Snowden Creative Director of Digital Media for Atlantic Records. “Through Fanbase we’re delivering that experience digitally, on-demand and in a manner that allows fans to create a much deeper connection with their favorite artists.”

To demo Fanbase, you can download it from here.

It was bound to happen, and dare I say this is only the thin edge of the wedge, with AIR being used for less than pure purposes

I happened upon this latest use of Adobe’s AIR technology over at Andrew Shorton’s blog where fellow devo *ahem* Adobian, Eagled Eyed Shorts was on the case “researching great examples of our AIR technology in use when he stumbled across this latest example.

Keeley Hazell is a Sun (UK Newspaper) Page 3 model, a role that usually involves her appearing topless, or tastefuly kitted out in lingerie, splashed across page 3 of The Sun. Always keen to create a better, longer lasting ‘user experience’ The Sun (which allegedly has the highest circulation of any English-language newspaper in the world) approached digital agency glitterati Glue London to create Desktop Keeley.

Desktop Keeley is a slick, well designed AIR based RSS reader with a little extra twist. When you get bored of reading the latest news you can select the “Come out to play” option from the menu to kick off a chroma-keyed video of Keeley (resplendent in lingerie or bikini) striding out onto your desktop. Alternatively, you can have her appear at a specified time interval to give you a private show. *NOTE TO UNSUSPECTING PLAYERS* be sure to turn this app off before you head into boardroom, or conference presentations – unless you want an embarrassing (but pleasant) surprise!

If you’re keen to have a Desktop Keeley all for yourself, jump on over to The Suns page and download it (warning: semi nudity). Or if you’re like Andrew and I and more keen in the ‘research’ side of things you could watch the sneak peek behind-the-scenes at Desktop Keeley shoot. Where you can see all the technical, green screen chroma-key action being recorded/edited (it’s all very eduacational……I promise)

Apparently if you tap the ‘t’ key 5 times, then the number 5, 4 times, then write ‘keeley’, and hold down the space bar – nothing happens – which is a shame