Macromedia Brings Flash to AIM

Macromedia has updated Central 1.5, code-named "Gemini", to link up with America Online's AOL Instant Messenger service through a free software development kit.

Gemini is the lynchpin of Macromedia's strategy to break free of its familiar status as a ward of the Web so that Flash content and applications can thrive both on and off the desktop, with OS specific functionality and platform independence.

Macromedia is not alone in thinking OS integration. Microsoft is forming its preliminary design for a potential Flash killer called "Sparkle". Sparkle will serve as a developer's front-end to build applications on top of Longhorn's next generation Avalon graphics subsystem. Sparkle is intended to automate the coding of XAML-based applications, which are native to Windows.