Adobe announced Flash Player 11 and AIR 3, both of which will be publicly available in early October. The new versions are made to enable the “next generation of immersive apps across platforms including Android, iOS (via AIR), BlackBerry Tablet OS, Mac OS, Windows, connected TVs and other platforms.”
Among the new features included, we find the following most interesting:
- Hardware-accelerated 2D/3D graphics which should provide for up to 1,000 times faster rendering performance over Flash Player 10 and AIR 2, enabling smooth 60 frames per second rendering animations.
- AIR Native Extensions – including access to device data, vibration control, magnetometers, light sensors, dual screens, NFC and more. What’s more, these will also allow integration of AIR apps with other software.
- Captive Runtime – ability to package AIR 3 with other applications to simplify the installation process on Android, Windows and Mac OS, in addition to Apple iOS.
- Content Protection – video content can now be protected using Adobe Flash Access 3 across all supported platforms, mobiles included.
- HD Video Quality Across Platforms – H.264 hardware decoding, 7.1 channel surround sound support.
- Rental and Subscriptions Support
Flash Player is supported on more than 98% of Internet connected PCs today and by the end of 2011, Adobe expects more than 200 million smartphones and tablets including Apple iOS devices to support Flash based apps via Adobe AIR…