Adobe Unleashes GPU-Powered Flash Player
The latest Flash runtime not only takes advantage of hardware acceleration, but will now infect smartphones and many other Internet-connected devices.
Adobe officially announced today the release of Flash Player 10.1, set for smartphones, netbooks, PCs and other Internet-connected devices (video). The revelation will apparently usher in a new era of an already Flash-laden Internet, providing viewers with truckloads of "expressive" applications, content, and high definition videos across multiple platforms. What makes this new version so special is that it utilizes the local hardware (the GPU more specifically) for video and graphics acceleration.
According to the company, this will be the first "consistent" runtime release of the Open Screen Project. "Using the productive Web programming model of the Flash Platform, the browser-based runtime enables millions of designers and developers to reuse code and assets and reduce the cost of creating, testing and deploying content across different operating systems and browsers," Adobe said. "Flash Player 10.1 is easily updateable across all supported platforms to ensure rapid adoption of new innovations that move the Web forward."
Adobe also said that it plans to release a public beta of the browser-based runtime later this year for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS; desktop versions for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux will also be released in the same timeframe. As for Google's Android and the Symbian OS, Adobe plans to release public betas in early 2010. Wait! What about Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch? Strangely enough, these two devices weren't listed in Adobe's flashy plans.
Earlier today the company announced its collaboration with RIM to (finally) bring Flash to Blackberry smartphones. This will enabled end-users to stream video content on the Blackberry devices such as YouTube videos, TV episodes on Hulu, and more. Adobe also fleshed out its collaboration with Nvidia in regards to GPU and MID acceleration, which we covered right here.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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Major7up Ah!! The dream is still alive! We still have yet to see it on iPhones and other mobile devices.Reply -
WHERE'S THE BEEF! (64-Bit Flash Player for Windows)Reply
- Now if only Adobe would get off their lazy butts, maybe they could provide better tech support for their products and at the same time, get a 64-Bit Flash player out for Windows users.
WAKE UP Adobe, this Ain't the Stone Age any more! -
Shadow703793 Renegade_WarriorWHERE'S THE BEEF! (64-Bit Flash Player for Windows) - Now if only Adobe would get off their lazy butts, maybe they could provide better tech support for their products and at the same time, get a 64-Bit Flash player out for Windows users.WAKE UP Adobe, this Ain't the Stone Age any more!Agreed! esp. considering that they have x64 CS4,etc.Reply -
And I hear that their tech support for CS4 sucks.Reply
Just go to Amazon sometime and read the reviews for CS4 PhotoShop.
You'll find out a lot about their support, most of it not so good. -
michaelahess Bet it still won't work right on Terminal Servers....Idiots at Adobe can't do anything right. Unless you count jacking up a good companies products (Macromedia) by buying them out, a good thing.Reply -
Supertrek32 Hopefully this will mean they finally got around to properly multi-threading flash... Somehow I doubt it... And what about x64? Flash is falling behind, and this keeps up something like Microsoft's Silverlight is going to replace it.Reply