New Flash Player, AIR Features
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Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 offer dozens
of new features, including the following:
Accelerated
2D/3D graphics: Full hardware-accelerated rendering for
2D and 3D graphics enables 1,000 times faster rendering performance over Flash
Player 10 and AIR 2. Developers are able to animate millions of objects with
smooth 60-frames-per-second rendering and deliver console-quality games on Mac
OS, Windows and connected televisions. A prerelease brings these same
accelerated 2D and 3D capabilities to mobile platforms, including Android,
Apple iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS. A production release for mobile platforms
is expected in the near future. For examples of 3D games for Flash Player,
visit www.adobe.com/go/gaming.
AIR native extensions: With support for
thousands of highly optimized, open-source libraries, developers are able to
tap into unique software and hardware capabilities, including access to device
data, vibration control, magnetometers, light sensors, dual screens, near field
communications (NFC) and more. Native extensions also allow developers to more
deeply integrate AIR applications with other business software.
Captive runtime: Developers can automatically package
AIR 3 with their applications to simplify the installation process on Android,
Windows and Mac OS in addition to Apple iOS. Users no longer have to download
and update AIR separately on any of these platforms, or BlackBerry Tablet OS,
which includes AIR built in. In addition, with the captive runtime option,
developers can manage version updates to their application independent of
general AIR updates by Adobe.
Content protection: Premium video content can now be
protected using Adobe Flash Access 3 across all supported platforms, including
new support for mobile platforms.
HD video quality across platforms: Full frame rate HD
video can now be displayed within AIR applications on Apple iOS devices using
H.264 hardware decoding. Rich applications on televisions are also able to
deliver HD video with 7.1 channel surround sound.
Rental and subscriptions support: With support for
Adobe Flash Access and Adobe Pass, content publishers can take advantage of
rental and subscription options for more flexible business models and offer TV
Everywhere content to more than 80 percent of U.S. pay TV subscribers.
Compatibility: 64-bit support on Linux, Mac OS and
Windows ensures a seamless experience with the latest 64-bit browsers.
"Zynga's mission is to connect the
world through games by bringing play to everyone, everywhere," said Cadir
Lee, CTO of Zynga, in a statement. "In order to do that, we're committed
to building mainstream entertainment across all devices, platforms and
applications, whether it's through Flash or HTML5. We look forward to the
release of Adobe Flash Player 11 and Adobe AIR as next-generation applications
to help bring Zynga games to our players worldwide."
"We strive to bring games to our
customers wherever and whenever they want to play," said Mark Vange, vice
president and chief technology officer at EA Interactive, in a statement. "The
ubiquity of Flash helps EA to bring our chart-topping games to a broader
variety of platforms and connect with consumers across a wide range of devices."
"Adobe Flash Player with 3D lets
us render a tremendous number of buffered triangles quickly with excellent
performance and stability," said Michael Plank, co-founder of Pro 3 Games,
in a statement. "It was clear from the beginning that Adobe Flash was the
perfect solution to deliver browser-based, console-quality games with powerful
visuals and interactivity. The develop once, deploy anywhere capabilities
enable us to engage gamers everywhere across Web browsers and sets us up nicely
to move into the mobile space."
"Adobe Flash makes it easy to
extend the reach of our brand and our games because of the deep market
penetration of Flash Player and that worldwide ubiquity is critical for
us," said Anton Volkov, chief technology officer at AlternativaPlatform,
in a statement. "Adobe Flash Player 11 with Stage 3D provides unique
functionality, including native 64-bit support and asynchronous bitmap
decoding, to allow us to leverage both 2D and 3D components for the best gaming
experience possible."
Murarka said Flash Player is supported
on more than 98 percent of Internet-connected PCs today and by the end of 2011,
he said Adobe expects more than 200 million smartphones and tablets, including
Apple iOS devices, to support Flash-based applications via Adobe AIR. By the
end of 2015, the number of devices that will support Adobe AIR is expected to
increase to 1 billion.
Adobe AIR, a superset of Flash Player, enables
developers to leverage existing code to create and deliver stand-alone
applications across devices and platforms. Thousands of Flash-based
applications have already been created and made available on Android Market,
iTunes App Store, Samsung SmartTV Store and BlackBerry AppWorld today, Adobe
said.
