Los Angeles — After years of promises, folks who love to rave-up Adobe Systems for its Flash Player software, are going to get a lot better and online gaming is going to get a lot more exciting, as Adobe has finally rolled out a Flash Player 11 that includes full native 64-bit support for 64-bit browsers on Windows, Mac, and Linux and AIR3 — that was the view of developers as the application launched last week during the Adobe MAX conference in Los Angeles.
It has been in the pipeline for a long time. However, the current release of Adobe is remarkably different than the one that long promoted Flash as the way to a rich, interactive Web. The official announcement of the availability of Flash Player 11 is here, and the download itself is here.
Flash Player 11 also includes an extensive range of performance, reliability, and security improvements. It is not just Web standards making an appearance, either. Adobe also is moving beyond the personal-computer era with serious apps for tablets. It is a natural fit for the affluent, creative set that gravitates to Adobe’s software, but it is a big change in development and sales for the company.
Besides, it is not apparent to what extent Adobe’s new initiatives will flourish in making the company relevant with modern computing trends. But it is time to give the company credit for adapting.
When a user visits the Flash Player download page on a system running the 64-bit version of Windows 7, you will be greeted with this dialog box:
Two attributes of that screen are noteworthy.
The first is the message that a single installer complements both 32-bit and 64-bit support. Also, the new streamlined installer is pretty impressive, which finishes quickly and did not require any confirmations or check boxes after a user clicked Run. When a user opened the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, you will be able to play Flash content–something that was impossible before except using experimental code.
Just because Adobe is so keen to adopt the new ways does not mean it has abandoned Flash. Rather, Adobe is placing it as a higher-end technology for situations when Web standards would not do.
Angry Birds Get Flash-Happy:
Indeed, Adobe grabbed everybody’s favorite casual game designer, Rovio Mobile of Angry Birds fame, to support Flash. At Max, Rovio demonstrated an upcoming version of Angry Birds built with Flash 11’s hardware-accelerated graphics. Andrew Stalbow, general manager of Rovio’s North American operations, said the new version, due “in the next few months,” will let the company reach more people than the 400 million people who have downloaded the game.
Rovio Mobile showed Angry Birds running on Flash 11 at Adobe Systems’ Max conference. (Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
“Our aim is to deliver Angry Birds to every device, platform, and person around the world,” Stalbow said. “We are thrilled about working with Flash 11 to reach a whole new audience…It is going to help us reach social media networks, whether domestically or internationally.”
Reaching Mobile Devices:
The new AIR 3, disclosed this week along with Flash 11, features “captive runtime” technology that help developers distribute AIR apps to places where Flash is not welcome–iOS devices or the forthcoming Metro interface for Windows 8. New attributes in AIR 3 include native extensions, which allow developers to take advantage of existing native code libraries and deep native hardware and OS capabilities, such as sensors (gyroscopes, magnetometers, light sensors, etc), multiple screens, native in-app payments, haptic/vibration control, device status, and Near Field Communications. That technology is what powers Machinarium, the visually rich game that climbed to the top of the iPad sales charts a month ago.
Additionally, AIR also plays a vibrant role in at least some of Adobe’s Touch apps for tablets, a new suite of six professional programs arriving for $10 each this November. They will make debut on Android Honeycomb tablets at first, with one exception that also runs on iOS, but iPad-compatible versions look likely to arrive in 2012.
Adobe Photoshop Touch for Android tablets (Credit: Adobe Systems)
“The native extensions are thrilling,” said Steve Lund of development and consulting company Digital Primates. “We work with a company developing medical applications who are now moving into the mobile space so we will be able use this. To get on the tablet, to be able to interface directly with devices through the native extensions is pretty exciting for the enterprise customers.”
Nevertheless, the moves are serious, especially given that the world of the Web is very different from the world of Flash. Many different companies and organizations collectively formulate the technologies that make up the Web, whereas Flash was firmly under Adobe’s control. But clearly Adobe has recognized Web programming can not be ignored.