Adobe Releases Flash 10 Plugin Beta

The latest version of Adobe’s Flash is coming soon, but for those antsy, there is a public beta now available. “Public” might be the wrong word, since it’s designed for developers, but there will no doubt be far more public testers than developers. The latest version brings advanced 3D features, paving the way for better 3D gaming via a web browser, with a small sample available on their site.

Also new is the ability to create portable filters and blend modes, advance text layout with the help of a new engine as well as overall performance increases for current Flash-based applications/videos. This is done by pushing most of the processing power to the GPU, rather than the CPU.

Surprisingly, Adobe made the beta available to Windows, Mac OS X and Linux all at the same time. This is impressive for Linux, since it took forever to see a Flash 9 plugin. However not-so-surprisingly, the new plugin will not work on a 64-bit Linux (neither does 9, natively), so that counts me out! For now, at least.

This public prerelease is an opportunity for developers and consumers to test and provide early feedback to Adobe on new features, enhancements, and compatibility with previously authored content. Once you’ve installed Flash Player 10 beta, you can view interactive demos. You can also help make Flash Player better by visiting all of your favorite sites, making sure they work the same or better than with the current player.

Source: Adobe Labs