New on Adobe Labs: Flash Player 11 beta 2 and AIR 3 beta 2
New toys goooood ;-)
If you’re anything like me you’ve probably already downloaded the new Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 betas from Labs. If not… Do so now! I know I’ve said this many times before but I’ll repeat it again: We release these betas so that you can test your existing content and start playing around with the new features early. If you encounter anything weird or out of the ordinary then do let us know!
Right… My favorite new features…
For Flash Player 11 it has to be Stage3D (the API previously know as Molehill). 3D on the web is nothing new but when all of a sudden (just about) every web user has 3D capabilities it becomes a whole different ball game. I’m really looking forward to see what you guys build with it. Some of the early demos are absolutely mind-blowing. Another great feature in Flash Player 11 (and an easy one to miss) is native JSON support! (Both features are also available in AIR 3. Stage3D currently only available for desktop. Stage3D for mobile will be enabled in a future release.)
AIR 3 beta 2 is also a really exciting beta release! My favorite feature for AIR 3 is definitely the ability to add the AIR runtime to your installer package. So with AIR 3 you can control exactly which version of the runtime an app executes against and make the installation process a lot easier as well. Hardware accelerated video (aka StageVideo) on mobile is also a big one. And let’s not forget the addition of the encrypted local storage feature on mobile.
Both betas are available on Labs. Flash on!
AIR 2.7 + Flash Player 10.3 Beta 2 on Labs
The runtime teams are on a roll! Flash Player 10.2 was only released to the general public just last month and the first beta of Flash Player 10.3 was already on Adobe Labs just a few weeks after that. Today the second beta of Flash Player 10.3 is available on Labs.
Flash Player 10.3 introduces new developer features and enhanced user privacy protection, such as:
- Media measurement
- Acoustic echo cancellation
- Integration with browser privacy control for local storage
- Native control panel
- Auto-update notification for Mac OS
We’ve also just released AIR 2.7 on Labs. AIR 2.7 also has the media measurement and acoustic echo cancellation features from Flash Player 10.3 as well as an enhanced HTMLLoader API.
These new beta runtimes are available so that you can test your existing content and start playing around with the new APIs. If you find an issue make sure you tell us about it!
New on Labs: Adobe AIR Launchpad
The Adobe AIR Launchpad has to be the easiest way to learn some of AIR’s more advanced features. If you want to learn how to use the auto-update framework, drag-and-drop, sockets, native processes, and more then go and grab this application from Adobe Labs right now.
I think the app is also very useful for experienced developers. With just a couple of clicks you can set up your AIR project without having to rewrite some of the things you probably have in every app. Things like centering the main window for instance or detecting network capabilities and much more.
The Adobe AIR Launchpad spits out clearly written and well commented code that makes it easy to learn the APIs if you’re new to AIR and makes it easy to take a quick shortcut if you’re an experienced developer.
AIR2.0 RC available on Labs
The Adobe AIR 2 Release Candidate (RC) build is now available on Adobe Labs. Please be sure to download the latest AIR runtime and, if you are an application developer, SDK. If you run into any issues, please let us know by using our feedback form to send us a bug. Please be sure to include all relevant information necessary to reproduce the issue.
Important: Applications built against Adobe AIR 2 beta 2 *will not run* using the AIR 2 RC runtime. In order for an AIR 2 beta 2 application to run on the AIR 2 RC runtime, the namespace of the beta 2 application descriptor file must first be updated to “2.0″ and compiled against the AIR 2 RC SDK.
Raising the bar… again: FP10.1 & AIR2 betas on Labs
Wohooow… It’s always great to wake up to new toys to play with! Flash Player 10.1 and AIR2.0 are now available on Adobe Labs.
This is a very exciting release for Adobe. Not only is it the first time that we sim-ship Flash Player and AIR for all 3 major operating systems (Mac, Windows & Linux), Flash Player 10.1 is also the first runtime release of the Open Screen Project. While we’re only releasing the beta version of Flash Player 10.1 for the desktop we do plan to roll out additional betas prior to the release with more features, performance improvements, new tooling options and support for mobile platforms. I’ve been lucky enough to play with some smart phones that already have Flash Player 10.1 and I am absolutely amazed to see the performance on these devices. It’s also great to finally have FP10 in the browser on a mobile device. It’s great to see you can now have the full web in your mobile browser!
We’ve already talked about and demoed some of the new features at MAX. Check out the feature page on Labs for a complete list of new features in Flash Player 10.1 and Christian Cantrell’s blog for a comprehensive list of new features in AIR. Christian also has a bunch of code samples on his blog demonstrating the new features. Also check out Adobe TV for more demos and tutorials.
Don’t forget… These are pre-release BETA releases. While the Flash Player and AIR teams do their very best to maintain backward compatibility, things may break. And that is exactly why we do these public betas. If you do come across an application that doesn’t work, make sure you tell us about it!
I can’t wait to see what you guys are going to build with this new set of building blocks… Flash on!
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