SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - May 15, 2008) -
Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta Now Available on Adobe Labs
- Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE) today announced that the
pre-release version of Adobe® Flash® Player 10 software is now
available in beta on Adobe Labs at www.adobe.com/go/astro.
- Adobe Flash Player 10 beta, code named "Astro," builds on the
capabilities of the world's most pervasive application runtime with new
support for custom filters and effects, native 3D transformation and
animation, extensible rich text layout and GPU hardware acceleration --
helping to enable a new level of cinematic experiences across multiple
browsers and operating systems.
Create Custom Filters and Effects
- For the first time, Adobe is enabling the creation of custom
filters and effects that extend and can be combined with native effects in
Adobe Flash Player for unprecedented creative control of rich content to
more fully engage end users.
- Custom filters and effects are created with the Adobe Pixel Bender™
toolkit (www.adobe.com/go/pixelbender), also available for no charge on Adobe Labs. Adobe Pixel Bender is the
same technology behind many filters and special effects in Adobe After
Effects® CS3 software, the industry standard for creating motion graphics
and visual effects for film and broadcast.
- Developers targeting Adobe Flash Player 10 beta can now create their
own filters, blend modes and fills with Adobe Pixel Bender by writing small
pixel-shading functions that can be parameterized to create animated
effects or change the effect on rich media content at runtime.
New Highly Flexible Text Engine
- Building on over 25 years of Adobe expertise with text, the highly
flexible new text engine in Adobe Flash Player 10 beta provides interactive
designers and developers creative control over device font attributes, such
as anti-alias, rotation, and style as well as support for ligatures.
- More text layout options, such as vertical, bi-directional and
right-to-left, will support the creation of RIAs in more languages and can
provide more interactive eBooks and online publications that rely on Adobe
Flash Player technology.
3D Effects and Enhanced Streaming
- Adobe Flash Player 10 beta also introduces native support for 3D
effects to easily position, rotate and animate 2D objects while retaining
interactivity.
- New dynamic streaming for video between Adobe Flash Player 10
beta and intended future releases of Adobe Flash Media Server will
automatically adjust video quality as bandwidth availability fluctuates to
provide constant video playback without pausing to buffer, dramatically
improving end user experiences.
Quote: David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform
Business Unit
"For over ten years Adobe has pushed the limits of creativity and redefined
rich interactive Web experiences with Adobe Flash Player. Adobe has a long
track record of creating technologies that influence market direction and
we believe this beta release of Adobe Flash Player 10 raises the bar once
again," said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the
Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "Working closely with the community, we
are delivering groundbreaking creative features that will be transformative
for interactive designers and developers, and revolutionary for end users."
What Interactive Designers and Developers Are Saying about Adobe Flash
Player 10 Beta
Grant Skinner, CEO and chief architect of gskinner.com:
"One of the best things about the creative features now available in Adobe
Flash Player 10 beta is that they won't slow down performance," said Grant
Skinner, CEO and chief architect of gskinner.com. "With Flash Player 10
beta, developers can enable SWF content to render through the memory
bandwidth and computational horsepower of the GPU hardware processor,
freeing up the CPU to do more -- such as render 3D content and intricate
effects, and process complex business logic. No other browser runtime has
these capabilities."
Read about Grant Skinner's project
that demonstrates Adobe Flash Player 10 beta interactive features.
Ralph Hauwert, owner of UnitZeroOne and a Core
Developer of Papervision
3D:
"The 3D effects and transformations now available in Adobe Flash Player 10
beta enable developers to get started quickly with 3D," said Ralph Hauwert,
owner of UnitZeroOne and a Core Developer of Papervision 3D. "For
interactive designers and developers well-versed in creating 3D
experiences, the revamped drawing API and Pixel Bender language will enable
an entirely new depth of graphics unseen on the Web today. Interactive
designers and developers will be able to create movie-like experiences,
with special effects that before weren't possible on the Web."
Anthony Franco, President, EffectiveUI:
"In a few projects we have going with Fortune 500 companies, we're starting
to play with the new 3D animation capabilities of the new Adobe Flash
Player 10 beta and we're all really excited about how much more immersive we can
make RIAs with minimal extra effort," said Anthony Franco, President,
effectiveUI.
Matthew Rechs, chief technology officer at Schematic:
"At Schematic, we're trying to make web experiences as powerful and
engaging as they can be. Much of our best-known work brings together motion
graphics and video in a 3D environment," said Matthew Rechs, chief
technology officer at Schematic. "The 3D effects now available in Adobe
Flash Player 10 beta will enable us to bring truly cinematic interfaces to
the Web, helping us create experiences that are just as compelling as those
in TV and film."
Freddie Laker, CEO and founder of iChameleon Group:
"Our design team continually challenges us with innovative designs that in
the past we couldn't always duplicate in our websites. Now, Adobe Flash
Player 10 beta lets us push our creative vision to the final product," said
Freddie Laker, CEO and founder of iChameleon Group. "The new text engine in
Flash Player 10 beta, with support for device font attributes such as
anti-alias and styles, will make our content-heavy websites substantially
better looking and easier to manage in multi-lingual situations."
Available Today -- Helpful Links
- The pre-release version of Adobe Flash Player 10 beta is available
immediately as a free download from Adobe Labs at
www.adobe.com/go/astro.
- Adobe Flash Player 10 beta is offered for Windows Vista®, Windows®
XP, Windows Server® 2003, Windows 2000, Mac OS X, and Linux® operating
systems.
- To find out more about Adobe Flash Player 10 beta and to see
demonstrations of new effects and capabilities, visit
www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer10_demos.
- The Adobe Pixel Bender Exchange is now available for community members
to create custom effects for Adobe Flash Player 10 beta at
www.adobe.com/go/pixelbender.
- Use the Flash Player developer resources at the Adobe Developer
Connection: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer.
- Innovations introduced in the beta release of Adobe Flash Player 10
will be incorporated into a future release of Adobe AIR™ and will
contribute to future work on the Open Screen Project, which is dedicated to
delivering a consistent runtime environment across personal computers,
mobile devices, and consumer electronics. More information about the Open
Screen Project is available at www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/.
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information --
anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit
www.adobe.com.
Contact Information: Contact Information
Matt Rozen
Adobe Systems
415-832-2268
mrozen@adobe.com
Craig Corica
A&R Edelman on behalf of Adobe Systems
ccorica@ar-edelman.com
650-762-2917
