Adobe toight has relased Adobe Flash Player 10.2.152.26, according to the company’s Flash Team Blog. This version of Flash ushers in a new level of hardware-accelerated video decoding in most modern PCs and Intel Macs. Features include new privacy features, multi-monitor fullscreen support, improved sub-pixel rendering designed to make on-screen fonts clearer, native custom mouse cursors and other features.
Flash Player using Stage Video can effortlessly play beautiful 1080p HD video with just 1-15% CPU usage on a common Mac or Windows computer
Stage Video
Adobe refers to the hardware acceleration support as Stage Video, and says that providers need only make a small change in their SWF player files, so performance improvements will not yet be widely seen until content hosts update. Most of the big-name video content web providers such as YouTube, Brightcove, Epix and Vimeo have already started implementing the changes. Support has also been added to Microsoft’s upcoming Internet Explorer 9 for GPU rendering as well as being incorporated natively into Google Chrome.
Key New Features
- Video at its best is immersive, so Flash Player allows you jump to true full screen playback with one click. With multiple display full screen support in Flash Player 10.2, you can now easily watch your favorite videos in true full screen on one display while you multitask on another and get some work done (or not).
- Added support for custom native mouse cursors lets designers and developers create their own static or animated cursors with silky smooth responsiveness, enabling richer game and application interfaces.
- New sub-pixel text rendering enhancements leverage Adobe typography research to further enhance text readability, especially for complex character-based languages.
- Support is included for the GPU rendering technology in Microsoft’s upcoming Internet Explorer 9 browser
No More PowerPC on Mac
The company has dropped all support for PowerPC-based players, including security updates, in a clear sign that the 10.1/10.2 releases are a “reference” release for Flash playback. Mac requirements now call for Intel Macs running 10.4 or higher, with support for most major browsers including Safari 4 and higher, Firefox 3 and higher, Google Chrome (v2 and higher), Opera 9.5 or later and AOL Desktop 1.0 or higher.
More to Come
Product Manager Tom Nguyen also promised more information on mobile Flash and Adobe Air updates next week, at the Mobile World Congress.
