Today Google introduced Chrome for Android Beta. As we announced last November, Adobe is no longer developing Flash Player for mobile browsers, and thus Chrome for Android Beta does not support Flash content. Flash Player continues to be supported within the current Android browser.
Adobe is committed to innovating with Flash. We’ll continue enabling content developers to produce rich and immersive applications on mobile devices and PCs via Adobe AIR, and through PC browsers via Flash Player. Flash is uniquely positioned for creating and publishing advanced gaming and premium video content, and that is where we’re focusing our future investment. We recently released hardware accelerated support for 2D and 3D graphics for Flash Player on the desktop and will soon bring these same capabilities to mobile apps via AIR. Together with recent advancements in hardware accelerated video decoding, compositing and content protection, these capabilities provide the richest platform for game developers and video publishers to reach over a billion users across PCs and major mobile app stores, including the iTunes App Store and Android Market.
At the same time, we’re actively working to move HTML5 forward via our ongoing collaboration with Google and other members of the Web community. Adobe’s proposal for CSS Regions, which allows sophisticated, magazine-like page layouts on the web, is now shipping in the Chrome browser. We’re collaborating with Google and other members of the Web community on a proposal for CSS Shaders to enable cinematic, visual effects via HTML5 and we’re exploring the potential of its Shadow DOM proposal, which would enable the integration of rich user interface components in web pages.
We continue to work on ways to make the Web more expressive, drawing on our experience with Flash. Adobe has always been about enabling content developers to produce the richest content possible and we remain committed to that end across platforms and technologies.
Adobe MAX is here, and we’ve got a lot of news to share. Today we’re releasing Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 — you can download the release starting at 9:00 PM Pacific today. As we announced previously, there are lots of new features in Flash Player 11 and AIR 3, and one of the newest features that’s getting a lot of buzz is hardware accelerated 2D and 3D graphics rendering through Stage 3D, which will be available on Mac OS, Windows and connected televisions. It redefines what’s possible across the web. With up to 1,000 times faster rendering performance over Flash Player 10 and AIR 2, developers can animate millions of objects with smooth 60 frames per second rendering and deliver cinematic, console-quality games both in browsers and in apps. And a production release with support for Stage 3D for mobile platforms including Android, Apple iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS is expected in an upcoming release. For more information about Stage 3D and to see some sample apps, check out the Stage 3D games on the Adobe Developer Center.
Additionally, we’re excited that “Proscenium,” a 3D framework technology preview, is available on Adobe Labs. Proscenium will allow developers using Flash Builder to rapidly prototype experiences focused on simple content interaction and display, whether for simple games, visualization, or high-quality rendering of small object collections. Check it out and let us know what you think.
We previously announced the availability of the Starling 2D framework for stunning hardware accelerated, fluid 2D graphics, and you can check out a new game developed using the Starling framework, Whack! from BxyB. There’s also new information for available for developing using 3D frameworks like Alternativa3D, Away3D, Flare3D, Mixamo, and Minko.
And lastly, we want to extend a welcome to our newest developers and colleagues from Nitobi, makers of PhoneGap, which will soon become part of the Adobe family. With all of our announcements today, we believe developers will benefit from a workflow that allows them to choose the right tool for the right job, and we’ll continue to keep driving innovation in Flash so you can push the edge of the envelope for immersive experiences online.
We’ve already seen some early previews of games and apps that will be available in market soon, and there are now over 10,000 AIR apps in mobile markets.
We can’t wait to see what you’ll create. And there’s more news to come tomorrow, so stay tuned. You can watch the second day MAX keynote streamed live at 10am PDT, and be sure to check out the Flash Platform Blog for the latest updates.
Tom Nguyen
Sr. Product Manager, Flash Player & AIR / @tomng
Adobe is pleased to announce the availability of Adobe AIR 2.7 SDK and the Adobe AIR 2.7 runtimes. Adobe AIR 2.7 includes new features for both desktop and mobile applications with mobile support for Android 2.2+, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS 4+ operating systems. Companies can build and deploy AIR 2.7 apps using Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 with an upcoming update to AIR 2.7 later this month. (BlackBerry Tablet OS is scheduled to receive an OTA (over the air) update of AIR 2.7 by the end of June.)
New AIR 2.7 Features
Mobile
Enhanced rendering for iOS: AIR apps for iOS render up to 4x faster in CPU mode. This change will improve the performance of many AIR for iOS apps, including those built with the Flex framework. Watch the performance improvements
Faster development time for iOS applications: Developers can now debug and build iOS applications faster than with previous versions using a new mode available within the AIR Developer Tool (ADT). During the development of an application, developers can now choose to use “interpreter mode” to streamline the testing and debugging development cycle.
AIR installation on SD cards for Android devices: This feature allows end users to install or move the AIR runtime onto the SD cards within their Android devices so they can free up storage space on the phone.
Desktop
Integrated support for Media Measurement: The Adobe AIR 2.7 runtime now includes the same built-in support for media measurement as Adobe Flash Player 10.3, allowing companies to simplify the collection of real-time, aggregated reporting data for how content is distributed and viewed by users. With direct support for Adobe SiteCatalyst, powered by Omniture, developers can implement video analytics for existing or legacy video players with as little as two lines of code. For additional information, see the article on measuring video consumption in Flash.
Acoustic echo cancellation: With integrated support for acoustic echo cancellation, developers can now add real-time VoIP capabilities to games, enterprise, and other types of applications without requiring users to wear a noise-canceling headset. Users can now chat using the speaker built into their desktop or laptop computer. This new capability is also available in Flash Player 10.3.
Navigation Improvements for HTML Content: Enables seamless weblink-style navigation within desktop apps such as magazine viewers and ebook readers. Developers can now respond to a new event to be notified when content within the HTMLLoader control attempts to change the location of a page. This enhancement provides developers with a better way to implement intra-application navigation.
New AIR apps for Android, iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS
Although these apps are not currently using AIR 2.7, I thought I’d call to your attention to a few new apps based on Adobe AIR that recently hit the market.
iOS (iPad)
Rossignol Experience: Ski season is coming to a close, but this fantastic app from this famous ski maker provides a rich interactive branded experience to learn more about Rossignal skis. Video demo.
G20-G8: This is the official app of the French Presidency of the G20 and the G8. Get real time updates and access to all the latest developments from the Summits and the preparatory meetings, as well as video reports and photos on the G20-G8 website.
Performance Improvements
Finally, performance improves with each release of AIR and the Flash Player. If you checked out the AIR 2.7 on iOS video, you can really see the difference. If you missed it earlier, here are a few Flash Player 10.3 on mobile related performance resources to check out.
GUIMark3 by Sean Christmann – Sean tests Flash Player and HTML5 on various phones and tablets. Check it out.
“In terms of interactive content overall, it’s safe to say Flash maintains a 2x performance lead over HTML5 on average”
“The Flash VM performs really well on mobile chipsets and I don’t see any evidence here to support the idea that Flash is slow on smartphones and tablets.”
“Our current testing finds that FP 10.2 on handsets and 10.3 on the Xoom: Provide a more consistent media consumption than Android’s built-in apps and services.
As the market for applications is increasingly led by mobile devices, Adobe is investing more in simplifying app development and deployment for mobile operating systems. By the end of 2011, we expect that there will be more than 200M smartphones and tablets which can download and run Adobe AIR apps, including devices running Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS.
The recent release of Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, including Flash Builder 4.5, enables developers to deliver their experiences on the web and as apps across all the major mobile platforms, as well as popular television, Blu-ray player and set top box platforms. We’re committed to working with our partners to bring Adobe’s runtime technologies to the platforms and devices that are important to end users and developers, including new hardware and operating systems as they come to market.
To support the variety of Linux-based platforms across PCs and devices, we are prioritizing a Linux porting kit for AIR (including source code), which Open Screen Project (OSP) partners can use to complete implementations of AIR for Linux-based platforms on PCs, mobile devices, TVs and TV-connected devices. We will no longer be releasing our own versions of Adobe AIR and the AIR SDK for desktop Linux, but expect that one or more of our partners will do so. The last Adobe release of AIR for desktop Linux is AIR 2.6. By focusing on the porting kit and support of partner implementations, we expect to provide broader support for AIR across Linux-based PCs and devices, whereas our own desktop Linux releases have accounted for less than 0.5% of lifetime AIR downloads.
Existing AIR applications will continue to work on Linux PCs provided they target AIR 2.6 or below, and users may continue to use their existing AIR applications without interruption. However, users will not be able to install applications or apply application updates (including security updates) that require a later version of AIR, unless and until such later versions are released by an OSP partner.
We will of course share more information about any partner plans to support AIR for desktop Linux. In the meantime, for more information please review the FAQ.
 On February 25, 2008 Adobe gave birth to Adobe AIR. In two short years, we’ve seen the rapid growth and adoption of Adobe AIR with major brand names to small start-ups. AIR now powers a variety of applications used by enterprises and everyday consumers in applications for social networking, gaming, eLearning, subscription based services, tax collection, viewing of live events, video, productivity tools, collaboration services, film and television promotion, and more. I can’t wait to see all the new applications that we will see in 2010 that take advantage of the new desktop features in AIR 2 as well as the mobile release with support for Android and iPhone.
“It takes a village to raise child”
Everybody on the Adobe Flash Platform team would like to take this opportunity to thank all the developers, partners and customers that have provided feedback, participated in our betas, supported and adopted Adobe AIR over the last two years. Our community has and continues to be a key part of AIR’s success.
Gifts
We actually started the birthday party a little early in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress when we demonstrated AIR working on Android. We also received an early birthday present when Adobe® Acrobat® Connect™ Pro Mobile, an iPhone application built using Packager for iPhone was listed on Apple’s App Store now available on the iPhone. The number of AIR apps in the App Store powered by AIR keeps growing and in a few weeks we will be highlighting a few of the AIR apps for the iPhone so stay tuned.
Thank you.
Michael Hu
Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Adobe AIR
Today we are very excited to announce the availability of the Adobe AIR 2 beta (runtime and SDK) for Windows, Mac and Linux. At Adobe MAX, we provided you with a preview of Adobe AIR 2 and now you will have a chance to test drive the beta version. AIR 2 builds on the success of AIR 1 by giving developers new capabilities and even tighter integration with the desktop. This is the first time we have sim-shipped for all three major operating systems for both AIR and Flash Player (also in beta) and represents a major step forward in delivering on the promise of the Open Screen Project. In addition, the Flash Player team has also announced the availability of Player 10.1 on Adobe Labs.
Join us today as we start the next step in the evolution of Adobe AIR. On Adobe Labs you will find articles, videos, documentation, and sample applications with code to get you started with AIR 2. The beta forum will also be open to post questions, provide feedback and share your experiences with the beta.
We look forward to your feedback and thanks for your continued support. See you all in the Adobe AIR 2 Beta forum!
