Been a while since we saw NVIDIA demonstrating GPU-accelerated Flash video on an ION-based netbook, but the technology is now available to all desktop users via Adobe Flash Player 10.1.
The latest release of Adobe's popular player is available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, and is expected to be available for numerous smartphones and Internet-connected devices in 2010.
Flash Player 10.1 - developed as part of Adobe's Open Screen Project - introduces a number of useful features, including new HTTP media delivery options, improved content protection courtesy of Adobe Flash Access 2.0, and support for GPU-accelerated H.264 video.
What's useful for the consumer is that Flash Player's hardware acceleration isn't tied exclusively to a particular brand of GPU - with Adobe's release notes revealing that chips from NVIDIA, Intel, AMD and Broadcom will make use of the latest Flash Player software.
Coinciding with the launch of Flash Player 10.1, Adobe has also introduced the second release of its Adobe AIR runtime environment. Designed to allow developers to create rich web content, Adobe AIR 2 introduces support for new features such as multi-touch gestures and peer-to-peer networking.
The pre-release beta of Flash Player 10.1 is available to download from labs.adobe.com.
