SAN JOSE, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--May 15, 2008 --
Adobe Flash Player 10 Beta Now Available on Adobe Labs

• Adobe Systems Incorporated (NasdaqGS:ADBE - News) 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(TM) 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.

Source: Adobe Systems
(click to enlarge) Native support for 3D effects - easily position, rotate, and animate 2D objects

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 variable bitrate 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 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(TM) 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.

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