Adobe releases Flash Player 10.1 Release Candidate
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 6th 2010 12:48PM
posted April 6th 2010 12:48PM
There's still a ways to go before a final, proper release, but Adobe has now upgraded its once beta Flash Player 10.1 to Release Candidate status, and introduced a host of fixes and improvements in the process. From the looks of it, there's nothing too radical in terms of changes from previous betas, but the RC does promise improved stability and performance, and fixes for a range of video playback problems with different graphics cards (which may or may not also involve driver updates). Hit up the PDF link below for the complete release notes, and grab the RC yourself for Windows, Mac or Linux straight from Adobe Labs.
Hey Adobe, you guys ever going to release flash for Android or have you been blowing smoke?
@Air Force One
Be patient...they are just being lazy.
@MAS Adobe has always been a lazy company who often cut corners.
@MAS I'm tired of waiting. Adobe showed video of flash running on the Nexus last January and yet still no flash on my Nexus. I think they are full of shit like they were when they claimed they would get flash working on blackberry
@MAS according to steve job. do release how important for adobe to get this product right the first time? if it's buggy, can you imagine the consequences??
@Air Force One Hey it's not like they take a long time with these things. I mean, what, it only took like 3 years for them to provide hardware acceleration to play video files that already have hardware acceleration for them.
At this rate, Android will have hardware based flash just in time for the world to end in 2012.
Unless Google changes Android before then, and that won't happen right?
@inspiron41
roflmao @ "if it's buggy".
Since when is Flash NOT buggy???
Why all the hate? It's a huge undertaking to try and provide various mobile platforms the full and consistent Flash experience available on the desktops. Right now they're solidifying the base on which to build and no definite promises on the mobile release schedule yet. From their own press release:
...more than 250 million smartphones are expected to support the full Flash Player by the end 2012. Mobile platforms that will support the full Flash Player include Android, the BlackBerry® platform, Symbian® OS, Palm® webOS and Windows Mobile®.
@Air Force One They haven't gotten around to us WebOS users either. Fuck em.
@Andie
That's what Adobe expects. By 2012 (which is nearly 2 years ago) the web will probably be mostly html5. After 10 versions it's time to go for Flash.
@Bernd
After ten versions, it's time for Mac OS to go.
See how stupid that sounds?
@Air Force One as an adobe hater, (except MAYBE for camera RAW) i can only hope that they're investing their time in AIR - seeing that article about having the same (or mostly same) code running in all diff platforms was fairly encouraging. now i just hope adobe doesnt pull their usual disappointing act.
@Air Force One, fulll flash will be on the HTC EVO out of the box when it launches. I think the issue with current Android devices is processor speed. Adobe has to water-down flash, so to-speak!
Is Flash x64 out yet?
@Andie Exactly. CS5's introduction conference is next monday, so more light should be shed then.
@ttringle, don't forget how fast they implemented 64 bit native support.
Their website has been saying the same thing since January 2007:
"Adobe is working on Flash Player support for 64-bit platforms as part of our ongoing commitment to the cross-platform compatibility of Flash Player." They occasionally change the last line, it used to be we have no release dates, then following the release of Flash Player 10 and now following the release of 10.1.
but hey, its not like flash is one of the main reasons holding back 64bit browsers.
@Andie
I like how you respect trademarks, do you work in PR or Corp Comm?
@Air Force One flash play for android is ready its been leaked in htc builds there just waiting for a particular htc phone to come out before they release it which is B.S. but they gotta make they money
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/21/htc-desire-rom-shoehorns-htc-sense-and-flash-10-1-onto-the-nexus/
@Atlantian i did not word that well at all what i mean is that they already have a working flash player 10.1 for android its been shown in builds there just not releasing it cause they probably have a deal with htc to launch it on a phone like the evo 4g cause when u wanna premere a product there nothing like a killer phone and it can't be ported cause its locked in there sense ui frame work
@Bernd Macromedia Flash and Adobe Flash are two way different techs. Adobe introduced into Flash 6 new script language - AS3, which is on par with JavaScript (the two being based on the same standard ECMAScript), and fully redefined the entire SWF format (BTW they made it an open standard and anyone can even write their own Flash Player if one might need it). The comparison with Mac OS is really nice here - Mac OS 9 and Mac OS 10 are just 1 step away from each other, but are actually two very different OSs.
@Air Force One Yeah, why doesn't Google let Flash on Android?
I just cancelled my order for a Desire with Google's CLOSED SYSTEM.
Flash is the heroin of the Internet, watch all the junkies whine when they can't get a dose.
SARCASM INTENDED
@MAS Gee, it isn't as though Adobe makes these player for free. No one is paying for the Flash player developement. In fact, Adobe looses money on "Flash" - but there was no other working solution for advanced rich media in the browser.
Adobe makes money on authoring tools. And regardless of what becomes the standard for rich media (html5, silverlight, flash, whatever) Adobe is going to build authoring tools for it.
In fact, only one app in the CS4 Master Collection is for Flash. The rest of them are for other media delivery types.
So, give Adobe a break for making a plugin for every computer in an attempt to make rich-media a better experience for all. Or, better yet, how about if you feel the need to complain, you go build something better that works cross-platform.
Man, how people bitch about free stuff. Heck, even Apple didn't build a replacement for Flash (HTML5 does not replace Flash completely either for those who don't know the feature set of each) when Steve Jobs cast it down. Something that Microsoft IS doing with Silverlight - trying to offer something better.
@MoonWalkerCTE
Hmmm... photoshop lets met cut corners.
@Air Force One
I have a feeling that Adobe has only one programmer and the others are high blazing away from the cash reaped from there overly priced broken suites.
Anyways, looks like 10.1 RC finally works for me. C2D 3.0Ghz + 8800GT, runs Tron Legacy Trailer 2 at around 60% on Firefox Browser, 20% on Fullscreen, but its slightly choppy.
@Air Force One When they finish 10.1 because that is the version planned for Android.. Which will probably be finished when all the platforms are finished and the desktop version is currently RC...
@Air Force One ndeed, flash shouldn't disappear completely, but it shouldn't be used for playing videos, at least not without hardware acc.
Apple should realize that: http://bit.ly/apple-ipad-under-fire
How is this running on Snow leopard?
@CaliLove310
To answer your question there is no reason to upgrade. The only real reason to upgrade to 10.1 at this point is for hardware acceleration. At the moment Adobe has yet to implement hardware acceleration for Apple hardware.
@CaliLove310 a little bit better but still power hungry
@MacBandit
is it Plex friendly ? would love to watch iplayer without all the fan.
@CaliLove310 I still can't scroll up or down if I'm on a flash Video. Why???
@MacBandit What the hell is this? I was here first.
@MacBandit
Not only does it not have hardware acceleration, I think it's just poorly coded. Even without hardware acceleration it shouldn't be so slow.
I can't be the only one who occasionally control-clicks a bunch of links on one site, ends up with 15 browser windows all playing some crap flash ad, and notices the CPU fans ramp up like crazy.
I know my Mac Pro is ancient at 4 years old and all, but flash is the only thing that makes it break a sweat. Sorry, there's no way in hell I'm upgrading perfectly good hardware so that I can view obnoxious ads. Click2Flash it is, and I don't even miss that crap.
@UnixSystemsEngineer
Wow dude, you block flash ads but they somehow still hurt your browsing experience on your 4 year old dinosaur? That's some pretty epic user error right there. To think you have the gall to insult the coding of a full fledged multimedia and vector rendering platform, you really need to take a humble pill.
now release it for webOS :)
@vdubdan45 pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase? :D
@Jimbojones i guess that makes you the first bimbo...
Will this allow Steve to make up with Adobe? Will it?
@onlymyrailgun .. only if it never sends an automatic crash report to Apple ever again. Then I suggest the Adobe CEO buys Steve a coffee like Eric Schmidt did.
@taligent Lol.
@onlymyrailgun : From the Release Notes PDF: "a tremendous amount of work has gone into to making Flash Player 10.1 “ready for mobility”"
If they write their code the same way...
"and grab the RC yourself for Windows, Mac or Linux straight from Adobe Labs"
Thanks, but no thanks.
any news on bcm970012 chip? Does it work now?
@keplenk
yea i have that card and the beta works so this should too.
progfiles/broadcom- there's software in there to monitor the cards usage.
I wish Flash would disappear. HTML5 FTW!
@A1
why so much hate? both flash and HTML5 can stay
@A1
How can you guys prefer a markup language to a Turing complete language (ActionScript). We already know HTML5 cannot replace or reproduce all the content Flash is able to do. Not yet at least. Get off the Apple kool aid.
@roflcopter You're forgetting Javascript. Of course HTML5 won't replace Flash on its own. If it did, it wouldn't be HTML anymore.
Look at this: http://chromeexperiments.com Maybe Javascript's not equal to Flash yet, but I think we'll be seeing some new libraries soon that bring it closer.
@roflcopter
indeed, flash shouldn't disappear completely, but it shouldn't be used for playing videos, at least not without hardware acc
@nkorth Don't give him too many hints. He's not Turing Complete.