Adobe release Flash 11 beta for Windows, Mac and Linux

Adobe has released a beta version of Flash 11 for Windows, Mac and Linux. Adobe have also announced the availability of the Adobe AIR 3 beta which is available for Windows and Mac, but has been killed on Linux in favour for Adobe to focus on mobile instead. Adobe says this is this first beta is a desktop release with mobile on it's way soon. 64-bit support is now included which is a pretty big step since the preview of it back in September of 2010.

Adobe have also listed a bunch of features and performance enhancements included in both the Flash Player 11 and AIR 3:

Captive Runtime for AIR - this popular feature from AIR for iOS will now be available on AIR for desktop. Simplify the app installation process, reduce testing and certification cost by encapsulating the AIR runtime in your Windows, Mac, andAndroid apps.

Native 64-bit support for Flash Player - take advantage of new 64-bit operating systems and 64-bit Web browsers on Windows, Mac OS, Linux.

Stage 3D graphics rendering - Stage 3D (codenamed Molehill) is a new method of 2D and 3D rendering and is supported with a new Stage3D API. The Stage3D API is a set of low-level GPU-accelerated APIs enabling advanced 2D and 3D capabilities across multiple screens and devices (desktop, mobile, and TV). These new low-level APIs will provide 2D and 3D engine developers the flexibility to leverage GPU hardware acceleration for significant performance gains.

H.264/AVC SW Encode for camera encoding - higher compression efficiency and industry wide support for real-time communications and non-real-time broadcast scenarios, like webcasting, livecasting, etc.

Native JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) support - enables ActionScript programmers to take advantage of fast parsing and generation of JSON-formatted data. Take existing data and integrate it with minimal or no modification into your ActionScript project.