Adobe finally dropped the beta tag from Flash Player 10.2 on Wednesday. The latest version of the multimedia playback platform offers new hardware-based video acceleration, and drops support for PowerPC-based Macs.
Flash gets a performance boost
Flash Player 10.2 includes improved privacy controls, full screen video playback support across multiple displays, improved text display with sub-pixel rendering, overall performance improvements, and more. According to Adobe, Flash content providers will have to make minor changes to their SWF files to take advantage of the new Stage Video hardware acceleration features, and companies like YouTube, Brightcove, Epix and Vimeo have already started the conversion process.
Flash Player 10.2 for the Mac requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 or newer, at least 128MB graphics memory, and Safari 4, Firefox 3, Opera 9.5 or Google Chrome 2. It is available as a free download at the Adobe Web site.