Adobe Adds Multi-touch Support to Flash Player 10.1, Adobe AIR 2 Betas

Adobe introduced public beta versions of Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 on Tuesday. The updates added support for multi-touch technology including finger-based gestures.

Flash Player is Adobe's software for playing Flash-based content. The 10.1 beta added Open Screen Project support for HD streaming content, and Adobe Flash Access 2.0 copy protection support. It also added H.264 and graphics hardware-based acceleration, but only for Windows users.

Adobe AIR is a framework that lets developers build desktop applications with Web site design tools. The 2.0 beta added support for mass storage devices, secure socket and UDP, accessing raw microphone data, and HTML 5 and CSS 3. It also added support for native code integration, opening files with their creator application, and improved overall security.

The public betas of Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 are free and available for download at the Adobe Labs Web site.