Recently there has been a number of exciting advancements with the Flash Platform (Flex, Flash Player, and Adobe AIR). Here is a quick round-up:
Adobe released security updates for the Flash runtimes: Flash Player 10.0.42.34 and Adobe AIR 1.5.3. The Flash Player update fixes an issue with mouse scroll wheels not working in Flash when using Safari.
Recently, Adobe also released public betas for Adobe AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1. This Flash Player release fixes the “Incorrect unicode input in Linux” bug. Both AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1 have a new API for Global Exception Handling (which was one of the highest rated feature requests on bugs.adobe.com). Check out Tour de Flex for some new samples on how to use this new and other new APIs.
For those looking to build Flex applications in the enterprise, Adobe has posted two great resources. First is a third-party study that says enterprise penetration of Flash Player 9 (or better) is at 97.6%! Second is a fantastic white paper about The Business Benefits of Rich Internet Applications – a must read for anyone in the enterprise who is evaluating Flex.
Last is a short video of me at Adobe MAX 2009 where I talk about the progress that Adobe is making in getting the Flash Platform onto the many screens in our lives and why that is exciting for developers. Let me know what you think!
