Adobe Labs, that fun-loving group of Adobe developers, has announced the release of Adobe Flash Player 10.1. Available for immediate download, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is available in versions for Mac, Windows, and Linux OSes. A beta version is expected to be available soon for Palm OS.
Flash Player 10.1 has a long list of new features and enhancements to existing features. The ones that caught my eye include improved video playback, support for hardware accelerated h.264 playback, access to additional device hardware, such as microphones, and multi-touch capabilities.
Unfortunately, not all features are available on all platforms. The Mac version, at least in this release, doesn't support hardware acceleration of h.264 video. That's a shame, because one of the main complaints of Mac users is that current versions of Adobe's Flash player are CPU hogs, requiring a pretty potent CPU to play Flash video full-screen without jitter and freezes.
Adobe doesn't explain why the Mac version doesn't support hardware acceleration, but Apple and Adobe have been like two kids fighting in a playground for a while now. It would be nice if these computing titans would realize they have more to lose by feuding than by making peace, once and for all.