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Custom filters and effects can be combined with native effects within the free Adobe Pixel Bender toolkit, the same technology behind many filters and special effects in Adobe's After Effects CS3 software. Developers can create their own filters, blend modes and fills by writing small pixel-shading functions that can be set to create animated effects or change the effect on rich media content at runtime. The beta also introduces native support for 3D effects to easily position, rotate and animate 2D objects while retaining interactivity.

The new text engine provides control over device font attributes, such as anti-alias, rotation, and style as well as support for ligatures. More text layout options, such as vertical, bi-directional and right-to-left, enable the creation of Flash-based applications in more languages and

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can provide more interactive ebooks and online publications.

The beta also supports variable bitrate streaming for video between Flash Player and planned future releases of Adobe Flash Media Server. This will automatically adjust video quality as bandwidth availability fluctuates to provide constant video playback without pausing to buffer, dramatically improving end user experiences. Adobe

David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe, said that adoption of Flash Player set all-time records by achieving 62% market penetration in less than three months, and Flash is to be found on 98% of web-enabled computers. He added that more than 75% of broadcasters who stream video on the Web use Flash technology.

"Adobe has a long track record of creating technologies that influence market direction and we believe this beta release of Adobe Flash Player 10 raises the bar once again," said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "Working closely with the community, we are delivering groundbreaking creative features that will be transformative for interactive designers and developers, and revolutionary for end users."

Flash Player 10 beta is available from adobe.com/go/astro.