Adobe today announced that beta versions of Adobe AIR 2 and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 software are now available from Adobe Labs for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

Flash Player 10.1 is also available for x86-based netbooks, and expected to be available across a broad spectrum of smartphones and other Internet-connected devices in 2010. Adobe AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1 are easily updateable across all supported platforms.

With AIR 2, developers can create more reliable and feature-rich applications in the desktop context, and they can easily add AIR 2 functionality to update current AIR 1.0 applications. New AIR 2 features include enhanced support for mass storage devices and native application processes, as well as peer-to-peer and UDP networking.

Flash Player 10.1 is the first consistent browser runtime release of the Open Screen Project that will enable new Web browsing of expressive applications, content and high definition (HD) videos across the desktop and devices. Flash Player 10.1 takes advantage of new media delivery options using HTTP streaming coupled with content protection powered by Adobe Flash Access 2.0. Additionally, Flash Player 10.1 now leverages hardware decoding of H.264 video on Windows PCs, netbooks and mobile devices where available, to conserve battery life.

Adobe AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1 also bring innovations and optimizations from mobile devices to the desktop. For example, designers and developers can now create new types of applications that use multi-touch points and gestures on touch screen devices. Instead of using a mouse, users touch the screen to interact with content and applications.

The pre-release beta versions of Adobe AIR 2 and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 are available immediately as free downloads from Adobe Labs.

Adobe AIR 2 beta is offered for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux desktop operating systems and x86-based netbooks.

Flash Player 10.1 is expected to be available across a broad spectrum of smartphones and other Internet-connected devices in 2010.