Flash 10.1 introduces several new key features including video hardware acceleration (only available in Flash for Windows), better mobility support including smartphone and other Internet-devices support and additional option for media delivery. Users interested in installing the new Flash Player version should note that it is not the final release but a community preview which is mainly aimed at developers.

This public prerelease is an opportunity for developers to test and provide early feedback to Adobe on new features, enhancements, and compatibility with previously authored content. Consumers can try the beta release of Flash Player 10.1 to preview hardware acceleration of video on supported Windows PCs and x86-based netbooks. You can also help make Flash Player better by visiting all of your favorite sites, making sure they work the same or better than with the current player. We definitely want your feedback to help improve the final version, expected to ship in the first half of 2010.

Interested users can take a look at the announcement over at Adobe Labs, read the release notes or watch Flash Player 10 demonstrations online.

The second major release today is the release of Adobe Air 2.0 Beta which also comes with many enhancements over the current Adobe Air release. This includes a long list of features like the following:

* Support for the detection of mass storage devices.
* Advanced networking capabilities like secure sockets, UDP support, and the ability to listen on sockets.
* Support for native code integration.
* The ability to open a file with its default application.
* Multi-touch and gesture support.
* New APIs for access to raw microphone data.
* Webkit update with HTML5/CSS3 support.
* Global error handling.
* Improved cross-platform printing
* Improved security and support for enterprise and government standards.

Like Flash Player 10.1 Adobe Air 2 is a beta release that is not aimed at the general Internet community but at developers who want to test the new technology or adapt their products to make use of these new features and options. Those users can take a closer look at the release notes and the announcement of Adobe Air 2.0 which contains follow up links to get started.

The reason why the Flash uploader in WordPress was not working anymore was that Adobe disabled the feature to open a file dialog for security reasons in Flash 10 which broke the SWFUpload script WordPress was using.

A ticket was opened and is currently discussed over at WordPress and a fix is assigned to Milestone 2.7 of WordPress which aims for a release in 1-2 weeks. The best solution so far for WordPress webmasters who use the Flash based image uploader regularly is to keep using Flash 9 for now and update to Flash 10 once the fix comes out.