In early October, content technology major Adobe will release Flash Player 11, the next major release of the Adobe Flash client-end software. The new browser plugin promises a platform that allows 1,000 times faster 2D/3D rendering performance over Flash Player 10, using full hardware-acceleration. Right here we see Adobe waking up to the HTML5 threat. Angry Birds on Google Chrome, anyone? The next key area addressed by Flash Player 11, is full native 64-bit (x86-64) web-browser support. This move will potentially cause the long-overdue decline of 32-bit web-browsers on 64-bit operating systems, since you already have HTML5 and Java on 64-bit browsers.

Next up, Adobe will pack its AIR platform, a Flash-based application runtime environment that uses the "superior user-interface" plank. AIR 3, which accompanies Flash Player 11, will support native extensions, that gives AIR applications added functionality. These include hardware capabilities including access to device data, vibration control, magnetometers, light sensors, dual screens, near field communications (NFC) and more. You know what adobe is getting at, future portable devices that are extremely powerful and functional.

AIR 3 will have a captive runtime design, which simplifies the installation process of AIR applications Android, Windows and Mac OS in addition to Apple iOS. BlackBerry Tablet OS will include AIR runtime out of the box. Premium (read: paid) content such as digital movie rental will be able to take advantage of additional content protection features, packed into Adobe Flash Access 3 DRM. AIR 3 will provide access to high-quality videos in full-HD resolution, with hardware H.264 decoding.

While the release versions of Flash Player 11 + AIR 3 will be out in early October, release-candidates can be found on Adobe Labs. These will replace your existing Flash Player installation.