Adobe AIR 3 / Features

Explore a new architecture for high-performance 2D/3D GPU hardware accelerated graphics rendering by Adobe, which provides low-level Stage3D APIs for advanced rendering in apps and gives framework developers classes of interactive experiences for mobile, desktop, and televisions.

Use native code to take advantage of the same platform- and device-specific native capabilities and APIs available to native apps, with easy integration into AIR applications.

Developers now have more flexibility with their app packaging options and can automatically package AIR 3 with their Android™, iOS, Windows, and Mac OS app into a single installation file that includes the app and a bundled version of the AIR runtime.

Now developers have access to the Android Market Licensing Service, which lets publishers enforce licensing policies for paid applications that they publish through Android Market.

Work with powerful features for the development of expressive, high-performing applications for Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS.

The front-facing camera support available with AIR for iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS is now available on Android devices. Take advantage of the front-facing camera to connect users with rich video conferencing and chat experiences.

Leverage hardware acceleration of the entire video pipeline for best-in-class high-definition (HD) video playback experiences. Reduce processor and memory usage and enable smoother video, and higher fidelity on mobile and TV devices.

Stream beautiful video from your computer’s camera with higher compression efficiency and industry-wide support, enabling both high-quality real-time communications (e.g., video chat and video conferencing) and live video broadcasts.

Flash Access content protection support is now available on Android devices. Broadcasters can now reach and monetize an even broader range of customers on their favorite mobile device.

Protect streaming video across devices while eliminating the deployment complexity of a license server.

Develop apps that use very large bitmaps. BitmapData objects are no longer limited to a maximum resolution of 16 megapixels (16,777,215 pixels), and maximum bitmap width/height is no longer limited to 8,191 pixels.

Support interoperability with legacy phone systems via the Flash Media Gateway (FMG) and other third-party clients (through the open RTMP protocol) without the need for transcoding.

Deliver full HD videos with Dolby Digital and DTS surround directly to AIR powered TVs.

ActionScript developers can now take advantage of high-performance native parsing and generation of JSON-formatted data. Developers can integrate existing data seamlessly into their projects.

A GC advice API provides additional control over the scheduling of garbage collection, so that the garbage collection process does not disrupt the user experience.

Improve management of data transfer with a new property to determine the number of bytes remaining in the write buffer and a new event for when data is being sent to the network layer.  New APIs allow apps to easily track progress and provide feedback.

Support for the JPEG-XR advanced image compression standard (International Standard ISO/IEC 29199-2) provides more efficient compression than JPEG, enables both lossy and lossless compression support, and adds support for alpha channel transparency.

Developers can now take advantage of LZMA compression for their SWF files. LZMA compression can reduce SWF size by up to 40%, enabling users to benefit from richer experiences with shorter download times and reduced bandwidth consumption.

DisplayObjectContainer now implements a removeChildren API allowing developers to quickly remove all of a container’s children using a single API call. 

A new MovieClip.isPlaying property returns the MovieClip’s current playing state.

Developers can now write multitasking iOS applications that can play audio while in the background, such as music applications or reliable voice conferencing apps with multitasking support.

Encrypted local storage support is now available on mobile devices. Applications can more securely store sensitive data on a user’s device, enabling support for storage of sensitive data such as passwords, certificates, and auditing information.