VR-Zone

64-bit computing may have reached mainstream status today, but it does not change the fact that Adobe is notorious among users for its insistence of supplying only the 32-bit version of its Flash Player plugin. Needless to say, the world's heavy reliance on Flash for the delivery of rich digital content such as online games and videos means that users of pure 64-bit operating systems are often prevented from enjoying such content, due to the lack of a proper 64-bit version of the plugin for such users. 

However, just as we have always said that good things come to those who wait, users of pure 64-bit operating systems will undoubtedly be pleased with the latest news from Adobe, as the company has just released a beta of their updated Flash 11 plugin on Adobe Labs. And the biggest draw of this preview release? Why, the inclusion of a native 64-bit plugin which is reportedly compatible with most 64-bit web browsers currently in use today.

We tested the x64 build of the Flash Player 11 Beta on a 64-bit build of the Firefox web browser, where it worked perfectly fine. At the very least, YouTube videos were completely playable, and the browser was able to recognize the plugin without any additional fiddling around.

More importantly, we were quite glad to find out that Adobe has fixed a certain flaw in the 64-bit version of the Flash Player 11 plugin which prevented Ookla's speed test from loading on the older, experimental versions of the plugin.

The Flash Player 11 Beta plugin can be downloaded off the Adobe Labs site in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors.

Source: Adobe Labs