by Stephen Shankland
October 15, 2008 10:17 AM PDT

Astro is launched. On Wednesday, Adobe Systems announced the release of a major update to its Flash technology to endow Web sites with better video, audio, and graphics. The new version 10 was code-named Astro, and it arrived just days after Microsoft released version 2.0 of its rival Silverlight software.

Flash Player 10, a free download also available for Windows and Mac users from Download.com, includes a number of new features:
• Easier-to-use 3D graphics effects.
• Better text handling for more sophisticated layouts combining words and graphics, more refined typography, and better multilingual applications.
• Better sound handling, so that different audio signals can be mixed together--for example, a music sound track with a game's audio effects.
• High-performance visual effects using technology called Pixel Bender that also works with After Effects CS4 and Photoshop CS4.
• Better abilities to tap into hardware acceleration.
• Adaptable video streaming that can adjust to changing network throughput.

Flash Player is a key part of Adobe's push to make Web-based applications more powerful. Adobe's Flex framework can be used to create applications that run on the Flash Player or as standalone computer applications running on AIR, the Adobe Integrated Runtime. Flash and Silverlight aren't the only ways to make these so-called rich Internet applications, though. Silverlight, which drafts off Microsoft's strong developer base and its .Net programming technology, is a newer competitor.