Spring is here, and to celebrate Adobe has served up a double scoop: Adobe Media Player (AMP) and Adobe TV.
AMP, which left closed beta on Wednesday, uses Flash to playback video and runs on Adobe AIR, its new webtop-to-desktop application. Its goal is to make streaming video more convenient for users, and more profitable for content providers.
Check out this video over on Beet.TV, in which Adobe's Kevin Towes gives viewers the DL on DLs:
It would be easy to pack a service like this with tons of features and visual effects, but Adobe is keeping it simple on the user side. Among my favorite features are the options to mark a video as watched after viewing anywhere from 75%-100% of the content (the video version of "mark as read") and remember where you left off, or not.
Alongside this release comes Adobe TV, an online video resource dedicated exclusively to Adobe products and the users who swear by them. The service is split into five channels: Photographer, Designer, Video Professional, Developer and Programs, each of which provides a fairly broad range of content, from interviews to tutorials -- including Dr. Brown, the design world's kooky analogue to Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Adobe Media Player and Adobe AIR are both available for free here.
