A few days ago Adobe launched a new beta version of its Flash Player 10.1. Including several important improvements and bug fixes, Flash Player 10.1 Beta 3 is definitely a pleasant release both for flash devs and users.

Beta 3 release probably brought the biggest piece of cake to owners of netbooks (at least to those with the Intel GMA 500 and Broadcom Crystal HD Accelerator graphics chipsets). As you might already know, the third beta provides better HD Web video streaming performance.

Early Web video tests conducted by numerous techi observers and enthusiasts, (Cnet test, Engadget test) show great results: both 720p and 1080p streaming videos play back quite smoothly. Of course, experts don’t hurry to call this an outright performance, but the progress is obvious and more is expected to come with the final release of Flash Player 10.1 later this year. If you still haven’t tried Beta 3 on your netbook, catch up and share your impressions in comments! One thing we’d like to caution you about is that you need to install updated drivers for the aforesaid chipsets before attempting playback after the player update.