Adobe has turned the dial up to 11 for Flash, with the latest version of Steve Jobs' favourite software promising console-quality 2D and 3D games over the web to nearly all PCs and many other devices.

Other devices whose names aren't proceeded with a little i.

There are "dozens" of new aspects to Flash 11, and Adobe Air 3, including accelerated 2D and 3D graphics with "1,000 times faster rendering performance over Flash Player 10 and Air 2", rental and subscription support, and content protection and HD video on iOS devices through Air apps courtesy of H.264 hardware decoding.

"Stage 3D enables content that efficiently animates millions of objects on screen, smoothly rendered at 60 frames per second - the result is fluid, cinematic app and game experiences," explained Tom Nguyen, product manager for Flash.

"Additionally, these releases deliver new features to support theatre-quality HD video, native 64-bit optimisations, high-quality HD video conferencing, and a powerful, flexible architecture for leveraging native device and platform capabilities."

Adobe is keen to stress that it supports HTML5, the standard that could eventually be its downfall, but added that Flash was better in some areas.

"Flash offers the best way for content owners to deliver their most demanding experiences, including games, premium video and sophisticated data-driven apps, to all of their users, while HTML5 tools such as Adobe Edge and Dreamweaver are ideal for building interactive web pages, rich ads, branded microsites and general-purpose mobile applications," said Danny Winokur, Adobe's vice president and general manager of platforms.

Both Flash 11, and Air 3 are available as release candidates now. The final versions will be landing in October.