The last twelve months have been turbulent for the Adobe Flash Player. After spending years at a languid development pace (Flash 10.0 was originally released in 2008), several things happened to push it forward.

For starters, most major Web browsers have been pushing support of the new HTML 5 standard, which seeks to replace many of Flash’s standard functions without the use of external plugins (other plugins like Microsoft’s Silverlight are also rising to challenge Flash, albeit to a lesser extent). Next, look at the proliferation of iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad, which won’t and will never (as of this writing) run what Apple CEO Steve Jobs calls “the number one reason Macs crash.” Clearly, Adobe needed to do something to get Flash back on track.

Then Flash 10.1 dropped in June of 2010, bringing with it the ability to offload Flash rendering to compatible graphics processors – this was a major and welcome improvement, and since then things have steadily gotten better. Security updates have arrived frequently and promptly. Google Android and other mobile platforms have picked up fairly reliable Flash support. Flash 10.2 improved and extended GPU support, while also improving support for multiple monitors. And now, Flash 10.3 finally brings us a unified control panel where users can check for updates and change playback and security settings.

This may sound small, but it’s a major improvement for system admins and folks who like to stay in control over what’s installed on their computers. Previously, you could only access Flash’s settings by right-clicking on a Flash element in your browser window, and the auto-update functionality worked inconsistently and without much rhyme or reason. The OS X version of Flash didn’t have an auto-updater at all. What use are Flash’s new features if users aren’t even prompted to upgrade from their old copy of Flash 9?

Some screenshots are below. It’s simple, but it warms my heart to see it:

And with that, 64-bit support becomes one of the last major obstacles between the Flash Player and modernity. A months-old preview version is available – no word from Adobe on when this will finally be released. Once it is, expect to see development and adoption of 64-bit browsers slowly begin to pick up steam.