Ever find yourself with dozens of downloaded flash videos, frustrated at your inability to play them in anything but a web browser? Neither have I. That being said, Adobe is looking to put more software on your desktop with the introduction of a standalone flash player, “Adobe Media Player”. The aptly-named suite is supposedly a “lightweight” alternative to watching flash videos in a browser, along with incorporating some functions browsers don't normally offer, such as full screen viewing and others:

”... that will give users the ability to view videos offline with full screen playback, access to one-click viewer ratings and a Favorites feature that automatically downloads new episodes of favorite TV shows or video podcasts.”
The download will be free as a beta sometime later this year, with the full version being finished before the end of the year. Of course, there's always a catch – the new media player will also support various DRM and advertising schemes, giving content providers even more ways to dilute your screen with banner ads and DRM-locked videos. While I somehow doubt they'll find many people rushing to install another piece of Adobe software (take a look at how bloated their plain jane Adobe Reader has become), I'm sure they'll find thousands of software partners to couple it with. Would you like to install Adobe Media Player? You can read the full press release here.