Appletell

Gary Coyne at Applelinks has written a rather in-depth overview of the recently announced Adobe Creative Suite 4. Gary has been working with the beta versions for some time now, and offers good insight as to what Mac users will love and...well, not love about the new package.

Pretty much each component of the various CS4 packages is covered, as Gary focuses offers an overview of the entire suite, then takes a quick look at each component to highlight a specific change or new feature. If you’re considering an upgrade (or are about to purchase the suite for the first time), this is certainly worth checking out.

Read [Applelinks]

Paul Betlem, Sr. Director of Engineering at Adobe Systems, says that his team is not only “working on Flash on the iPhone,” but, with Apple’s approval, it could be available “in a very short time.”

Betlem was speaking at the Flash on the Beach conference when he dispenced this information. Apparently, Adobe has been working on Flash for the iPhone since March, despite Apple’s seemingly unlikely approval. Three months after starting, they were pleased with their progress. But now it’s down to final touches.

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Today, Adobe officially announced Creative Suite 4, better known as CS4. Part of that is the almighty Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended, both complete with a laundry list of new features and updates.

CS4 has been highly anticipated by many, myself included. I’ve been waiting for the next update to finally lay down the cash and own a piece of the monster that is Photoshop. Let’s see if my wait was worth it.

Feature list after the break.

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Adobe Systems officially announced this morning the Creative Suite 4 product family. The CS4 programs will feature a new workflow and “hundreds of feature innovations,” including tighter integration with Flash technology across the entire product line. The updates will be seen across Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design editions, Creative Suite 4 Web editions, Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, as well as 13 point products, 14 integrated technologies and seven services.

Some of the major applications receiving updates are Photoshop CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, InDesign CS4, Illustrator CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver CS4, After Effects CS4, and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

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Here comes the weekend again, and with the flood of new apps on the App Store, there are a ton of ways to not put all that free time to good use. Here’s a short list of free apps you may have missed. They’re fun, probably useless, but, best of all, free.

Get the list after the break.

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The biggest news for Mac users is that Lightroom 2 is Adobe’s first native 64-bit app to run on Mac OS X.

Learn more after the break.

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This may come as a “finally” to some people, but Adobe has confirmed that a version of Flash is in the works for the iPhone 3G. In a conference call to report Adobe’s Q2 earnings, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen spilled the beans on the new software. For a long time, Apple blocked Adobe’s desktop version from getting on to the iPhone, claiming the large version shortened battery life severely. Well, luckily for iPhone users, iPhone Flash is “in early development.”

“With respect to the iPhone, we are working on it,” said Narayen. “We have a version that’s working on the [SDK] emulation. This is still on the computer, and you know, we have to continue to move it from a test environment onto the device and continue to make it work. So we are pleased with the internal progress that we’ve made to date.”

Information was recently leaked saying that Apple has begun development with SproutCore, a Javascript Framework that, when used along side newer version of Flash, will provides considerably faster speeds for flash content. 

Via [MacNN]

Product: Photoshop Elements 6.0
Link: Photoshop Elements 6.0
Price: $89 USD
Rating: 8/10

In February, I reviewed a beta version of Photoshop Elements 6.0. I focused on interface, speed and features. As a whole, my review hasn’t changed too much.

In February, I wrote that “launching Photoshop Elements is a painful process. Startup took about 17 seconds: six bounces of the icon on the dock, then about 11 seconds on the splash screen. This is about the same as Photoshop Elements 4.0, which was running through emulation.” The final version of Photoshop has most definitely improved in this area, beating CS3 for start time, taking about 10 seconds on a cold start, which is very acceptable. 

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It seems Adobe took Apple’s latest Aperture 2.1 release as a challenge with the release of Lightroom 2 beta. We’re not quite sure when the full version will be released, but the beta version expires on August 31 this year. But, Adobe definitely took a swing at Apple, read for yourself:

“One thing we can say, however, is that we plan to continue with a more aggressive release schedule than we’ve seen from Apple, which took over two years between release of Aperture 1.0 and 2.0.”

The new beta also offers local corrections via the Develop module, which is in direct competition with Aperture 2.1’s new plug-in editing tool. It shows how much Adobe is gunning for Apple. Many worried Adobe would limit Lightroom functionality so Photoshop would still be the number one program, but I believe Lightroom and Photoshop both serve different functions. Lightroom is geared towards organizing photos for professionals, or a standalone app for beginners. The pros will always be using Photoshop, but Lightroom serves a much better process than Bridge.

If you are a licensed user of Lightroom, you can check out the Lightroom 2 Beta and use it until August 31. Adobe seems to be aiming for Apple, so it brings up the question; Will Apple ever create a Photoshop competitor?

Lightroom 2 Beta [Adobe] Read [Ars Technica]

Adobe Systems Incorporated announced yesterday that Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 6 for Macintosh® is available immediately. “Since its January launch at the 2008 Macworld Expo, Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac was named “Best of Show,” and given the 2008 Editors’ Choice Awards by The Mac Observer and the 2008 Macworld Award by Macsimum News,” the Adobe Press Release reads.

The biggest new features to Photoshop Elements 6.0 are the fact that it is now a Universal Binary, the new Photomerge technology, and a new interface and different levels of the program depending on the user’s expertise.

According to Adobe, “Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Macintosh runs on Leopard, (Mac OS X v 10.5.2), as well as previous versions of Mac OS X starting with 10.4.8. [...] Photoshop Elements 6 is immediately available in the United States and Canada for an estimated street price of US$89.99. Owners of previous versions of Photoshop Elements can upgrade to Photoshop Elements 6 for US$69.99 with an in-box, mail-in rebate or through http://www.adobe.com.”

Photoshop Elements 6.0 can be purchased at Apple Stores, Apple.com, Amazon.com, Best Buy Stores, BestBuy.com, Costco.com, J&R, Microcenter, NewEgg.com, Staples Stores and Staples.com.

You can read my first look reviews, on speed and features and the interface, and also keep an eye out for a final review of the final copy, coming in a few days.