Appletell

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.

If you’re one of the many people that were excited about Adobe’s iPhone Flash statement a few days ago, this is bad news for you. Adobe has now decided that they won’t be able to bring Flash Player to the iPhone using the SDK alone. Adobe has said that they would need help from Apple to actually get Flash implemented on the iPhone/iPod Touch. Steve Jobs doesn’t show any interest at all to bringing Flash on the iPhone - probably one of the reasons that the iPhone has a dedicated YouTube player, rather than Flash YouTube.

It is yet again disappointing to see the iPhone limited to viewing webpages without Flash, while other devices like the Nokia N95 and Sony PSP have support for it. Although the iPhone’s Safari browser experience is by far the best I’ve ever used on a mobile device, the addition of Flash would have made it even better.

Via [TUAW]

Just when you thought Adobe and Apple would never bring Flash to the iPhone, they announce that Flash will be coming to the iPhone. No date has yet been announced, as Adobe are still in the basic stages of making it work. Adobe’s CEO says: “Flash is synonymous with the Internet and, frankly, anybody who wants to browse the Web and experience the Web’s glory really needs Flash support”. I definitely agree with what he’s saying - if Apple wants to bring the true internet experience in your pocket, they need to include Flash. It’s not just sites like YouTube that use it, it’s also a widely-used form of online advertising - which, while not being good for the consumer, is great for website owners. Flash is also the most common way of playing casual games on the internet on sites like MiniClip.

Adobe hopes to utilize Apple’s iPhone SDK to make Flash possible on the iPhone. I presume this iPhone version of Flash will also work on the iPod Touch. I’m glad Adobe are willing to bring Flash player to the iPhone - it’s a great move for both Apple and Adobe.

Via [Macworld]

After releasing an update to Lightroom last week, they are now pulling it from their website and asking users to downgrade.

There are three major bugs. The first is an error with EXIF time stamps. “There is an error in the EXIF time stamp update technology that causes Lightroom to believe that the files are out of sync with the correct time stamp as displayed in Lightroom.” says Adobe. Essentially, it seems that this bug would shift all of your time stamps, which could be wuite a huge pain to return to their previous state.

A Windows only error involves DNG conversion. In Lightroom, Adobe has included technology that ensures the data in a DNG file is unchanged from the time of conversion to DNG. “Unfortunately,” says Adobe, “when converting to DNG using Lightroom 1.4 on Windows, the application will write an incorrect verification tag to describe the image data.” When Lightroom then tries to work with those files, it throws up an error because of it’s own mistake. Adobe recommends using the 1.3.1 converter to reconvert the DNGs if you have already done so with 1.4.

There is also a problem converting Olympus JPEG files in Lightroom 1.4

Users can download version 1.3.1 to downgrade to temporarily by following the link at the end of the article and using the download links there.

Read [Lightroom Journal]

For all of those who truly believe that Aperture is sub-par (such as myself), the amazing alternative, Adobe Lightroom, has been updated to version 1.4. You may be asking yourself, “what magical powers does this delicious upgrade bring?”. And my answer to you is “printer driver bug fixes”. Exciting, huh? If you’re printer has been buggy with Lightroom and, specifically, Leopard, this update might just help you.

Also released today alongside the Lightroom update is an update to the Photoshop Camera RAW plug-in. The update brings support to many RAW formats, including the brand new Canon 450D, Nikon D60, and many more RAW formats. The Photoshop Camera RAW plug-in works with nearly all Adobe Photoshop apps, including Lightroom, so new RAW formats should work seamlessly with Lightroom as well. You can grab the Camera RAW 4.4 update here, and the Lightroom 1.4 update here.

Product Page [Lightroom 1.4] [Camera RAW plugin] Via [MacMinute]