Adobe today announced details of its new Creative Cloud service that will launch in a few months time alongside the Creative Suite 6 release. Priced at $49.99 per month, when signed up for a year’s subscription, the service offers users the full Creative Suite 6 bundle of applications along with 20 GB of cloud storage for device and desktop syncing of documents. The price may seem high, but for those who use Adobe’s Creative Suite and like to be on the latest version, $600 per year may be a good price. Particularly when the alternative is the $2000 up-front cost of each major version, which typically hit every second year.

Adobe Creative Cloud will be available worldwide in the first half of 2012. While traditional licenses of CS software will still be offered, a membership to Creative Cloud provides more benefits than simply owning desktop software. You’ll get all the CS tools, Adobe Touch Apps, and services, plus new features, products, and services as soon as they are released — meaning immediate access to the latest Adobe innovations at no extra cost.

The Adobe Creative Cloud will also include all of Adobe’s touch apps, the Business Catalyst, TypeKit and the Digital Publishing Suite. Lightroom 4 and new web-authoring apps Muse and Edge will also be included in the service’s offerings once they launch. Users will be able to download all the apps individually and on up to two different machines.

Adobe is promising to deliver major new feature updates to their CS6 apps after they launch, many of which will be exclusive to the Creative Cloud service – they blame subscription accounting issues as the reason why it won’t also be delivered to up-front customers of CS6. For businesses, Adobe is set to also introduce a team option that will include additional collaboration and security features for the service – that will set companies back $69.99 per user.

[via The Verge]

Released as a free update on labs.adobe.com, Lightroom 4 beta is the next major version of Adobe’s solution for photographers and professionals aimed at making it easy to import, adjust and catalogue photos on the desktop. Whilst Adobe obviously recommends to work with backups and advises against running beta software on a main computer, Lightroom 4 appears to be fairly stable to provide a good indication of features to come once the app goes public.

The Lightroom team is proud to introduce the fourth major version of the product designed for and by photographers. It was 6 years ago today when we introduced the very first public beta of Lightroom at MacWorld on January 9, 2006. (Yes, it was Mac only, smaller in footprint than most raw files and didn’t have a crop tool!) Since 2006 we’ve been hard at work improving an application that’s intended to be as easy to use as it is powerful. This release builds on the fundamental performance architecture and image quality improvements in Lightroom 3 to provide a truly complete workflow solution.

Adobe says Lightroom 4 focuses on image quality and output options. The app now features additional tools to get the most out of highlights and shadows while preserving image quality — Adobe calls this functionality “Highlight and shadow recovery” and goes alongside white balance brush to adjust white balance in specific sections of an image. Long release notes with technical details on image adjustments, supported file formats, known issues and minimum system requirements are available on Adobe’s official blog post.

Alongside image refinements and extended, robust video support for organizing, editing and sharing videos on Flickr and Facebook (again, make sure to check out Adobe’s blog for the full details on video adjustments), Lightroom 4.0 beta features photo book creation with over 180 page design layouts, drag & drop support with layout guides, background graphics and integration with the Blurb book printing service. Adobe says photo books have grown in the popularity in the last couple of years, and I have no doubt this is a good move on Adobe’s side (assuming the service is impeccable) at the light of Apple’s moderate success with iPhoto photo books. Lightroom photo books can also be exported to PDF; in this beta, Blurb books are limited to 160 pages.

Similarly to iPhoto, Lightroom 4.0 now allows users to organize and browse photos by location. Thanks to a new Google Maps module (which obviously requires an Internet connection), Lightroom 4.0 will determine a a photo’s location if the camera that created the file supports GPS coordinates; otherwise, users can manually drop photos onto a location and create saved locations for future usage.

Lightroom’s release notes also reveal Adobe is planning on adding significant functionality to Adobe Carousel (my review) and changing its name to Adobe Revel. Lightroom 4 will feature an Adobe Revel export option, and I expect Revel to gain much needed fixes and improvements that I mentioned in my original review of the subscription-based service.

Adobe plans to change the name of Adobe Carousel to Adobe Revel. We originally chose the name Adobe Carousel because it was descriptive of core functionality in the product, in that photographs were viewed in a circular manner, like a carousel. However, we now plan to offer additional photography solutions on this platform, including but not limited to the ‘carousel’ feature. Our rapidly expanding charter for this new platform requires a name that is less narrowly descriptive of the current product features.

Other features of Lightroom 4.0 include:

• Publish Collections can now include rendered video publishing
• Enhanced output model for saving/storing settings applied in Web, Slideshow, Print and Book. Efforts are now clearly visible in Collections panel.
• New Zoom ratios (1:8 and 1:16)
• Noise reduction adjustment is always displayed regardless of zoom level
• Collapse the tether toolbar down to the shutter button by Option or Alt clicking the close button
• Module picker can be customized via right-click option
• Filter and search images by a saved or unsaved metadata property
• Additional Metadata controls on export
• Disk burning now available on Windows 64-bit systems
• Stacking is now possible in collections
• Flash galleries are now color managed

Lightroom 4 for Mac and Windows can be downloaded here. Check out a video after the break and Adobe’s YouTube channel for more information on the beta. [via setteBIT]

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Adobe today released its popular Adobe Reader PDF reading application for iOS devices; the software, available for free on the App Store, runs natively on the iPhone and iPad as a universal app. Back in August, Adobe released CreatePDF for iOS, a utility to turn a variety of documents into Reader-compatible PDF files that preserved quality and accessibility standards with the inclusion of links, images, and footnotes. With the release of Adobe Reader today, Adobe is giving iOS users two tools to create and properly read PDF documents, respectively.

Adobe says that Reader for iOS works with several PDF document types, including PDF Portfolios, password-protected PDF documents and Adobe LiveCycle rights-managed PDF files. Upon first launch, the app opens a document view with a Getting Started.pdf file ready to be viewed to get familiar with the app’s UI and controls. A scrubber bar along the bottom lets you quickly skim through pages, which can be displayed “continuously” in the reading view, or through a single-page visualization that will let you scroll horizontally between pages. You can pinch or double-tap to zoom, and rendering performances on zoomed documents seemed fairly decent on my iPhone 4. In PDF documents, text can be selected and copied to the clipboard, or you can search using the icon in the upper toolbar; a bookmarks icon in the bottom bar enables you to quickly navigate the sections of a document. One nice touch of Adobe Reader are “tap zones”, which in Single Page mode let you jump back and forward by tapping on the left and right edges of a document.

PDF files can be emailed using Adobe Reader, opened with another app using the “Open In” menu, or printed through Apple’s AirPrint. According to Adobe, Reader for iOS is capable of viewing PDF Portfolios, PDF Packages, annotations and drawing markups as well as reading text annotations like sticky notes. In my tests, performances with a 350-page PDF document were similar to Apple’s iBooks, which can also preview PDFs. iBooks was slightly faster at page animations and rendering text while zooming on a document — the app has indeed been recently updated with bug fixes and performance improvements.

If you need to preview specific PDF documents that might have some compatibility issues with iBooks, Adobe Reader on iOS might be a good choice. You can download the app for free on the App Store.

Following a series of announcements from Adobe MAX yesterday, the company has released new versions of Flash Player and Adobe AIR, reaching versions 11 and 3, respectively. Initially seeded as betas in July, Flash 11 and AIR 3 bring a series of improvements, including hardware accelerated 2D and 3D graphics rendering through Stage 3D in what Adobe claims to be up to 1,000 times faster rendering performance over Flash Player 10 and AIR 2. With the Stage 3D API, Adobe promises console-quality browser games and apps with possibility for developers to animate millions of objects simultaneously at 60 frames per second.

Additionally, these two releases bring optimizations for HD video, improved 64-bit performances and, for AIR 3, native extensions to allow developers to take advantage of a hardware’s native capabilities such as gyroscopes, light sensors, multiple screens, and NFC if supported. The inclusion of H.264/AVC software encoding for cameras will enable higher quality real-time communications from within Flash Player as well.

You can read more on Flash 11 and AIR 3 directly on Adobe’s blog. The download are now live on Adobe’s website here, and here.

With a series of press releases issued today, Adobe has announced new software initiatives and acquisitions, including PhoneGap and Typekit. In a separate announcement, the company has formally unveiled six new Touch Apps for tablets that will be available for Android devices this November, and on the iPad next year. An iPad announcement about the release date is expected in “early 2012″, but Adobe has already confirmed this new suite of apps will work with Creative Cloud, the company’s new web hub to ” access desktop and tablet applications, find essential creative services” and share works online. Creative Cloud will come with 20 GB of storage and allow users to view, sync and share files created with desktop Creative Suite and mobile Touch Apps.

Inspired by Adobe Creative Suite software, these stunning new apps bring professional-level creativity to millions of tablet users. The apps address multiple areas of the creative process: image editing; ideation; sketching; mood boards; website and mobile app prototyping; and presenting finished work. They are headlined by Adobe Photoshop® Touch, a groundbreaking app that brings the legendary creative and image-editing power of Photoshop to tablet devices for the first time.

Available soon as standalone apps, Adobe Touch Apps are essential components of Adobe Creative Cloud, a major new company initiative also announced today (see separate release). Adobe Creative Cloud will become a worldwide hub for creativity, where millions can access desktop and tablet applications, find essential creative services, and share their best work. Files created via Adobe Touch Apps can be shared, viewed across devices or transferred into Adobe Creative Suite software for further refinement – key features of Adobe’s vision for the Creative Cloud. With stylus capabilities expected to become a key feature on some next generation tablets, Adobe Touch Apps are designed to work with both finger and stylus input.

Adobe Photoshop Touch: Core Photoshop functionalities available in a new app for tablets, with support for gestures, layered images, and Refine Edge technology.

Adobe Collage: Combine inspirational images, drawings, text and Creative Suite files into modern, conceptual mood boards. Files can be shared with Photoshop.

Adobe Debut: Quickly open Creative Suite file formats to preview designs to clients.

Adobe Ideas: Vector-based drawing tool already available on the App Store.

Adobe Kuler: Generate color schemes and browse creations by the Kuler community.

Adobe Proto Create wireframes and prototypes for websites and mobile apps on a tablet.

Links to video demos and previews are available in Adobe’s press release. Adobe says the new Touch Apps have been built on top of Carousel, the upcoming solution for storing and syncing photos across computers and mobile devices.

According to a report in The Loop, Adobe will today announce that sales of its professional video production tools have skyrocketed year-over-year. Which, in large part has been driven by growth on the Mac platform with disillusioned Final Cut Pro users moving over to alternative products after Apple released the controversial Final Cut Pro X version earlier this year.

As the backlash began from professional video editors, Adobe targeted them, giving discounts for Premiere Pro (Adobe’s alternative to Final Cut Pro) and publishing video tutorials and documents to ease the transition. This appears to have payed off with a 45% growth of Adobe’s video production tools on the Mac and total year-on-year growth across both the PC and Mac platforms at 22%.

In comparison to Adobe’s efforts, Apple hasn’t done much to quell concerns apart from release a Q&A article, refund customers for the purchase and only last week they began selling Final Cut Pro 7 again but at the standard $999 price.

[Via The Loop]

Today Adobe introduced a new product that could bring photographers’ favorite Adobe app, Lightroom, to a reality; it’s called Carousel. Carousel could be Adobe’s answer to Apple’s Photo Stream service, although Adobe’s solution is not integrated into the OS like Apple’s iCloud service. Carousel will let you enhance and share all of your photos across your Mac and iOS devices (Android & Windows versions are in development).

Carousel “brings a highly tuned version of the Lightroom/Camera Raw engine to mobile devices, combining it with excellent multi-device syncing.” Other Carousel options are:

• You get access to all your images on all your devices.
• All edits are non-destructive: tweak a setting on one device & you’ll see the edit ripple through your other devices.
• It’s easy to collaborate with friends & family: people you invite to share a photo catalog can view photos, add new ones, apply adjustments and preset “looks,” and flag favorites.
• You can easily publish to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

The iOS and Mac versions are not yet available but based on John Nack’s blog post, it may have already been submitted to Apple. All the applications will be free but the service will be subscription based – $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year will get you unlimited storage and photos but if you’re an early adopter the price will be $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year.

The ability to edit your photos and have them sync everywhere is a feature that Apple’s Photo Stream does not currently have, it simply syncs photos taken with your iOS camera to the stream but it will be free.

Demo video after the break.

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Adobe has today announced that publishers who use the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite will be able to create newspaper and magazine files that appear in Apple’s new Newsstand feature. Announced at WWDC and arriving in iOS 5 this Fall, Newsstand will allow new editions of Newspapers and Magazines to be automatically downloaded (in the background) as soon as they are made available – and storing them all in a pseudo-folder on a user’s home screen.

Today’s announcement by Adobe reveals that their Digital Publishing Suite will be able to create files that are compatible with Newsstand, allowing publishers to create and deliver new editions directly to users with little fuss. Todd Teresi, from Adobe’s Media Solutions department said the “support for Newsstand will provide Adobe’s publishing customers the ability to deliver engaging content directly to the digital doorstep of subscribers on their iPads”.

Applications built with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and enabled for Newsstand will allow publishers to better merchandise their content with support for Newsstand push notifications and icon covers displayed on the Newsstand shelf, reflecting the latest issue of the magazine or newspaper.

This move by Adobe is quite a significant motion of support for Apple’s Newsstand feature because their Digital Publishing Suite is already used to create more than 600 titles, including high profile publishers such as Conde Naste and Reader’s Digest. With little effort, all these publishers can now add support for Newsstand.

[Via MacRumors]

Earlier today Adobe added another application to its iOS portfolio with the release of CreatePDF for iOS, a $9.99 universal app aimed at letting users easily create PDFs on their iPhones or iPads. According to Adobe, “CreatePDF brings the same high-quality PDF creation as Adobe Acrobat” to iOS devices, with PDF documents that look “exactly” like the original files they were generated from; the app uses Adobe’s online services for performance and quality, creating PDFs that preserve quality and accessibility standards with the inclusion of links, images, footnotes, and more.

The app supports the following formats:

• MS Word (docx, doc), Excel(xlsx, xls), PowerPoint (pptx, ppt)
• Adobe Illustrator (ai), Photoshop (psd) and InDesign (indd)
• Images – JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF
• RTF, Text and WordPerfect
• OpenOffice and StarOffice documents

CreatePDF works through iOS’s default “Open In…” menu, which allows third party apps to communicate with each other by sending documents to other applications that support specific file types, such as PDF, .doc, or plain text. For instance, the feature was recently introduced in the Omni Group’s OmniOutliner, letting the app export outlines as plain text or OPML to other iOS software installed on device. CreatePDF registers as an app capable of opening (and converting) the file types listed above, and in my first tests it’s proven to be a fast and reliable solution to convert plain text documents, images and PSDs to the PDF format. From any app that supports sending files, you can choose CreatePDF from the “Open In…” menu, and wait for the app to finish the conversion process to PDF. For reference, the app took a few minutes to convert a 12 MB PSD to PDF, with good results. Similarly, a .docx document forwarded to me via email and sent from the iPad’s Mail app to CreatePDF took less than 30 seconds to become a PDF.

CreatePDF looks like a solid solution to convert files to PDFs, although I wouldn’t mind having more sharing options inside the app itself. Currently, CreatePDF can only “open in” other apps, send via email, or print. It’d be nice to have, say, direct Dropbox integration or more online exporting options in the future. The $9.99 price tag might be a little steep for the average iOS users, but quality of converted documents looked superior to me than other apps I tried in the past, and support for Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign documents is also very welcome.

You can get CreatePDF at $9.99 on the App Store. (more…)