Report: Adobe CS3 to Debut March 27
An analyst with Merrill Lynch says that Adobe will likely introduce Creative Suite 3 around March 27, with a ship date that would follow shortly afterwards. Most important to this refresh would be native support for Intel processors on the Macintosh platform. Up until now, users must use CS2 in emulation mode, which results in slower performance. Adobe has long said that native Intel support on the platform was a priority.
Jay Vleeschhouwer, the analyst who wrote the report disclosing the release date, says he expects about six different CS3 product suites, and 14 individual products overall. Core CS3 products would include Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
Adobe Ships Lightroom, Updates Camera Raw
As expected, Adobe on Monday began shipping Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, the company's image processing application for professional photographers. Until April 30, 2007 the software will cost $199 USD, after which the price will be raised to $299 USD. A trial download is available here.
Alongside Lightroom 1.0, Adobe additionally released Camera Raw 3.7, the image processing technology for Photoshop CS2, Elements 4.0 and 5.0, and Premiere Elements 5.0. The update now supports over 150 cameras, including the recently released Nikon D40 and Pentax K10D, as well as support for default image settings.
Adobe PDF Standardization Effort Not So New
While news of Adobe's submission of its Portable Document Format standard to an agency that works with the International Standards Organization (ISO) is being interpreted today as a response to Microsoft's move to standardize its Office Open XML suite of document formats, Adobe's efforts with the AIIM group to entrench PDF extend back to 2002.
And today, the company's Director of Product Management confirmed to BetaNews that the actual PDF standardization process - requests, meetings, submissions, discussions, revisions, etc. - actually began in 1995.
Adobe Lightroom 1.0 Completed
With the help of more than 500,000 beta testers, Adobe on Monday announced it had completed development of Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, the company's image processing application for professional photographers.
The software utilizes Adobe's Camera Raw technology to support over 150 native RAW file formats, in addition to JPEG and TIFF. Users can also import their photos to DNG, an industry-wide initiative to create a universal file format for solving workflow and archiving incompatibilities.
Adobe Finalizes Flash 9 for Linux
Adobe on Wednesday released the final version of Flash Player 9 for Linux, bringing its multimedia offering for the open source operating system up to date with Windows and Mac OS X. Linux developers can now build rich Internet applications using Adobe's Flex 2 SDK.
Flash Player 9 for Linux includes better memory utilization, advanced features for graphics, video and text, as well as ActionScript Virtual Machine 2, which Adobe recently handed over to the Mozilla Foundation for a project called Tamarin. "Now the Linux community has full access to the high volume of Flash content and applications available on the Internet today, bringing Linux developers and users to the forefront of the Web 2.0 experience," remarked Emmy Huang, senior product manager at Adobe.
New Adobe Acrobat Flaw Resembles Old
Last September, the French Security Incident Response Team (FrSIRT) discovered an exploit made feasible by way of intentionally malformed arguments placed to certain methods in Adobe’s Acrobat Web reader control. Adobe advised its customers of the flaw in November, and issued a patch for Acrobat 7 in early December.
But when a pair of Italian security engineers demonstrated a new way to exploit the same flaw, in a presentation before a hackers’ convention in Berlin just before Christmas that at one time was supposed to have been entitled, “Hijacking AJAX for Fun and Profit,” FrSIRT picked up on the news as though it were a new discovery, issuing a fresh security bulletin.
Adobe Preps Response to Microsoft XPS
Adobe may already own the market for electronic documents thanks to PDF, but the company knows that Microsoft has a habit of showing up late to the party and stealing the crown. In turn, Adobe is beta testing a new project it calls "Mars," which is an answer to Microsoft's new XPS format.
XPS, formerly known as Metro, is an XML-based "electronic paper" format that will allow documents to be displayed as they were saved on any platform. Many of the features of XPS mirror those in PDF, and Microsoft is working with printer manufacturers to include native support for the format - much like Adobe PostScript.
Adobe Releases Reader Version 8
Adobe on Tuesday released version 8 of its free Reader product for PDF files, which most notably adds collaboration features through a new "Start Meeting" button. Adobe has also redesigned Reader's interface and added a loupe for zooming in on specific areas of a document.
Other features in Reader 8 include integration with Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server and the new Adobe Online Services Document Center, which enables users to digitally sign PDF files. Adobe has even built in a basic RSS reader into version 8, along with new review and markup tools. The full version of Adobe Acrobat 8 went on sale in November. Adobe Reader 8 is available for download for Windows XP and Vista, with a separate version for Windows 2000.
Critical Adobe PDF Flaw Affects IE
Adobe on Thursday acknowledged in a security advisory that critical security vulnerabilities have been found in its Acrobat and Adobe Reader programs. The issue affects versions 7.0.0 through 7.0.8, and the company says it is working on a fix.
Acrobat and Reader 8.0, which will be available soon, are not impacted by the issue. According to Adobe, the problem lies in an ActiveX control used by Internet Explorer. Other browsers are not affected, although Adobe recommends manually removing the AcroPDF.dll plug-in file as a workaround until an update is available for download.
Adobe CEO Not Threatening MS Lawsuit
A Reuters story this morning suggested that Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen, in an interview with the German financial weekly Euro am Sonntag (The Euro on Sunday), threatened to sue Microsoft if it the outcome of antitrust proceedings against that company by the European Commission did not turn out in Adobe's favor.
However, our read of a semi-decent Google translation of the actual interview fails to indicate Chizen made that pointed of a threat.
Adobe Donates Flash Code to Mozilla
Adobe announced at the Web 2.0 conference on Tuesday that it was donating the scripting language engine from Flash to the Mozilla Foundation, where it will become an open source project called Tamarin as well as being integrated directly into the Firefox Web browser.
Specifically, Adobe is opening up its ActionScript Virtual Machine, which forms the core of Flash Player version 9. The most recent release in June added improved debugging, faster start times, full runtime error reporting, and better performance.
Adobe Intros New Web Audio Editing Tool
Adobe introduced a beta version of "Soundbooth" on Thursday, intended for the average consumer who may not need the power and capabilities of its professional audio editing product, Audition. Eventually, the application will make its way into the Creative Suite product.
"Adobe Soundbooth is a completely new, highly intuitive audio creation and editing toolset designed to accelerate the integration of sound into video and Flash workflows," Adobe Dynamic Media vice president and general manager Jim Guerard said.
Adobe Tests New Document Reader
Adobe on Tuesday released a beta version of Digital Editions, a Web application built in Flash that is designed to make reading electronic documents easier. The tool acts like a slimmed down version of Adobe Reader, and can even display PDF files.
Digital Editions, unveiled at Adobe's MAX 2006 conference in Las Vegas, is only 2.5MB in size. It's not intended to replace the bulky Reader, but rather to extend its feature set. It utilizes the same e-book capabilities Adobe built into Reader, and adds Flash to make digital publications interactive.
Adobe Bolsters Flash Video with Acquisition
Adobe on Thursday acquired video software maker Serious Magic, intended to continue its momentum in the streaming video industry. The company produces several applications, including direct-to-disk recording software DVRack as well as video tools Visual Communicator and Vlog It.
After having practically no market share in the streaming video market, Flash has quickly -- and silently -- become the de facto standard for Web video. Sites like YouTube and MySpace have put Adobe at the forefront, and the format continues to gain momentum.
Adobe Releases Flash Beta for Linux
Adobe said Wednesday that it had released a beta of its Flash player for the Linux operating system. According to the company, a final version of the player will be released early next year. In addition, Adobe is in the process of writing 64-bit versions of Flash, although it declined to specify any kind of release timeline.
"Adobe Flash Player 9 for Linux beta supports the same major features and functionality as the Windows and Macintosh versions for playback of Flash content and applications," the company said. There are a few features that do not work, such as the full screen feature, although Adobe is working on that functionality for the final release, it said.
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