Adobe are launching CS3 live today at 3:30PM EST, I think that is 7:30 or 8:30pm GMT, log on to be sure!
The link for the event will be here:
Archive for March, 2007
Ok, finally some news actually from Adobe on their expected launch date for the Creative Suite 3 product range.
Amazon have now updated to this date
And we have confirmation from Adobe, the launch date for the Creative Suite 3 products is 30th April.
Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia is now starting to take shape.
Released screenshots show that Illustrator CS3, InDesign CS3 and all the standard Creative Suite 3 products have adopted the new interface showcased in the Adobe Photoshop CS3 BETA. Yet this transition also includes all the Adobe products, with Dreamweaver and Flash taking on the CS3 title and interface.
Adobe GoLive has clearly been dropped in favour of the more popular Dreamweaver, yet surprisingly fireworks gets an update.
Adobe After effects and Premiere Pro now come under the CS3 heading as opposed to having their own version numbering.
There are also some new products in Adobe Ultra and OnLocation.
The complete list of the new Adobe CS3 products are as follows:
Adobe Photoshop CS3 extended
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Adobe illustrator CS3
Adobe indesign CS3
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Adobe Contribute CS3
Adobe Fireworks CS3
Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3
Adobe Soundbooth CS3
Adobe Encore CS3
Adobe OnLocation
Adobe Ultra CS3
Further to our recent story claiming the 28th March date set for the Adobe launch presentation would not be the shipping date of the product, we can now confirm that Amazon have listed their estimated release date for the product as 1st July. I can only hope that this date will change after the Adobe CS3 launch event in 2 days, but we can only wait and see.
Adobe announced their ‘colour wheel’ branding scheme for their CS3 products’ icons in December 2006, with the icons colour coded and each application assigned a two letter representation. As seen below:
Now Amazon have released the Box-shots for the CS3 product range. These can be found here:
MacWorld claim that the 28th March event - widely reported as the launch date for Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 - will now just be an exhibition of the different software’s features, with the fully fledged launch coming ‘late spring’ (whenever that is!).
Stay tuned for more information as we aim to find out the real agenda.
20
Mar
PayPal Postage Launched
Warning this article will only make sense to British people living in England, Scotland or Wales!
I like using eBay and PayPal. Today when I logged in, I noted that there was a new column added to my recent transactions on paypal. In this column were buttons saying ‘print postage label’. Now those of you who - like myself - use Royal Mail’s SmartStamp service will know that for a while now you have been able to print your own postage online. Now this paypal system is obviously a joint venture between Royal Mail and PayPal, but I have seen no coverage of it online from either party.
This paypal/royal mail system has a number of advantages and disadvantages over the SmartStamp option:
Advantages of Paypal postage
- You don’t have to print how much the postage cost - with Royal Mail, you have to print how much you paid for the postage, with this you don’t
- The money gets deducted straight from your paypal account. I really wish you could top up your SmartStamp account via paypal, would save having to withdraw the money to your bank first then paying them, unfortunately you can’t, but this PayPal Postage offering deducts the money straight from your account, sending the relevant amount to Royal Mail Group Online Postage - shipping_rmg_account_number_3@paypal.com
- There is a customer service phone number: 08707307191
- It prints a certificate of posting with it - Cool! It’s got the address already filled out, all you do is take that piece of paper along with your parcel to your post office, they stamp it, then if it goes missing (an increasing occurance with Royal Mail unfortunately) you have a proof of purchase and with a standard 32p stamp, are apparently covered up to £32! - It would be a lot better if this certificate of posting was optional though.
- If your printer runs out of ink half way through printing or it doesn’t print right for whatever reason, you are able to print another for free. With SmartStamp you have to post them your failed printouts with all these details and stuff, I can never be bothered. Too busy playing with PhotoShop and stuff!
Disadvantages of Paypal postage
- Have to print one at a time
- Takes up the whole page
- Has to print a certificate of posting with each one
- Print out has to include your address
- Buyer gets emailed as soon as you print your postage
- Process is quite time consuming
- Has to print the customer’s address with the postage
- Has to be posted within 1 working day (same as SmartStamp)
So quite a few major advantages there, but still lots of niggley disadvantages. I think that SmartStamp is still the best option, if they could incorporate the advantages of PayPal postage that I have listed above into SmartStamp then it would be great. I don’t really see any advantage of having your postage printing linked to your paypal transactions. I think they would be better making it easier to print the orders you receive from paypal, at the moment the options available are crap.
With Adobe claiming that they are preparing ‘the biggest launch in Adobe’s history’ we have to be intrigued what new products will be launched. This sort of early spring time was the estimated release time for Photoshop CS3, but it remains to be seen what other products will be launched on this date… new Illustrator presumably but their is possibilities of After Effects, Premiere Pro etc. I do not know how likely it would be for Adobe to replenish their whole creative suite on one day; we’re not all made of money! But it is interesting none the less.
Adobe claim that there will be a live webcast to showcase the launch,, whether there will be a huge event (hopefully in London!) to celebrate the launch and the video will be footage of that, or they just mean it will be huge in that there will be lots of products launched, I am unsure, I am pretty excited though!
There had been a few rumours of this flying around for over a year now, but now Adobe have finally confirmed: there will be two versions of Photoshop CS3 available at launch:
- Photoshop CS3 Standard
- Photoshop CS3 Extended
They have outlined the demographic groups that they are targeting with these releases as follows:
Standard is designed for:
- Photographers
- Graphic designers
- Web designers
- Print service providers
and Extended will target:
- Film, video, and multimedia professionals
- Graphic and web designers using 3D and motion
- Manufacturing professionals
- Medical professionals
- Architects and engineers (AEC professionals)
- Scientific researchers
The features of Extended sound very interesting. They have followed the lead of Macromedia Flash 8 which has a Standard and Professional edition. Photoshop CS3 Extended will have all the features of Standard, plus 3D and MOTION support! Sounds like we’re looking at an incorporation of After Effects and Premier features into Photoshop in much the same way that Photoshop CS3 integrates features from ImageReady, After Effects already includes some Photoshop-esque features so this would not be a surprise. They have stated the main features will be the ability to paint over frames of footage and to be able to edit and incorperate 3D footage in standard 2D projects.
There will also be some new analysis, measurement and counting tools for standard images. I am not too sure what this could be describing but they will no doubt help the work-flow of designers.
Source: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/ps_psext_info.html
Ok. We’re working on the new site, for now, here’s a blog!
In this blog we’re going to aim to bring you loads of information through tutorials and video based tutorials, all the training you can need for programs such as Adobe Photoshop CS2 + CS3, Flash, Quark, all that lot…
If there is anything specific that you want us to cover, then please, let us know.
Look forward to posting further with some actually decent content! For now, keep on the look out for Media Roots, ready to take you on the vital routes to success.
