New parents: Drop those poopy diapers and head to the Mac App Store, immediately! (Or, you know, when you’re done cleaning up.) The best-selling Anne Geddes baby record book My First Five Years has now been converted to a Mac app and it looks pretty amazing. Don’t have a kid? Then gift it to someone who does! About the only way this could be even better is if they make it available for the iPad (hint, hint). While you ponder that, read on to find out what else is making news for this Thursday, April 12, 2012.
We’ve already seen Windows 7 running on an iPad, but that’s old news now that Microsoft plans to roll out the Metro-centric Windows 8 later this year. Splashtop Inc. today announced the availability of Win8 Metro Testbed, a remote desktop app for software developers and technology enthusiasts alike to simulate the Windows 8 environment on an iPad. Empowered with Windows 8 Metro touch gestures, the app allows developers to test this functionality as they code and compile new apps for Windows, without having to invest in a Windows 8-compatible tablet. “Since Apple’s App Store generates over 80% of all tablet app revenue, nearly every software developer that writes apps for tablets has an iPad,” noted Mark Lee, Splashtop CEO and co-founder. “With Windows 8 Metro expected to ship on over 400 million new PCs and tablets annually, these developers have high expectations for an enormous new market. Splashtop lets them turn their iPad into a development testbed to evaluate touch gestures and functionality of their app in a Windows 8 environment.” Win8 Metro Testbed is available now at a special launch promotional price of .99, which promises to jump to .99 at some undetermined date.
If you prefer to play fast and loose with your Apple ID, don’t be surprised if you’re soon asked to add some additional layers of security real soon now. The Next Web is reporting that Apple has started requiring three security questions as well as a backup email address for your Apple ID over the last 24 hours. If you don’t already have these in place — and many users may not — don’t be surprised if you’re prompted to enter this information the next time you purchase something from iTunes or either one of the company’s App Stores. “Whilst the new prompt will undoubtedly help secure accounts, many Apple device owners are confused by the new pop-up message and believe it is a phishing attempt,” the report adds. “In the past 24 hours, a number of threads have popped up on Apple’s Support Forums that discuss the added security step, questioning its authenticity.” Apple remains silent on these inquiries for the moment, but fear not — the additional information is legit and it’s for your own good.
Many parents are already familiar with Anne Geddes’ popular baby record book, My First Five Years. But did you know that the author has now created a digital version of the best seller? Available now in the Mac App Store for .99, My First Five Years is billed as “an incredible new way to record your baby’s precious early years.” Featuring the ability to add photos and videos at the touch of a button and share the final creation with friends and family, My First Five Years collects those treasured memories from your little one’s early years and preserves them forever in digital form. The Mac version includes more than 120 pages and users can create multiple variants of the same book, custom-tailored to family members. The completed book can be presented as a slideshow or pages can be shared online as well. My First Five Years is only .99 from the Mac App Store and the 520MB download requires OS X Lion 10.7 or later and a 64-bit processor.
Cupertino has taken some lumps in the last year since introducing the completely reworked Final Cut Pro X editing software, with many pro users jumping ship into the loving arms of Adobe’s Premiere Pro. However, Apple wants you to know that many pros are quite happy with the new version, which just received a fourth update ahead of the NAB 2012 convention next week. A section of the Final Cut Pro website has been carved out for “Final Cut Pro X In Action,” a trio of testimonials from working pros including Electric Entertainment, who uses FCPX for its all-digital workflow on the hit TV show Leverage, and veteran editor Knut Hake, who uses the software to cut Danni Lowinski, one of Germany’s top TV shows. Major New York post-production house @radical.media is also profiled after switching their entire facility over to Final Cut Pro X. If you haven’t tried it yet, Apple has a free 30-day trial available for download at the same website, and is patiently waiting for your 9.99 purchase in the Mac App Store.
While Adobe is making a splash with professional users with the announcement of CS6 Production Premium today, they’ve also got a little something in store for regular folks. Adobe Revel 1.2 is now available for both Mac and iOS, which beefs up the company’s cloud-based photo services with the ability to label and group photos by events, share, export and delete multiple photos at once and even update the time and date your shots were taken. A new grid view lets users focus on a single day or event, and photos can now be viewed by event or event date. Revel now offers a way to view only those photos tagged as favorites, and adds additional language support for French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Italian, Brazilian, Portuguese and Korean. The iOS version also takes full advantage of the new iPad’s Retina Display, while also gaining improved editing performance. Last but not least, users with a trial that expired prior to today will now get an additional 30 days to try out the new version, simply by logging in with your existing Revel (Adobe) ID. But don’t worry: You won’t be automatically charged at the end of this additional 30 days, which costs .99 per month as an in-app subscription should you decide to continue.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
While you were sleeping, those sneaky scientists in the Adobe Labs were busy brewing up something special for Mac and Windows users in the form of the Photoshop CS6 Beta — and you can download it yourself, free of charge, right now!
Adobe Labs has released the first public beta for Adobe Photoshop CS6, the eagerly awaited next chapter in the company’s flagship image editing application for Mac and Windows, which is due out in the first half of 2012. Best of all, the public beta is not only free (of course!), but anyone can download it and take it for a spin.
“Thank you for checking out the Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta,” the Adobe Labs site reads. “The world’s best digital image editing software is about to get even better. Explore Photoshop CS6 beta for a sneak preview of some of the incredible performance enhancements, imaging magic, and creativity tools we are working on. Discover for yourself why Photoshop CS6 software will be a whole new experience in digital image editing.”
Highlights of the Photoshop CS6 beta include Content-Aware Patch, which allows users to repair images with greater control and blazingly fast performance in a modern UI thanks to the unprecedented performance of the company’s Mercury Graphics Engine that makes short work of processor-intensive tasks such as Liquify, Puppet Warp and Crop. Like many other recent Adobe applications, Photoshop now features “a refined, fresh and elegant” interface with a dark background option to “make your images pop.”
Finally, many of the Photoshop CS6 beta design tools are new or re-engineered for “consistent formatting with type styles, create and apply custom strokes and dashed lines to shapes, quickly search layers, and much more.”
Adobe Labs notes that the Photoshop CS6 beta includes all of the features found in both Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended, which adds 3D image editing features that might not be familiar to many users — but these won’t be included in the plain-Jane release version of CS6, only the Extended version. You’ll need an Adobe ID to log in and activate the Photoshop CS6 beta within seven days of your first launch (the same requirements as the release version), so be sure to sign up for one now if you don’t already have it. Also, no serial number is required — simply choose the “Try” option to use Photoshop CS6 for a limited time.
So where can you download all of this creamy Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta goodness? We’re glad you asked. Now get downloading and enjoy!
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
Just as Lightroom 4 leaves beta and is unleashed to users, Adobe Labs has something new up their sleeves, this time aimed at web developers and designers. Adobe Shadow is an impressive new offering being introduced at SXSW Interactive this week that promises to optimize web experiences across all mobile browsers.
Adobe Labs has just released its latest free public download of Adobe Shadow Labs Release 1, which is making its debut this week at SXSW Interactive. Currently available in English only (but available worldwide), Adobe Shadow is comprised of Mac and Windows desktop software as well as a Google Chrome extension and mobile apps for iOS and Android.
“Mobile compatibility is a top demand of Web designers today, but we were hearing from our community that building sites for mobile devices was a huge pain point in their workflow,” Adobe explains. “The common process we heard was to manually key in the Web addresses on each device (usually 4+ devices) to check the layout and performance of each page of a site design — nothing short of tedious.
“Adobe Shadow aims to alleviate the time and stress of working on websites across mobile browsers,” Adobe’s blog post continues. “Web pros can wirelessly pair multiple smartphones and tablets with their computer and simultaneously view real-time previews of Web content across multiple iOS and Android devices, quickly seeing refreshed website designs with live updates. Adobe Shadow’s synchronized browsing nearly eliminates the need to touch the device, but still provides a true, on-device experience. We heard from the community that emulators and simulators just won’t cut it and it’s absolutely critical that website compatibility is checked on the actual devices.”
MacLife.com was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek at Adobe Shadow last week, which promises to revolutionize web development and design by allowing users to work faster and more efficiently than ever, streamlining the preview process while allowing full customization of websites for mobile devices today, tomorrow and beyond. Above, you can see Adobe Shadow running in Google Chrome with remote inspection at the same time on a Samsung Galaxy Tab, iPad and Motorola Atrix.
Just how many mobile devices can Adobe Shadow take advantage of? Judging from our demonstration, it’s virtually unlimited — Adobe engineers showed off an image (shown above) of 23 different smartphones and tablets all displaying the same website design at once, courtesy of the Shadow tool. While most web designers may only develop for a handful of devices, Adobe Shadow offers a considerable amount of flexibility, while integrating with any workflow, providing remote inspection and debugging.
Ready to unleash the power of Adobe Shadow on your own web workflow? Adobe Labs is now offering Adobe Shadow Labs Release 1 as a free download, along with the accompanying Google Chrome extension. Free iOS and Android clients are also available for download from their respective storefronts. Be sure to check out Adobe Shadow in action in the embedded video below!
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
After a bit of a false start over the weekend, Adobe has officially pulled the trigger on Photoshop Touch, the long-awaited, full-featured tablet image editor first introduced on Android which allows for traditional features such as layers, selection tools, adjustments and filters.
Adobe Systems Incorporated is using this week’s Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain to unveil Photoshop Touch, a .99 app for the iPad 2 which builds upon the company’s initial wave of tablet apps to allow full-featured Photoshop image editing based purely on touch.
“Photoshop Touch gives users the ability to combine multiple photos into layered images, make essential edits and apply professional effects to create beautiful artwork, touch up photos, paint, lay out ideas and much more,” the company’s press release touts. “The Scribble Selection Tool allows users to easily extract objects in an image by simply scribbling on what to keep, and then what to remove. With Refine Edge technology from Photoshop, even hard-to-select areas with soft edges are easily captured when making selections. Photoshop Touch helps users quickly find images and share creations through integration with Facebook and Google Image Search.”
The app got a bit of a false start on Saturday night when it popped up in a few international App Store locations, only to be yanked until Monday. Adobe Photoshop Touch is part of six touchscreen apps the company is rolling out, including Adobe Collage (for moodboards), Adobe Debut (for presentations), Adobe Ideas (for sketching), Adobe Kuler (for exploring color themes) and Adobe Proto, for website and mobile app prototyping.
Adobe Photoshop Touch is available now from the App Store for a reasonable .99, but you’ll need the latest and great hardware and software in order to run it — the app only works with the iPad 2 running iOS 5 or later.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
OMG! Apple is having a media event next week! But don’t get too excited… the invitation essentially spills the beans on this education-centric event, so we’ll be surprised if CEO Tim Cook shows up with an iPad 3 under his arm. But hey, it’s an Apple event, so we’re excited to see what they have to say, even if some of us are way too old to be concerned about going to school. While you ponder what Cupertino has in store for next week, have a quick read of the rest of the tech stuff that’s making news for this Wednesday, January 11, 2012.
Adobe touched a nerve with customers still using Creative Suite 3 and 4 products at the end of last year by announcing there would be no upgrade path for them to the forthcoming CS6 (CS5 and CS5.5 users can upgrade as usual). Needless to say, that was an unpopular decision, and today Adobe backpedaled with a special upgrade offer for CS3 and CS4 customers to get Creative Suite 6 and the new Adobe Creative Cloud, which are expected “in the first half of 2012.” The company hasn’t released any actual pricing quite yet, but the “special introductory upgrade pricing” will be in effect from the CS6 release through December 31, 2012, which should give those old-school users time to take advantage of it.
The Loop was among the first to report on a new Apple event announced today, which will take place on January 19 at the Guggenheim Museum. As widely predicted in recent weeks, the media event will be focused on education. Rather than a cryptic tease, Apple has sent the invitation shown above to the press which reads, “Join us for an education announcement in the Big Apple.” So, that makes it pretty clear that we shouldn’t be expecting an iPad 3 or an Apple-branded HDTV. The event kicks off at 10am EST, so check back next Thursday to find out what’s new.
The folks at Shazam Entertainment have introduced a new app for the iPhone and iPod touch called Shazam Player. Rather than listening to and recognizing music around you, Shazam Player is essentially a replacement for Apple’s Music (formerly iPod) app, with a twist. With Shazam Player, users will get streaming lyrics in real time for the music they play through the app, with the ability to share what they’re listening to on Facebook or Twitter. Watch YouTube videos and concert clips without leaving the app, and you can manage your music — including creating new playlists from your iOS music library. Needless to say, if you should happen to hear a tune you like while jamming away with Shazam Player, you can switch over to the Shazam app instantly. The free app is available now from the App Store and requires iOS 4.3 or later.
If you’re attending the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, you may have bumped into an Apple employee and not even realized it. Don’t worry: You didn’t miss some invisible Apple booth! According to AppleInsider, “over 250 of Apple’s employees are registered for this week’s show,” says the usual “person familiar with Apple’s plans.” On Tuesday, a reporter for paidContent was the first to spot Apple vice president of product marketing Greg Joswiak lurking near Sony’s booth, with his show badge “strategically arranged” to cover his name and company. Reporter Tom Krazit explains: “Joswiak said he was interested in how other companies present their products at events such as CES, from things like booth layout and aesthetics to which products are highlighted within a company’s booth.” Apple, of course, is not a CES exhibitor and even famously backed out of the Macworld Expo back in 2009 in favor of focusing on their own events.
As we briefly reported on Tuesday, Adobe has decided to rebrand their Carousel consumer subscription photo service as Adobe Revel. And sure enough, late last night, a new version of the universal iOS app and Mac App Store version were pushed out to new and existing users. Today, the company made it official with a blog post on Photoshop.com that explains the decision and offers some insight as to what’s new. The biggest change is “the ability to automatically import photos from the Camera Roll on your iPhone and iPad” as well as photo sharing via Flickr, which certainly is a good first step toward addressing some of users’ early concerns. Despite the name change, Adobe Revel is still a .99 per month or .99 per year subscription service, which is processed as an in-app purchase through the iOS app.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
