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First Apple WWDC 2012 without Steve Jobs

Monday, June 11th, 2012

A year ago, Steve Jobs made his last appearance at an Apple WWDC. This year, Tim Cook helms his first WWDC as Apple’s CEO.

Apple's WWDC 2012 is from 11-15 June in San Francisco.

The annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year is being held from June 11 – 15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Tickets were sold out in a mere two hours when it went on sale in April.

Here’s a quick roundup of some of the revelations from the opening keynote presentation on first of the 5-day conference.

MacBooks / OS X Mountain Lion

Refreshed MacBook Air & Next-generation MacBook Pro ships today.: In comes Ivy Bridge processor and USB 3.0, out goes Ethernet and FireWire 800 ports, MacBook Air becomes thinner and lighter, MacBook Pro gets 60% faster graphics performance.
Retina display in MacBooks: 220ppi with 2880 x 1800 resolution.: Highest-resolution notebook display in the world.
Retina Display support: Final Cut Pro, Aperture and Diablo3 now supports 220ppi display.: AutoCad and Photoshop support in the works.
iPad-style Dictation is introduced to Mountain Lion for Macs.: Speak directly into native Apple software, Microsoft Word and Facebook.
AirPort Express available now.: Pocket WiFi router supports simultaneous dual-band.
New OS X feature: Power Nap.: Mac updates emails, notifications and photos, and backs itself up while charging.
OS X Mountain Lion available on Macs in July.: Free upgrade for new Mac purchases between now and arrival of the new OS.

iOS 6

iOS 6 unveiled Beta today, full release in the fall.: More than 200 improvements: launch apps with enhanced Siri, and it comes to iPads, FaceTime over cellular data.
Supported: iPhone 3GS and up, 2nd gen iPads and up, 4th gen iPod touch.
Enhanced Siri launches apps and comes to new iPads and eventually into cars.: Siri to get into the car with Eyes Free: demo: Toggle Siri on by tapping a button the steering wheel.
iOS 6 to get Do Not Disturb feature from Mountain Lion.: Select which push notifications to mute and which to stay on.
iOS 6 integrates more tightly with Facebook, Twitter and App Store.: Share directly from core apps like Maps, Photos and Safari.
Safari offers unified search across the web, browser history and bookmarks.: Following in Chrome’s footsteps.
iCloud Tabs syncs Safari web-browsing across all devices.: Simultaneously see all the tabs open on any device.“IOS 6 will include Apple’s own mobile mapping software to compete with software from Google. TomTom will supply Apple with map data and related content.” – statement from TomTom.
Enhanced Safari features.: Multitouch to help navigate tabs, upload images directly, Offline Reading List.
Passbook provides one-stop purchase of tickets and boarding passes.: No more paper QR-codes and tickets.
Apple replaces Google Maps with own Maps app.: Maps comes with Yelp integration and turn-by-turn navigation, and 3D.

Tags:Apple, conference, Eyes Free, Google, iOS, iOS 6, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, maps, Mountain Lion, Siri, TomTom, WWDC 2012
Posted in Announce, App, Apple, Browser, Chrome, Events, Gadgets, Google, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Mac OS, Notebooks, Operating Systems, Phones, Photoshop, Safari, Seminars, Software, Tablets, Tech news, Ultrabooks | 1 Comment »

Get Microsoft Windows 8 NOW!

Friday, June 1st, 2012

Update (18 July, 2012):

Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky has just announced at its annual sales meeting that customers will be able to get Windows 8 on 26 October, 2012. This will be available both as an upgrade or on a new PC.

Wonder if the Surface will be available at the same date?

Microsoft has announced that the Windows 8 Release Preview is now available for download in 14 languages.

Those who purchase eligible Windows 7-based PCs from 2 June can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for S$17.99 later on.

Windows 8 Release Preview is available for download now.

Windows 8 is entering the final stages of development and is on the road to general availability.

The Release Preview is available for download here, where you can also view a video of Windows 8 in action.

Notable improvements throughout the platform includes:

Improvements to Mail, Photos and People apps since Consumer Preview.
Increased personalization options for the Start screen.
Improved multi-monitor support.
Refinements to the way people find and download apps through the Windows Store.
New Family Safety features and enriched privacy and security controls when browsing online, including Do Not Track capabilities being turned on by default with Internet Explorer 10.
Enriched support for touch with Internet Explorer 10, including a new capability with Release Preview called “flip ahead” that allows users the option to flip between pages with the swipe of a finger, as well as a touch-friendly Adobe Flash Player now fully integrated into IE10.
New Bing apps, including those for Travel, News and Sports

For those planning to purchase new computers that currently come with Windows 7, Microsoft is rolling out the Windows Upgrade Offer program in 131 markets.

Windows 8 promises a fast and fluid experience, along with a new user interface that responds equally well to touch as it does to keyboard and mouse.

The February release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview was downloaded more than 1 million times in the first 24 hours.

With today’s release, it enters its final phase of development before it releases to manufacturing.

From June 2, 2012 to January 31, 2013, those who buy eligible PCs with Windows 7 can purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of S$17.99 (including GST).

Other offers will be announced later to help those with existing Windows 7-based PCs upgrade to Windows 8.

For more details about the Release Preview, check out this inside look from the Windows engineering team.

Tags:download, Microsoft, Release Preview, upgrade, Windows 8
Posted in App, Availability, Flash, Gadgets, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Notebooks, Prices, Software, Tablets, Tech news, Tickers, Windows 8 | 6 Comments »

New iStockphoto plugin for Adobe CS6

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

The FREE Stockphoto plugin enables designers to search and directly download images within the programs without interrupting their workflow.

The new iStockphoto plug-in works right withing Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

A one-click comp replace feature automatically exchanges complimentary watermarked images with purchased images, perfectly resized and positioned within the working page layout or design.

Search and replace images easily.

Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator users can now search iStock’s millions of files, download multiple comps during the creative process, finalise their designs and then simply replace the desired comp with the purchased image in exactly the right spot and in the right dimensions, saving time and increasing productivity.

The free plugin allows customers to access purchased credits, review past purchases, add to light boxes and almost all of the other standard account management features that can be accessed directly from the iStock site.

It is immediately available for download and is compatible with Mac and Windows versions of CS6, CS5.5 and CS5.

The iStockphoto plug-in is free.

Compatible with CS 5, 5.5 & 6.

iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of vetted, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash files.

Tags:Adobe, Illustrator, InDesign, iStockphoto, Photoshop, plug-in
Posted in App, Illustrator, InDesign, Launch, Photos, Photoshop, Software | No Comments »

Adobe CS6 is available now

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

Adobe has announced the immediate availability of Adobe Creative Suite 6.

Adobe CS6 is available now.

Launched globally two weeks ago, Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) comprises some 14 software for photo and video editing, graphics design and and web development, Flash/HTML and app building tools, as well as desktop publishing.

Suite	Price
Master Collection	S$3,925
Production Premium	S$2,868
Design & Web Premium	S$2,868
Design & Web Standard	S$1,963

These software include Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, InDesign and Flash.

The component software have been packaged in into four suites, depending on the needs of the customer.

A subscription-based version of CS6 (Creative Cloud: US$600 per year) is also available in the US although it is not available in Singapore and some other parts of the world.

Tags:Adobe, After Effects, Creative Suite, CS6, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro
Posted in Acrobat, Adobe, After Effects, Availability, Creative Suite, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Prices, Software, Specifications | No Comments »

Launch of Adobe CS6

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

The latest iteration of Adobe’s flagship software suite has been launched. Available in May 2012, there will be 4 suites, comprising different combinations of 14 print, web and video software.

The suites are: Master Collection (S$3,924), Design & Web Premium (S$2,868), Design & Web Standard (S$1,962), and Production Premium (S$2,868).

Adobe has also launched the new subscription-based Creative Cloud (US$600 per year). This is not available in Singapore yet.

Adobe Creative Suite 6

Singapore was the first venue in the world to launch Adobe Creative Suite 6.

Shantanu Narayen, Adobe CEO, and David Wadhwani, SVP, Digital Media Business, Adobe, will host a launch event and press conference on the release of Adobe Creative Cloud and CS 6 at 10:00 am Pacific Time, 23 April.

Content-Aware XXX

The Content-Aware Scale (CS4) and Content-Aware Fill (CS5) features have new siblings in CS6 – Content-Aware Patch and Content-Aware Move.

Ever used the Content-Aware Fill on a photo and see it pick up pixels from wrong regions of the image?

Don’t you just wish you could simply specify and constrain from which portions of the photo Photoshop took the pixels from?

Content-Aware Patch now allows you to do so, just like the regular Patch tool.

Content-Aware Move combines a few steps into one. You just need to roughly select the subject that needs to be moved (quick-select the subject and then expand the selection), and use the feature to move it to another part of the image.

Photoshop pastes the selected subject to the destination, smooths out the border between the subject and the new background pixels, and then Content-Aware Fills the hole left behind by the moved subject.

CS6 is part of Adobe’s 2-year renewal of its creative suite of software. One year on from each major release is a mid-cycle update, as with Adobe CS5.5.

The Mercury engine that was introduced in Premiere Pro in CS5 has been implemented in other products in CS6, notably Photoshop and Illustrator.

For Photoshop, the impressive Content-Aware Fill feature in Photoshop CS5 has been supplemented with two new enhancements – Content-Aware Patch and Content-Aware Move.

Dreamweaver and other component products in CS5 was based on perpetuating the Flash platform.

Having had the rug pulled from under its feet by the late Steve Jobs, Adobe has shifted the emphasis for Dreamweaver in CS5.5 and CS6 more towards facilitating HTML5, “an open Web standard that’s replacing Adobe’s older Flash tools for many Web designers” (quoted from Bloomberg).

There are also more tools for designing apps for smartphones and tablets.

A big step for Adobe this time round is its foray into a subscription-based model, although it is not available in Singapore yet.

Creative Cloud will charge US$50 a month for a one-year commitment (US$75 without one).

Subscribers can access the 14 programs, which can be installed on an Apple Mac or on a Windows PC.

Users can use the installed software even when they are not connected to the Internet.

A cloud-based service will also enable users to collaborate and share work with colleagues and clients through a Web browser.

The list of software as well as the composition of each suite can be found here.

Tags:Adobe, After Effects, Creative Suite 6, CS6, Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro
Posted in Adobe, App, Creative Suite, Events, Launch, Phones, Prices, Software, Specifications, Tablets | 2 Comments »

Adobe CS6 to launch on April 23

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

Adobe Creative Cloud and Creative Suite 6 will be launched on April 23 at 10:00 am Pacific Time.

Watch the Webcast of the launch of Adobe CS6 and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Shantanu Narayen, Adobe CEO, and David Wadhwani, SVP, Digital Media Business, Adobe, will host a launch event and press conference to announce how the company is reinventing creative software with the first release of Adobe Creative Cloud and the new Creative Suite 6.

Adobe CS6 will be launched in Singapore on April 23.

This will be the first full public demonstration of Adobe Creative Cloud in action.

The company will also preview future updates, available later this year, to its Creative Cloud offering.

In addition, the company will unveil new primary research on the impact of creativity on our culture and economy, and reveal new initiatives that encourage creativity in education.

In Singapore, the Adobe CS6 launch will be on the afternoon of April 23.

Tags:Adobe, Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Creative Suite, CS6, launch, Singapore
Posted in Adobe, Creative Suite, Launch, Photography, Software | 1 Comment »

New creative design tablet apps: Adobe Touch Apps

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Six new apps for Apple iPads and Android tablets have been announced by Adobe at its MAX 2011 technology conference.

At US$9.99 each, the six apps address different areas of the creative process: image editing; ideation; sketching; mood boards; website and mobile app prototyping; and presenting finished work.

The six new Adobe Touch Apps are:

Adobe Photoshop Touch
Adobe Collage
Adobe Debut
Adobe Ideas
Adobe Kuler
Adobe Proto

More details of the Touch Apps are tabulated here.

Adobe Touch Apps are essential components of Adobe Creative Cloud, a major new company initiative also announced today. Adobe Creative Cloud will allow subscribers to access desktop and tablet applications, find creative services, and share their work.

Files created via Adobe Touch Apps can be shared, viewed across devices or transferred into Adobe Creative Suite software for further refinement. Adobe Touch Apps are designed to work with both finger and stylus input.

Adobe Touch Apps will be available for Android devices in November 2011. iOS availability will likely be announced only in early 2012, although Adobe Ideas is already available for the iPad.

Access to the file viewing, sharing and transfer functionality of Adobe Creative Cloud is included in the price of each Adobe Touch App. Details regarding pricing of the Adobe Creative Cloud and its expanded capabilities around applications, services and community will be announced in November 2011.

Tags:Adobe, Android, Apple, Apps, iPad, tablets
Posted in Adobe, Android, App, Creative Suite, iOS, iPad, Launch, Software, Tablets | 1 Comment »

Single Edition of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite for tablets

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

The Single Edition allows freelance designers and small design firms to publish interactive content created with Adobe InDesign CS5.5 software on the Apple iPad for US$395 per application.

Adobe Publishing Suite, Single Edition at US$395 per iPad application.

Single Edition allows designers to publish a single-issue application for sale or distribution through the Apple App Store, without writing any code, focusing on creative design.

The Professional Edition of the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite was released in May for publishing houses, business publishers, and education institutions that require an off-the-shelf tablet publishing solution.

Single Edition allows users to publish single-issue content such as a brochure, highly-visual book, annual report or personal design portfolio as an application for the iPad.

The Digital Publishing Suite family which now includes Single Edition is used to publish content beyond traditional magazines and newspapers. These include sales tools, brand and customer engagement materials, merchandising deliverables, employee communications and corporate collateral published to tablets.

Pricing and Availability

Single Edition for iPad is expected to be available for purchase online at the end of November 2011. From InDesign CS5.5, users can publish through Single Edition to the iPad for US$395 per application. Single Edition will support additional tablet platforms later in 2012.

Tags:Adobe, Apple, Apps, iPad
Posted in Adobe, App, InDesign, iOS, iPad, Launch, Software, Tablets | 1 Comment »

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Now Available Across Southeast Asia

Friday, May 20th, 2011

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 features advances in HTML5 and Flash authoring for web designers and developers for both content and applications; as well as enhancements in video production and editing.

For digital publishing, content can be delivered to multiple platforms, operating systems, web browsers, smartphones and tablets — including Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS, and Apple iOS devices.

The new Creative Suite product lineup is headlined by Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection, which includes, in a single package, all of Adobe’s industry-defining creative tools, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.

These products are available separately or as components of one or more of the five Creative Suite editions. The complete Creative Suite 5.5 lineup and their estimated street prices are tabulated below. Upgrade pricing, volume licensing and education pricing are also available.

Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection: US$3159
Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium: US$2309
Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium: US$2185
Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium: US$2065
Creative Suite 5.5 Design Standard: US$1579

Adobe now plans to have milestone Creative Suite product introductions at 24-month intervals and – starting with Creative Suite 5.5 – major mid-cycle releases between the milestone versions. The major mid-cycle update was announced on April 12 and is available now in Southeast Asia.

Mobile App Development and New HTML5 Capabilities

Focused on the latest wave of mobile devices, this release of Creative Suite gives web designers and developers a complete software solution that allows them to produce stunning HTML5 content in the browser and deliver high-impact mobile applications through sweeping advances in Flash tooling.

Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium Suite is packed with innovations in HTML5 and Flash authoring tools, empowering customers to create, deliver and monetize rich content and applications for virtually any screen.

Designers and developers can create rich browser-based content across screens using HTML5. Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5, Flash Builder 4.5 Premium and the Flex 4.5 framework allow users to quickly and easily develop, test and deploy high-performance mobile applications for Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and Apple iOS.

Digital Publishing

Over the last year Adobe and leading publishers, including Condé Nast and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, have worked to develop new digital publishing workflows based on Creative Suite and Adobe InDesign.

Creative Suite 5.5 will enable print publishers to create beautiful interactive publications on the latest tablet platforms.

Using Adobe InDesign CS5.5, in combination with the integrated Folio Producer toolset, designers can add new levels of interactivity to their page layouts targeted at tablet devices.

Adobe has also announced the immediate availability of the Professional Edition of Adobe® Digital Publishing Suite, a turnkey solution that includes hosted services and viewer technology that allow publishers to cost-efficiently publish content to Android tablets, BlackBerry PlayBook and Apple iPad.

In addition to advances in mobile authoring and digital publishing, Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium Suite promises “breakthrough performance, workflow improvements, creative innovations and powerful new audio editing capabilities” to video and audio professionals, broadcasters and filmmakers.

Tags:Adobe, Creative Suite 5.5, CS5.5, tablets
Posted in Adobe, Creative Suite, Launch, Prices, Software, Tablets, Tech news | 1 Comment »

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium suite

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium suite is a major mid-cycle update to the software for video and post-production for delivering content to virtually any screen. Performance and workflow have been imporved while powerful new audio editing capabilities have been added.

New component software receiving major updates include Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, Adobe After Effects CS5.5, Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5, Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5.5, Adobe Story, Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5, and Adobe Device Central CS5.5.

New to the suite is Adobe Audition CS5.5, bringing its audio-for-video multitrack editing environment to both Mac OS and Windows for the first time.

Estimated street price for the Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium suite is US$2065. It is one of five suite editions of the Creative Suite 5.5 line of software.

Greater Productivity

Productivity enhancements promise to enable video and audio professionals to dramatically accelerate their workflows. The powerful Adobe Mercury Playback Engine, introduced in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, broadens its graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware support to include laptops and more supported cards, and allows users to open projects faster, get real-time feedback for more GPU-accelerated features, and work more smoothly at 4k and higher resolutions.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 boosts performance by providing a smoother editing workflow, enabled by new trimming and editing tools that provide more precision and control.

Dual-system sound support from the new Merge Clips command in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 lets users quickly sync video with high-quality audio recorded on separate devices like location recorders, ideal for DSLR or RED workflows.

Leveraging an integrated workflow with Adobe Audition, Adobe Premiere Pro users can save time by sending individual clips or sequences, including reference videos, directly to Adobe Audition for audio editing and restoration. File-based workflows see enhanced support for RED and other tapeless cameras, including improved RED Source Settings dialog in Premiere Pro and After Effects CS5.5 and native support for up to 5k media from RED Epic cameras via an extension available on Adobe Labs.

As it is a truly native editing solution, users saves time time and eliminates the need to transcode or rewrap footage.

The new 64-bit Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 has been completely redesigned to deliver Adobe Premiere Pro video sequences, After Effects compositions, and Adobe Encore projects to multiple screen formats quickly, while doing the encoding in the background.

Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 also introduces new format support such as AVC-Intra and DPX, and watch folders so users can encode a single clip to multiple destinations with a simple drag and drop.

New features

After Effects CS5.5 introduces new features such as the Warp Stabilizer, Camera Lens Blur and Light Falloff to enable users to enhance footage in post-production.

The Warp Stabilizer eliminates unwanted camera movement by steadying shaky footage, making handheld footage appear as smooth as a camera mounted on a mechanical stabilizer.

The Camera Lens Blur effect mimics the properties of physical lenses offering more realistic depth of field blurs. The Light Falloff effect enables users to simulate natural illumination falloff to mimic how light behaves in a 3D scene and can be used to create other light intensity effects.

Video professionals can use the new Adobe Audition in CS5.5 Production Premium on both Mac and Windows platforms. The completely re-written audio engine in Audition offers a robust toolset to record, edit, mix, master, and sweeten audio. With its professional editing and multitrack mixing tools, powerful noise-reduction and effects options, Adobe Audition CS5.5 will be able to handle a wide range of tasks quickly and efficiently.

Improved Collaboration

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium enables users to collaborate with existing workflows, even if they use a variety of tools. Enhanced project exchange support for Final Cut Pro users provides maximum flexibility for video editors, while new or enhanced OMF support in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Audition makes it possible to export high-quality audio projects to Avid Pro Tools, facilitating more efficient collaboration between audio editors, remixers and sound designers.

Access to the new version of Adobe Story, an Adobe CS Live online service, improves collaboration between users with email notifications of new script edits and a faster method of tracking changes through script elements and filters.

The ability to import Adobe Story script data directly into Adobe Premiere Pro further strengthens XML-based metadata support found throughout the Production Premium suite, which is critical for everything from file-based workflows to media asset management.

The metadata-driven workflows, plus the ease and flexibility of communicating with Adobe applications with critical third party solutions from news management systems to playback servers, is a key selling point for broadcasters and other organizations around the world.

Tags:Adobe, Creative Suite 5.5, CS5.5, Production Premium
Posted in Adobe, After Effects, Creative Suite, Premiere Pro, Prices, Software, Specifications | 1 Comment »

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