Charlie Rose on The iPad, With David Carr, Michael Arrington and Walter Mossberg

Despite the various "glaring omissions" that have been well debated in the past week, I agree that the iPad will be a success. It may not fully blossom, past the early adopters, until a v1.5 or v2, but it's going to be very popular. As a UI designer I want one to develop for, as a consumer I want one because it looks so fun to play with. Anyhow, this Charlie Rose segment (presented in iPad-reistant Flash) sums things up well:



Found via: TechCrunch

Browser-based Web Browser Testing: Litmus vs. Adobe BrowserLab

Below is a quick comparison of two browser testing tools. There are others out there, feel free to add in comments. However, since Adobe just made another press push for BrowserLab I thought it would be a good time to compare these two tools that I've been trying out.

Litmus

Litmus is out of the UK, and has been around in some capacity since 2005. They currently offer both an HTML-based web application, as well as a nascent desktop application counterpart.

Browsers supported at this time:

• Short answer - Litmus wins here big time with a very broad list of browsers on both Windows and Mac. Full list here.

Stand out features:

• Not just web browser testing, but also Email Testing - a feature Adobe doesn't have at all
• Browser tests can show both: Cropped, in-browser window; and Full page no browser window bordering image
• Save multiple tests
• Retesting / test history, iterative workflow
• Validation warnings and direct links to validation results
• Ability to download test results
• Ability to mark a test as complied and share the results (ie Social features)
• bookmarkelt lets you test any page you are visiting in your normal browser
• Rich Help and other resources

Adobe® BrowserLab

Adobe BrowserLab is in a limited time preview stage, this Flash-in-browser-based tool covers the website basics that Litmus does and has a few slick features. One immediate 'weakness' in comparison is that at the moment you can only run one test at a time and there is no apparent way to access test history.

Browsers supported at this time:

• Firefox 2.0 & 3.0 for both Win XP and Mac OSX
• IE 6.0 & 7.0 for XP
• Safari 3.0 for Mac

Stand out features:

• Views: single browser, 2-up for comparison, and a very cool "Onion Skin View" that overlays two different captures to show where layout diverges.
• Browser sets, with controls
• Zooming on captures
• BrowserLab Extension for Dreamweaver CS4

Verdict

IMO, Litmus offers a broader more user-friendly set of features for testing multiple sites in an iterative fashion. It's huge browser library and additional support for testing HTML Email give it a clear edge. Adobe may be able to catch up of course, but I also feel that it will ultimately come down to pricing. Both offer free options, but at the moment Adobe allows you to test IE 6 for free, whereas Litmus requires a paid plan to gain access to anything but IE 7 and Firefox 2.0. Adobe has not set pricing, but has stated that it will become a paid service after it moves out of preview release. We'll have to see how the pricing packages compare. For the time being, you could benefit by using both in tandem, which I'll likely do for a while until I feel there's reason not to. No matter what, the advent of powerful browser-based browser testing tools is a huge time, money, and headache saver for website builders concerned with providing the best user experience possible across a large spectrum of web clients.

Adobe now shipping CS4 and Flash Player 10

From Adobe press release: "Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of the Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 product family, the highly-anticipated release of industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Delivering radical breakthroughs in workflow efficiency – and packed with hundreds of innovative, time saving features – the new Creative Suite 4 product line advances the creative process across print, Web, interactive, film, video and mobile...

As part of the CS4 product launch, the largest in Adobe’s history, also available today are brand new versions of Photoshop® CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, InDesign® CS4, Illustrator® CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS4, Fireworks® CS4, Contribute® CS4, After Effects® CS4, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4, Encore® CS4, Soundbooth® CS4 and Adobe OnLocation™ CS4."

The new Adobe Flash Player 10 Now Available as well.

Flow - What Adobe Version Cue should have been?

GridIron Software Announces "Flow" - A revolutionary approach to content management: "Flow is a revolutionary approach to digital content management that dramatically simplifies the design process for creative professionals working on graphic design, web and video projects. Flow automatically tracks your work from idea to end result and manages your assets and applications for your most complex projects- all without changing the way you work."

Flow was included in the Macworld Best of Show winners list. The information about the forthcoming product on their site shows a lot of promise. Now that Leopard has incorporated Coverflow into the finder, and Adobe Version Cue + Bridge has lacked traction, the timing could be good for a desktop-based asset management tool that moves beyond tracking files and adds some intelligence regarding process, versioning, and (ahem) "flow".

Features that seem like standouts include: Workflow Maps; Workflow Calendar; Visual Versions; Project Packages; Project Reports.

There's a difference between ALL of the files that someone generates for a project, versus the smaller subset of files that they may want to actually share with a workgroup or client. While some Web 2.0 DAM solutions like fluxiom or box are great for the latter, flow might be an intelligent bridge between what you have and what you need to share.

They are accepting Beta program requests. I'll be keeping an eye on this software.

Adobe Delivers Flash Player 9 with H.264 Video Support

"HD Quality Web Video and Audio Now Available With Adobe Flash Player Update... Adobe Flash Player 9 now includes H.264 standard video support, the same standard deployed in Blu-Ray® and HD-DVD® high definition video players, and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio capabilities. The latest update also features hardware accelerated, multi-core enhanced, full-screen video playback for high-resolution viewing across major operating systems and browsers. The combination of Adobe Flash Player 9 and Adobe Flash Media Server 3 (also announced today) enables the delivery of HD quality video to the broadest online audience. Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3 is available immediately at http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"

read more | digg story

Adobe's AIR: Niche or the future of desktop development?

CNET News.com: "AIR, or Adobe Integrated Runtime, is a download that lets Web applications run on a desktop. With AIR applications, people can work offline and drag and drop items like graphics or text between Web and desktop applications.

AIR is still in beta, but Adobe and many other software developers are already building applications on it. For Adobe's platform business, AIR gives the company a way to extend its investments in Web documents and Web development tools onto desktops across different operating systems."

Some of the new apps are very interesting, such as the eBay desktop. It will be interesting to see where AIR will go. It certainly seems more compelling than Java.

Pantone 2.0: After 45 Years, the Sequel to PMS

creativepro.com : "The new Pantone Goe spot-color matching system has a lot going for it compared to the venerable Pantone Matching System: It nearly doubles the number of unique colors, adopts a logical naming scheme, and comes with innovative color-palette software. But will Goe replace your current PMS swatch book? Only your wallet knows for sure..."

This is a good overview of the new product line.

Box.net Releases Microsoft & Adobe Plug-ins

mashable.com: "Box.net, the file-sharing application, has launched a few more plug-ins due to the success of its plug-in developed for Microsoft Office.

There are now box.net plug-ins available for Open Office, Photoshop, Acrobat and 3ds max. These plug-ins allow you to back up files and share directly from each application."

Box is doing a great job at extending their service beyond the website only model. The widget they offer is very useful, now tying specific apps directly to online storage will be super handy as well (although they appear to be Windows only). I'd love to see them create an S3 option for their service as well, where they become the interface between you and (ie cheap) S3 storage.

FlickrShop plug-in uploads Photoshop images to Flickr

PixelNovel: "FlickrShop is a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop that allows you to upload images to Flickr photo sharing website directly from Adobe Photoshop. No need to save your image to a temporary file, no more switching between applications - just open your image, tweak it in Photoshop and share it with the world via Flickr!"

This is a handy addition to your arsenal of Flickr tools.

Linotype FontExplorer X Now Supports CS3

Linotype FontExplorer X for Mac has been updated to include some nice features: Added information “Import date”; Adobe InDesign/Illustrator CS3 Plug-Ins; New detailed preview in the information window; Option to search fonts by vendor; Sorting by label; and more.

Of course most importantly is CS3 support. This is a great font management app, and it's free.

Apple Safari 3 Public Beta Fixes Flash Drop-menu Issue

Apple has released a Beta version of its Safari browser for both Mac and Windows. While this is news itself, I'm more excited about the following revelation.

Anyone out there who has done website work where the design called for drop-down navigation menus which overlap Adobe flash content will be happy about this announcement. In previous versions of the Safari Mac browser, there was a 'bug' where drop down menus would flicker badly if they overlapped Flash content. This issue even plagues www.adobe.com in Safari 2.x!

After testing both the Mac & Windows versions of Safari 3, Apple appears to finally have fixed this problem!



Check out the Apple - Safari 3 Public Beta

Adobe Launches Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) BETA

"Adobe® AIR™, formerly code-named Apollo, is a cross-operating system runtime that allows developers to use their existing web development skills to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop."

Genuine Fractals Print Pro 5 Released

"What's New in Genuine Fractals Print Pro 5: Enlarge your images over 1,000% with no loss in image quality... Genuine Fractals Print Pro 5 is a revolutionary step forward for image enlargements. We've taken the industry standard and given it a complete overhaul. New scaling technology, faster performance, new features, new user interface, greater ease of use and much more. Compare Genuine Fractals Print Pro 5 to any Photoshop scaling method or other third party plug-in, Genuine Fractals Print Pro 5 is the industry standard in image resizing."

Also, it has Adobe CS3 support and the Mac version is Universal Binary. I've been a fan of this Photoshop add-on for a number of years for use in Poster and Trade-show projects. It really does produce better image scaling results.

Microsoft Reveals Silverlight as Adobe Flash Challenger

DailyTech: "In hopes to make a dent in the market dominance of Adobe's Flash, Microsoft unveiled at the 2007 National Association of Broadcasters conference a new cross-browser, cross-platform browser plug-in called Silverlight... Previously called Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E), Silverlight works with on both Macintosh and Windows with a variety of browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari."

Adobe CS3 Official Launch

Here's a round-up of some other interesting coverage and details:

• AppleBlog coverage
• digg.com coverage
• Apple.com special feature
• creativepro.com: What's New in Adobe Creative Suite 3
• CNET coverage

Adobe to announce CS3 products March 27

CNET News.com: "Adobe likely will announce its Creative Suite 3 (CS3) products
on or about March 27,' Merrill Lynch analyst Jay Vleeschhouwer predicted last week, with the products themselves to ship 'several weeks thereafter...'"

Get your dock ready for a bunch of Two letter application icons.

Adobe to Release PDF for Industry Standardization

"Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that it intends to release the full Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.7 specification to AIIM, the Enterprise Content Management Association, for the purpose of publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)."

As pointed out at TechCrunch this appears to be in part to attract more government users. I imagine it is also a step to thwart competing doc formats from Microsoft.

Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One Preview

"On December 14, 2006, Adobe announced the first-ever public beta for an upcoming version of Photoshop, its flagship image-editing software. Best-selling author and Photoshop guru Deke McClelland has teamed up with lynda.com to create the first video training on this landmark release. Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One Preview offers a personal video tour through a series of real-world examples that illustrate each of the key features and enhancements in the Photoshop CS3 beta. Major and minor features alike are covered in meticulous detail.

We are proud to offer this training course for free, in honor of Adobe publishing a free beta version of a major software release for the first time in history."

Whether you want to see what's new without the trouble of installing the new BETA, or if you've installed it and want some guidance, this preview is excellent!

Adobe Releases Beta Version of Photoshop CS3 & CSS Advisor

"Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) will introduce a beta version of Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 software, the next release of the world standard in digital imaging, on Friday, December 15th. Adobe is delivering a widely available Photoshop CS3 beta to enable customers to more easily transition to the latest hardware platforms, particularly Apple's new Intel-based systems. The beta is available as a Universal Binary for the Macintosh platform, as well as for Microsoft® Windows® XP and Windows Vista computers. The final shipping release of Adobe Photoshop CS3 is planned for Spring 2007. The software can be downloaded at: http://labs.adobe.com , in the early hours Pacific Standard Time on December 15."

Check out this article, it suggests that you'll need a CS2/CS serial number to use the beta. Also, there's a note about a CSS forum for designers to reference, see www.adobe.com/go/cssadvisor.

UPDATE: Here's a cool sneak peak video:

Microsoft releases Expression Web

news.com: "As a start, the company on Monday released Expression Web, a tool for designing user interfaces. It is offering the product as an upgrade to its Microsoft FrontPage Web authoring tool.

In addition, Microsoft posted a public beta download of Expression Blend, its Windows-specific design software. And in the third related announcement, it delivered an early version of Expression Design, a tool for creating logos, animations and other individual visual elements.



These three products will be in Expression Studio, set for shipping in the second quarter of 2007."

Also, see the Microsoft Expression site for more details. I'll be interested to see what Adobe has in store for Dreamweaver post acquisition. Hopefully this release from MS will provide some healthy competition.