Why I’m deleting Adobe from my PC

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Rather than buy a new laptop, I recently decided to recondition a four-year-old Acer to see whether it was up to the relatively light duties intended of it. This laptop had been my workhorse during a period when I was regularly flitting between my home office and business headquarters, and had almost no available space on its 140GB hard disk. The first job, then, was to do some weeding.

Microsoft Office was the first package to go, now that I use Google Docs almost exclusively. I found plenty of dross in the Downloads folder of course, but the real shock came when I looked through the list of Adobe programs installed on this machine and realised that I use almost none of them regularly any more.

When I bought this laptop, I reckon I spent around two thirds of my working day using Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Flex Builder – with the last of these accounting for the lion’s share. And yet, over the past year, Flash based development has dropped away almost entirely.

The rot began with Dreamweaver, which I’d been using since it was first launched in the mid 1990s. Since I began creating websites using PHP, and especially when WordPress became the basis of most of my web development, Dreamweaver became irrelevant and I’ve not used it for over five years now. (more…)

Steve Jobs’ last laugh: good riddance to Flash?

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Steve Jobs isn’t here to enjoy his triumph, but this week’s announcement that Adobe has stopped developing the mobile version of the Flash player would undoubtedly have delighted him. The title of yesterday’s Guardian story says it all: “Adobe kills mobile Flash, giving Steve Jobs the last laugh”. The first comment is even starker: “Flash – good riddance!”

So why has Adobe taken the decision? Is this really the end of the road for Flash? And is it really good news?

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Photoshop-style Content-Aware Fill, for free, on your phone

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

We’ve covered Adobe Photoshop CS5’s stunning Content-Aware Fill feature on the blog before, as it’s an undoubted head-turner: the ability to draw around an unwanted object in your photo and, with a bit of tech trickery, watch it disappear, with the gap filled by the app’s best guess as to what should be there instead.

That’s the kind of feature you expect to find on paid-for software such as Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop Elements, but there’s an app that’ll do the same thing for free on Android and iOS devices – TouchRetouch. Here’s how it’s worked its magic on one of my holiday snaps, with a couple of inconveniently-placed tourists removed from in front of this Cretan ruin:

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Windows 8, Flash and Silverlight: some very bad news

Monday, September 19th, 2011

In amongst the flood of details emerging about Windows 8 is the news that the IE 10 browser in the lightweight Metro front-end won’t support plugins. In the scheme of things this might sound pretty small beer, but it’s hugely significant for the long term future of Rich Internet Application (RIA) development and for the web in general.

Most immediately it’s another kick in the teeth for Flash, still reeling from Apple’s iOS ban. It’s not exactly a death blow, as the Windows 8 desktop version of IE will still support the player, but it’s clearly another major disincentive for developers who believed Flash was as universal as HTML.

Understandably all the focus has been on Flash, but even more telling and extraordinary is the realisation that the new no-plugin policy means that the Metro browser won’t even support Microsoft’s own cross-platform RIA technology, Silverlight!

So just what is going on?

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Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 isn’t a rip-off: the UK price is

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

My review of the new Creative Suite 5.5 (CS5.5) has just been posted and there’s plenty to talk about in terms of new functionality and what this means in relation to the future of cross-platform design.

However, it’s not so much the extraordinary and mouth-watering creativity of CS5.5 that is likely to strike users as the extraordinary and eye-watering cost. (more…)

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5: a truce with Apple

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Adobe has announced a 5.5 release for its various Creative Suite offerings. As CS5 was only released a year ago, most creatives will be surprised by the news and may well assume that it’s little more than a holding operation at best.

That’s not the case. (more…)

Has Adobe figured out how to get Flash to play on your iPhone?

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Recently I’ve been making the case that Apple’s anti-competitive ban on Flash has stopped rich cross-platform development in its tracks.

As such I was naturally intrigued by a video post I came across recently asking “Has Adobe figured out how to get Flash to play on your iPhone?” (more…)

QuarkXPress 9 review: first look

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

When Quark announced the launch of the free QuarkXPress 8.5 release, I was seriously unimpressed. Firstly it offered almost no new power, second it implied that the launch of version 9 was some way off, and third it looked like Quark was squandering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get back at market leader, InDesign.

Based on a press briefing introducing the new QuarkXPress 9, my main concerns have been answered – at least partly. (more…)

Has Quark backed the wrong horse again?

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

It’s an exciting time for publishing, as the arrival of the handheld tablet form factor (aka the iPad) promises to finally usher in the era of wysiwyg, immersive reading alongside traditional web browsing. It looks like the digital dream that print publishers have been crying out for since they first grasped the full potential of the internet – stunning content, global audiences, revenue opportunities and minimal costs – is finally coming true.

More than this, there’s a real element of turmoil and unpredictability at the moment as Steve Jobs’ open war on Adobe and his refusal to support Flash on the market-defining iPad means that Adobe’s plans for the handheld market have hit an unexpected roadblock. In short, the future of design-intensive digital publishing is up for grabs.

All in all it’s a golden opportunity for Adobe’s main publishing rival, Quark, which last week announced the new 8.5 release of its flagship software QuarkXPress.

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How Adobe defied Apple to produce superb iPad magazines

Friday, November 12th, 2010

There’s a lot of excitement in the world of publishing regarding the massive potential of the new tablet market. The biggest news at the recent Adobe MAX 2010 was the official announcement of Adobe’s upcoming Digital Publishing platform for delivering rich, interactive electronic magazines using the Creative Suite design tools and InDesign in particular.

The reason for the excitement is obvious. Up until now the internet has been a disaster for the big publishers, as they’ve effectively been forced to cut their margins, and occasionally throats, by giving away content for free online. Now with the arrival of the tablet, it’s possible for publishers to provide a far richer, handheld, book-like, reading experience. The end user is happy because it’s a fundamental advance on both traditional print and web browsing, and the publisher is delighted because here at last is the chance to charge for content while taking full advantage of the internet in terms of its global audience and  minimal production costs. (more…)