Adobe CS3 Boxing Leaked [Update]
Since we were shown the new Adobe CS3 icon set a while back, I’ve been, well, interested in how the new Adobe CS3 designs turned out. While they were set to launch tomorrow, March 27th, a canadian Amazon retailer has leaked promo images early.
First of all, I think the packaging is lovely. The color coding of the icons has been continued in to the packaging, with Macromedia programs Flash and Dreamweaver getting their usual red and green colors. Adobe’s own programs, which didn’t previously have specific color identities, have been given them; the royal blue one going to the flagship Photoshop. The larger bundle packs are now “color rainbows” based on what individual apps they contain; the “master” pack containing all colors.
All apps have been renamed CS3, as expected. For better or for worse, this ends a painful line of naming for Flash, at least; Flash 6 was Flash MX, Flash 7 was MX 2004 and Flash 8 was, well, 8. So Flash 9 is Flash CS3, and presumably Flash 10 will be CS4.
While we were given hints when the icons were shown, the packaging pretty much confirms it (even if only part of the packaging has leaked). Fireworks is being kept and there’s still no sign of ImageReady (good riddance). GoLive seems nowhere to be found, even though the icon set had a GoLive icon. On the other hand, there was a Freehand icon, yet we’re not shown a Freehand box. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s part of the “Master” collection, alongside Illustrator. Personally, I’d only need one, but I wouldn’t want to choose.
Update: The official launch webcast is tonight, 3.30 PM EST. It seems, however, that the Adobe homepage is already updated with the new product lines. What’s up with the Jester?
Nice packaging.
How did I miss that there would be a new Flash so soon? I wonder if it will run on XP, apparently photoshop will be Vista only!
I guess Director is officially dead (replaced by apollo?)
opps I think I am wrong about photoshop being vista only, rather If you want to run photoshop on vista if will have to be CS3. This was the kind of scam that made me upgrade from windows 98.
Well, they were pretty fast to deliver a Flash Player 9 with Actionscript 3 support, and soon after followed a “Flash 9 public preview”. It will, of course, be interesting to see what they have added to Flash other than AS3 support, because the feature I’m rooting for is definitely not in: hardware acceleration.
As you write in the very next comment, yes, Photoshop will run on XP.
To be honest, I think Photoshop CS2 will run just fine on Vista… though it might not be “UI optimized”…
I really can’t see them adding in hardware acceleration any time soon (I much as I would like them to) Within the browser there is not really a need for hardware acceleration especially with the decline of the full flash site. Maybe Apollo might bring a demand for it? That said I have heard that flash 9 is meant to be faster (the codename was blaze).
I think you might be right, Areo will probably be lost for a start..
I think it’s going to be a challenge for two reasons:
However, I know that it is possible for the simple reason that there already exists 3rd party Flash Players that are 3D accelerated.
I utterly disagree.
First of all, there are MYRIADS of Flash games that would benefit from HW acceleration. There may not be noticable slowdowns in current-gen Flash games, but this can be either due to good coding on part of the Flash developer, or simply the Flash developer not doing what he/she wanted to due to the very limitations.
Secondly, there’s a lot of “invisible” Flash on the web today. YouTube’s video player is Flash, just to name one overlooked Flash app. There are quite a few others, and these would all benefit from HW acceleration.
That’s the kicker. Apollo is in direct competition with Microsofts “Windows Presentation Foundation” which is an XML based vectorized application builder which is born with hardware acceleration and “rich internet application” features. Right now, there are only a few benefits to using Apollo over WPF: crossplatform support and easy development (flash, javascript, html).
In my opinion, Flash (and hence, Apollo), needs HW acceleration in order to compete effectively against WPF.
At least for palettes.
Sorry if I have taken this off topic..
I take your point about flash games, and to a lesser extent youtube (not sure why this would need HW acceleration.) but what about the shockwave plugin? Is this not already a HW accelerated, cross platform plugin owned by Adobe?
Trust me, that wouldn’t be a problem, plus, it was more me who took this off topic.
HD content streaming in Flash, maybe? It might not make a huge difference, but HW acceleration would make a performance increase in all visual Flash, even if only a small difference.
Good point.
Well, I’m pretty sure Director (and hence, Shockwave) will eventually be phased out in favor of Flash.
As for the actual hw acceleration in Director, it is directly related to the 3D features, meaning: oldskool 2D Director content isn’t actually HW accelerated (to my knowledge).
So, the HW acceleration I’m rooting for in Flash, is one that is mostly backwards compatible, or at the very least rather different from the one in Director meaning it’ll add HW acceleration to 2D elements out of the box.
sounds good, I hope someone from adobe is listening.
did you notice that Flash is now more expensive than Photoshop!?
Me too.
Wow, yeah… what’s up with that? Seems to me dobe feels they can charge whatever they want…
There is a serious lack of competition since we lost Macromedia, sadly I can’t see where competition is going to come from, maybe Apple..
Well, there’s Apple Aperture, as competitor to Adobe Lightroom, right ?
Still, when it benefits Apple, the two companies are friends:
http://www.apple.com/creativesuite3/