Adobe says Creative Suite 4.0 shipping, Flash 10 available

[AppleInsider]

Adobe announced Wednesday that all of its new Creative Suite 4.0 bundles are now immediately available for shipping or direct download. Separately, the software maker has released a final version of its new Flash 10 player and plug-in as a free download for Mac, Windows and Linux users.

Creative Suite 4 bundles and applications

"Creative Suite 4 and Flash Player 10 introduce vital time-saving features, new levels of integration and the jaw-dropping innovations our design and developer customers expect from us," said John Loiacono, senior vice president, Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. "CS4 continues to fulfill our promise to customers to break down more barriers in cross-media workflows, while also providing new services and collaboration tools that help them manage complex client demands."

Customers can choose from six new versions, which can be downloaded directly from Adobe's website. They include Adobe Creative Suite 4:

Design Premium (Upgrade: $599, Full:$1799)
Design Standard (Upgrade: $499, Full:$1399)
Web Premium (Upgrade: $599, Full:$1699)
Web Standard (Upgrade: $399, Full:$999)
Production Premium (Upgrade: $599, Full:$1699)
Master Collection (Upgrade: $899, Full:$2499)

A chart breaking down the the specific CS4 bundles by included application is available below.

Alternatively, customers can choose to purchase or upgrade individual components of Adobe's new Creative Suite bundles, including:

Photoshop CS4 (Upgrade: $199, Full:$699)
Photoshop CS4 Extended (Upgrade: $349, Full:$999)
InDesign CS4 (Upgrade: $199, Full:$699)
Illustrator CS4 (Upgrade: $199, Full:$599)
Acrobat 9 Pro (Upgrade: $159, Full:$499)
Flash CS4 Professional (Upgrade: $199, Full:$699)
Dreamweaver CS4 (Upgrade: $199, Full:$399)
Fireworks CS4 (Upgrade: $149, Full:$299)
Contribute CS4 (Upgrade: $99, Full:$199)
After Effects CS4 (Upgrade: $299, Full:$999)
Premiere Pro CS4 (Upgrade: $299, Full:$799)
Fireworks CS4 (Upgrade: $149, Full:$299)
Soundbooth CS4 (Upgrade: $79, Full:$199)
InCopy CS4 (Upgrade: $89, Full:$249)

In order to entice users to update to the new Creative Suite applications, Adobe said it's offering Creative Suite 3 customers moving to Creative Suite 4 a lower upgrade price than it offers to those moving from older, qualifying versions. For a limited time, a special introductory offer enables customers with older qualifying products to enjoy the same lower price with savings of up to US$200 off their actual upgrade price. Details of the offer posted on the company's website.

The Amazon alternative

Creative Suite users who prefer to use their Amazon accounts to order physical copies of the new bundles or applications can do so from this Amazon.com Creative Suite 4.0 Landing Page. The retailer offers slight discounts on all CS4 products.



Flash 10

Also available today as a free immediate download is Adobe Flash Player 10, which includes new support for custom filters and effects, native 3D transformation and animation, advanced audio processing, and GPU hardware acceleration.

The new version also extends the capabilities of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product line with new levels of Adobe Flash technology integration to streamline collaboration and enhance the design/develop workflow, Adobe said.

Interactive designers and developers can now create custom filters and effects with Adobe Pixel Bender, which is the same technology behind many filters and special effects in Adobe After Effects CS4 software. Developers targeting Adobe Flash Player 10 can use these filters, blend modes and fills to animate effects or change the effect on rich media content at runtime.

Flash Player 10 also enables new capabilities and performance improvements in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, including easy-to-use 3D effects that enable designers to design in 2D and easily transform and animate in 3D.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Galley]

Hopefully Flash Player 10 has less suck.

[mstone]

Apparently Adobe didn't get the memo that Flash is not suitable for building the entire user experience. The Adobe store is a major pain to navigate. No mouse scroll wheel on Mac, slow to load, cursor not a hand when rolling over top links, buttons under product upgrade eligibility don't work, browser back doesn't work. What a joke.

Edit: I just found another half dozen things broken in that site using Safari including the Verisign verify button. If they can't even make a usable site using Flash for the desktop version of Safari, how do they expect Apple to let them put Flash on iPhone?

[vrkiran]

Originally Posted by Galley

Hopefully Flash Player 10 has less suck.

Amen!

I can understand (but despise) why Adobe pushes Flash further and further and adds more and more crap to it rather than coming up with new products. Its such a resource hog for what it does (bug people with ads, for most part). Why cant they have separate products for video streams, audio streams and vector graphics? I guess they dont want me to disable vector graphics and get away from ads.

[troberts]

The G4 processors are SOL, at least for Dreamweaver and Photoshop CS. My guess is Adobe is done with the G4 processor and the next version will ditch PPC altogether.

[Phlake]

Originally Posted by Galley

Hopefully Flash Player 10 has less suck.

I just tried it out, and on a 2 month old MBP, YouTube still freezes up when switching to full screen. I am not impressed.

[YTV]

Someone wake me up when the master collection makes it to the torrents. Only took a week for CS3.

[lkrupp]

Originally Posted by YTV

Someone wake me up when the master collection makes it to the torrents. Only took a week for CS3.

Common thief.

[codachrome]

Originally Posted by YTV

Someone wake me up when the master collection makes it to the torrents. Only took a week for CS3.

Dude, buy your software!!!

[kim kap sol]

Here's a better solution to pirating Adobe products: don't use Adobe products at all. If you pirate CS4, you still end up pirating a pile of shit.

[mstone]

Originally Posted by YTV

Someone wake me up when the master collection makes it to the torrents. Only took a week for CS3.

If you steal software, you are essentially stealing money from those of us who pay for our software, not the publisher of the software. Adobe will only raise the price to compensate for the perceived lost revenue.

[gastroboy]

Originally Posted by mstone

If you steal software, you are essentially stealing money from those of us who pay for our software, not the publisher of the software. Adobe will only raise the price to compensate for the perceived lost revenue.

Urban Myth.

The price is always maintained much higher on well protected software.

Thankfully CS4 is not worth stealing.

[mstone]

Originally Posted by kim kap sol

Here's a better solution to pirating Adobe products: don't use Adobe products at all. If you pirate CS4, you still end up pirating a pile of shit.

Regardless, Adobe has the professional graphic designers by the short and curly ones. You cannot work without their products, and you can't work for long with an out of date version because someone is going to send you a file saved in the latest format which will force you to upgrade in order to do the job.

[xZerox]

Originally Posted by mstone

Apparently Adobe didn't get the memo that Flash is not suitable for building the entire user experience. The Adobe store is a major pain to navigate. No mouse scroll wheel on Mac, slow to load, cursor not a hand when rolling over top links, buttons under product upgrade eligibility don't work, browser back doesn't work. What a joke.

Edit: I just found another half dozen things broken in that site using Safari including the Verisign verify button. If they can't even make a usable site using Flash for the desktop version of Safari, how do they expect Apple to let them put Flash on iPhone?

I wish they did not buy Macromedia. Director and Shockwave seem almost forgotten alternatives for more substantial interactive type of work.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by YTV

Someone wake me up when the master collection makes it to the torrents. Only took a week for CS3.

Thanks for making it more expensive for all of us who actually pay for Adobe software.

[sausage&Onion]

Dont worry everyone, the activation system makes it considerably harder to torrent and use.

[YTV]

Originally Posted by lkrupp

Common thief.

Please don't call me common.

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Thanks for making it more expensive for all of us who actually pay for Adobe software.

Price has been exactly the same for the last 3 editions of the master collection. Don't think a master collection even existed before that.

Originally Posted by sausage&Onion

Dont worry everyone, the activation system makes it considerably harder to torrent and use.

LOL.

[bazokajoe_2k]

Originally Posted by YTV

Someone wake me up when the master collection makes it to the torrents. Only took a week for CS3.

Here's an idea, don't admit in public that you plan on doing illegal activities.

[success]

Originally Posted by sausage&Onion

Dont worry everyone, the activation system makes it considerably harder to torrent and use.

ROTFL...naive.

Btw, pirating Adobe products does not drive up the price.

Does car theft drive up the price of cars? No. It does however give insurance companies a good excuse to raise rates.

[whatisgoingon]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Adobe announced Wednesday that all of its new Creative Suite 4.0 bundles are now immediately available for shipping or direct download. Separately, the software maker has released a final version of its new Flash 10 player and plug-in as a free download for Mac, Windows and Linux users.

Both of these so-called "upgrades" suck.

The Flash player still performs and works significantly worse than the Windows version, and CS 4 is the poor stepchild to the Windows version, while still charging the same. Not bothering with 64-bit support for the Mac.

Hell, the crazy upgrade pricing is bizarre. It's cheaper to fly from England to the US, stay overnight, and buy the upgrade in the US then fly back, than it is to just buy the upgrade in England.

No thanks!

[kim kap sol]

Originally Posted by mstone

Regardless, Adobe has the professional graphic designers by the short and curly ones. You cannot work without their products, and you can't work for long with an out of date version because someone is going to send you a file saved in the latest format which will force you to upgrade in order to do the job.

Horseshit! You can work without their products just fine. There are tons of composition apps out there. Perhaps they have less features but at least the ones that are there aren't half-baked or totally unnecessary like in Adobe's product.

This is like saying nobody can use a computer without Windows...or you can't work long without Windows because someone is going to send you a file saved in a format which will force you to use Windows. NO! NO! NO! It's bullshit and you know it.

[mrpiddly]

Odd complaint: Where are the education upgrades for CS4???





Piracy is negative because there are no limits. Amazing programs that are a great value get pirated the same as crappy overpriced programs. Who are you to decide what products are great and what ones are shit? Either buy the product or dont buy the product. There are other options and you always have a choice. (you are not going to die if you do not have CS4)

[bloggerblog]

I guess I'm one of the very few who thinks Flash 10 kicks ass, huh?!

It has the best animation feature set ever added to Flash, well thought out and impressively impressive.

Anyone who does lots of motion path animation or multiple part object animation will appreciate the new path feature and the new IK feature or bones.

Although the 3D feature is kinda generic, it's still nice to have. I hope they improve on it though.

Motion presets are heaven sent, I haven't tried it yet but it should save lots of time and aggravation in trying to apply the same motion to different objects.

Metadata, about time!

The IK feature alone may very well increase Adobe's market share in the storyboard market, this may put a little dent in ToonBoom's market share.

A Camera or Viewpoint feature is still missing, one similar to the ones in Motion 3 and Aftereffects.

[xZerox]

Originally Posted by success

ROTFL...naive.

Btw, pirating Adobe products does not drive up the price.

Does car theft drive up the price of cars? No. It does however give insurance companies a good excuse to raise rates.

The real issue about pirated software is the chance it is rancid and will start adding code to the files you save or something along that line of mischief.

[mstone]

Originally Posted by kim kap sol

Horseshit! You can work without their products just fine. There are tons of composition apps out there. Perhaps they have less features but at least the ones that are there aren't half-baked or totally unnecessary like in Adobe's product.

This is like saying nobody can use a computer without Windows...or you can't work long without Windows because someone is going to send you a file saved in a format which will force you to use Windows. NO! NO! NO! It's bullshit and you know it.

I guess we have to agree to disagree.

In my opinion, you absolutely need Windows machines as well as Macs and Linux in a professional design studio. There are all kinds of files that our customers send us that cannot be opened on a Mac.

Likewise, if I refused to receive or provide files in Adobe's proprietary file formats, I would not be in business very long. I'm not promoting Adobe or Windows, it is just the reality of today's publishing/design workflow environment.