Adobe launches Creative Cloud, two new iOS apps, Muse HTML5 tool

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Adobe on Friday launched Creative Cloud, a service that allows users subscription-based access to the company's media creation and editing tools, as well as two "touch apps" for iOS and the Muse HTML5 web tool.

The release comes less than a week after Adobe rolled out its Creative Suite 6 software lineup which includes new versions of Photoshop, InDesign, lllustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash Professional and other products.

Officially announced alongside CS6 in April, Creative Cloud is a more affordable alternative to the expensive design, Web, video and digital imaging bundles offered to professionals. With a one-year $49.99 per month contract, customers have access to download and install all CS6 software as well as add-on Touch Apps like Photoshop Touch. Month-to-month subscriptions are also offered at a price of $74.99 per month, while owners of CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 get an introductory price of $29.99 per month. Education pricing is also available.

?Adobe Creative Cloud members receive full access to the entire portfolio of Creative Suite 6 tools, integration with our touch tools, file storage and sharing services and Web hosting ? everything they need to go from idea to finished work, at a breakthrough monthly subscription price,? said Senior Vice President of Adobe's Digital Media Business David Wadhwani. ?Creative Cloud will allow our product teams to unleash a constant stream of innovation, releasing new features, apps and services as they are developed.?

Creative Cloud


The addition of two Touch Apps, which can be purchased separately for $9.99 each, bring the total of mobile-centric Adobe products to six and include Photoshop Touch, presentation app Debut, website prototyping app Proto, brainstorming app Collage, design app Ideas and color theme app Kuler. Of the six, Adobe Debut and Adobe Kuler are currently Android-Only, though iOS versions are in the pipeline.

Included Software
Included Creative Cloud software. | Source: Adobe


Adobe's HTML5 solution, Muse, was also released on Friday after spending nearly 9 months in an open public beta that saw over 700,000 downloads. The new website creation tool allows graphic designers not versed in code writing to build HTML pages using tools similar to those found in Adobe's InDesign print layout software.

While Muse is included in Creative Cloud's entry price, free-standing subscriptions to the website builder can be purchased for $14.99 per month on an annual contract or $24.99 month-to-month. Both versions include a limited amount of site hosting, though Adobe hasn't released specifics regarding bandwidth or site size.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    mj webmj web Posts: 918member


    I upgraded PS CS3 to PS CS6 and I must say for $199 it was a worthy upgrade. I'm thrilled to have the new groovy dark UI, fast graphics engine, 64 bit ops, and nifty new tools. CS6 was the first version of PS Adobe compelled me to upgrade to since CS3. Got along fine with the old warhorse. 


     


    Now Adobe has intro'd this Cloud service, something I predict is destined to fail for the same reason I didn't upgrade PS from CS3 until CS6. The reason being, Adobe is a transparently greedy company always on the come offering ridiculously expensive unnecessary incremental upgrades the world can live without. But I love my PS CS6!

  • Reply 2 of 26


    My complaint is it takes so much time to figure out what is the best option. I have the production bundle from CS5, but I upgraded inDesign to 5.5. I use photoshop the most so I might just upgrade that. I use AE less and less. I have almost never touched most of the other apps from the production bundle.


     


    I've downloaded Muse and am playing with it. Might like to use that...but they only offer it as a subscription.


     


    It's so confusing and such a mess. It's like they are making it as confusing as possible. I do not like the idea of renting software and I can't imagine wanting all that 'stuff' installed. 


     


    I do wish they went back to putting out good software that wasn't buggy. I remember when they would put out a version AND offer valuable upgrades along the way to the next big upgrade. Now they put something out, that usually has some bad bugs. They might or might not fix those with point upgrades, then it's time for another $600 bucks.


     


    It gets old. I think lowering prices is smarter than this subscription stuff. But then again, after their 'CEO' got into that P match with Steve Jobs over Flash, it was obvious they are not what they used to be. The higher-ups are just milking the company for what they can get. So yeah, it's not like I enjoy dealing with them anymore.

  • Reply 3 of 26
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mark Fearing View Post


    My complaint is it takes so much time to figure out what is the best option. I have the production bundle from CS5, but I upgraded inDesign to 5.5. I use photoshop the most so I might just upgrade that.


     



    What you write does not make sense. Unless things have changed since I last inquired you cannot upgrade just a single app based on a previous suite purchase. You have to pay full price if you want to revert back to purchasing / upgrading on an app by app basis.

  • Reply 4 of 26
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member


    I've stopped using Adobe for now. For design mockups Keynote is great. For photo-manipulation stuff Pixelmator looks decent. I don't do much vector stuff but I hear there's a lot out there. For coding Coda is a superior alternative to Dreamweaver. Then of course there's Logic and iMovie/Final Cut. So for "pros" Adobe is de facto, fine, but for small business/ small-medium enterprise which needs to produce or manipulate its own new media, alternatives to the very expensive Creative Suite are attractive and available now.

  • Reply 5 of 26
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mark Fearing View Post


    My complaint is it takes so much time to figure out what is the best option. I have the production bundle from CS5, but I upgraded inDesign to 5.5. I use photoshop the most so I might just upgrade that. I use AE less and less. I have almost never touched most of the other apps from the production bundle.


     


    I've downloaded Muse and am playing with it. Might like to use that...but they only offer it as a subscription.


     


    It's so confusing and such a mess. It's like they are making it as confusing as possible. I do not like the idea of renting software and I can't imagine wanting all that 'stuff' installed. 


     


    I do wish they went back to putting out good software that wasn't buggy. I remember when they would put out a version AND offer valuable upgrades along the way to the next big upgrade. Now they put something out, that usually has some bad bugs. They might or might not fix those with point upgrades, then it's time for another $600 bucks.


     


    It gets old. I think lowering prices is smarter than this subscription stuff. But then again, after their 'CEO' got into that P match with Steve Jobs over Flash, it was obvious they are not what they used to be. The higher-ups are just milking the company for what they can get. So yeah, it's not like I enjoy dealing with them anymore.



     


    Indeed, the peak of Adobe seems to have come and recently passed. This is typical of what Tribal Leadership calls Stage 3 behaviour. Once interests are entrenched in a company's culture, everything stagnates and is focused on each department or the whole company "optimising" what they can and relying on business models that simply don't apply to the real world as much as they used to.


     


    In terms of new media anyway, a lot of design can be done based on the values and vision of the organisation, rather than being the "best designer". Once that shift in thinking occurs, so too the need to evaluate whether Creative Suite is used for values and vision or for "me being the best designer".

  • Reply 6 of 26
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member


    Has anyone tried to buy creative cloud? It is completely broken in Safari for me. Blank page after several botched attempts, I gave up. They really need to work on the validation part of the upgrade process. I am qualified but the numerous hoops to jump through and failed shopping experience is a little surprising. Maybe they only tested it with IE.

  • Reply 7 of 26
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MJ Web View Post


    I upgraded PS CS3 to PS CS6 and I must say for $199 it was a worthy upgrade. I'm thrilled to have the new groovy dark UI, fast graphics engine, 64 bit ops, and nifty new tools. CS6 was the first version of PS Adobe compelled me to upgrade to since CS3. Got along fine with the old warhorse. 


     


    Now Adobe has intro'd this Cloud service, something I predict is destined to fail for the same reason I didn't upgrade PS from CS3 until CS6. The reason being, Adobe is a transparently greedy company always on the come offering ridiculously expensive unnecessary incremental upgrades the world can live without. But I love my PS CS6!



     


    I've tried the CS6 Photoshop beta and it is indeed good. But like you mention it's the pricing and jumbled business strategy that is off-putting. Still, one machine at work will have Creative Suite (4/5), but on my Mac, I simply cannot justify the cost anymore.

  • Reply 8 of 26


    I bought the production bundle, didn't have InDesign. I had bought InDesign back in 02 or 03. So I have upgraded that as a single program as it is not part of the production bundle. The fact that we are having this discussion means they failed. it's confusing, and stupid. iIt's like the Windows releases with 4 different versions. Buying software shouldn't be this painful.

  • Reply 9 of 26
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member


    I am happy for Adobe. With the new iOS and MAS apps, the shift to HTML5, and the statement from their security guy about them being happy about old versions of Flash being disabled, it seems they have decided to stop fighting Apple and ride on their backs to more success.

  • Reply 10 of 26
    moxommoxom Posts: 326member


    I've enjoyed using Muse BETA for the past few months. 


     


    Shame I won't be able to use it for free now. For those interested, here is my (basic) site - http://www.halabalu.com


     


    Currently being hosted on iDisk (which is soon to go..)


     


    =(

  • Reply 11 of 26
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member


    I somehow totally missed Muse, I would have liked to have play with the Beta,  I must say I really had hoped Apple would create something like Muse, or iWeb Pro.  I worry Muse may not be as Apple friendly as it could be.  For example, with Apple's new mapping system on the horizon will Muse allow a widget to place Apple Maps as easily as Google Maps?


     


    I was surprised to read just now that Muse doesn't have an FTP service built in other than for Adobe's service.  To have to export and manually upload seems pretty silly in this day and age.  A designer developing web sites for clients isn't going to be uploading them to Adobe's servers, rather Netsol, GoDaddy etc far more likely.

  • Reply 12 of 26
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MoXoM View Post


    I've enjoyed using Muse BETA for the past few months. 


     


    Shame I won't be able to use it for free now. For those interested, here is my (basic) site - http://www.halabalu.com


     


    Currently being hosted on iDisk (which is soon to go..)


     


    =(



    Tell me was Muse a stand alone application or a kind of web server template type system reliant on being connected to Adobe?  I realize once made you can export and upload anywhere (minus the extra fonts I assume).

  • Reply 13 of 26
    moxommoxom Posts: 326member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    Tell me was Muse a stand alone application or a kind of web server template type system reliant on being connected to Adobe?  I realize once made you can export and upload anywhere (minus the extra fonts I assume).



    It is a standalone application. As easy to use as iWeb but with the ability to create Master pages and widgets such a Lightbox.


     


    My site currently utilises a contact form which was created in JotForm, a commenting system from Disqus and a music player from SoundCloud. My understanding is that Adobe will be adding more widgets over time which would negate having to use external services...


     


    You could upload direct to Adobe's Business Catalyst hosting platform or just export the Muse website to HTML and then upload elsewhere...


     


    I don't believe the BETA version included Adobe's TypeKit service...

  • Reply 14 of 26
    mac_dogmac_dog Posts: 1,069member


    i'm an early adopter. i tried the ps6 beta. this is the first time i'm not going to upgrade. video editing? really? it's simply not worth the cost. 


     


    features in search of a benefit.

  • Reply 15 of 26
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MoXoM View Post


    I've enjoyed using Muse BETA for the past few months. 


     


    Shame I won't be able to use it for free now. For those interested, here is my (basic) site - http://www.halabalu.com


     


    Currently being hosted on iDisk (which is soon to go..)


     


    =(



    I tried it out for a few minutes last night but unfortunately it was not very intuitive. I'm sure there is a tutorial out there somewhere. I don't understand how this is being billed as an HTML 5 development app. It seems very simplistic not at all an advanced tool for professional use like the rest of CS apps. It doesn't look like anything I would use but apparently you were able to make it work. I was hoping for a component builder type application along the lines of Sencha.

  • Reply 16 of 26


    too late bug Adobe Tumult Hype already got my money and i love their product screw the subscription BS

  • Reply 17 of 26
    aderutteraderutter Posts: 604member


    With this pricing it's destined to fail. Photoshop CS1 does all I need it to.

  • Reply 18 of 26
    darryn lowedarryn lowe Posts: 250member


    I played with Muse for about an hour and gave up on it. Hype is infinitely more user friendly and powerful. I just don't see the benefit of paying $14/month when I can get Hype for a one off payment of $64.99 on Mac App Store. It really isn't worth the price of admission.

  • Reply 19 of 26
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    mstone wrote: »
    I tried it out for a few minutes last night but unfortunately it was not very intuitive. I'm sure there is a tutorial out there somewhere. I don't understand how this is being billed as an HTML 5 development app. It seems very simplistic not at all an advanced tool for professional use like the rest of CS apps. It doesn't look like anything I would use but apparently you were able to make it work. I was hoping for a component builder type application along the lines of Sencha.

    Is the beta still available? I didn't spot any links on Adobe's site just now.
  • Reply 20 of 26
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I played with Muse for about an hour and gave up on it. Hype is infinitely more user friendly and powerful. I just don't see the benefit of paying $14/month when I can get Hype for a one off payment of $64.99 on Mac App Store. It really isn't worth the price of admission.

    Hype isn't for making entire web sites though, more for making bits for web sites.
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