Adobe makes WIRED Reader Application public: Adobe Unveils Digital Viewer for Magazines.

This is kinda rudimentary right now, but could evolve into something great.

This new feature in Photoshop CS5 will further erode the public's trust in photography and more specifically in photojournalism. Just recently, I was admiring a large photo hanging in an airport. A mother and her young son were discussing the photo, when the son said, "Oh mom, it's not real, they photoshop everything."

—Dr. Bob Carey, President of the National Press Photographers Association commenting on Photoshop's Content-Aware Fill as previewed by Adobe Photoshop Project Manager John Nack.

On February 10th, 2010, Photoshop turned twenty.

I am a Photoshop user since version 2.5 and I still remember how amazed I was when 3.0 introduced the layers. Wow. I think that was—for me, at least—the biggest leap in the history of graphic software.

Malicious PDF files comprised 80 percent of all exploits for 2009. It's a circus.

First read The many sliders of Photoshop CS4 on Neven Mrgan’s Tumbl and then pause for a minute and imagine a phone or a car designed by Adobe's UI people.

Exactly. Thank God they're only making software.

Via DF.

From the answers on Brandchannel's forum at "Will Windows 7 revive Microsoft’s brand?" question:

"Microsoft has taken a page from Big Tobacco's play book: how to brand an unwanted, unhealthy, unbreakable addiction? Give them several apparent "choices": regular, light and ultra-light. Still gonna kill ya in the end, though."

—Steve Russell, CEO, The Really Cool Network.

Note to Adobe: don't hold your breath. It ain't coming. Thank God.

Also, nice one there. Open, yes?

In the meanwhile, ClickToFlash might help you kill some of those twitchy web banners.

Note to Adobe: don't hold your breath. It ain't coming. Thank God.

Also, nice one here.

In the meanwhile, ClickToFlash might help you kill some of those twitchy web banners.

Fake Steve piece by Dan Lyons: NY Times all but says it: Ballmer must go.

The scariest one, if you're Ballmer, is the following quote from an investor whose fund recently bought 800,000 shares of Borg stock:

"I am willing to give the present management another 15 months."

Oops. Very oops.

Along the same lines: Why the Borg's copycat business model no longer works.

"President Obama Thursday picked Adobe Systems co-founders Charles Geschke and John Warnock to receive one of the nation's highest honors bestowed on scientists, engineers and inventors — the National Medal of Technology and Innovation."

MercuryNews via Adobe's own John Nack.

Software companies are the new armies, aren't they.

Merlin Mann on the state of Adobe apps:

Each release of the Adobe apps I use (and used to so depend on) feels less stable, more bloated, and — easy as this was to overlook for a REALLY long time — increasingly less Mac-like. Or at least less OS X-like. They feel like sketches of OS X applications, drawn from memory.

Designers are practically living inside these apps, so every little point of friction (like the less Mac-like UI) becomes a pain in time.

Via DF.

These guys want Adobe to release FreeHand code and licensing to the opensource community for maintenance and further development — or provide updates. Otherwise: class action antitrust lawsuit.

Yes, it's a 100% Don Quixotesque affair, but let's face it: we're stuck with only one good vector drawing app: Adobe Illustrator. One. No choice. That can't be good.

Yeah. Thank God. What about Illustrator CS3?

"Microsoft is looking ever more so like the digital equivalent of General Motors. Car enthusiasts lost interest in GM’s cars long before regular people did; the same is happening with Windows."

Gruber in Microsoft’s Long, Slow Decline.

MyFonts not only has a new logo, but just launched its WhatTheFont application for iPhone: "upload an image of a font in use and WhatTheFont will identify which font it is." For free.

Update: I tested it with a simple job and it works.

"That, is what using [Adobe] Reader creates in so many people. Low-level misery and a slight tarnish on your soul." John C. Welch.

Well, it tarnishes my soul with its mystifyingly crappy anti-aliasing.

"No matter how good or bad their software actually is, one thing is for sure: Adobe’s engineers appear to be utterly unable to design a proper Mac OS X software installer." Yet another lousy Adobe installer.

Via DF.

Wonderful iPhone book reader.

In an unexpected yet truly visionary move, Adobe ads to Illustrator not one but two breakthrough features present in that competing product since last century: 'multiple artboards' and 'bleed'. I feel so young.

And if we are really, really lucky, we might even live to see the day when a 'clipping mask' will really clip and mask in outline view — just like in that competing product from last century.

"For the next version, please could you stop adding features." "Why does Photoshop cost as much as a pre-owned small car?" Exactly! Join the whiners.

Via Photoshelter.

Adobe Reader 9 is out and people [1, 2, 3, 4] think it triumphantly sucks.

And, sice we're here, take a look at UnexpectedlyQuit, a blog of Adobe-related error messages.

First Photoshop icon: a tiny shop. Via DF.

Adobe discontinues Adobe Stock Photos because "it was just not as compelling as we thought it was going to be." Via John Nack.

I find myself buying a lot of shareware these days, trying to find comfort in little apps that do things differently. The last one is WriteRoom, a cool light-wheight full-screen text editor. Use coupon code 'genki' to get it at 50% off.

X-Rite announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy Pantone — Mac Observer. [via DF]

Advanced tech, indistinguishable from magic — "this new method of image resizing looks for seams (not simple columns or rows) of pixels with the 'least energy' both vertically and horizontally in the image and then uses this to enable resizing without losing important image content such as human subjects or other detail." [via DPReview]

Although on a Mac Opera is not really at home, on a mobile phone is quite a different story — and Opera Mini 4 beta is out now. The new features include full-page viewing with zoom. Highly recommended! [via Authentic Boredom]

The scandal regarding Adobe CS3 Euro rip-off is climbing. Read The Register's coverage here, as well as the pricing analysis and Adobe's insolent answers here. Also please sign the petition "Fair pricing for European Software" if you haven't signed it yet (unless, of course, you enjoy being ripped off).

«We, the undersigned, request that Adobe revises their pricing for Europe and apply fair pricing for European countries. If this is not possible, we request a valid explanation of why Adobe sells their products 190% of the US price to its European customers.» Sign the petition.