Filed under: Software, Graphic Design
Adobe CS4 announcement expected Sept. 23
Just when you thought you just bought (or just finished paying for) Adobe Creative Suite 3, get ready to take out another mortgage for Adobe CS4, which will be publicly unveiled on September 23. AppleInsider conjectures the software will drop in October.
Adobe will be delivering several webcasts that day to showcase the new software to the public. You can register here to participate in the webcasts.
Improvements to Photoshop and Flash are expected to headline the event. Adobe did not release any details about how the software will be bundled, nor any pricing information. Full versions of Adobe CS3 can cost as much as $2,500 for new users, and $160 for those who want to upgrade.
Adobe released preview editions of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth in late May.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chris said 2:02PM on 9-03-2008
I'm getting fed up with Adobe. They used to be the golden child in my eyes, but now their product support (which was abysmal after the Leopard update) is nonexistent and almost arrogant. I argued on their forums for weeks about the problems with CS2, then CS3 with Leopard and was told it was Apple's fault and I should upgrade to CS3. After that, I continue to have problems with CS3 and support still argued with me that it wasn't their fault. However, no other program I have used on Leopard has had so many problems as CS3. Now, they want us to upgrade to CS4 after they wanted us to upgrade CS3 to fix Leopard issues? Give me a break! I'm moving to Pixelmator and VectorDesigner. They are so much cheaper and offer me mostly what I need. Adobe programs have become bloated, expensive and just plain bad.
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Frost said 2:13PM on 9-03-2008
The best part of that news is that I just bought the CS3 suite less than a week ago believing that it wouldn't come out until first quarter of 2009.
By "best part" I mean I'm kicking myself hard.
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Yaphi said 2:14PM on 9-03-2008
I would much rather have a CS 3.5
Adobe not putting out point releases is the main reason I can't stand them as a company. I know I don't HAVE to upgrade to CS 4, but there is probably some speed or stability issue I will need over CS 3, but it will cost me a few hundred bucks to get it.
Sigh...
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BenY said 3:33PM on 9-03-2008
I wholeheartedly agree. Version numbers are always meaningless, to some extent, but the decision to force customers to pay for an upgrade -- often with SLIM improvements -- just to keep up with bug fixes on the old product is ... well ... shameful! It is amazing what people put up for in software that they would never put up with in hardware, all based on the illusion that software companies will fix problems because they can. No, they'll fix problems when they are worried about losing customers, which for companies with a monopoly on a market isn't too damn often. (Not saying that applies to Adobe, mind you, just venting.)
ChillyWilly said 12:53PM on 9-06-2008
I used the CS suite for a while (still have it installed on my wife's Mac mini G4), but made the upgrade jump to CS3 for my MacBook Pro back in 2006. So far, I've barely scratched the surface on new features, let alone wanting to spend more time with Illustrator and getting good at that. So far, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Acrobat Pro are my 3 most used programs and work fine under Tiger (still need to move to Leopard someday)
crsh said 2:52PM on 9-03-2008
Since the first CS release, they just feed us bloated updates every, what, 18 months? No reason to upgrade yet, I'm still on CS2 anyway and it fills all my needs.
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duke said 2:57PM on 9-03-2008
lol at anyone who actually pays for their software, especially adobe products.
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crsh said 3:38PM on 9-03-2008
Some folks actually graduated from highschool and willingly pay for their stuff. Shocking, I know.
wat said 3:46PM on 9-03-2008
lol yeah, like those developers have families to feed. Pshht.
Ashwin said 4:04PM on 9-03-2008
Adobe CS3 software is particularly hard to pirate. I gave up on trying to pirate Photoshop and Flash, and have decided to wait until I can afford to pay for it.
Marcel Ray said 4:15PM on 9-03-2008
LOL at anyone who steals from you, too. Like crsh said, at some point you come to realize that paying for stuff is good (and even feels good). If you run your own business or profit from the things you're creating, then shame on you if you're not paying for it. It's tax deductible, anyway.
That said, I'm not happy either that I just bought CS3 and will have to upgrade at some point.
marcelebrate said 4:18PM on 9-03-2008
I should also mention (from experience) that software piracy is a virus itself. If you form the habit of pirating software on bigger stuff (Adobe, Microsoft, Apple), then it's easier for you to justify pirating software from smaller companies (Panic, Agile and countless others) who actually DO directly depend on your buying their software to survive as a company.
However I'll admit that, coming from the freeware laden Windows world, I am a little frustrated at how many "one trick pony" Mac applications are overpriced for what they do. Maybe a lot of budget went to coming up with the clever titles and cute icons?
SubGenius said 4:55PM on 9-03-2008
Adobe should take a lesson from Apple and not add any new features and instead focus on speed and stability.
I am very excited about Snow Leopard.
I am not excited about CS4.
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BT said 7:37PM on 9-03-2008
I'm not sure what else Photoshop needs. I've used it for ages and seldom touch the new features. The most notable exception is the Healing Tool, which I love dearly.
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Rio said 5:44PM on 9-05-2008
Gees! another version, come on now, is not fair lol, well I just bought cs3 and it took me a while to come up with 1200 bucks! I should just take it back! dreamweaver is the main one that change lay-out wise, but nothing major.
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Marc said 9:53AM on 9-08-2008
To Yaphi & Ben
Adobe USED to put out "point releases", and charge us quite a bit for them, despite usually minor changes.
As far as the last product cycle went, CS2 to CS3 had MAJOR feature changes in most of the apps I use. (Maybe not Illustrator). I upgraded to get those features. No one forced me. In fact, I went into the announcement assuming I wasn't going to upgrade at all...I wound up buying two upgrades- Web Premium for the office and Production Premium for the studio.
Adobe DOES still do "point releases"...they're called updates and they're free. Premiere Pro had the most problems out of the box, but I've received 2 or 3 free "point releases" since then (I believe it's at 3.2) And Acrobat 8.1 solved a major problem for Windows users.
I'll approach CS4 the same way...right now my budget for it is zero. Once I see what they have planned, I may change my mind. (The theory that Director might be bundled in could be a big factor...I've never been able to justify the expense, and simply steer clients towards interactive DVDs if they ask for CD-ROMS.)
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Levi Figueira said 2:52PM on 9-16-2008
I have the Master Collection (CS3), bought 4-5 months ago! Except very few bug fixes, I haven't seen a *single* update since... I only saw CS3.5 come out (paid upgrade) and the announcement of CS4 (paid upgrade).
From the current suite, I use Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and Fireworks heavily! I barely touch any of the other apps but getting a Master Collection is still the cheapest way to get those.
I wanted to use Bridge/Version Cue but it's the most unstable and useless piece of crap I've seen. All the other apps are good to have around but useless to me at this point (eg. After Effects) or completely and utterly junk (eg. Dreamweaver).
Being a web designer/developer that frequently works with audio/video (not Soundbooth though), I hate that I have to keep upgrading to the new Master Collection just to get bug fixes and compatibility problems solved. Why can't they make bundles by number of apps??? For instance, choose 5 apps from our lineup and pay $1500; choose 8 apps and pay $2000; etc... The current model is a "Microsoft-style" way of selling dieing products (read "Dreamweaver") for people that want Fireworks and Illustrator... Plus if you want InDesign *and* Fireworks YOU HAVE to either get the Master Collection or 2 different collections (more expensive). I *need* InDesign *and* Fireworks so I'm bound to the Master Collection, which is fine because I need the video apps...
But they should definitely use a system like the one I mention above, where we choose the apps we need and pay by the number of apps we buy!
OHH... and point releases that ACTUALLY FIX things would be greatly appreciated... Paying for new release upgrades JUST because I want the bugs fixed and don't even care much for the new features is OUTRAGEOUS!
Alright... I'm glad I got that out of my chest!
Have a great day guys!
Bill said 2:12PM on 9-17-2008
How about an upgrade to Illustrator??? How long has it been since Adobe ate Macromedia? I mean, come on...InDesign's PMS color picker and grouping are better then Illustrator! Since I'm now forced to use Illustrator and not Freehand anymore, you'd think that would be the first thing they'd upgrade. And if they make us pay a separate upgrade cost for it and not bundle it into the CS4 costs, we're gonna be REALLY pi$$ed off...
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Mark said 12:18PM on 9-18-2008
I love how Adobe makes you pay for their phone tech support. I've never used it, but I hope that if anyone ever has, they got their money's worth.
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Chris said 7:04PM on 10-23-2008
These Adobe releases seem to be more frequent and I'm not seeing the gains....just more reasons to spend more money. Maybe CS stands for "continuous sucker."
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