Danger, Will Robinson! Adobe is warning that "critical vulnerabilities" have been found in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.1.1 and earlier. They are recommending that Acrobat 8 and Adobe Reader users install the 8.1.2 update as soon as possible. Those who are using Acrobat 7 are advised to install the 7.1.0 update quickly as well.

A full summary of the security concerns and links to the update files can be yours by visiting the Adobe security update site. Note that while Acrobat & Reader 8.1.2 have been out for some time, the 7.1 update is fresh this week and the security issue is newly disclosed.

[via Macintouch]

Santa came early, bringing a little gift from Adobe. Adobe Reader (née Acrobat Reader) Version 8.0 is out and guess what... It's Universal Binary and it's kinda fast. Not like lightening fast, but practically zippy. Thanks, Adobe!

Then again, since I have to complain about something (because you all say I do, so I must), I'll tell you how annoyed I am that I have to download an application that I don't want from Adobe in order to download an application that I do want from Adobe. When you go through the download area and click the download link, you get the familiar "Thank you for downloading Adobe Reader. Your Adobe Reader software download will start automatically." But that's a lie. The Reader software isn't downloaded. The Reader Download Manager is downloaded. So you have to download that, install it (grrrrr...), and then it launches and starts downloading the actual program you wanted to begin with, which takes much longer on an 8 Mbps cable connection than it should, and then you finally get the actual Adobe Reader installer. But wait, you're not in the clear yet. After it finally installs, it automatically launches, bugs you a few times about updating the Safari plugin and the immediately starts downloading an update for the Adobe Updater app. I nodded off at that point so I have no idea what happened next, but eventually I opened a PDF with it and noticed how much faster it launched than Adobe Reader 7.0.8. Three dock bounces to launch instead of 6. That must mean it's twice as good, right?

Ok, I've gotten that out of my system now. Did I mention the pretty new red splash screen? That's kinda nice.

Reader 8 requires Mac OS X v. 10.4.3 or later, weighs in at just over 20MB, and it awaits your call.