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Adobe has released a new version of Adobe Photoshop Touch that's been optimized for iPhone and iPod touch users. The app was previously available only for iPad users, but now brings the core features of the desktop version to your iPhone as well.

Adobe Photoshop Touch for phone offers powerful new capabilities for smartphone users:
· Enhance images using popular Photoshop features such as layers, selection tools, filters, tonal and color adjustments
· Apply effects and add graphical text for endless creative possibilities
· Edit images as large as 12 megapixels with layers
· Combine images together quickly using the Scribble Selection feature, and easily refine your selection with the Refine Edge tool
· Automatically sync images to Adobe Creative Cloud™ with free 2GB of storage

Adobe updated its Photoshop Touch app today, optimizing things for the new iPad mini. It also adds a host of other improvements, including:

· Added support for three pressure-sensitive styli for iPad: Pogo Connect, Jot Touch and JaJa
· New ways to share completed projects to Facebook and Twitter directly from the app
· Added effects including Lens Flare and Stamp Pattern
· New performance and workflow enhancement including smoother brush strokes and new color selection workflow

Adobe today released an update to their Photoshop Touch app for iPad. The update finally ads Retina display support and smooths out the navigation and animation a bit. Full details below:

Adobe Photoshop Touch 1.3 Update

Retina Display Support
Even Higher Resolution Capabilities (up to 12 MP image size)
Two new Effects: Shred and Colorize
Smoother animation and scrolling in the organizer, tutorial browser, and file picker
New three finger tap gesture to toggle 100% view and fit screen
New pixel nudging mode for precise movements
Support for Apple Photo Stream**
Various bug fixes

We love The New Yorker. The magazine’s off-beat takes on news of the week by world class writers, the erudite critics, the infusion of short fiction and poetry coupled with charming cartoons, cover art and a complete list of everything cultural happening in Manhattan gives it relevancy and something we seldom get to talk about – re-read value. For iOS and print subscribers yesterday brought great news, The New Yorker updated their app to make it universal, with a new for-iPhone interface. If you haven’t read the magazine before now’s the time. This week’s issue is free on all iOS devices.

The new UI is nothing short of amazing. Using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite magic they have a an iPhone iteration that downloads in seconds and is only 27MB compared with the 183MB the same issue takes up on iPad. As far as we can tell, no content has been omitted or truncated. Other iPhone-only perks, which we hope to see on iPad soon too, include easy sharing of what seems to be all the articles and definitely all the cartoons. We expected readability issues for our, um, how to put this, senior (citizen) writers, but remarkably the text appears slightly larger than on iPad and is extremely clear.

We hope, along with a similar update for iPad readers, Conde Nast continues to bring its magazines in on this deal with Adobe. If this first iPhone New Yorker issue is any indication it’s a match made in digital publishing heaven.

CloudOn has introduced version 2.0 of their document viewing and editing service, adding several key new features. First, Box has been added as a cloud storage service alongside Dropbox, with plans to add more services in the future, according to CEO Milind Gadekar when I spoke with him about the update recently. Box support should come as a boon to business users looking to take advantage of CloudOn, as according to Chris Yeh, Vice President of Platform at Box, "Over 120,000 businesses and 82% of the Fortune 500 use Box to store, manage and access their business content."

The other major feature of CloudOn 2.0 is Adobe Reader support for PDFs and any other files that support their viewer, including Photoshop files, and images. The PDF viewer is more extensive than built-in support, including support for features like 3D modeling in PDFs that the iPad's built-in PDF viewer does not support. This goes along with improvements to streaming performance in the newer version, the ability to open attachments in CloudOn and email attachments directly from the app. Emails will display as being from the same address as the user's CloudOn account. The free update is available now.

Adobe has released their latest app for iOS, bringing one of their most used services to Apple in an official capacity for the first time. That's right, Adobe Reader is now available as a free universal app. Those guessing Flash, we're sorry, but that is probably never happening. Still. Adobe Reader allows for PDF files to be opened and displayed from this app.

The advantage that Adobe Reader provides over other PDF reading solutions, which range from apps like GoodReader to even just Apple's built-in PDF support in Mail and iBooks, comes from DRM support. The app supports files encoded with Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management, as well as PDFs encrypted up to AES256, which Adobe claims is "the highest grade of PDF encryption." As well, it's possible to search PDF text and copy text to the clipboard, print PDFs with AirPrint, share PDF files with other applications, and mail PDF files as attachments.

Chillingo has announced that they are partnering with Icelandic developer Plain Vanilla to publish a new children's game for iOS. Entitled The Moogies, this app is intended to be a sort of interactive toy. Children can interact with the various characters and their environments, seeing how each item reacts to the child's touch. As well, the Moogies react to voice input, so kids get to explore this world on iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch in whatever way they want. The app will be a premium one, with no advertisements, in-app purchases, or external links.

Joe Wee, Co-General Manager of Chillingo says “As more parents adapt to using iOS devices for educational and entertainment purposes, debuting a new children franchise on this innovative platform makes a lot of sense. The Moogies is a fantastic example of how creative apps can transform a child’s learning experience.” The Moogies will be adorabling themselves on the App Store in November as a universal app. Until then, check out this announcement trailer for the app showing what it's all about.

These days, it appears as though everyone has a home computer. It also seems like most people have iPhones. And I always see a surprising amount of people carrying around iPads, too. So it's not out of the question to imagine that at least some of these folks own two or even all three of these devices. The problem is, in this age of shutter-happy digital photography, it gets a little hard to store all those pictures in one location. Putting them on the phone is a good idea because then they can be shown off at a moment's notice. Keeping them on the pad makes for easy editing. But then, the computer has a lot more storage space. What to do...

Well, Adobe's gone and made a reasonable solution to the issue: Adobe Carousel.

For all intents and purposes, it's basically cloud photo storage. All images will be kept in one spot and will be available on any iOS device with an internet connection. Tweaking a photo from one (i.e. adjusting hues and the like) no longer requires syncing or transferring between systems; the updated image will be viewable by all instantly. Oh, and said editing can be done from inside Adobe Carousel, similar to Photoshop Lightroom. It certainly seems like something the photo-happy iOS user could get a lot of use out of.

Granted, all this convenience and freedom from restrictive storage capacities does have a price. A very literal price. Adobe Carousel will require a subscription which can be either monthly ($5.99) or yearly ($59.99), depending on the user's preference. Granted this isn't all that substantial when compared to various other subscription fees, and it has no restrictions so users can import, edit and browse as much as they want.

There doesn't appear to be a specific release date yet, but according to Adobe's website it should be out "soon." Likewise there's no official word on cost, free or otherwise, aside from the subscription fee. Still, this is an app shutterbugs should keep an eye out for.

At the Photoshop World conference on March 30th, 2011, Adobe demonstrated a new version of an iPad Photoshop app that features layers support, layering being one of the key features of advanced image editors like Photoshop. This would allow for advanced image editing on the go, as complex, layered images could be created, as well as with the new features like dragging and rotating of image objects, and a new color mixer tool. Adobe has yet to announce any details on when or how this would be released - Photoshop Express already exists for the iPad (as well as the iPhone and iPod touch as a universal app), but the features in this app Adobe demoed would be far beyond what we've seen from the current Photoshop Express app. A more advanced image editing app could be a major selling point on the iPad for image editors, especially with the iPad being such a portable, lightweight device. This app is a potentially major announcement, and it will be interesting to see what Adobe reveals next about this potential Photoshop app for the iPad.

Source: Photography Bay (via electronista)

Like it or not, the PDF document format is here to stay.  Originally created as Adobe's proprietary attempt to undercut Microsoft's document format, the PDF has not only become widespread, but in some cases it has even become the defacto standard.  One such case is when documents need to be filled out and filed on the web.  Unfortunately, the were no options to handle this kind of interaction on the iPad until PDF Expert came around.

The app was so well received that it managed to land a four and a half star rating here at 148Apps, in our official review.  Along with the obvious ability to read PDFs on the iPad, some of the other standout features included the ability to both highlight and notate the text, as well as efficiently using the real estate available on the iPad.  But the application's developer, Readdle, wasn't willing to rest on their laurels, despite the product's stellar launch.

In fact, they just released an update that address a number of different issues that were brought to their attention by already satisfied customers.  Here are some of the additions that were made:

• Static Adobe LiveCycle forms are supported.


• "Submit" and "Email" actions works.


• Sugarsync support


• More than 100 small improvements related to sync, annotations and forms.

PDF Expert allows to submit values filled into PDF form fields with full compliance with Adobe specification. Mid-sized and large businesses rely heavily on this feature of PDF forms to capture the data from many people, like customers, students or focus groups.

Desktop tools like Adobe Acrobat Pro or LiveCycle allows anyone to create such form and embed "Submit" button directly into the page. Once user fills out the values, he or she only need to tap the button to send filled data to form creator.

As much as we loved the app the first time around, you can bet that these updates will help further forge PDF Expert into a well rounded product.  It is thanks to feedback from you, their customers, that aid in making products that much better.  So give yourself a pat on the back, and this irreplaceable app a download.  We're sure you will find it just as useful as we did.

It seemed like the much talked up Wired Magazine for iPad, made in collaboration with Adobe, had hit a major problem when Apple banned Flash-based apps from the App Store, but now it has arrived and with Adobe’s help.

Rumor has it that Wired and Adobe had to rewrite the app to comply with Apple’s Objective C requirements after Apple blocked the use of 3rd party creation tools, namely Adobe's new Flash tools in CS5. Today, the app has gone live on the App Store and, it seems, all the blood sweat and tears were worth it. Wired Magazine for iPad looks to have set a benchmark among other publishers who have rushed out digital versions of their apps and uses interactive features as well as traditional page viewing techniques to show off the magazine’s content in an exciting new way.

The app does weigh in at a hefty 500Mb so you're not going to be able to keep too many copies on your iPad at one time, however, if all magazines follow this model and perform this well, it looks like the digital publishing revolution, hailed when the iPad was still just a rumor, may have well and truly begun.

The video below is Wired’s official video for its app that, ironically, requires Flash.

If you've ever wondered why you see a little blue Lego brick rather than a video when using Safari on an iPod, iPhone or iPad, it's really down to the personal preferences of two very rich and powerful men.

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, is never one to mince his words or compromise when it comes to his company or its products and has exhibited these qualities once again with an "open letter" explaining his thought's on Adobe's Flash products amid the ongoing hostilities between the two companies.

When the iPhone was first launched, many criticized its inability to play the Flash video used on many websites including YouTube. Websites created using Flash technology were also incompatible with the iPhone.

With the launch of the App Store most of these complaints were calmed and Apple's own YouTube app solved part of the web video problem, however a number of major sites such as The New York Times still use Flash and therefor cannot be viewed properly in the iPhone's Safari browser.

Adobe is "lazy"...
At a recent meeting of Apple employees, Jobs was said to refer to Adobe as "lazy" and referred to its buggy versions of Flash for the Mac as reasons not to support it on Apple's mobile devices. These comments were supposed to be behind closed doors, but Jobs' "Thoughts on Flash" posted last week on Apple's website is for the world to see. Apple has also banned the submission of any apps to the App Store that were built using Adobe's new Flash CS5 tools.

In his notes Jobs explains: "I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe's Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads."

Running through six topics covering everything from Flash's inability to work with touch devices through security issues and battery life, all the while promoting the new HTML5 standard, Jobs concludes with this stinging sign off "Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind".

Apple's "smokescreen"...
Adobe's CEO Shantanu Narayen has, in some part, responded to Jobs' harsh words in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in which he refutes a number of Jobs' statements referring to them as a "smokescreen" as well as finding Jobs' reference to Flash being a closed standard as "amusing". The fight back from Adobe appears to be focussing on its belief that all devices are equal and its software allows developers to create apps for a number of devices while Apple wants to control and manipulate its own hardware and software platform.

In some ways, Narayen is right. Everybody wants their sites and apps to be available on these highly popular Apple devices. Security and performance issues aside, by allowing Flash apps and sites into the mix, Apple would be relinquishing some control and would provide Adobe with more power. Without Flash, app developers must stick to using Apple's own tools to create software for the App Store and web developers must take advantage of the open HTML5 standard to keep their sites compatible. Adobe is left out in the cold until it decides to toe the line.

So what's the result of all this squabbling?
Adobe will push on and allow developers to create content for all of the other devices out there while being forced to ignore Apple, the market leader. On the flip-side, Apple will feel little effect while continuing to develop its ecosystem and maintain control of its developers and platform.

For these reasons, along with Jobs' pigheadedness when it comes to quality and control, the blue bricks will remain until the rest of the world catches up to Apple's view of the future - and that doesn't include Flash.

image credit: Flickr user Ping ping