[UPDATE (June 8th) – Lightroom 3 is out! Win a free upgrade.]

We think we know when Lightroom 3 is going to ship, but while we’re waiting Adobe yesterday released a new update to Lightroom 2, bringing the popular photo management package now up to version 2.7… Adobe has added support for new and additional cameras, plus some enhancements and corrections for issues in previous releases. There were also changes to improve compatibility with settings in Lightroom 3 beta 2, and lastly the Camera Raw cache limit was increased to 200GB. New camera models added include the Canon EOS 550D, Sony A450, and Panasonic G2 and G10 (see full list of Lightroom-supported cameras).

If you already own Lightroom 2, then the update to 2.7 is free and can be downloaded here for Windows or here for Macintosh (in English, French, and German). If you still have Lightroom 1 those same links can get you to version 1.4, though a full upgrade to version 2.7 is only $99. Or you can try it out first for free.

As is customary, Adobe has released new versions of Camera Raw and DNG Converter at the same time, versions 5.7 for both Windows and Mac.

Photoshop and Premiere Elements 8 are the top consumer photo- and video-editing products on the planet*, and this is one of the best deals we’ve ever seen on the bundle package, which has received great reviews. You get $50 off for the pair, with a combination of instant savings ($20) plus mail-in rebate ($30) – yielding a one-third price cut and a net cost of just $99.99, plus you can download them instantly.

If you want Photoshop Elements by itself, the total savings is $30 instead. The offers are valid until May 10, 2010 for purchases made through the Adobe Store, and the only bad news is these discounts are available in U.S. and Canada only.

See our earlier quick take on Elements 8. Or if you like you can try them out for free first.

(* Source: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service based on units sold, 2002 to 2010.)

Adobe MAX 2010
October 23–27, 2010
Los Angeles Convention Center and
Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE
Los Angeles, California

At Adobe MAX 2010, you’ll discover the next wave of opportunities fueled by the explosion of rich content and applications across multiple screens (from smart phones to tablets to PCs to TVs), the merging of digital content and commerce, and workflows that bring design and development together. MAX is an experience unlike any other – for five unforgettable days, MAX 2010 will bring together thousands of designers, developers, and decision-makers to set the course for the next generation of digital experiences.

Join the leading innovators of the greater Adobe community with more than 100 hands-on labs and 200 sessions and explore the latest trends, techniques, and technologies in the Adobe Flash® Platform and get extensive training on Creative Suite® 5, Flash Professional CS5, Flex®, Acrobat®, ColdFusion®, AIR®, and LiveCycle®.

MAX 2010 will be hosted at the Los Angeles Convention Center and Nokia Theatre, part of L.A. LIVE, an exciting entertainment campus offering world-class restaurants and venues.

Should be amazing with all the new products rolling out this year… Learn more and register now or get on the mailing list.

[UPDATE (July 1st) – Save $400 off a full conference pass with the new promotion here. Or if you are a full-time college student aged 18 years or older, you can save even more and get it for the greatly-discounted price of $199. See details at the MAX site.]

[UPDATE (March 2012) – Adobe's grace period for free upgrades to CS6 is here!]

This seems to be the question of the week. Adobe’s policy for major product releases has been that you may qualify for a free upgrade if you buy the old version after the new version has been announced, but before it ships… The advantages are threefold: (1) you get software available for immediate download, (2) you get a more mature release if you prefer and can move up later at your leisure, and (3) you win a lower upgrade cost (e.g., from CS, CS2, CS3), because you’re buying fewer steps to go up (to CS4 rather than to CS5).

The question now is, does this apply now for CS5? Creative Suite 5 was officially announced on Monday, April 12, and CS5 is now in preorder. However, you can still buy and download CS4 on Adobe’s site. So, we are in that relevant eligibility period right now… But will it work – could you get the best of both worlds and buy or upgrade to CS4 now, and then later get a free upgrade to CS5 when you—and it—are ready?

Well the official page on the matter at Adobe is called the “post-announce upgrade policy” (for retail and educational versions) – and it has not changed since CS5 was launched. If there were any change in policy, it would already be reflected there. So Adobe’s historic policy remains in effect. Arguably this free policy and its name could be a bit clearer, but it is what it is – and probably Adobe doesn’t want to broadcast it too much.

Supporting the case is anecdotal evidence. Folks who have recently contacted Adobe have reported, “Adobe Sales con­firmed free upgrade when CS5 ships” (also here) and “you can install and run CS4 and CS5 on the same computer.”

However, the free upgrade is not automatic. It does depend on the software version and time of purchase. For example, your upgrade must be for the same platform, language, and edition as your previous version. So the short answer is that it may be possible – but you might wish to check with Adobe Customer Service (email, chat, or phone) in your particular case to verify that you qualify and request the materials to file an upgrade request, as the offer is only avail­able through Adobe directly.

In any event, rumor has it that CS5 could be shipping on April 30th and delivered by May 7th – so if you’re thinking about doing it then that could be the remaining window!

Missed the big event? No problem! You can watch a full replay… It’s about an hour in length, but we promise you there’s so much tightly packed into that hour that it could easily be five times as long! And even if you caught it the first time, we found it to be worth a review to catch what flew by before – plus the production values (as you might expect from Adobe) are pretty sweet…

(click at the bottom right for full-screen HD)

Late yesterday, in a post entitled, “CS5 Countdown is on…“, Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch wrote about the recent decision by Apple to restrict which Software Development Kits can be employed to produce iPad and iPhone apps:

So, what’s all the fuss about the Apple proposed revised SDK license?

Yesterday Apple released some proposed changes to their SDK license restricting the technologies that developers can use, including Adobe [Flash] software and others such as Unity and Titanium.

First of all, the ability to package an application for the iPhone or iPad is one feature in one product in Creative Suite. CS5 consists of 15 industry-leading applications, which contain hundreds of new capabilities and a ton of innovation. We intend to still deliver this capability in CS5 and it is up to Apple whether they choose to allow or disallow applications as their rules shift over time.

Secondly, multiscreen is growing beyond Apple’s devices. This year we will see a wide range of excellent smartphones, tablets, smartbooks, televisions and more coming to market and we are continuing to work with partners across this whole range to enable your content and applications to be viewed, interacted with and purchased.

Tune In

Creative Suite 5 is a tremendous leap forward, and I encourage you to tune into the global webcast on Monday 8am PDT and find out all the details.

In talking further about CS5, Lynch also reveals some screenshots and hints about what to expect on Monday – in particular focussing on how Adobe is incorporating social computing aspects for doing work across the network, adding more cloud-based capabilities that comple­ment client-side software, and enabling creation of content and applications across an increasing number of screens.

You can read the rest of Lynch’s piece here.

[UPDATE (April 21th) – Roger Risdal, Partner Product Manager at Adobe, has further commentary here on New language in Apple's new iPhone OS v4 SDK agreement. Also Adobe Flash Product Manager Mike Chambers' follow-up, On Adobe, Flash CS5 and iPhone Applications.]

As referenced in our previous article about CS5 shipping timeframes, Adobe’s top dog gave a presentation last week to financial analysts in which he talked about Creative Suite 5. He said some interesting things, but as most regular folks and creatives don’t often read financial transcripts, here are the highlights:

We are excited about the upcoming launch of CS5. It will be a phenomenal release, rich with innovative “wow” features, new products and integrated workflows. It will enable an even broader set of designers and developers to more effectively create deliver and measure engaging experiences across media and devices. We’re hosting a global online event to launch CS5, which is on track to ship in major languages [English, French, German and Japanese] late in Q2. [Ed. note – Adobe's fiscal second quarter ends in late May.]

It’s clear the trends continue to be in favor of what we’ve been doing which is to enable our customers to offer once and deliver across multiple media types and the amount of digital content that we see created continues to increase, and frankly it continues to be richer – so more video, more use of animation and interactivity.

Our need is to enable our customers to have one workflow rather than multiple stovepipe workflows. So with that backdrop, we recognize that creative pros and companies are facing unprecedented challenges frankly, which is how can they deliver this engaging consistent brand experience across many devices.

We now think that our solution, the combination of Creative Suite with Omniture as well as with Flash Player 10.1, really provides a comprehensive approach to enable them to do that. That coupled with the strengthened economy and the innovation we’ve done in CS5, gives us a lot of confidence for the remainder of the year, but also frankly for the entire duration of the CS5 release.

Since it’s probably going to get asked, let me give you a few factors about what is in CS5. I think the big themes for us are first, the ability to design without boundaries, and that comes both from new products we’re introducing in CS5 like Flash Catalyst. Everything we’ve done with InDesign where you can now use InDesign content and repurpose that for electronic delivery without writing a single line of code, what we’ve done in Photoshop including support for 3D capabilities.

The second theme is really all about working faster with greater precision and this is support for new formats, HD for example, as well as what we’ve done with the new Mercury Engine and our video product which allows people to render video using hardware acceleration as well as native 64-bit support.

And finally, services – we’ve talked about the desire to extend our desktop function­ality with services. You’ll see that with CS Live. So all of that points to a solid release and we’re excited. You’ll learn a lot more about what’s in the products and pricing at the launch event.

[UPDATE – Also see our new Photoshop CS6 Giveaway!]

Less than a week to go now until the big Global Online Launch of Creative Suite 5, if you haven’t signed up yet … We’ve talked a lot here about Photoshop CS5, so here’s your chance to win it for free! All you have to do is enter your email address in the “Adobe Special Offers” box in the sidebar to the right for our free occasional e-newsletter. That’s it.

It’s open worldwide with one subscription per person and submissions end at 11:59pm EDT on Friday, April 30th, 2010. Then on May 1st (right before we think CS5 is released) we’ll choose one new subscriber at random, and if it’s you we’ll ship you a shiny new shrinkwrap­ped box of Photoshop CS5 for free! (up to $699 value) We’ll contact you via email just to get your address for shipping, and then follow up back here announcing your first name and home­town. It’s that simple, no kidding!

If you like, you can find out more about the newsletter you’ll be receiving – it typically contains select Adobe-related news items plus the latest discounts and great coupon codes. And of course you can easily unsubscribe from the bottom of any issue. Naturally we’ll never spam you or share your email address with anyone else, ever. So enter your email today and tell your friends – someone has to win the giveaway and there’s nothing to lose!

Just out: a very cool Adobe Photoshop CS5* preview demo on a new feature called Puppet Warp that lets you distort and warp images with extreme accuracy… Just set a few control points and then it becomes a breeze to precisely reposition or warp any image element – like swing a raised arm to a person’s side in a photo, wrap a rope any way you want, manipulate a puppet, stretch or wind text to create new effects, or structurally realign images with a click or drag of the mouse… What else can you think of?

Incredible convergence happening with these tools and what they can do.

* Creative Suite 5 inclusion is subject to the same disclaimers confirmed! as for our earlier previews on Photoshop CS5 and Dreamweaver CS5.

[UPDATE (April 30th) – CS5 is now shipping!]

As you may have heard, Creative Suite 5 will be launched on April 12 with a big rollout event that Adobe anticipates over 200,000 people to sign up and attend… So we’ll all learn about what’s coming – but we won’t be able to use or download the software yet – for that we have to wait further. But when will that happen? Well, there’s a lot of mis­information and stray guesses out there about when the shipping date(s) will be, so we thought it might be instructive to take a look at exactly how things happened last time for CS4, eighteen months ago…

So here is our analysis on what CS5′s important dates will be, if the CS4 model is followed – although please note these are our own working estimates and not from Adobe:

Confirming this analysis to some extent comes actual word from Adobe, although not widely disseminated… Buried deep inside a transcript of last week’s first-quarter earnings conference call, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was quoted as saying in response to an analyst’s question about the availability of CS5:

I know there’s been some confusion about what we mean by “launch” versus what we mean by “ship.” On April 12th, we’ll talk a lot more about the new features and function­alities of the suites, the various product configurations, and what we’ve done with pricing. We have some new products which will factor into the pricing moving forward. And then traditionally, four weeks later or so, you tend to ship the English version followed by the major language versions a few weeks after that. The early feedback has been very positive.

So there you have it – hopefully installing in May. Now the next most commonly-asked question out there is, “if I buy CS4 now, will I get a free upgrade when CS5 ships?” Also known as the Adobe free upgrade “grace period” question… We’ll cover that in a coming article.

[UPDATE (May 6th) – Adobe CS5 French and German versions are now available / Français Maintenant Disponible / Deutsch Jetzt Verfügbar]
[UPDATE (May 10th) – CS5 is now also shipping and downloadable in Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Portuguese.]