With the official release of Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 looking to be just around the corner, it’s time to launch our September contest… This month we’re giving away three free boxes of PSE 9 (estimated value $100 each), and all you have to do for a chance to win 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.

If you like, you can also leave a comment below sharing what you hope will be in Photoshop Elements 9, and how you plan to use it… What new features are you looking for or wishing to see? Content-aware fill, puppet warp, 16-bit picture workflow, native 64-bit support, more effects, more artwork/templates, more sharing options, or others? Of course, we’ll have the full scoop on PSE 9 right here the moment it’s out…

Our Elements 9 Giveaway is open to residents of the USA, Canada, U.K. and Ireland, with one entry per person – and submissions end at 11:59pm EDT on September 30th, 2010. Then on October 1st we’ll choose three new subscribers at random, and if you’re one of them we’ll ship you a shiny new shrinkwrapped box of Photoshop Elements 9 for free! (Or if you’ve already purchased your copy by that time, just send us the receipt and we’ll reimburse 100% of your cost via PayPal.) 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!

You can find out more about our newsletter – it typically covers select Adobe-related news plus the latest specials and 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 spread the word – several visitors are going to win and there’s nothing to lose…

Also give your feedback to Adobe directly on the official Product Feature Request page – they read each and every submission.

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Following a major site upgrade in June, this week Adobe’s Photoshop.com expands further by rolling out new versions of their free web-based tools for photo manipulation and manage­ment. The renamed and redesigned Photoshop Express toolset is a collection of integrated online apps for editing, organizing, syncing, and sharing photos. These new and improved tools are faster and more intuitive to use for uploading and organizing images for easy access anywhere, applying quick fixes and cool effects, and sharing albums and slideshows online with family, friends, and colleagues. As before, membership is free with up to 2 GB of online storage included.

Adobe is billing Photoshop.com as the online complement to their family of Photoshop soft­ware. Millions of people so far have signed on for an account and benefited from powerful Photoshop technology for those on-the-go. In launching the site’s latest features, Adobe incorporated feedback from thousands of users who wanted a central destination hub for Photoshop interests that brings better and higher performance tools, plus tutorials, inspiration, community, product information, access to trials & purchase, news, and more.

In June, Adobe added hundreds of free instructional videos with tips and techniques for making the most of the applications, an introduction to the members of the Photoshop family to help choose the right product, and user spotlights with insights and ideas from digital imaging innovators – including photos, videos, and free downloadable Photoshop actions & Lightroom presets. They also sharpened focus on mobile with a new section covering the Photoshop.com Mobile apps for Apple iPhone, iPad, and Android devices so users can edit and share photos anytime, anywhere.

For the revamped tools just released, Photoshop Express promises the following:

Edit, organize, store, and share photos – all online: It’s digital imaging wherever you are.

• Fix & refine right online: Easily edit and enhance your photos with the Photoshop Express Editor.
• Instant editor: Take photos from ordinary to extraordinary in a flash – no signup or sign-in required.
• Get organized, start sharing: Upload photos and videos, create fun albums, and share with friends using the Photoshop Express Organizer – which now connects to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Photobucket, and Picasa.
• Put on a show: Create slick interactive slideshows using the Photoshop Express Slideshow, for sharing rich full-screen experiences with others.
• Upload faster, no downtime: Easily sync your computer and online Library with the Photoshop Express Uploader.

The Adobe Photoshop Express Editor, Organizer, Slideshow, and Uploader apps are available immediately on Photoshop.com in English, German, and Japanese. Adobe Photoshop Express 1.3 for Android devices is available on the Android Marketplace, and for the iPad & iPhone on the Apple iTunes App Store. For getting started, there are lots of questions answered on the substantial FAQ and help pages. Or just try it for yourself – your existing Adobe account ID will work fine, or you can quickly register for a free membership.

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New limited-time offer – discount pricing on award-winning Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements 8 software… Make summer photos look extraordinary! Adobe’s Elements 8 products make it easy to edit, enhance and share photos and video clips. Create amazing images and incredible movies, and use them together in cinematic slide shows and more.

The deal is available in many countries and varies a little depending on location. In North America, it’s save $50 on Photoshop and Premiere Elements together, or $30 on either product alone. In Europe and the U.K., it’s save 30% on the full bundle, or 15% on the single products or upgrades. No coupon or voucher code is needed to take advantage of this promotion, just click through.

The bottom line in the U.S. is you can now get both of these top-selling products for a terrific package price of $99.99. Photoshop or Premere Elements by itself would be $69.99.

If you want to try out the software first, you can download the free trials now and then just make your purchase before the offer expires.

This special offer is valid until August 16, 2010 for purchases made through the Adobe Store. Education, OEM and volume licensing customers are not eligible for this sale.

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With our post last week for five hours of free tutorials for Elements 7 and 8, it begged the question – when will Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9 be available?

Adobe historically ships a new version of Elements every year, in the fall – but when exactly? Let’s do some digging and find the release schedules for recent versions:

Funny things happened in 2008 with the launch of CS4 happening around the same time (September 23) – but if you exclude that occasion then the trend is definitely for the Elements release date happening in late September, just after back-to-school. Also, Adobe has shipped both Mac and Windows versions for six out of the eight Photoshop Elements releases, and lately Adobe has demonstrated increasing Mac support in other products, so we believe we’ll see both platforms supported again for Photoshop Elements 9.0.

So put it all together and we forecast that Photoshop and Premiere Elements 9 will ship on or about September 22, 2010, with PSE9 available on both Windows and Mac OS.

One question remains: what is likely to be in the new products? The current Elements 8 was largely inherited from CS4, so with CS5 out now we should see some nice innovations. Some have wondered if we might be so lucky to see “wow” additions like Content-Aware Fill or Puppet Warp coming in Photoshop Elements 9 – but our sense is these new features are a bit too fresh and flagship to move down to Elements at this time, and Adobe will likely keep them as “must-have” functions in Photoshop CS5 at least until CS6 and Photoshop Elements 10, which could arrive together in the fall of 2011.

To see the feature addition history for the last three releases of Elements, you can compare the different versions of: Photoshop Elements for Windows, Photoshop Elements for Mac, or Premiere Elements. What would you like to see in PSE 9 and PRE 9?

We’re giving away free copies of Photoshop Elements 9 – win yours! Or check our track record for forecasting other major Adobe product releases like CS5, Lightroom 3, and Acrobat 10.

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We’ve previously covered 14 hours of free video tutorials for Creative Suite 5, plus three hours for Lightroom 3 – so here’s a chance for Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements… Below the experts share how to get started, the basics of the programs, new features, plus their favorite tips and techniques. Most of the lessons will work for either version 8 or 7. All together there is five hours of free content, spanning over 50 chapters.

The majority of the videos were produced by Lynda.com, which is another excellent source of online tutorials (some free, some paid), and just released a new app for software training on the iPhone.

If you need a copy of either Elements product for your work, just download a free trial.

For Premiere Elements, the set of videos isn’t as comprehensive, but there’s still some good material here:

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We’re seeing some folks reporting problems trying to download the new Lightroom 3 using the Akamai Download Manager, which is enabled by default at Adobe.com… There are several posts on the user forums (e.g., here and here), as well as incoming visitor search queries here like “download link for lightroom 3 without akamai,” “adobe lightroom 3 direct download link,” and “how to download lightroom 3 from adobe without the download manager.”

So to complement our earlier sets of direct links for Adobe CS5 and CS4, below are the direct download links for Photoshop Lightroom 3 – they are very straightforward, just one single file for each platform that covers all languages (with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions contained inside for Windows)…

Because we’ve also had requests for links for the Elements product line (Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8), you’ll find those further down as well – including the extra con­tent files for Premiere Elements. All of these links go to the auth­entic and original files residing on Adobe’s servers, are guaranteed genuine and will not change.

Note: Very Important

You need to have a free Adobe account and be logged into it to use the links below, as Adobe sets a session cookie on your browser that allows you to access the direct download links. Otherwise, you will receive an “access denied” or “resume your download” message prevent­ing the connection. So please follow these instructions carefully or the links will not work!

0. Adobe recommends temporarily turning off any surfing restrictions you might have running, like site or cookie blocking, firewalls or antivirus software.
1. Visit this page and click on the “Download Now” button at the bottom.
2. If you already have an Adobe ID, then please sign in with it (checking “Remember me“), otherwise take a minute to create one for yourself.
3. Close/cancel any windows that may pop up.
4. Now that you’re logged in at Adobe with the trials cookie set, you can instantly download from the links below. Just make sure you have enough disk space available.
5. Download the files either by clicking directly on the DDL links, or by right-clicking and choosing “Save Link As…” on the popup menu – and save all files to the same place.
6. Then follow the product installation instructions here.

Adobe Lightroom 3 Direct Download Links

Adobe Lightroom 3 – Windows (160.5 MB):   File 1
English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Korean, Japanese, Chinese

Adobe Lightroom 3 – Mac (74.9 MB):   File 1
English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Korean, Japanese, Chinese

Adobe Photoshop & Premiere Elements 8 Direct Download Links

Photoshop Elements 8 – Windows (1.1 GB):   File 1   File 2
English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese

Photoshop Elements 8 – Mac (1.3 GB):   File 1
English, French, German, Japanese

Premiere Elements 8 – Windows (1.2 GB):   File 1   File 2
English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese

Premiere Elements 8 – Additional content:   File 1   File 2

For Elements on Windows (both PSE 8 and PRE 8), each program consists of two downloaded files: an .exe and a 7-Zip file (.7z). The .exe file will only work (and install) once the .7z file is fully downloaded and resides in the same location. For the Mac, it’s just a single .dmg file for each program.

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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.)

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Adobe has a new voucher code: Use adobe10 to save 10% on all products in the Commercial Store in Europe, from now until March 17th 10th… (Update – Adobe has just notified us this offer was so overly successful that they had to expire it early – our apologies!) The code should be entered at time of checkout to receive the discount in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and elsewhere in the EU.

Another new offer, valid worldwide, is save $20 (£13/€17) instantly when you purchase Photoshop Elements with Acrobat. This discount is in addition to the existing $20 Mail-in Rebate for Photoshop Elements products. See our quick take on Elements 8 here.

Lastly, Adobe has extended the deal for purchasing multiple copies of Adobe Acrobat – buy four, get one free – until April 23, 2010. So that translates into savings of up to US$449 when you sign up for the easy new online Volume Licensing Program with Adobe Acrobat software. Note that Adobe has just rechristened their volume licensing store to be called the Adobe Business Store, and this offer also works in both North America and Europe.

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“SAN JOSE, Calif.–Adobe Systems today announced Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 8 and Adobe Premiere® Elements 8, the highly anticipated new versions of the No. 1 selling consumer photo- and video-editing software. Available as standalone products or as a single retail package, the bundle offers the most complete photo and video solution by seamlessly integrating two powerful, yet easy-to-use, products. With this landmark release, Adobe has … [continues]“

OK, we’ve had a look inside these new products and there are a lot of cool new features, much inherited from their big brothers Photoshop and Premiere Pro CS4. In addition to many new automated options and smart editing tools for saving time and effort on your photos and videos, there is also much improved media management, tagging, and integration. Yet the Elements versions remain significantly easier to learn and use (not to mention less expensive) than their CS4 brethren…

So what exactly is in there, and what exactly is new? Fortunately Adobe has put together a great feature comparison page giving all the details.

Other points of note: In contrast to version 7, Adobe is issuing a brand new and fully-featured version for the Mac with Photoshop Elements 8. And PC World magazine just published a product review where they gave Elements 8 a Superior rating with a score of 94 out of 100.

Best of all: Both versions are available immediately for full download with 30-day free trials… And right now there’s a $30 rebate.

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