“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.

Adobe has just started a new program of giving away full versions of some of its premium development tools ($699 – $1,299 value) absolutely free if you qualify…

If you are an educational customer or an unemployed developer, Adobe would like to lend a hend. Simply certify you are a student, faculty or staff of an eligible education institution, or currently out of work – and the software is yours to download for non-commercial use.

Get your free products here.

UPDATE (August 28, 2012) – With the two new version releases out recently, the products now available for free at this site are ColdFusion 10, ColdFusion Builder 2, and Flash Builder (formerly Flex Builder) 4.6.

[UPDATE – See all of Adobe’s current deals & discounts!]

Right now a rare occurrence for Adobe – numerous simultaneous specials going on for a lot of products – and the best part is they are stackable, meaning you can load up more than one at one time… Here are a few:

Suite Deal: Save $100 when you upgrade from an earlier version of Adobe Creative Suite, Production Studio, or Macromedia Studio to CS4. (Ends August 31, 2009.)

Free Flex Builder 3: Buy a full or upgrade version of Design Premium or Web Premium and use the coupon code ‘freeflex‘ to receive a FREE full version of Flex Builder Standard. (Valid for the Adobe North America Store only.)

Adobe MAX 2009 Offer: Save $400 off the regular price of an Adobe MAX 2009 full conference pass when you purchase a qualifying product at the Adobe.com North America Store. (Runs until October 2, 2009.)

For example, it’s normally $599 to upgrade to CS4 Design Premium. If you take advantage of all three offers you get $100 + $400 + $249 = $749 of value, meaning the product is more than free!

[UPDATE (May 3, 2011) – The CS6 Academic Editions are out, and savings are still 80%!]

If you’re a student or teacher in some capacity, chances are you can now score eye-popping savings on your favorite Adobe products…

Adobe has recently announced a new policy of student pricing that gives 80% (!) off normal prices. And even teachers and professors can still get up to a healthy 70% off most software.

For example, try Creative Suite 4 Web Premium – an eight-product package with $3,842 of total value that normally goes for $1,699, but for students – only $349. Or CS4 Design Standard – normally $1,399 for the suite, but for students – just $299! Heck, just the regular cost of Photoshop alone is $700 or more…

Speaking of Photoshop, if you want just Photoshop CS4 Extended by itself, it’s $199 for higher ed (instead of $999). Or try Dreamweaver, Acrobat, Lightroom, Elements, etc. – all at a fraction of their standard prices.

Such deep discounts couldn’t come at a better time… Check them out at Adobe’s official Education Store, or follow the clipped image below.

[UPDATE (May 3, 2011) – All Creative Suite 5.5 trials are out!]

Not all are aware, but Adobe is now offering free trials of virtually any product that works without restriction for up to thirty days… The best part is you can immediately download the software for most products and have it up and running on your computer within minutes!

For the larger packages such as the suites, Adobe will send you software DVDs for a nominal charge of $10-15 (UPDATE, February 2010 – new policy – you can now directly download any of the suites too if you desire, for free, including the top-of-the-line Master Collection). In any event, all products and all suites remain fully functional for up to a month (no “demo mode”), and the trials can be installed on multiple or successive systems if desired.

In all cases you can test drive whatever you like, or get the work you need to get done for the duration of the period. And if and when you are ready to buy, you can easily convert your product trial for permanent unrestricted use without reinstalling the software in most cases.

Lastly, you can download as many individual CS4 CS5 apps as you want, including Photoshop, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Contribute, Elements, etc.

Here’s a great one. How would you like a huge menu of absolutely free video training, tips, and tricks for most all of Adobe’s major products?

A large selection of helpful segments from the experts you can run and view at any time from the comfort of your home or office, covering everything from “getting started” tutorials for beginners to advanced “how-to” guides for thirty different products…

Well, it’s here – check it out and learn all you want at the new “Adobe TV.”

Were you aware there’s a place you can go anytime 24×7 that will always show you (most of) the latest and up-to-date specials running for Adobe products?

There is. Here is the current special offers page for North America and here it is for the United Kingdom. There’s also pages for Germany and France. More may be coming in the future.

Typical deals are like 10-20-30% off, or anywhere from a $25-$200 discount, or maybe a free book with purchase, depending on what’s running… In recent months there have been coupon savings on the different suite editions, Photoshop, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash Pro, and Elements. The promos are always changing, so feel free to check back for updates.

Welcome.  This isn’t an official Adobe blog – but as an Authorized Adobe Affiliate for many years, we hear about a lot of good stuff coming out of San Jose… 

A healthy amount on new product features and news, but even more so on offers, coupons, freebies and other helpful goodies. Much of this remains hidden or ‘underknown’ unless you follow the company closely… But on this blog and in coming content, we hope to share a few of these great things and help them see more of the light of day.

For example, that Adobe is almost always offering some good specials and promos, and you can always find them here:  http://www.AdobeSpecials.com

Or that you can instantly download a 100% fully-functional 30-day free trial of almost any Adobe product here:  http://www.AdobeTrials.com

Or that there’s a huge online library of free training and tutorial videos for all of Adobe’s software at:  http://www.CS6.tv

Or yet another, that you can download over 20 free books for the Creative Suite and other Adobe design tools:  https://prodesigntools.com/freebooks

So stay tuned, we’ll get started right away with finding and digging in more to some of these scoops.