Adobe Systems Incorporated will introduce a beta version of Adobe Photoshop CS3 software, the next release of the world standard in digital imaging, on Friday, December 15th. Adobe is delivering a widely available Photoshop CS3 beta to enable customers to more easily transition to the latest hardware platforms, particularly Apple’s new Intel-based systems. The beta is available as a Universal Binary for the Macintosh platform, as well as for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista computers. The final shipping release of Adobe Photoshop CS3 is planned for Spring 2007. The software can be downloaded in the early hours Pacific Standard Time on December 15 at: http://labs.adobe.com
Photoshop CS3 beta also includes a pre-release version of a major upgrade to Adobe Bridge, as well as a preview release of the all-new Adobe Device Central. Photoshop customers can use Adobe Device Central to design, preview, and test mobile content, created specifically for smaller screens. This new tool, integrated in the Photoshop CS3 beta, simplifies and accelerates the creation of mobile content through a preview environment and built-in device profiles.
“This is an exciting time for the Mac, and Adobe wanted to ease the move to new Intel-based systems with a preview release of Photoshop CS3,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe, in the press release. “We didn’t want to leave Windows customers out of the party, so the beta is available to everyone in the creative industry’s most passionate user community — no matter what their platform choice. We still have some surprises in store, but this beta gives customers an early chance to see the power of another great Photoshop release, optimized and tuned to run natively on the latest hardware and operating systems.”
To utilize Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta, customers require a serial number from either Adobe Photoshop CS2, Adobe Creative Suite 2, Adobe Creative Suite Production Studio, Adobe Design Bundle, Adobe Web Bundle or Adobe Video Bundle. Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta is available in English only. Customers who have a valid serial number for all other language versions of qualifying Adobe products can download the software. Without a serial number, users can still download Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta, with the product expiring after two days. Customers must register online with Adobe or have an existing Adobe.com membership account to access the software.
In related previews of future technologies, Adobe has also released two new web tools as beta releases. Adobe CSS Advisor is a new web-based community site to easily identify and resolve browser compatibility issues. Web designers and developers can contribute their own issues, comment on existing issues, or become an editor to participate in driving the site’s future. Also introduced is a beta release of Adobe Spry framework for Ajax, a designer-focused solution for adding the interactive power of Ajax when developing rich, dynamic web-sites. Adobe CSS Advisor and Adobe Spry framework for Ajax are available at: http://www.adobe.com/go/cssadvisor
For Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta, recommended system requirements are as follows. For Macintosh: Mac OSX 10.4.8 or 10.5, 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5 processor, Intel based Macintosh. For Windows: Intel Xeon , Xeon Dual, Centrino or Pentium 4 processor, Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher, Microsoft Windows Vista. Both platforms require 512 MB RAM and a 1024×769 resolution screen. Photoshop CS3 beta will expire soon after the launch of Photoshop CS3 in Spring 2007. Details on final pricing, system requirements and availability have yet to be determined.
“We didn’t want to leave Windows customers out of the party, …”
Adobe irritates the crap out of me.
Without a valid CS2 key it expires in 2-days…
I thought Adobe would be more creative than to crib from the Zune on DRM!
Hey, check out NAPP’s CS3 Resource Center:
http://www.photoshopuser.com/cs3
movies, screen shots etc – awesome!
“…ease the transition…”
The transition has been complete for months now… and we’re just getting a “Beta” now.
All of those beta releases… seems like Adobe is spreading themselves too thin. I recognize that one anywhere.
Skype is another example… taken over by a corporate body and the Mac version falls behind.
“…ease the move…”, not transition. Same diff.
I notice there is no mention of upgrades for the other CS applications.
Do we know if these applications are going to go to version 3 at the same time, or is it just Photoshop?
“Adobe wanted to ease the move to new Intel-based systems” simply means they want to inspire companies to finally start shelling out for those new Mac Pro systems they’ve been holding off on purchasing- this is actually a big boon for Apple- don’t knock it.
I’ll bet the Big Cheese is pretty happy right now.
Okay… I know it’s free and all, but when you say it will be released in the “wee hours” I assumed that meant early. Maybe they are going on hollywood “wee hours” which are around 1 PM!!!! Hopefully we’ll see it soon.
MDN Magic Word: Family as in…
“Hey Adobe, get this bad boy out so I can use it to earn some money and feed my FAMILY!!!!”
I’m downloading it right now! 5 minutes to CS3!!!
Well, in order to use the damn thing beyond 2 days you have to give them your PS CS2 Serial. I have the whole creative suite and THAT number gets rejected, there is no number for JUST PS unless you have bough the single application.
So, it seems people who own the suite are ineligible…
Thanks Adobe.. for nothing…..
CS 2 owners ARE eligible.
From the Adobe CS3 beta download page:
A licensed copy of Photoshop CS2, Creative Suite 2, Production Studio, Adobe Web Bundle, or Adobe Video Bundle is required to use this technology beyond a two-day trial period. After installation you will be prompted to enter a CS3 beta serial number for Photoshop. To obtain a beta serial number, visit http://www.adobe.com/go/photoshopcs3beta_serialnumber and enter your CS2 serial number.
[emphasis mine]