Adobe will release Beta of Photoshop CS3 (Universal) for CS2 Owners Tomorrow
On Friday, December 15, Adobe will release a beta of its Photoshop CS3 (Universal) as a download from this Adobe Web site. Due out in final in the Spring of 2007, Adobe Photoshop CS3 is the next version of Phtoshop and it will run natively on Intel-based Macs as well as PowerPC-based Macs. The beta will be available to all users who have a valid Photoshop CS2 serial number.
Unlike the Lightroom public beta program, Photoshop CS3 is more of an unfinished version, i.e. it will have bugs and things may not work perfectly. However, the idea of the public beta is still the same. Adobe wants to hear from users about the new interface and other features of Photoshop CS3 and how it could work better as a result of their experience. The early public beta will also ease the transition of Mac Photoshop users to Apple's Intel-based Macs.
Obtaining a downloaded copy of the Photoshop CS3 public beta is simple. Just go to this Adobe Web page, register or use an existing Adobe membership, enter your serial number from almost any source of Adobe Photoshop CS2, receive a Photoshop CS3 beta serial number and download, install and activate it via an internet connection. The download will be about 750MB so a good internet connection is required. There will be a 2-day grace period to activate the CS3 beta.
The system requirements are easy: a G4, G5 or Intel CPU; Mac OS X 10.4.8; 512MB of RAM; 1.5GB of hard disk space; a 1024x768 monitor and a 16-bit graphics card with 64MB of video RAM.
The beta will be only in English but it will install on non-English Mac OS X 10.4.8 systems. There will be no official technical support except for a forum, release notes and information posted to John Nack's Blog. John Nack is Adobe's senior project manager for things like Photoshop. Still, like the Lightroom public beta program, Adobe is encouraging feedback whether ideas or issues on the Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta forum. However, Adobe does not plan on issuing any updates to the beta until the final release in the Spring of 2007.
Here are the main features in Photoshop CS3:
The key ones to us are running native on Intel-based Macs (of course), a new streamlined interface, integration with Lightroom and Adobe's Device Central with built-in mobile device profiles for mobile device designers (see Bill Perry's Blog).
Photoshop CS3 is also fast, much faster on Intel-based Macs running natively rather than with Rosetta emulation. For example, Photoshop CS3 launches 60 percent faster than CS2 on Intel-based Macs (20 percent faster on PowerPC-based Macs) and is 40 percent faster in 250 common Photoshop operations.
The Photoshop CS3 beta will expire on release of the final product. Adobe will have a narrowed upgrade policy for Photoshop CS3--only upgrades to the three previous versions will be available.
This is great news for Photoshop professionals who need all the speed that they can get out of their Intel-based Mac. [Bill Fox]
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