photoshop new version

early hours of Friday, Dec. 15, a public beta of Photoshop Creative Suite 3 will be made available for download on Adobe Labs, the developer website used to showcase emerging technologies and beta software.
This new Photoshop release is the first version to run natively on Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. Many creative professionals working in art, photography and video favor the Macintosh platform. However, the performance of Adobe's flagship product has suffered since Apple made the switch from PowerPC processors to Intel processors earlier this year.
In addition to its availability as a universal binary application for Mac OS X, the beta release will be compatible with both Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.
"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 the creative solutions business unit at Adobe in a statement to the press.
Photoshop is one of the most widely used digital-imaging software applications in the world, and its release is being eagerly awaited by creative professionals working in the web- and print-publishing industries. The new version of the software will feature significant enhancements of Photoshop's user interface and functionality.
The public beta of Photoshop, a first for the application, will be made available for download free of charge. A valid registration and serial number from Photoshop CS2, Adobe Creative Suite 2, Adobe Creative Suite Production Studio, Adobe Design Bundle, Adobe Web Bundle or Adobe Video Bundle will be required to activate the program.
By releasing a beta version of the next Photoshop early, Adobe hopes to gather feedback before the product's official launch next year.
Friday's beta release will also include Adobe Bridge, a file-management application for Creative Suite, and Device Central, a cell phone and handheld emulator that allows developers to test interactive applications for mobile devices.
Photoshop is just one program in Adobe's family of productivity tools, Creative Suite. The next version of Creative Suite -- named Creative Suite 3 -- is expected to be released in spring 2007. Adobe has not announced any future plans to release other CS3 applications as beta software.
Creative Suite 3 will feature a range of digital-imaging, desktop-publishing, web-publishing, audio and video tools in several different bundles. Pricing information for CS3 is unknown at this time.
In the past, when Adobe has released public trial versions of its software the company has not provided technical support by telephone or e-mail. Support for the beta of Photoshop CS3 will be available through community forums on the Adobe Labs website.