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The costs of the applications, set to reach consumers in October, haven’t changed since CS3, but remain hefty. Should longtime users upgrade?

Of course that depends on the specific tools you need. However, we suspect that only the most well-heeled will jump at the chance, as CS4 shares the majority of tools with its predecessor. Perhaps more dramatic, life-changing alterations will come with the next Creative Suite. That said, time-saving tweaks to Illustrator and Flash in particular could lure professionals immersed in them to upgrade.

Adobe releases Creative Suite 4

It looks like Adobe may have over-extended themselves with all the buyouts of those little companies. Lightroom has been a big head with photographers, but it looks like Adobe may have taken on some debt they might be having a hard time managing.

I have no doubt Adobe will come through this, but it’s troubling to see them in such a vulnerable position.

While developers are scrambling to meet deadlines, on the other end of the building, Adobe executives are applauding their company’s financial performance, with revenue for its fiscal third quarter ending last month coming in at $1 million above the high side of projections, at $887.2 million — a gain of 4% over the previous year’s third quarter.

Behind the applause, though, were some negative signs: Operating income was down about 14% annually, to $219 million. The bad economy was not to blame here: Operating expenses were generally higher — by about 10% annually — margins (GAAP) declined by about 5% in the last year to 24.7%, and the balance sheet shows a $350 million debt maturity during the quarter.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 launches next week, could only help earnings

Technorati Tags: Adobe, Lightroom, Photoshop

Not sure what there is to like about the new Adobe Lightroom, well here is a list to help get you started. I’m a huge fan of Lightroom 1.x so I’m hoping to get the new version up and running so I can have a look at the new features.

Adobe’s Lightroom 2.0, which launched today represents a major breakthrough in the field of digital photo processing. I’ve only just begun to play with the software today, but it is clear that Lightroom 2.0 will be my new imaging software of choice. Prior to using Lightroom 2.0 I did my photo processing using Adobe’s Bridge and Photoshop. Lightroom represents a significant leap forward in the power of processing digital photographs. I thought I’d write up a post documenting my 10 new favorite processing tools that Lightroom 2.0 brings to the table.

Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection: The 10 Best Things About the New Adobe Lightroom 2.0