Review: Adobe Carousel

Adobe claims Carousel is the only tool that enables you to access your whole photo library from your Mac, iPhone or iPad, without storage issues or manual synchronisation.

The first thought on any Mac owner's mind, though, is going to be what Carousel does that iPhoto/iTunes/iCloud doesn't. And the second is why they should pay for photo synchronisation when they already get it for nothing.

Carousel is pretty similar to Apple's Photo Stream, which is part of the free iCloud service, but with a bit more control. Like Photo Stream, instead of copying photos across to your devices it stores them online. It then delivers files to your devices on demand, via your network connection.

There are no storage limits, and any changes you make, from creating Carousels to importing and editing photos, are automatically uploaded to the Carousel server.

You'll need an Adobe ID, which is free, but you pay a monthly subscription for Carousel, though there is a free 30-day trial. You download and install the Carousel client on your Mac and iOS devices, and you're ready to go.

Strips of film

Carousels are horizontally scrolling filmstrips of photos, and you can create a Carousel for a single set of photos or for shots taken over a longer period of time; in which case they're automatically split by date, so a single Carousel may consist of a series of these filmstrips that are arranged vertically. It's quick, simple and intuitive, and the consistency in appearance across the Mac and iOS versions is one of Carousel's strong points.

It's quite something to see photos you add on your Mac appear in moments on your iPad, but this does rely on the quality of your network connection. Carousel communicates with Adobe servers constantly, so you can't work offline.

Storage solutions

Adobe solves the problem of limited storage space on iOS devices by downloading only thumbnails and low-resolution proxies. It's only when you tap on a thumbnail to view the picture properly that it downloads a higher-res version.

So yes, Carousel does indeed make your whole photo library 'available', or at least all the photos you've imported into Carousel, even on a device with limited memory.

It also reacts to changes made on any device straight away. The downside is that it's heavily dependent on the quality of your network connection. Wi-Fi speeds are okay, but Carousel can be painfully slow over 3G which can go a long way to eating up your monthly allowance.

There are other limitations that gradually become apparent. This version will only import JPEGs, not TIFF, PSD or RAW files. You can carry out basic cropping, straightening and enhancement tasks and apply a range of nice but basic image effects. And it's all non-destructive, too, so you can rewind your changes if you make a mistake.

But for cataloguing and editing tasks in general, Carousel is too lightweight even to compete with iPhoto. Things begin to get redundant when you consider that you may end up running two photo collections, with your 'proper' one still on your Mac in iPhoto or Aperture.

Carousel shows promise in its current form. But its reliance on good network speeds, its monthly subscription charge and its very basic cataloguing and editing tools blunt its appeal considerably. We recommend you try before you buy.

]]>

Adobe releases Flash-like HTML5 design tool Adobe Edge

Adobe Systems today announced the first public preview release of Adobe Edge, a new HTML5 web motion and interaction design tool available for free on labs.adobe.com for Mac and Windows. Web designers can use the tool to bring animations, similar to those created in Flash Professional, to websites using standards likes HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

Because HTML5 is a moving standard, Adobe says it is adopting an open development methodology for Adobe Edge. For now, this means the company is releasing the software on the Adobe Labs website sooner than it would during a normal development process in order to allow user feedback to help shape the final product. Adobe Edge is not yet even considered in beta. It is being designed as a fast and lightweight professional-grade tool that complements Adobe's existing Web tools, such as Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5, Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5, and Adobe Flash Builder 4.5.

The preview enables you to add motion to existing HTML documents without hampering design integrity of CSS-based layouts, and it also allows you to create visually rich content from scratch, using familiar drawing tools that produce HTML elements styled with CSS3. You can import standard Web graphics assets such as SVG, PNG, JPG, and GIF files and style them using CSS3. The design stage utilizes WebKit to enable design, preview, and manipulation of content. The timeline feature lets you define and customize motion applied to HTML elements. Content created with Edge is designed to work on modern browsers including those on Android, BlackBerry Playbook, iOS , HP webOS, and other smartphone mobile devices as well as Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer 9.

"Over the last year Adobe has delivered on several significant HTML5 milestones including contributions to jQuery, submitting code to WebKit, and enhanced HTML5 output in Creative Suite 5.5," Paul Gubbay, vice president of Design and Web Engineering at Adobe, said in a statement. "Now, with Adobe Edge, we're taking our HTML5 tooling to a whole new level and look forward to getting some really useful feedback from the community over the next few months, as we refine the product."

Adobe releases three Photoshop apps for the iPad

As part of its Creative Suite 5.5 update, Adobe has released three Adobe Photoshop Touch apps for the Apple iPad: Adobe Color Lava ($3), Adobe Eazel ($5), and Adobe Nav ($2). You can grab them now from the Apple App Store.

The Adobe apps were developed using the Photoshop Touch Software Development Kit (SDK) in order to demonstrate the potential for new interaction between Photoshop CS5 and tablet devices. Adobe has already hinted that more Photoshop apps are coming and that it wants developers to create their own apps for Android devices, the Blackberry PlayBook, and iOS devices.

For the apps to work with your copy of Photoshop CS5, you have to update (don't worry, it's free) to version 12.0.4. For those who don't own Photoshop CS5, the updated version (version 12.1), which is part of Creative Suite 5.5, will also enable the Photoshop Touch app functionality.

The above is a step-by-step video to walk you through updating Photoshop CS5 to version 12.0.4, enabling Remote Connections, and connecting each of the Photoshop Touch apps to Photoshop. If you'd prefer individual videos for the apps, Adobe has uploaded those to YouTube as well: Adobe Color Lava, Adobe Eazel, and Adobe Nav.

For those who aren't as visual, here's a short description of each: Color Lava allows you to mix colors on the iPad using your fingers as well as create color swatches and themes that can be transferred into Photoshop, Nav provides more desktop space by enabling users to select and control Photoshop tools on the iPad, and Eazel lets you create paintings with your fingertips, which you can then transfer back to Photoshop wirelessly.