We have a ton of things we want to accomplish here and working for some conglomerate or having bean-counting investors breathing down our necks simply isn’t the way for us to achieve them.Taptaptap founder John Casasanta • In a statement released via the Camera+ developer’s blog, announcing that the popular camera replacement app had sold its 8 millionth copy. In a new profile on TheNextWeb, Casasanta revealed that his company has declined acquisition offers from some of the biggest names in tech, including Google, Twitter, Adobe, and Zynga. He says that, since Facebook acquired Instagram, the offers for his company have continued to grow both in size and frequency; however, the development studio simply values its independence too much to turn its direction over to the whim of investors. source (via • follow)
oppositeoffaith asks: As someone worked in that industry I have ask-based on the price of R&D, Engineering, paying employees, infrastructure, online classes, a massive and frequently updated website, among other things…what should it cost?
» SFB says: Personal take — the cloud service needs a slightly-lower price to hit a sweet spot — say $10 cheaper. Most current users have a hard time seeing the benefit of a service that costs as much per year as an upgrade, which generally lasts two years, does. The student price ($29.99) is a great price point, and the introductory pricing for current users (also $29.99) helps — but after that first year, the benefit drops significantly. Access to the cloud hosting services — particularly Typekit — offer a great benefit as well, but that angle of the deal seems a little under-sold. An a la carte approach would be good too — for example, $12.99 a month for just Photoshop might be worth it for a lot of people, and a price at that level might curb Adobe’s longstanding piracy problem. That said, many freelance types have always felt Creative Suite was a tad expensive, so the grumble is a tad long-standing. — Ernie @ SFB (EDIT to correct price of student package)
» So which one’s the best value? Let’s do some quick math — if you’ve never purchased the Adobe Creative Suite before, you supposedly have to pay full price. Most people don’t need every single app, but let’s say you’re naïve and you think you do. At $2,599, that’s not particularly cheap, but $50 a month for the same thing doesn’t seem so bad, right? Well, Adobe comes out with a new Creative Suite every year or two. In two years, you’re paying $1,200 for the same apps that cost twice as much in full. But what, you say the upgrade on the next version of the Master Collection is $525? If you upgrade immediately at every iteration (most people don’t), logic suggests that over a seven-year span, you’ll pay less by buying outright. But only if you’re buying new — if you’re upgrading (most people are), the cloud deal isn’t worth it in any way, whatsoever. It’s worth noting that students get a really good discount — $29.99 a month — on the cloud deal. (Edit: Here are a couple more thoughts on the matter of cloud pricing; also corrected the price of the student package, which is $29.99 per month)
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That’s what a new antitrust case alleges: Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar find themselves facing a new antitrust lawsuit in California. The accusations come from five software engineers, who allege that the companies conspired to stifle pay and job mobility in an effort to cut costs. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected the companies’ request to dismiss the suit, saying,” The fact that all six identical bilateral agreements were reached in secrecy among seven defendants in a span of two years suggests that these agreements resulted from collusion, and not from coincidence.” source
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Over the past two years, we’ve delivered Flash Player for mobile browsers and brought the full expressiveness of the web to many mobile devices. However, HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.Adobe Vice President and General Manager of Interactive Development Danny Winokur • Offering up an explanation for why the company has decided to stop actively developing their Flash mobile products — which Steve Jobs famously ripped apart in an open letter last year. With the iPhone no longer a viable platform for Flash development and the problems developing Flash on mobile devices becoming increasingly obvious, Adobe has decided to change its course entirely. More emphasis on tools (of which Flash is one); less emphasis on across-the-board development platforms. Adobe’s been moving in this direction for a little while; back in August, they released a tool called Edge, which is like Flash for HTML5. Think it’s the right move for them? source (via • follow)
Check out the before/after of Adobe’s new deblurring (magic?) technology.
Crappy photographers, Adobe has answered your prayers.
This is Muse. This is Adobe’s new Web design system — essentially the new Dreamweaver, except built from the ground-up to work more like InDesign or Illustrator. This is designed for designers who don’t like code. This is free until early 2012. This is awesome.
Adobe has seen the future, and it isn’t Flash. The company has released an experimental version of an app called “Edge,” which essentially does the kind of Web animation Flash is known for … except using CSS and HTML5. Wanna try it? You can download it at the link, kids. Check it out. source
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