I have recently returned from a trip to Los Angeles for the Adobe MAX conference and am excited to tell you about Adobe’s biggest announcement from MAX, Creative Cloud. Now keep in mind that we were only given a glimpse of what’s in store, so don’t take everything I say as exactly how it will be. We were promised more details in November so be sure to keep up with that.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud will consist of a few pieces conjoined into one service. It will all be included in a subscription with a supposedly ”attractive” price. My biggest concern with the service is just that. The pricing of the Creative Suite is far from attractive to me, but pricing will be announced in November. I know that great software and services will come at a cost, but not many people can afford software priced as high as Adobe has charged in the past. I am hopeful, though, that between saving money by a solely digital distribution method in future versions and also the fact that cheaper prices will greatly increase the user base, that it will be beneficial for us and Adobe to have Creative Cloud come with reasonable pricing.

Pricing aside, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of the Creative Cloud. The service will come with 20GB of cloud storage for whatever you may need and it does sound like there will be options to upgrade the size of this storage (20GB is a lot for, but for you video editing types you will likely need a lot more). It seems like this cloud storage will be incorporated into every application included in Creative Cloud. This will make working between different devices extremely easy, since you can save your work into the clouds. Your cloud storage will be automatically synced between all devices you are using the cloud service on and your files are accesible and shareable through not only your Adobe applications, but directly through the browser as well. Now this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Next up is the publishing end of things. Your Creative Cloud will have publishing options in 3 realms. If you didn’t already assume, Creative Cloud comes with a social networking aspect. You create you cloud profile, can share your work and connect with other creatives. The browser based part of the cloud is very well done. You can not only categorize and add meta data to your various files all through the browser, or any application accessing your cloud for that matter, but you are given great detail on your files. So much detail that you can even view and turn off layers in your Photoshop files while you are spooling through your files in the browser. Pretty nifty. For web developers, business catalyst is part of your cloud service allowing you to post your sites to the web and there is also the CMS aspect of business catalyst of which you can take advantage. The third part here is the Digital Publishing Suite for InDesign. This allows you to take your creations in InDesign and publish them to all devices as an epub file. This will be a great tool to create magazines, comics, and whatever else you can think of and publish them. This service will cost money for the actual publishing, but you can also charge your audience to download the works. In this digital age, you can still do your print projects but have them completely digital. This doesn’t only make it easy to publish your work, but you can add all sorts of interactive elements that you would not be able to do in a physical print.

Now for the finale. It seems your subscription includes the Creative Suite, I was given the impression that it is the suite in its entirety, but I want that in writing. Come early 2012, it appears as though everything Adobe will be lumped into a single, subscription based service that is Creative Cloud. Better yet, there is a suite of Mobile applications (for the most part actually created using the Flash platform) thrown into the mix and again its my understanding that all of these are included in your subscription. I will go over these applications briefly.

Photoshop Touch – A touch version of Photoshop, obviously. It retains a majority of the functionality from the Desktop application.

Proto – Quickly make a mock up website that includes much of the functionality and linking created through the touch app. Also creates HTML code to turn your mockup into a fully functional site.

Ideas – This one is already available. Create vector graphics and image all with a simple touch interface.

Debut – An app to make stunning presentations.

Collage – A re-imagining of  the “drawing board”. A quick and easy way to throw pictures, color schemes, and notes on a virtual white board. Portray an idea in only a few moments that can then be passed along to designers to create a finished product.

Kuler – Create and share color palettes.

So that is the gist of it. The touch apps provide great ways to kick start a project, or even the tools to complete a project. Again, pricing will be announced in November and the service itself will be released early 2012. So, I would recommend staying tuned for further information.

Just yesterday a brand new tool was released to the public. Adobe Edge is a tool that allows you to easily create HTML 5 animations in a Flash-esque application. It uses a timeline, much like Flash, where you can add objects onto the stage and manipulate them in various ways across the timeline. These animations are created using SVG and CANVAS of HTML 5. Your projects are saved as HTML, Javascript and CSS files that make up the animations and this makes it very easy to place in your web pages through Dreamweaver.

In the current version only animations are available, but Adobe has promised that there will be new features added in new builds of the preview version. So, if you find Adobe Edge to be a useful tool (and how could you not?) be sure to follow the updates.

To begin, unless your a developer, integrated runtime probably means nothing to you. A runtime environment is essentially a virtual environment where code runs. A good example of a runtime is the Java Runtime Environment (this annoying updates that Windows will bother you incessantly about).

The Java Runtime Environment is obviously to run Java code, but AIR is used for rich internet applications. So AIR is a runtime for Flash platform applications and also HTML/CSS/AJAX applications. Essentially what it does is allow you to take applications written in these various languages and, through AIR, run them on platforms supported by AIR. As of now, AIR supports a handful of platforms such as Android, iOS, Desktop (Mac/PC/Linux).

What it boils down to is you can take your Flash platform and HTML/CSS/Javascript applications and with little to no change in your code, make them into applications for mobile and desktop.

I know that for myself, clicking the shutter can be problematic since I tend to shake the camera as I press the shutter. The best way to avoid this is to set your camera on a timer to allow a few seconds to line up and stabilize your shot.

For your DSLR, there are some great apps out there that allow you to control your camera through your phone or tablet. Apps like DSLR Remote are great and well worth the cost.

A great way to get some very neat and creative shots is to increase your exposure time. This will then allow your to paint with a light source.

For some in-depth training, check out our Photoshop Classes. Our Photoshop for Digital Photographers course is back and scheduled on June 1-2.

The Slate offers the multi-touch display in which the level of interactivity is enhanced with the use of the stylus pen (included). It allows the user to convert their handwriting to text or keep handwritten notes utilizing the must-have program OneNote. In addition, the USB port allows for connectivity of an external monitor, hard drive, or even keyboard.

Most importantly for all you mobile application developers out there, the Slate operates on Windows 7, which supports Adobe Flash, unlike its Apple counterpart. Since the industry standard is starting to move toward creating operating systems that support Flash, i.e. Android, this may be one of the biggest reasons the Slate may gain popularity.

Check out our Flash for Android class! However, we do not discriminate against Apple here so we also offer an iPhone, iPod, iPad Application Development course.

12/20/2010: Whether you want to come and show off your latest Flash project, or just see what kind of things others are developing, join the Chicago AUG group for a holiday get-together combined with sharing and seeing amazing Flash projects! December 20th, 6-8:30pm at our Chicago facility.

Adobe MAX was two weeks ago, but it has been a busy two weeks since. So, finally, you will get a glimpse of all that I saw at the MAX conference.

To start, aside from the Jobs bashing and many discussions on the Flash vs. HTML5 situation, a major topic of discussion at MAX was multiplatform development. Adobe AIR has made it easier to deploy to different platforms like iPhone, Android, and Google tv.

I saw, first hand, how easy it was to create applications for Android using Actionscript 3.0 with both Flex and Flash. A few new additions to the API and some sleek new features soon to come to the masses in upcoming updates to Flash Builder and Flash Professional.

As for HTML5 vs. Flash, Adobe made it clear that the two were not interchangeable, but also that there is no reason that the two could not be use to supplement each other. They even showed off a tool that was being worked on that essentially took Flash animations and translated them to HTML5 as CANVAS.

Now for some neat sneaks:
-Dreamweaver is going mobile with some upcoming mobile site templates. Adobe is working with the guys from jQuery to get jQuery mobile fully operational.
-A really cool mobile media player with a working title of video tapestry was very cool and could potentially reinvent media playback on mobile devices
-3D animation in Flash with a new API built on top of mole hill

I’m sure there is more that I am just forgetting about but I’ll update the post with anything else I remember.

Adobe InDesign CS5 Interactive Level 1: InDesign Documents for Web and Distribution–This 2 day class is geared towards current InDesign users who are looking to make the leap from print to interactivity. Learn how InDesign has evolved and can now create many interactive functions previously exclusive to Flash. You’ll also learn how InDesign and Flash can work hand in hand through new export functions in CS5.

Adobe Flash CS5 for Android: Building and Deploying Android Apps–Want to take your ActionScript skills to the next level? The newest update for Flash CS5 will allow users to develop Droid Apps. If you want to learn more about this exciting new technology and the potential it holds, check out this 5-day class! Also, take a peek at this related class topic: Adobe AIR.

HTML 5: Designing Websites with HTML 5–After 10 long years of waiting for a major HTML release, here it is, HTML 5. In this 2-day class students will be introduced to the newest HTML tags and image controls. Be on the forefront of this cutting edge technology that incorporates CSS3, CANVAS, and JavaScript.