As most of you will know, Adobe release its latest Creative Suite (CS5) a couple of days ago. Personally, I only use Photoshop and Dreamweaver. For the casual photographer, the CS2 or CS3 version of Photoshop is probably more than you ever need. So are there reasons for upgrading (or reinstalling)?
First, Adobe doesn't really support the older versions of Photoshop anymore, or the operating system you run at this moment has some issues with an older version. So an upgrade will happen sooner or later. But apart from compatibility issues with the OS, there are some new features available for the (casual) photographer. The following features are the ones I'm most interested in;
- Easier ways of doing complex selections
Basically a tedious job in every earlier version, so I have my reservations on this feature.
- Content Aware Fill
Create-photos-in-Photoshop-instead-of-by-using-a-camera feature.
- HDR Imaging
Let's see if it beats Photomatix Pro.
- Automatic Lens Correction
I now use PTLens on the photos that need the correction.
- 64bit support (!!!!)
A feature that's long overdue.
- Better Black and White conversion
I mostly use Nik Silver Efex Pro at the moment.
In this post I'll be evaluating Photoshop CS5 on some of the points I mentioned above. Others will become a separate blogpost later on. For the moment, I'll be starting with 'upgrading' from CS4 to CS5, and see if that goes well (after I've cloned my MacBook disk with SuperDuper! to make sure I can always go back if things go sour).
Another thing that I need to check out is compatibility with earlier versions of Action scripts, and (older) plugins. Just check the CS5 or Photoshop tag for all the related posts about Photoshop CS5.
Not being able to fly has its advantages. In response to the widespread chaos caused by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano (pronounced as 'whatever'), Lonely Planet is offering 13 of its European iPhone guides for free (as in 'free beer').
A while back I figured out how to install Adobe (could have been Macromedia back then) Coldfusion MX on an Ubuntu linux server. This config still runs as it should, but in the mean time several things have changed in the world of software. I've been leaning towards Centos 5.4, and Adobe released Coldfusion 9 somewhere in 2009. These two 'events' made me decide to combine the two.
Before I continue, I must warn you that the Coldfusion installer is still broken..... So there's some manipulation of code involved.
Since the new 'server' is going to run in a virtual environment I started in a VMWare Workstation. This way I could make snapshots of my progress. This made it easier to start from scratch. The problem with Linux and me is that I tend to reinstall the OS when things go haywire. So VMWare is a safe way out in this case.
Windows Phone 7 SeriesMicrosoft will be shipping a new phone operating system this year. After the Windows Mobile brand, they're switching to an alternate name; Windows Phone 7 Series. And obviously, with a new name comes a new website; http://www.windowsphone7series.com.
I can't really see why they keep bothering trying to access the phone market. Every single Windows Mobile (or Windows CE as it was called in the old days) device I've owned crashed more frequently than the 'good old' Windows Millennium Edition on an average Sunday. I can't count the number of times that I received a phonecall while doing something else (e.g. playing solitaire, or reading e-mail) and that the call finally went to voicemail. Why? because the phone froze, crashed, or answer button was unresponsive.
Have you ever wondered which lens you used the most? Or what focal length is your favorite? The results of these queries can be used to decide what new lens to get; a (ultra)wide-angle, normal, or telephoto lens.
Well, there is an answer for both questions. The first (which lens) is relatively easy when you're using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Just select the metadata filter in the library view and examine the results.
Apple released an update for the iPhone. Release 3.1.3 fixes some issues like;
- improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
- resolves issue where 3rd party apps would not launch in some instances
- fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard
- Tethering is back (even on the non exclusive carriers)....
Results may vary since not every carrier allows tethering (like T-Mobile in the Netherlands).
