Adobe Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth CS4 Public Betas

[MacRumors]

Adobe announced that public betas of the CS4 version of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth are now available at Adobe labs. While the downloads are publicly available, only existing CS3 owners will be able to use the beta software beyond an initial 48 hour window.

The Dreamweaver beta for Web design and development, the Fireworks beta for prototyping, and the Soundbooth beta for audio creating and editing, demonstrate the direction that Adobe Creative Suite is taking with features and technologies that will simplify and streamline design and development workflows across all media. The betas also offer users the opportunity to give Adobe feedback for further product development.

Adobe lists the new features included in each beta on their respective pages: Dreamweaver CS4, Fireworks CS4, Soundbooth CS4.

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[GFLPraxis]

I guess the rumors of CS4 sooner rather than later may be true...

[~Shard~]

Originally Posted by GFLPraxis

I guess the rumors of CS4 sooner rather than later may be true...

Don't hold your breath - public betas have a tendency to be released well before actual launch dates in many cases...

[jonnylink]

Originally Posted by ~Shard~

Don't hold your breath - public betas have a tendency to be released well before actual launch dates in many cases...

You can say that again. Lightroom was in beta for a year before it was 1.0'ed

[longofest]

Anyone else notice that Dreamweaver is using Webkit now to render the liveview?

[supercooled]

When is the full CS4 suite slated for release?

[deathshrub]

Adobe is just terrible.

[ert3]

So I bend over the table and your going to do what to make my future experience better?

[Greenbook]

Do the close, minimise and zoom buttons really look like this?

[Media Pimp]

Originally Posted by Greenbook

Do the close, minimise and zoom buttons really look like this?

Yes. Apparently this is the way the apps will look across the board. Both DW and FW have the same style interface. I must admit, I don't mind it one bit.

[Voidness]

Downloading Dreamweaver CS4 now, let's see if they fixed the mess that is Dreamweaver CS3. Looks like they're using Webkit as the editor rendering engine.

[MrCrowbar]

Originally Posted by Greenbook

Do the close, minimise and zoom buttons really look like this?

1st reaction: Eewww!
2nd reaction: Well, those are all graphic and creativity oriented apps so keeping colorful visual distractions to a minimum is a good idea. Even Apple's pro apps follow that paradigm and have monochrome window buttons. I imagine the colored window buttons would be very distracting if you're working on a black and white picture in photoshop.

[MrCrowbar]

Originally Posted by MrCrowbar

1st reaction: Eewww!
2nd reaction: Well, those are all graphic and creativity oriented apps so keeping colorful visual distractions to a minimum is a good idea. Even Apple's pro apps follow that paradigm and have monochrome window buttons. I imagine the colored window buttons would be very distracting if you're working on a black and white picture in photoshop.

(Why can't I edit my last post?)

Note the toolbar icons right next to the window buttons. This saves screen real estate in a nice way.

[TheCoffeeBoy]

I still don't think we will see CS4 until Q4 at the earliest. I've been watching and reading a lot about Adobe's plans for CS4 and even with this release it seems as if they're still a long way off.

The added integration features for Dreamweaver are nice though, hope they roll these out across the board for all CS4 applications. It's good to see it actually got an update this time instead of just a glossing over.

[CaptSaltyJack]

Originally Posted by deathshrub

Adobe is just terrible.

Originally Posted by ert3

So I bend over the table and your going to do what to make my future experience better?

Please explain.

[GFLPraxis]

Originally Posted by supercooled

When is the full CS4 suite slated for release?

Not October 1st.

[macam]

My frickin' CS3 (PS & ID) won't work on Leopard 10.5.2 on my PBG4!!!!! (1.67 last iteration of the PBG4)

I have had to load it on an old eMac I had kickin' around to do some work!!!!
What the hell is this supposed to mean? Does this mean that Adobe have completely ignored fixing CS3 for Leopard? Am I going to have to wait until Q4 to ever do work on my laptop again!?!??!?!!?

highly highly irritated by this.

[fowler.]

good work Adobe. yet again, you've decided to not update the UI for dreamweaver, leaving it the same as it was almost 8 years ago.

[Darkroom]

Originally Posted by fowler.

good work Adobe. yet again, you've decided to not update the UI for dreamweaver, leaving it the same as it was almost 8 years ago.

it looks new to me... ???

[mr.iso]

I'm still pissed off that Adobe killed ImageReady in CS3. It's the reason I didn't upgrade from PS CS2 yet...I'd have to upgrade to Photoshop CS3 and buy Fireworks. There should be a dual upgrade path for it or something, where for 50 bucks more you get PS CS3 and FW CS3.

aaaarrrggg.

[thedommer]

they killed image ready because they integrated most of it into CS3. I dont miss imageready one bit.

I cant believe people are complaining about adobe. they are light years ahead of anyone else out there in almost all their programs. sure they are not perfect and there are lots of issues but Im willing to deal with them. CS3 was a huge step forward. I hope CS4 is the same.

[kitki83]

OK, it seems that Adobe is launching new versions more often than just a few years. I still believe its way too soon to for a new release, and may cause people not to upgrade because CS3 was for Leopard, CS4 is for?(Problaly for the fixes).

Now for my rant
WTF is adobe coming out with new version every other year???!!! I am not upgrading its just more money burnt away for freelancers and small businesses not counting rise in gas prices and recession. Man everything is getting expensive.

I pray cs4 is a free upgrade for CS3 people.

[MacDonaldsd]

Im not personally a user of CS3, but if I just bought CS3 id be annoyed if I had to pay a hefty upgrade fee to upgrade to CS4 if it comes out this year.

[dashiel]

Originally Posted by kitki83

Now for my rant
WTF is adobe coming out with new version every other year???!!! I am not upgrading its just more money burnt away for freelancers and small businesses not counting rise in gas prices and recession. Man everything is getting expensive.

I pray cs4 is a free upgrade for CS3 people.

you're going to be sorely disappointed if you think CS4 is going to be free. adobe/macromedia have been on an 18-24 month release cycle for years now in fact they've been 18-24 months since pretty much version 1 of their products more often than not favoring 18 month cycles. it's only been during major shifts usually from OS vendors (e.g. classic -> OS X; win95 -> winXP) the timeline shifts past the 18 month window.

Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2

I just hate CS suite so much and hate Adobe for forcing me to use it, and hate Adobe's flippant attitude to their customers, and hate the outrageous, predatory pricing, and hate, hate hate ....

then don't use it. there are plenty of alternatives out there that produce the same result as photoshop, illustrator, flash, etc... that are cheaper and in some cases free. somehow i suspect though you will have a litany of reasons why those alternatives don't work for you each of those reasons you bring up are the reasons why photoshop costs more than gimp, pixelmator or acorn.

if you're a professional using these tools then the cost of an upgrade from CS2 to CS3 is like the cost of a few days worth of work at worst. $500/24 = $20 an hour. if you're not making at least $20 an hour you need to look for a new job.

[Zoboomafoo]

Originally Posted by kitki83

OK, it seems that Adobe is launching new versions more often than just a few years. I still believe its way too soon to for a new release, and may cause people not to upgrade because CS3 was for Leopard, CS4 is for?(Problaly for the fixes).

I guess I shouldn't tell you that Adobe is already working on CS5 and CS6. And that is as of last year.

As far as too frequent iterations goes, I think Adobe needs to get its act together as far as Photoshop/Illustrator/Fireworks. I will always say that I prefer Fireworks to do my work because its interface is the one that is the least painful.