Okay I've been generally positive in my opinion of the Adobe's newly adopted subscription based model. As I posted before I use quite a broad range of Adobe products and I'm quite happy with the monthly subscription model not having to cough up the price of the entire Master Collection at once. That being said I do understand the concerns associated with the discontinuation of perpetual licences. But I've already gone over all of this before so I won't dive any deeper into that. However the release of the CC suite left me a bit baffled.
Let's start with the majorly minor issue. The announced release date was June 17th. The actual release took place indeed on June 17th but at 8 pm PDT which in practice means that not even the entire Americas got it on June 17th. The entire USA managed it but most of the Southern America and parts of Canada not to mention all of Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia, and Oceania actually got it on the June 18th. Not a big issue but gives an indication about how much of a fuck Adobe gives about their customers out of the USA.
So now to the actual issues. Some weeks ago Adobe updated it's Creative Cloud Sync software which killed the whole sync function, essentially rendering their cloud storage solution useless. It took quite a while for them to even acknowledge that there was an issue and the response was that in preparation for the release of CC suite it would remain offline. Now CC is released and guess what. IT'S STILL OFFLINE. WTF?! This was one of the features that they marketed as an added value of the Creative Cloud in contrast to perpetual licence.
One other thing that got me a bit excited was the introduction of Typekit desktop fonts after it was hyped quite a bit at MAX. So am I now going through Typekit's collection of fonts downloading them wildly. No. IT'S OFFLINE. WTF?!
To sum up preparing this big release killed a service that used to work and actual release didn't fix it and introduced another service which doesn't work to begin with.
Not really massive issues but given the reservations that so many CS users have about the subscription based system the fact that at the release of the cloud specific suite parts of it are unavailable for no apparent reason probably doesn't help.
Come on Adobe. You can do better than that.
On a more positive note InCopy was included to the Creative Cloud. Even if you don't really use it as a word processor it's actually rather useful tool as an intermediate step between other word processors such as Word and InDesign.
Now as for the software I haven't really had a chance to dive deeply into the new features so I'll hold off making comments about that.
Still this release was the Adobe's best chance to sooth some of the naysayers and they dropped the ball. Not to an extreme extent but still a WTF's worth.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
And Now for Something Completely Different
I opened the box to determine the status of the cat. The cat ran out of the room knocking over the poison vial on his way and now I dead. Fuck Schrödinger.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Concerning Adobe CC
There's been a lot of concern, complaints and even some unjustified bitching about Adobe's move to a subscription based licencing with CC product line. I'm actually not going to pile on since I'm a Creative Cloud subscriber for my second year now and I'm quite happy with it with apart from few exceptions.
Let me explain. I personally am not in the same boat as most of the photographers that have a problem with the new licencing model. I actually use fairly large collection of Adobe software on a fairly regular basis. I do quite a bit of design projects in Photoshop and Illustrator. I do some print prep in InDesign and quite a bit of web-design work in Dreamweaver. I use Auditon for what little sound editing I do and I'm glad to say that Premiere and After Effects have grown to be very reliable and functional tools for video editing and post processing. Though for my purposes they are a bit overkill but since I used to use them at work some time ago they are familiar which is a definite advantage.
To me the Creative Cloud licencing model was a godsend since I would have either been forced into Master Collection if I wanted to get all the software I wanted or Design Premium and having to find something to replace the Video tools. The monthly installment to me was a lesser issue than coming up with the money to buy the Master Collection all at once and even with Design Premium option there aren't that many good video editing software for PC to choose from. For mac users there's of course Final Cut which for all intents and purposes would have been perfect for me but would have had me buying a Mac capable of replacing my primary workstation which would have been a bit of an issue since with the cost of the hardware I could have easily bought the master collection instead.
But as I said I do have a few issues with Creative Cloud. First and foremost being the Finnish pricing. The US price of $49.99 translates by current exchange rates to about 38€. Even with 24% VAT it would still be only 47€ not about 60€ that it is now. That's more than 20% extra for being on the wrong side of the big pond and I can't think of a single reason why's that since I use English versions of the software anyway so there's not even any translation costs. As it stands I feel that I'm getting screwed.
Then there's the Creative Cloud Connection software for the included cloud storage. I'm not sure if it's the software or the service itself but there are just way too many syncing errors, random and completely inexplicable syncing conflicts and some random log outs. Log outs I must say have all but disappeared since the last update. It's very fast to upload and download which is by a little bit Dropbox's Achilles heel but in all other aspects Dropbox is way more robust and reliable solution. Google Drive and Microsoft's SkyDrive both edge ahead of Creative Cloud's storage in terms of reliability as well, just not as much as Dropbox. In the current generation of CS6 products there's been a clear disconnect with the Creative Cloud storage though which is subject to change with the next generation CC products which brings me neatly to the last complaint. If Adobe is serious about pushing the CC users' creative projects into cloud 20GB of storage is not enough. Even Microsoft offers more, albeit it being only 7GB more, cloud storage with similar Office 365 subscription. 100GB would be a good start and it would certainly make the deal more lucrative.
Now for photographers Adobe actually does offer Photoshop separately as a subscription. You get the same cloud storage as well for about 20 $/€. It is a bit pricey considering the price of the software itself. Now if it were to include 100GB of cloud storage as well as Lightroom licence and the RAW editing software and service for tablets they recently demoed, I think the story would be different.
Personally I'm quite excited about the new cloud features of the upcoming CC product line and am satisfied with the Creative Cloud licencing model having been a user since its introduction. Regular updates and added functionality has some added value as do some of the cloud services. As a bit of a designer I'm quite excited about upcoming TypeKit desktop. However if the cloud integration is going to be improved the storage space and robustness of the storage solution must follow suit. What Adobe is currently offering is not enough to be considered a real value and I find myself using Google Drive and Dropbox way more than Creative Cloud for storing my creative projects which is a bit of a shame because the Creative Cloud web service is actually quite nice with it's Adobe document preview functions including Photoshop layer controls. What it would need is a better Kuler integration and high resolution viewing options.
Long story short. I'm quite happy with Creative Cloud but I'd like to send Adobe the following message:
Fix your Finnish pricing and your cloud storage in terms of reliability and capacity and I'll be very happy.
Now there are also a few things I'd love to see which would make CC a really great deal. Added value and features rather than issues with the current system.
1. Possibility of working on files stored in the cloud instead of local hard drive.
Let me elaborate. I have a desktop PC with all the storage capacity I need for my creative projects. I have several hundred GB of various creative projects for which I simply don't have storage space on my Mac laptop. If I had the option of storing even some of these in the cloud, syncing them to my desktop PC and working on them on my laptop from the cloud without having to store them locally (except when editing) would really make my day.
2. Remote file access through cloud.
This is actually related to the first wish. I'm not crazy enough to think that Adobe would include enough storage space in its Creative Cloud subscription to hold all my stuff, especially photos. Which is why it would be great if I could access my data on the go through the Creative Cloud connection software. This would be especially useful for me in Lightroom. If there's a photo in my Lightroom catalog on the desktop that I would need I could just download it directly from there do what ever work on it I need and upload it right back to my desktop with the changes I've made. Furthermore, I could upload photos which I have shot and processed on the go with my laptop to my primary Lightroom catalog on my desktop and not having to lug my external drive around.
I believe my fellow photographers would agree that if these functions would be included in the subscription it would be much better value for money.
Let me explain. I personally am not in the same boat as most of the photographers that have a problem with the new licencing model. I actually use fairly large collection of Adobe software on a fairly regular basis. I do quite a bit of design projects in Photoshop and Illustrator. I do some print prep in InDesign and quite a bit of web-design work in Dreamweaver. I use Auditon for what little sound editing I do and I'm glad to say that Premiere and After Effects have grown to be very reliable and functional tools for video editing and post processing. Though for my purposes they are a bit overkill but since I used to use them at work some time ago they are familiar which is a definite advantage.
To me the Creative Cloud licencing model was a godsend since I would have either been forced into Master Collection if I wanted to get all the software I wanted or Design Premium and having to find something to replace the Video tools. The monthly installment to me was a lesser issue than coming up with the money to buy the Master Collection all at once and even with Design Premium option there aren't that many good video editing software for PC to choose from. For mac users there's of course Final Cut which for all intents and purposes would have been perfect for me but would have had me buying a Mac capable of replacing my primary workstation which would have been a bit of an issue since with the cost of the hardware I could have easily bought the master collection instead.
But as I said I do have a few issues with Creative Cloud. First and foremost being the Finnish pricing. The US price of $49.99 translates by current exchange rates to about 38€. Even with 24% VAT it would still be only 47€ not about 60€ that it is now. That's more than 20% extra for being on the wrong side of the big pond and I can't think of a single reason why's that since I use English versions of the software anyway so there's not even any translation costs. As it stands I feel that I'm getting screwed.
Then there's the Creative Cloud Connection software for the included cloud storage. I'm not sure if it's the software or the service itself but there are just way too many syncing errors, random and completely inexplicable syncing conflicts and some random log outs. Log outs I must say have all but disappeared since the last update. It's very fast to upload and download which is by a little bit Dropbox's Achilles heel but in all other aspects Dropbox is way more robust and reliable solution. Google Drive and Microsoft's SkyDrive both edge ahead of Creative Cloud's storage in terms of reliability as well, just not as much as Dropbox. In the current generation of CS6 products there's been a clear disconnect with the Creative Cloud storage though which is subject to change with the next generation CC products which brings me neatly to the last complaint. If Adobe is serious about pushing the CC users' creative projects into cloud 20GB of storage is not enough. Even Microsoft offers more, albeit it being only 7GB more, cloud storage with similar Office 365 subscription. 100GB would be a good start and it would certainly make the deal more lucrative.
Now for photographers Adobe actually does offer Photoshop separately as a subscription. You get the same cloud storage as well for about 20 $/€. It is a bit pricey considering the price of the software itself. Now if it were to include 100GB of cloud storage as well as Lightroom licence and the RAW editing software and service for tablets they recently demoed, I think the story would be different.
Personally I'm quite excited about the new cloud features of the upcoming CC product line and am satisfied with the Creative Cloud licencing model having been a user since its introduction. Regular updates and added functionality has some added value as do some of the cloud services. As a bit of a designer I'm quite excited about upcoming TypeKit desktop. However if the cloud integration is going to be improved the storage space and robustness of the storage solution must follow suit. What Adobe is currently offering is not enough to be considered a real value and I find myself using Google Drive and Dropbox way more than Creative Cloud for storing my creative projects which is a bit of a shame because the Creative Cloud web service is actually quite nice with it's Adobe document preview functions including Photoshop layer controls. What it would need is a better Kuler integration and high resolution viewing options.
Long story short. I'm quite happy with Creative Cloud but I'd like to send Adobe the following message:
Fix your Finnish pricing and your cloud storage in terms of reliability and capacity and I'll be very happy.
Now there are also a few things I'd love to see which would make CC a really great deal. Added value and features rather than issues with the current system.
1. Possibility of working on files stored in the cloud instead of local hard drive.
Let me elaborate. I have a desktop PC with all the storage capacity I need for my creative projects. I have several hundred GB of various creative projects for which I simply don't have storage space on my Mac laptop. If I had the option of storing even some of these in the cloud, syncing them to my desktop PC and working on them on my laptop from the cloud without having to store them locally (except when editing) would really make my day.
2. Remote file access through cloud.
This is actually related to the first wish. I'm not crazy enough to think that Adobe would include enough storage space in its Creative Cloud subscription to hold all my stuff, especially photos. Which is why it would be great if I could access my data on the go through the Creative Cloud connection software. This would be especially useful for me in Lightroom. If there's a photo in my Lightroom catalog on the desktop that I would need I could just download it directly from there do what ever work on it I need and upload it right back to my desktop with the changes I've made. Furthermore, I could upload photos which I have shot and processed on the go with my laptop to my primary Lightroom catalog on my desktop and not having to lug my external drive around.
I believe my fellow photographers would agree that if these functions would be included in the subscription it would be much better value for money.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Going CC
Years ago I came to a realization that I'm not going to make money out of my photography. Achieving some sort of clarity on what this would actually mean took a little longer.
I used to publish my works with the standard all rights reserved copyright. This just seems a bit silly since I'm really doing this just for my own amusement. There's really no need for me to limit use of my works to that extent. So here's a bit of an announcement. I've changed the copyright of most the works on my Flickr account and here on this blog to Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike licence. There are a few exceptions for practical reasons. I'll be using this licence for my future works as well. What this means in practice is that my photographs are free to be shared, used in derivative works or remixes with proper attribution in noncommercial applications and shared under the same or similar licence.
Now this is a request, since I've waived the right to enforce it. I'd still like to know if you share or use my photography in your works. Thanks.
Some more information on Creative Commons and my licence of choice:
http://creativecommons.org/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
I used to publish my works with the standard all rights reserved copyright. This just seems a bit silly since I'm really doing this just for my own amusement. There's really no need for me to limit use of my works to that extent. So here's a bit of an announcement. I've changed the copyright of most the works on my Flickr account and here on this blog to Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike licence. There are a few exceptions for practical reasons. I'll be using this licence for my future works as well. What this means in practice is that my photographs are free to be shared, used in derivative works or remixes with proper attribution in noncommercial applications and shared under the same or similar licence.
Now this is a request, since I've waived the right to enforce it. I'd still like to know if you share or use my photography in your works. Thanks.
Some more information on Creative Commons and my licence of choice:
http://creativecommons.org/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
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