The reigning king of photo editing software is going mobile. Adobe, the makers of Photoshop, has announced they’re bringing the benefits of photoshop.com to selected smartphones, including several Windows based Treos. Users can visit mobile.photoshop.com starting this month (but not quite yet!) to sign up for the service.
There are two tiers of membership, basic and Plus. The Basic level has the advantage of being free (so far). Plus, at $50 per year, offers more personal storage space and some more benefits. Neither requires an Adobe software purchase (so far).
According to an Adobe news release, users will be able to:
- Upload pictures from the road, storing up to five gigabytes of photos – or 20 gigs for Plus memberships.
- Access the stored photos from anywhere via the phone’s web browser\
- Create albums of photos to share with other people. Did I hear somebody say “Oh, just like Flikr.com?”. I thought so.
Says Adobe, buried in a news release about releasing new versions of Photoshop Elements:
For those who want fresh, creative project ideas delivered straight to the desktop, the option to purchase an annual Photoshop.com Plus membership guarantees inspiration will come on a regular basis in the form of new tutorials, seasonal artwork, themed templates and more. In addition, Photoshop.com Plus membership provides 20GB of storage - enough for 15,000 photos, four hours of DVD-quality videos or a combination of both. Online back-up keeps memories safe from computer failure or natural disaster, with access from anywhere, via a personal account linked to the software…
Photoshop.com members also will be able to upload photos directly from a mobile phone.
The addition of Photoshop.com Mobile beta, a rich Adobe Flash® based mobile application, offers camera phone users the easiest way to upload, share and access photos using their Photoshop.com account. Photoshop.com Mobile runs in the background and allows consumers to take photos, send messages and run other applications while pictures are being uploaded to their Photoshop.com account.
The service will be rolled out initially for Palm’s AT&T Treo 750w, and Sprint, Verizon, and Alltel Treo 700w and Treo 700wx models (plus Verizon and AT&T Motorola Moto Q and AT&T Samsung Blackjack I and II). Availability begins this month, with other phones like iPhone and Blackberry to follow via software called ShoZu. Adobe: “Use ShoZu to upload photos to your Photoshop.com account from other handsets, including the Apple® iPhone™, BlackBerry® Pearl™, Motorola RAZR2, Nokia 5310, and Nokia 6301.” Adobe makes no mention of Palm’s newest WM Treo, but it’s just too new to be in there.
A long-time Photoshop user, I’m already a Flikr account holder, but I’ll probably sign on for a “Basic” photoshop.com membership just because. I have noticed something interesting, and most welcome, in Photoshop CS3 Extended – a Save for Mobile Devices option. The real impact of this is that Adobe gets it. Mobile computing is imminent, and users want to be able to do things seamlessly with our smartphones without trudging home to use a deskbound computer.
