Adobe Unveils Project Felix 3D Design Tool, also Launches Fix, Sketch, and Comp CC Apps for Android

At the Adobe Max 2016 keynote on Wednesday, the company made several announcements related to the future of Creative Cloud. Also, it announced updates to Photoshop and Dreamweaver CC, besides bringing its Photoshop Fix, Photoshop Sketch, and Comp CC apps to Android. These three apps were already available on iOS, but also received updates for the platform, while the Photoshop Mix and Illustrator Draw apps received updates on both Android and iOS. The company also unveiled Project Felix, a 3D design tool.

So let's start with Adobe Photoshop Sketch, the app allows users to draw with the help of tools like pencils, pens, markers, erasers, thick acrylic, ink brush etc., and send their artworks as layered files to Photoshop CC. The app, which has just been launched on Android, allows users to add multiple layers of image and drawing, which they can restack, rename, transform and merge, Adobe says in its description on Google Play for app v1.0. On iOS, Photoshop Sketch v4.0 brings support for Photoshop Brushes, a new navigator, new document sizes, layer blend modes, the ability to save as PDF or PSD to the Creative Cloud, apart from bug fixes.

The next app launched by the company for Android was Adobe Photoshop Fix, which is essentially an app meant for image retouching and restoration. This app allows users to retouch their photos and make edits using tools such as 'smooth', 'liquify', 'defocus', and 'Face-aware liquify'. Users can remove the imperfections from their images with the help of these tools. Photoshop Fix 1.0 is available on Google Play. In the meanwhile, Photoshop Fix 1.6 for iOS gets new features like auto skin smoothing, the ability to import from Google Photos, and a new warmth adjustment slider.

And subsequently, Adobe's Comp CC is a design and wireframe tool that allows users to lay out their ideas using photos, text, shapes and fonts and then send them to Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC for finishing. Version 1.0 of the app is now available on Google Play. Comp CC is available on iOS as well and gets a redesigned layout with the v3.0 update.

As for the Photoshop Mix updates, Android is now on version 2.3, while iOS is on version 2.6. Android gets support for tablets, apart from bug fixes and stability improvements. The iOS update, on the other hand, includes major improvements to Cutout, the ability to import from Google Photos, as well as the ability to import SVG as rendition.

Coming to the end, Adobe also announced updates for Illustrator Draw on Android and iOS. Illustrator Draw 3.0 for Android gets enhanced brush settings with the ability to control individual settings for each brush, such as pressure, velocity, shape, and rotation. It also gets bug fixes and stability improvements. In the meanwhile, Illustrator 4.0 for iOS gets a new navigator, new document sizes, layer blend modes, the ability to save as PDF or PSD to the Creative Cloud, apart from bug fixes.

Adobe has also updated its Photoshop apps for Windows and Mac with several new features including 100 new templates, seven free Kyle Webster brushes, and two new SVG fonts. Users will be required to install the updates using Creative Cloud's desktop app.

The update to Photoshop also comes with an 'in-app search' functionality that allows users to "search Photoshop tools, panels, menus, Adobe Stock assets, help content and tutorials from within Photoshop using a new search panel that's right at your fingertips," the company said in its post. In order to use this feature, users can either press CMD+F keys or Ctrl+F keys depending on their platform, or search using the option present at top-right of the screen in the app.

Following the announcement of the revamped paint app by Microsoft, Adobe has announced its Project Felix, which aims to provide developers with easy-to-use tools for making designs in 3D. "Project Felix comes with the most powerful rendering engine to date, allowing you preview your changes without making you wait for a final render to export," the company said in its blog post.

However, the company said that its work on Project Felix is far from finished and that it will be releasing the first beta of the app "before the end of the year." It added that the first beta of Project Felix will be made available to paid CC members.

Source: Photoshop Blog

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Google Chrome to Start Blocking Flash; Switch to HTML5 as Default

In line with its earlier announcement, Google has now confirmed that it will start to de-emphasise Flash in favour of HTML5 from September. Fast on the heels of Apple's Safari browser, Google has announced that Chrome will prioritise HTML5 content over Flash wherever possible. The tech giant wants to promote HTML5 as it provides faster load times and consumes less power as compared to Adobe Flash Player.

With its stable Chrome version 53 channel, Google will block Flash and encourage HTML5. For sites running solely on Flash, Google Chrome will speed-break on users' browsing experience and ask for permission to run.

"Today, more than 90% of Flash on the web loads behind the scenes to support things like page analytics. This kind of Flash slows you down, and starting this September, Chrome 53 will begin to block it," Google reasons on its blog.

With Chrome 55 in December, Google will make HTML5 the default. It will ask for permission to run Flash on specific sites that only support the Adobe software.

This move doesn't come as a surprise as Google had announced in May that it plans to reduce ties with Flash through the course of this year. It had announced that by the end of the year, Flash will only be available on click-to-play basis on Chrome

At that time, Google named ten most used websites that run Flash, and white-listed them to avoid over-prompting. The names of some of the white-list websites are YouTube, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, Yandex.ru, Live.com, Mail.ru, OK.ru, VK.com and Twitch.tv. These websites will have Flash Player running without any hiccups. However this white-list expires in one year, and by the end of 2017, these websites are expected to make the switch to HTML5.

Google admits Flash played a huge role in the adoption of video and gaming on the Web, but it's plain to see it failed to keep up with the momentum that's built up in the recent years. Because of that and various security threats that it poses, all browsers including Firefox, Safari, and Edge are now transitioning to HTML5.

Flash is dying, even Adobe knows that, but as Pixlr’s CEO points out, people outside the "tech bubble" don't really care what they're using as long as it works. This makes Flash more of a necessary evil than anything else, but it’s still more evil than it’s necessary.

Like Safari, Opera, Edge and Firefox before it, Google is also not really killing off Flash just yet. All they're doing is prioritizing HTML5 content over Flash content. If you come across a site with Flash content, Google won't stop you from viewing it.

As one developer points out, HTML5 is still not good enough or reliable enough to completely replace Flash, but it's getting there. Of course, making Flash open-source would go a long way towards improving its chances. I doubt Adobe would ever do that, however.

Flash needs to die, but before that happens, HTML needs to stabilize fully. Hopefully, that will happen soon.

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