Adobe Photoshop CS4
Company: Adobe Systems, Inc.
Price: $699
http://www.adobe.com/

ABOUT THIS REVIEW:
As I worked my way deeper and deeper into the many features and changes, it became obvious that there was no way to lay it all out for you. Frankly, I don’t see how anyone can adequately review an app this large and complicated. It’s taken me a long time to get ready for this — in fact, I’m still not ready, but a six-month delay is long enough. Read on to see if anything surprises you!

OVERVIEW:
My version of Photoshop came with the review copy of the CS4 Master Collection. A brand new stand- alone version at full retail price will set you back $699 at the Adobe Store, but a quick Google search will reveal other options. And if you own virtually any older version of Photoshop or the Creative Suite, Adobe probably has an upgrade deal for you. Don’t think you’re necessarily priced out of the action! You can upgrade from CS3 for only $199, for example. For the record, the current version of the app itself weighs in at 258.8 MB, a hefty increase over CS3′s 216.9 MB, and that should tell you something.

But what, exactly? It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Do you really need to keep buying the new versions? In other words, with so many of us dependent on Photoshop for image editing and creative work, is maintaining Adobe’s profits and goodwill the real game in town, or have they honestly built a new version of Photoshop that’s worth the money?

WHAT’S NEW IN PHOTOSHOP CS4?
The best thing to do is visit this page, where you’ll notice the following new features:

1. Smoother panning and zooming and fluid canvas rotation: "Navigate to any area of an image with new, ultra-smooth zooming and panning. Maintain clarity as you zoom to individual pixels and easily edit at the highest magnification with the new Pixel Grid. And use the revolutionary new Rotate View tool to smoothly turn your canvas for distortion-free viewing at any angle."

2. Adjustments panel: "Simplify image adjustment by easily accessing every tool you need to nondestructively adjust and enhance the color and tone of your images; on-image controls and a wide variety of presets are also included in the new live and dynamic Adjustments panel." (Very cool, BIG time saver!)

3. Masks panel: "This panel offers all the tools you need to create editable pixel- and vector-based masks, adjust mask density and feathering, easily select noncontiguous objects, and more."

4. Content-Aware Scaling: "Use the new and revolutionary Content-Aware Scaling feature to automatically recompose an image as you resize it, smartly preserving vital areas as the image adapts to the new dimensions. Get the perfect image in one step without time-intensive cropping and retouching."

5. File display options: "Easily work with multiple open files by using tabbed document display or n-up views."

A number of other features have been "enhanced" and do work better, including the reengineered Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools. Nothing to sneeze at here. All of this is wrapped up in a slightly modified interface, especially evident in the "Save for Web and Devices" window, which we’ll be looking at below.

HARDWARE & INSTALLATION:
I originally installed the entire Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection on a 1.83 GHz MacBook with 2 MB of DDR2 SDRAM and a 160 GB Hitachi 7200 rpm hard drive. Photoshop runs just fine with this configuration, you’ll be happy to know, and even better on my current desktop machine, a 24" iMac (3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 memory, 1 terabyte 7200 rpm hard drive). Lots better, in fact, and working with my photos on the big, bright screen is pure joy.

THAT DARNED INTERFACE:
Okay, check out the "Save for Web and Devices" windows for the same image in CS3 and CS4. I adjusted each one to take up slack around the photo before taking a screenshot, so the UI text would be the same size in each one:

The CS4 version of this window is larger by almost 100 pixels. It also has a few more options, and the image itself is surrounded by a thin black border. The major change, however, is the placement of the Save, Cancel, and Done buttons, which now are at the bottom right corner of the window instead of top right. Is this a good thing?

I honestly don’t know. You’d think there was an ergonomic reason for moving them, but maybe it was just an afterthought when someone realized there wasn’t room for them after adding the Image Size info box below the Color Table box. Even after six months with the software, I still find myself flinging the cursor to the top right-hand corner to save an image! But what’s truly aggravating is that with the window taking up most of the screen on my MacBook, the Save button is perilously close to the Dock, which I keep at the bottom: I have to be very careful how I move the cursor, or else there’s a magnified Dock icon hopping up and getting in the way. The problem is much less evident on my iMac, obviously, but laptop owners may curse a lot.

FINAL OBSERVATIONS & CONCLUSIONS:
This being Photoshop and me being me, I’ll never be able to use every single new and enhanced feature. But Photoshop is an app that makes you say, "Wow! I never knew I could do THAT!" The new Adjustments panel is probably the best toy I’ve used so far, automatically creating adjustment layers for every tweak I want to try. To compare the Photoshop CS4 version to CS3, just peruse this chart. Beyond that, we’re down to the minor but irritating interface changes, and hopefully I’ll eventually get used to those.

If all you do with your old version of Photoshop is crop, resize, and adjust your photos, you don’t need to upgrade. As far as that goes, I probably don’t need the latest version myself, although I’m very happy to have it. Is CS4 intrinsically worth the $199 upgrade price? Absolutely! If you don’t have an older version and want an app to edit photos for the Web, say, is Photoshop CS4 the way to go? Not unless you’re wealthy. (For any kind of professional image work, sure. Of course. We live and die with Photoshop.) In any case, the full Creative Suite 4 is a MUCH better deal, considering what’s included, and that’s always the way to go if you or your employer can pay for it.

But can you run it?

MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
• Power PC G5 or multi-core Intel processor
• Mac OS X v10.4.11–10.5.7
• 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
• 2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on flash-based storage devices)
• 1,024×768 display (1,280×800 recommended) with 16-bit video card
Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and • OpenGL 2.0
• DVD-ROM drive
• QuickTime 7.2 software required for multimedia features
• Broadband Internet connection required for online services

That "512 MB of RAM" is something of a joke. I can report that 4 GB does make Photoshop CS4 get up and scoot, however.

MYMAC RATING:
I’d give this 4.5 or even 5 if it weren’t for those new Save buttons and the off-putting anti-piracy measures that make life more difficult for paying customers. Nevertheless, this rates a very comfortable 4 out of 5.

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That’s what Tim just gave me, all right. I wonder how long I’ll get to keep ‘em?

Yessir, I’m happy as a a pig in — wait a minute, I have to find out if I can say that kind of thing here — to be an Officially Approved Blogger here at MyMac.com. (Hi, Beth!) Some of you know who I am, the rest of you soon will. It’s all in my profile, but here’s the deal:

Until the last week of October, I was a senior editor and columnist at Applelinks.com, had been for more years than need mentioning, though what caused us to part is relevant to why I’m here now. The last straw for management was my linking to an Appleinsider article that quoted messages from a few readers having Finder problems after installing Panther on older Macs with less than 32MB of VRAM. Right, major felony. The point is, someone on the Mothership was less than pleased that I had (a) linked to a rumor site, and (b) intimated that a few potential Panther customers might experience a little initial pain, so when the phone rang at Applelinks, that was that. But so what and who cares? I’m not here to rehash old history, and I’m certainly not trying to get back in the sandbox.

If I do have anything to say about the wonderful world of Macintosh, you can be sure I’ll post it here. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg: since I stopped having to include what brother Rob called the “Mac kibble” in my writings, I’ve been having lots more fun. If you take the time to vist my self-published GRACK! column, you’ll get the idea. Here’s an excerpt from the latest, entitled “Mystery Dogs” …

I grabbed a beat-up cowboy hat I used under these conditions, tossed a couple of cold beers in the scuzzy cooler designated “boat use only,” hoisted that and the gas can with both arms, and headed for the creek. Before I’d gotten halfway down the hill, the flies found me and began to bite. I couldn’t swat, because my hands were full. Cursing and staggering, with sweat burning its way into my eyes, I stumbled out of the brush and down to the water’s edge, where the strongest, most hideously foul stench of death I have ever encountered slammed me in the gut and nearly made me retch. I actually dropped what I was carrying and fell backwards, quite instinctively. GOOD GOD, WHAT WAS THAT? And WHERE WAS IT, whatever it was?!

As I noted at FarrFeed, Tim Robertson is “one helluva passionate, independent, take-no-prisoners kinda guy and loyal as hell to anyone worth his attention and respect. If that means I qualify, I’m grateful.” That’s the truth, and I am. I don’t know yet what kinds of things I’ll be posting on this page, but I’m here and I’m glad. I admire and respect the other MyMac writers, always have, and this is going to be great fun. It’s an honor to be here, that’s for sure.

Okay. Now let’s upload this and see if it blows the blogware all to hell.

Hang onto your hats.

If you’re out of the loop on this, there’s a huge storm brewing over the fact that the federally-mandated touch screen voting systems currently being employed can’t be audited. That’s right: no “paper trail,” no recounts, no way to check whether the delivered totals are correct or not! There’s even some evidence that the reported results can be manipulated over the Internet via cell phones and PDAs.

Well now, the most recent “I, Cringely” column at PBS.com examines the electronic voting machine story from an Information Technology standpoint and explains darn near everything except the accountability factor — not that having an explanation is going to make anyone feel better — and then at the very end, he addresses the paper trail issue and drops what I consider a potential bombshell:

Now here’s the really interesting part. Forgetting for a moment Diebold’s voting machines, let’s look at the other equipment they make. Diebold makes a lot of ATM machines. They make machines that sell tickets for trains and subways. They make store checkout scanners, including self-service scanners. They make machines that allow access to buildings for people with magnetic cards. They make machines that use magnetic cards for payment in closed systems like university dining rooms. All of these are machines that involve data input that results in a transaction, just like a voting machine. But unlike a voting machine, every one of these other kinds of Diebold machines — EVERY ONE — creates a paper trail and can be audited. Would Citibank have it any other way? Would Home Depot? Would the CIA? Of course not. These machines affect the livelihood of their owners. If they can’t be audited they can’t be trusted. If they can’t be trusted they won’t be used.

Now back to those voting machines. If EVERY OTHER kind of machine you make includes an auditable paper trail, wouldn’t it seem logical to include such a capability in the voting machines, too? Given that what you are doing is adapting existing technology to a new purpose, wouldn’t it be logical to carry over to voting machines this capability that is so important in every other kind of transaction device?

This confuses me. I’d love to know who said to leave the feature out and why?

Amen, bro’. And Cringely promises to deliver the answer next week!

I am not making this up. According to the Gematriculator of the Sect of Homokaasu, MyMac.com is 19% evil. Wow. I wonder if Tim knows this.

My HQ site, JHFarr.com, has got ya beat, though: a big 24 % EVIL! This was getting interesting, I told myself, so I entered my FarrFeed blog at Salon. Am I in trouble, or what?!

But I’m probably way behind the curve. I mean, I don’t watch TV or read magazines. I’ll bet all the really cool people have been going to this Finnish (?) game site for years. At least I think it’s Finnish. What would you call this? (Ärsyttävätkö pandakarhut sinua alituisella löhöilyllään ja bambun mussutuksellaan? Raivostuttaako harvinaisten eläinten ulkonäkö? Nyt sinulla on mahdollisuus tappaa, tuhota ja teurastaa kaikki ne iljettävät, muka söpöt eläimet, joita olet aina vihannut.) No, really.

Do you suppose I’ve just infected the server with a ghastly virus by linking? Urk. All right, I’m done now.

MyMac’s Bruce B. reports 30 inches of snow back East. Yow!

That’s a lot. Back in MD, I always liked it when we got snowed in. We lived in the country, so it was kinda special, all nice and cozy. The trouble always came later, when it partially melted, then refroze, jamming up the gutters, then melted again (but the gutters were full of ice). MAJOR leaks, basement flooding, horrible mud, ruination everywhere. Evil salt on all the roads, washing onto the shoulders and into the groundwater. Bottom line: fun the first time or for the first day and a half, if you didn’t have to go anywhere. After that, “please God make spring come soon!”

We could use some snow in New Mexico. Terribly dry, no snow on the mountains. Bad news for next year if that keeps up. During the first week of January, the Indians at the Pueblo perform the buffalo dance (wearing real buffalo heads, HEAVY mothers, and skins). It’s supposed to bring snow, which is regarded as the breath of life here. The neat thing when it does snow is that it’s usually powder. Dry stuff. Your car can be covered with a foot of it, but all you have to do is hit it with a broom or just blow real hard. Doesn’t stick to your shoes or pants, either, falls right off w/o getting you wet.

The sun always, always, comes out right afterwards — or during! Winter with sunlight and blue skies is more than tolerable, even if it is cold, which it sure the hell is: teens to single digits most nights now.

I finally posted a new GRACK! at JHFarr.com. You can get to it by clicking on the image below. That URL will always have the current column, incidentally (for purists, the unadorned, ad-free permanent link is here).

Here’s an excerpt (this week’s essay is entitled “Terrible and Fine”):

The wind blew strongly from the south and shook the branches, but the tiny carcass was firmly lodged. Back and forth it waved, like something in a dream you half-remember and try not to forget. It must have fallen from the sky, dropped by a raven or a hawk, or been accidentally lost by dueling magpies, I reasoned. Curiously excited, I walked quickly back to the house and grabbed my camera. For the next ten minutes I took picture after picture without really knowing why: it was just a little thing, or so it seemed, but I was totally consumed, even happy, without knowing who or what to thank.

Also, you say you want snow? Just check out today’s Fotofeed, and please note that this image changes every day.

And lest we forget what else happened on this date: if only, if only …

Now that all kinds of people are getting their first taste of snow this season, I thought I would post a few words about what it’s like here in the Southwest. The image below was taken three years ago in the mountain valley community of San Cristobal, NM, about 20 minutes north of Taos. What you’re looking at is a blizzard bearing down on us from about 20 miles away. That’s what it looks like, a great big roiling mass of what look like clouds but are anything but. That’s SNOW, all right. Sometimes the sun comes out in the middle of these storms, and the locals say that means the devil is beating his wife.

The amazing thing to me about this part of the world is that you can see this stuff coming from so far away. Back in Maryland, you never see things until they’re right on top of you. We had some pretty vicious blizzards there too, lots worse than here, actually, in terms of wind and amounts of snow, but you never could actually see anything. First it would get gray, then little flakes would come down, then bigger ones, then the wind would pick up, and so on. But the only way you could tell it was coming was to turn on the TV!

There’s a good picture of a similar snow event posted at today’s FotoFeed. Since those images update daily, you’ll have to go here to see the one I mean if you’re reading this after Dec. 9th (right now it’s what you’ll see at the link below). This isn’t a blizzard, though, just a snow shower. But it sure does look dramatic.

Now, this is very cool!

Some time ago, August 26, 2002, in fact, I visited with a group of folks known collectively as Northern New Mexico Digital Video. Founded by Dan Otero and Javier Arellano, they were doing what I regarded then and still do as top-notch work in a technology area that wasn’t exactly a household word at the time. (In the right households, sure, like the one I wrote about and took pictures of in this GRACK! column that’s still miraculously on the Applelinks server. I highly recommend it to everyone, especially Mac enthusiasts.)

Now then. One the major cultural events in this part of the world is the Santa Fe Film Festival, which wound up last week. I was calmly sitting at home, thumbing through the Pasatiempo Magazine of the Santa Fe New Mexican a few days ago, reading about the festival, when all of a sudden Dan’s name jumped out at me: not only is Northern New Mexico Digital Video alive and kicking, but a short film of Dan’s had earned a showing. From the New Mexican:

New Mexico Shorts I and II offer a smorgasbord of films made in New Mexico, from documentaries to dance performances, educational efforts and music videos One of the best works is The Troll’s Demise (New Mexico Shorts I), a campy piece that places a group of geology students at cave sites near Peñasco, where they encounter a tree troll and Trogla, a Medusa-like woman who can turn humans to stone. Dan Otero, who grew up in Española and lives in La Mesilla, wrote and directed this amusing mythical story.

I couldn’t make it down for the screening but made sure to let Dan know that I had read the article in the paper and congratulated him. I mean, this had to be a big deal, right? Here’s his reply:

It was truly a weekend to remember. Though i didn’t win anything, it was amazing to be walking around Santa Fe with a FILMMAKER badge hanging around my my neck. The chance to meet and mingle with fellow filmmakers, artists and influential types was very cool. It felt like a lot of hard work starting to pay off.

No damn kidding! And just so you know, Northern New Mexico Video is a homegrown enterprise built on imagination, dedication, and Macintosh technology. Just check out their services. It’s always a fine thing when people you know get recognized for what they’re good at, and this is one of those times. Way to go, amigo.

All right, see this first picture?

Call it a “platypus box,” for want of a better name. It’s an art object, obviously, although the top of the platypus does pivot to the side revealing a cavity within. A Japanese-American woman who was a good friend of my sister used to make these, and my sister gave one to me almost 20 years ago. Maybe it was only 15 years ago, but I’ve had it for a long time (relevant). It has always sat on top of a coffee table or stereo speaker or some such place, in several different households my wife and I have occupied.

Now look at the second image. Interesting, yes? Believe it or not, I found this bronze ashtray in an antique shop in Granville, Ohio, also a long time ago, maybe 15 years or so in this case too. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since. Someone reading this, perhaps my Aussie friends, may be able to tell me more about it. It has no brand or manufacturers markings, but based on my limited knowledge of such things, I’d say it may be a sand-cast bronze. In any case it’s rather primitive, with the exception of the exquisitely-formed platypus (about three inches long). And the decorative border looks Maori-like to me (as if I would know). Platypuses are found in Australia and Tasmania, so why not some kind of native or aboriginal decoration?

But why mention these things? Simple: I’ve had both of them for roughly 15 years. For the last six months, they’ve both been at opposite ends of the same coffee table. Just yesterday I had occasion the rearrange some of the objects on the table, and in so doing I placed the wooden carving and the ashtray side-by-side for the first time ever. And guess what?

I NEVER REALIZED I HAD TWO FREAKING PLATYPUSES!!! This is astonishing to me. I’ll bet most of you have none. I’ve had these two things for years but never put them next to each other. I’m a DOUBLE PLATYPUS guy and never knew it. Is this weird or what?

Someone who should know told me that when two things, events, objects, whatever are perceived for the first time to be a “pair,” this means something new is coming into consciousness. TWO PLATYPUSES! This could be really big or merely stupid.

Isn’t this exciting?!

This is what I saw when I walked out to the road this morning: the entire Taos valley was gone, replaced by a vast gray inland sea. Only Llano Quemado’s few adobe hovels and double-wides remain of what used to be a shining jewel of enlightenment, a destination of choice for seekers & rich idiots, an oasis of spirituality and bloodthirstiness … but do you care? Of course not! Should you? Of course not!

Especially since I just looked again, a few hours after I took that picture, and the damned place is back again. The sky is blue, everything is as it was, Texans and Coloradans carefully locking their Lexi & strolling up and down Bent Street with shopping bags in their hands … (I wonder if they know it’s named for a territorial governor who had his head cut off in front of his wife and children by an enraged mob during the last Pueblo revolt?!)