Adobe Creative Suite becomes subscription-only, kills Fireworks

It was Adobe; in the billiard room, with the candlestick... In a single blow, the software-makerdispatched new sales of "perpetual" Creative Suite licenses and announced the languishing demise of Fireworks. The company today said it will no longer sell Creative Suite bundles (or its individual components) as retail products. In place of CS will be Adobe's Creative Cloud -- a subscription-only service. 

"We have no current plans to release another perpetual release of the CS tools and suites. Creative Cloud is going to be our sole focus moving forward," Adobe said.

Meanwhile, Fireworks development has been halted except for discretionary security and bug fixes. However, Adobe was kind enough to promise that Fireworks would remain part of Creative Cloud for an undisclosed period of time and be updated to support the "next versions" of Mac OS X and Windows.

The company claims an "overwhelming" number of customers actually prefer the switch to a $50/month (or $600 annually) plan when compared to purchasing the software à la carte for thousands of dollars. At present, "Creative Cloud" is essentially a digitally-distributed version of Adobe's CS: Master Collection, but requires a monthly subscription validation check. Gone are the days of perpetual licenses which could be used for as long as the owner saw fit.

Existing Creative Suite owners can score special Creative Cloud pricing: $30/month for qualified licensees of previous CS versions (CS3 or new). Meanwhile, CS6 owners (and educational customers) enjoy deeper discounts at just $20/month -- coincidentally the same price new customers can pay to access just a single application (e.g. Photoshop).

Adobe has been working toward a subscription-based model for years; however, no one could be entirely certain when that day would arrive. In March though, the famed Photoshop maker announced its imminent shift to a completely digital distribution system, canning retail sales of Creative Suite discs.

"We expected it to be a couple years before this happened. But we were surprised by how successful Creative Cloud has been," said Adobe. "We know that's going to be a difficult transition for some customers, but we think it's going to be the best move in the long haul."

Photoshop has long-been a piratical favorite, no doubt due to its prohibitive price tag and unique standing as the de facto world-class tool for graphics editing. This factoid has likely fueled Adobe's ongoing desire to move its products to the cloud as less-exploitable services.

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Bethesda announces reimagined 'Wolfenstein' action-adventure game

Bethesda Softworks today revealed a reimagined, action-adventure version of the classic first-person shooter Wolfenstein. Known officially as Wolfenstein: The New Order, the “what if?” title puts players in control of an American war hero named B.J. Blazkowicz in a world where the Nazis won World War II.

The game is said to be set in the 1960s which has given the Nazis plenty of time to take over the entire planet. As the protagonist, you are tasked with launching what is described as an impossible counter-offensive that includes infiltrating Nazi camps and bringing the fight to them – using their “super weapons,” of course.

The game is being developed by Machine Games which itself was founded by former members of Starbreez (think The Darkness, Chronicles of Riddick) in 2009. It’s slated to hit the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and next generation consoles during the fourth quarter of this year – just in time for the holidays.

Interestingly enough, Bethesda VP of Marketing Peter Hines noted they are intentionally being secretive about next generation console availability. This likely just means he doesn’t want to name the next Xbox specifically but it could also mean that one of the two consoles could receive exclusive rights to the game.

We’ll keep an eye on Microsoft’s pending Xbox reveal to see if the game is demoed. If not, it’ll probably show up somewhere during E3. Until then, enjoy the trailer embedded above!

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Microsoft confirms Windows Blue update is shipping later this year

Update: Microsoft's Julie Larson-Green further confirmed the news about Windows 'Blue' today, narrowing down a date for the OS' next milestone. A public preview of the next Windows is scheduled for release at this year's Build, Microsoft's annual conference scheduled to take place from June 26th to the 28th. The final release of Windows 8.1 is expected by the end of this year.

Rumors about what exactly Windows Blue will be have flown around the Internet for months and we already have a few ideas of what to expect. Now, thanks to a blog post from Microsoft interviewing Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller, we finally have official confirmation that the codename refers to the next major update to Windows 8 shipping later this year.

Microsoft's ultimate goal with Windows Blue is getting the OS to run on a wider range of devices, which makes a great deal of sense with all of the rumors we've been hearing of the company planning to release a smaller version of Surface tablets. Reller specifically cites a "broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance" when she is referring to the changes in Windows Blue.

Windows Blue will also address some of the complaints from critics of the OS. Reller did not specifically talk about which criticisms the update would address, but simply said, "the Windows Blue update [is] an opportunity for us to respond to the customer feedback that we’ve been closely listening to since the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT."

The interview also discussed Windows 8 apps, which Reller says have grown in number six-fold since the OS launched, noting that they have "already passed what iOS had in store, in its first year of app development." 

Speaking about Windows 8 adoption, Tami Reller revealed they've surpassed 100 million licenses sold, including licenses that ship on a new tablet or PC, as well as upgrades to Windows 8. In spite of it not being the boom Microsoft was expecting, the company is still happy with the performance overall. Reller rejects any notion of the PC being past its prime arguing it is "very much alive and increasingly mobile." 

At this point, it's difficult to say exactly what changes will come as part of Windows Blue. While Reller confirmed it will address customer feedback, she remained very vague about the specifics, particularly on the rumored return of the Start Button and a boot straight to desktop option. Other details including pricing, packaging and go-to-market details about Blue are expected to be revealed in the next couple of weeks.

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Angry Birds Friends brings mobile competition to Android and iOS

The latest iteration in the Angry Birds franchise is now available for download. Angry Birds Friends doesn’t deviate far from its roots although this time around, gameplay is centered around competing with friends and family on Facebook.

Rovio first announced the Facebook-connected title a few weeks ago. With Friends, you’ll be able to take part in weekly tournaments with new levels, challenges, gifts and daily rewards. Gamers can earn gold, silver and bronze trophies as part of the competition. Anyone that competes will receive a single power-up as a consolation prize, we’re told.

The tournament is scheduled to kick off on May 6. Rovio suggested in a recent blog post that gamers go ahead and download the title now to get some practice in before the tourney starts. New tournaments brgin each Monday with a different set of challenges to take part in.

The game is available free of charge for Android version 2.2 and up as well as iOS users on an iPhone 3GS or newer, iPod touch third generation or later and the iPad. Alternately, you can play on your computer using theFacebook app. The game uses your Facebook login credentials so your progress will be maintained regardless of how often you change devices.

What’s more, gamers will earn 200 bird coins just for logging in the first time. These coins can be used in-game to achieve special power-ups like the King Sling, Super Seeds, Birdquake or the Wingman.

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Weekend Open Forum: Online since...?

The world wide web turned 20 this week. Though I haven’t been online for that long, it got me reminiscing about the first time I heard my computer make that choreographed sequence of noises that allowed it to piggyback on a phone line and access the series of tubes known as the internet.

It was around 1996 or 97 and it was quite new in my country. I hadn’t even heard of it before my brother had it installed on our computer -- a Macintosh at the time -- and told me this thing connected us to the whole world. “You can even go to Playboy if you want!”, he exclaimed. I don’t remember exactly what I did the first time I got online, probably look up Playboy if I’m honest (don’t judge), but I do remember reading a lot and having fun chatting on an early IRC client as it quickly became popular among people from various local schools.

So yeah.. that was my first online experience of many that followed the next few years, including long C&C gaming sessions as well as building an mp3 download website on Word gathering working links from around the web. How long have you been online and what are your first memories of it?

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Apple to celebrate 50 billionth app download with giveaway

Apple’s next big digital sales milestone is coming up quick: 50 billion app downloads. To celebrate the occasion, Apple is hosting a giveaway where one lucky winner (the person who downloads the 50 billionth app) will walk away with a $10,000 App Store credit. What’s more, the next 50 people after the grand prize winner will also earn a $500 gift card.

When Apple announced the giveaway, there were roughly 793 million downloads to go. For reference, it took about 15 days for people to download 700 million apps. Of course, the number of apps and the number of iOS devices have increased over the course of the past year which means we could see Apple announce winners within the next two weeks.

In announcing the giveaway, Apple also revealed their top 25 all-time free and paid apps for the iPhone and the iPad. Topping the paid charts for the iPhone was Rovio’s Angry Birds while Apple’s Pages app got the nod on the iPad. In the free app category, Facebook was the most downloaded app on the iPhone and Microsoft’s Skype was the top freebie for the iPad.

This isn’t the first time that Apple has handed out prizes in celebration of specific milestones. Earlier this year Cupertino gave away a 10,000 Euro iTunes gift card to the lucky recipient that downloaded the 25 billionth song on iTunes. Last March, Chunli Fu from Qingdao, China, received a $10,000 gift card and a trip to an Apple Store to pick it up for downloading the 25 billionth app from the App Store.

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YouTube claims victory in the battle with television

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt recently proclaimed YouTube victorious in the battle against traditional television – if such a battle ever even existed. During a recent presentation to advertisers, the chairman said Internet video has already displaced television watching and the future for YouTube is now.

But according to Schmidt, Internet video is not a replacement for television. Instead, he said, it’s a new thing that we have to think about, to program, to curate and build new platforms for.

YouTube’s global head of content Robert Kyncl said he initially thought that YouTube was like television, but he was wrong. The executive pointed out that television is one-way; YouTube talks back. Said another way, television means reach while YouTube means engagement.

True enough, the web’s go-to video destination is riding a wave of success, what with one billion unique usersvisiting the site every month. It’s a major milestone that YouTube surpassed back in March but it’s just the beginning, Schmidt suggested. When you factor in Third World nations (most of which don’t have readily-available access to the web), YouTube could easily reach the six to seven billion mark.

Original content will likely be key to the continued success of Internet video. DreamWorks Animation is seemingly in touch with that notion, having just purchased the teen-focused YouTube network Awesomeness TV for a cool $33 million. DreamWorks CEO Jeffery Katzenberg said this is a whole new form of content, content delivery and content consumption. It’s the medium of the future, he said, and the future has already arrived.

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