Adobe to Unveil CS4 on September 23rd

Adobe will use an open web broadcast to unveil the latest version of Creative Suite. CS4 will include video and audio editing tools, and web design and development tools, as well as the familiar photo editing and graphic design applications.

CS4 will also have a new user interface that was previewed in the public betas of Soundbooth, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks, which have been available since May.

All of the applications in the Windows version of CS4 are 64-bit applications, a significant milestone for the product. The ability to take advantage of 64-bit processors will speed up each application's performance. The 64-bit version of CS4 will also finally break through the paltry 4 GB memory limit that hobbled CS3 applications. The memory limit will now be determined solely by the amount of memory installed in your computer.

CS4 may be a giant step forward for Windows users, but Adobe chose not to include 64-bit versions of the applications for Mac users. The company apparently decided it would take too much effort to rewrite the code base of their older applications, such as Photoshop, which was written in the Carbon API, to the new Cocoa API, even though it did just that with Lightroom 2 for the Mac.

Excuse me for a moment while I don my regal hat… We are not amused!

Former Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen was on stage at MacWorld in January 2006 when Steve Jobs first announced Apple's changeover to Intel processors. "What took you so long?" asked Bruce. Bruce also promised to create new versions of Creative Suite and Photoshop, to take advantage of the Intel processors.

Well, Bruce, almost three years have passed, and with the exception of Lightroom 2, no Adobe application can take advantage of the 64-bit Mac processors that you were raving about in 2006. I hope to one day be able to ask you what took so long. But it seems I'll have to wait for some future version of Adobe Creative Suite.