With every bleed of my heart…

by Gil Poulsen | Apr 9, 2014 | Mac, Technology

The “Heartbleed” bug

Many of you have probably already heard about the security issue known as “Heartbleed,” which affects numerous Web sites and potentially other programs and systems that use specific versions of an encryption technology known as OpenSSL.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the protocol that scrambles or encrypts sensitive information that moves across the Internet, and this “bug” in OpenSSL means that any data sent between your Mac or iDevice and a Web site affected by the vulnerability could be intercepted and decoded (including passwords and credit card info).

Although no one is sure if the bug has been exploited or if any information has actually been stolen, it has the potential to be serious. I’ll let you read all about it here if you want to get all the gory details, but here’s the bottom line: While your Mac is not affected directly by this, many of the Web sites that you use on a regular basis might be.

It’s estimated that approximately 15-20% of all Web sites are affected by Heartbleed. I wish I could provide you with an updated list of these sites, but as of yet no such list exists. However, someone has put together a handy little online tool that lets you type in the Web address of any site and check to see if it uses the particular flavor of OpenSSL that is affected by Heartbleed.

The owner/operator of any affected site needs to correct the problem on their end; there’s nothing you can do until the site notifies you that they’ve addressed the issue. Changing your password isn’t going to help until they’ve fixed the problem, at which point you should then seriously consider updating your password just in case it was appropriated while the site was vulnerable.

So for your financial sites at least, if nothing else, I would do a little detective work using the tool noted above. For what it’s worth, GMail is not affected by this, nor is iCloud.com. If anyone wants to report back via a comment on which sites are safe, feel free. I’ll update this post if I get any new or useful info on the subject.

Office, ours

After a wait long enough that most of us figured it would never come to pass, Microsoft Office for the iPad and iPhone/iPod is now available for download. The software itself, as well as the pricing and licensing policies, are completely different for iPads vs. iPhones/iPods, and may not seem so favorable by comparison to Apple’s iWork suite of apps, but I’ll let you be the judge.

Here’s how it breaks down:

The app for iiPhone/iPod is known as Microsoft Office Mobile. It’s completely free to download and use as long as you’re willing to create an account with Microsoft with which you can sign in; without first entering a Microsoft account ID and password the app can’t be launched.

Once you’ve gotten past that hurdle, you’ll find you can open, create, edit and save Word and Excel files but, strangely enough, you can’t create PowerPoint files even though you can open existing ones, as well as edit and save them. Further, you can’t store Office files on your iDevice, so you need to use Microsoft’s OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint in order to really make use of this (20GB of OneDrive storage is included).

For your iPad, Word, Excel and PowerPoint are offered as individual apps. If you want only to view existing Office documents, you can use them all for free as long as you’d like. Assuming you might actually want to create or edit documents, however, you must subscribe to Office Home Personal for $6.99/mo. (covers one tablet and one Mac or PC), or Office Home Premium for $9.99/mo. (allows the use up to five mobile devices and up to five Macs/PCs).

If you happen to work for a company that already has an Office subscription for their business, you should inquire about using that. As with Microsoft Office Mobile, you can’t store files on your device so you’ll need to use OneDrive or SharePoint for that, and you get the same 20GB of OneDrive storage provided to iPhone/iPod users.

The actual iPad apps are generally getting rave reviews, although not everyone is as enthusiastic about the Microsoft subscription model. You can try the iPad apps free for 30 days, so I’d suggest at least taking a look if you feel that you really need the Office suite on your device.

Since the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) can open and save Office files, and they require only a one-time purchase with no monthly or annual subscription fees, they might be a better deal. Keep in mind, however, that they’re not as full-featured as Microsoft’s offerings, nor are they as capable of seamlessly opening, editing and saving an Office document while preserving every aspect of the file in question.

Mavericks: Ready. Or Not.

Back in early February, I wrote that I really couldn’t recommend any of you upgrading to Mavericks, and as of this moment my position hasn’t changed on that. There are still some major issues even after the 10.9.2 update, so we’ll see what happens when 10.9.3 is released, probably sometime later this month.

Those of you already using OS X 10.8 “Mountain Lion” really aren’t missing all that much, other that tabbed Finder windows, tags for documents and the aforementioned bugginess. If, however, you’re still running OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard,” or OS X 10.7 “Lion,” you should think about moving up to 10.8–as long as your Mac supports it.

Those of you still on 10.5 “Leopard” should absolutely move up to 10.6 at a minimum (to eliminate the constant warnings about the Adobe Flash Player, if for no other reason), again assuming your Mac model supports that operating system.

If you’re not sure which model Mac you own, enter your Mac’s serial no. here. And if you don’t happen to have your Mac’s serial number handy, just go to “About This Mac” from the Apple menu, and from the About window, click twice on the line that indicates the system software version.

As always, feel free to drop me a line if you’re unsure which way to go here.

All a ‘Twitter

by Gil Poulsen | Feb 25, 2014 | Mac, Technology

Last time out I noted that I was contemplating joining the Twitterverse, and perhaps even Tweeting–on a limited basis, of course. I’ve always believed, as Polonius expressed so eloquently to Hamlet’s mom, that brevity is indeed the soul of wit, something that to me applies not to the length of each Tweet–which Twitter already restricts to a scant 140 characters–but to the number of Tweets issued on a given day as well.

But before I get around to tossing out a Tweet or three, I want to make a case for why I feel Twitter is worthy of your attention in the first place, and–should you find yourself in agreement with me–how to go about getting your Tweet wet with Twitter on your Mac.

I’ve been part of the Twitterverse for only the last couple of weeks, but my brief experience has already shown that if one limits time spent with the service, and follows the appropriate people (the @s)/or topics (the #s), value can indeed be gleaned from this particular flavor of social media.

One long-standing criticism of social media services like Twitter and Facebook–and I have certainly voiced this myself–is that the information put forth seems at best trivial and at worst hurtful, or just plain mean. So I am happy to report that I have, in a fairly brief period of time, identified not less than a baker’s dozen individuals who, at least in my humble opinion, contribute information of indispensable value to the Twitterverse.

To illustrate, those whom I’ve elected to follow have graciously provided the following insights, images, info, and indisputably insightful non-sequiturs over the course of the past few days:

• Why are all the “House of Cards” journalists so bad at journalism?
  Andrew Kaczynski | @BuzzFeedAndrew | Reporter for @BuzzFeed Politics

• ‘Chuffed’ was used in the last moments of Liam Neeson’s interview & last scene of Downton on the same evening. Coincidence for a Brit term!
• ‘Mongrel’ spiking at http://m-w.com after Ted Nugent referred to @BarackObama as a “subhuman mongrel”
• TGIF is correctly pronounced TEE-JIFF. You’re welcome.
  Peter Sokolowski | @PeterSokolowski | Lexicographer, Merriam-Webster

• John Glenn and fellow Mercury astronauts clad in “Lawrence of Arabia” garb during 1960 desert training exercise
• A rejected design for the Washington Monument
• Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera, during 1st public demonstration in Manhattan, 1947
• Lincoln’s funeral procession in downtown NYC, with a 6-year old Teddy Roosevelt watching from a third-story window at upper left
  Michael Beschloss | @BeschlossDC | Presidential Historian

• The “eat” of battle – how the world’s armies get fed (skip to the pix)
• Is That Sausage Worth This?  (Spoiler: gross.)
  Mark Bittman | @bittman | Food writer for NY Times; author of How to Cook Everything

• Insomnia. A simultaneously useful and destructive state.
• I’ve just installed WhatsApp and hate myself as a result.
  Emily Bell | @emilybell | Director of Tow Centre for Digital Journalism at Columbia

• Over the past two weeks, Putin’s face has shown as great a range of expressions as Lenin’s (in his current condition).
• Olympic opening and closing ceremonies remind of of the influence of HDTV. Nothing this ambitious would have been done in analog TV days.
• Warning to non-tech media: I’m THIS close to using my authority to force you all to stop using the word “selfie.” Just FYI.
  Andy Ihnatko | @Ihnatko | Chicago Sun-Times technology columnist and Internationally Beloved Industry Figure™

• “The Lego Movie” is still number one at the box office. How dare they make a film about plastic people and not call me!
  Joan Rivers | @Joan_Rivers | A simple girl with a dream…

• 11 Historical Uses for Invisible Ink
• What Spitting Cobras Are Actually Aiming For
  Mental Floss | @mental_floss | Amazing facts from the good people at mental_floss magazine

Sure beats hateful Tweets about gay athletes, or a FaceBook posting featuring pics of what your niece had for breakfast. So in the event this brief taste of Twitter has whetted your appetite for more, all you need do is head over to twitter.com and create an account. You don’t have to Tweet anything yourself at the outset; besides, until you can coerce a few others to follow you, you’ll be Tweeting to an empty room, so to speak–er, Tweet, that is…

Once you’ve got your Twitter identity established, simply select a few individuals to follow, and revel in your new-found wisdom! To help get you started, I’ve taken the liberty of including the Twitter handle of each contributor noted above.

Point of clarification (#1 of 2): Twitter members are designated by the @ symbol; Twitter topics/keywords are indicated by a hashtag (#). Click on any keyword in a Tweet to see all Tweets which include that keyword; you can also search Twitter for a specific keyword; #SochiProblems has been particularly amusing as of late.

By way of example, my (and presumably everyone’s) favorite 320-lb,. ex-N.Y. Giants quarterback Jared Lorenzen issues Tweets as @jaredlorenzen22; keyword #heftylefty also exists for anyone to include when they Tweet about Jared himself, or anything they deem Jared-related.

Therefore, were I to Tweet regarding Jared, I might compose something like the following:

Latest on @jaredlorenzen22: The #heftylefty suffered a broken leg in the Feb. 9 game but is on the mend. Hang in there J.Load!

So if you follow @jaredlorenzen22 you’ll get all of his Tweets; if you explore the keyword #heftylefty, you’ll discover what everyone else Tweets about regarding the “Pillsbury Throwboy.” If you’re not into sports, my sincerest apologies. Simply substitute @tim_cook and #Apple respectively for their counterparts above 😉

Point of clarification (#2 of 2): You may have noticed that, in your iDevice(s) Settings and in your Mac’s Mail, Contacts & Calendars preference pane, you are provided with the option to enter your Twitter account credentials. This simply stores your Twitter handle and password so you are able to Tweet images, Web links, etc. expeditiously; it does not provide a means for you to follow others on Twitter.

Therefore, you need to download Twitter’s app for iPhone/iPad to use Twitter on any of your iDevices. On your Mac, you can simply follow all your Twitter feeds in a browser window, or download Twitter for Mac from the App Store.

iOS 7: No Wonder you don’t like it

by Gil Poulsen | Oct 8, 2013 | Mac, Technology

There was a time when a telephone’s “operating system” consisted of a finger wheel–a round plastic dial with ten finger holes corresponding to the numbers 0 through 9. This relatively straightforward phone dialing system, which I’ll call telOS 2, worked pretty well for all of us from, oh, the early 1920s to the 1960s, when telOS 3 was released. This radical new version of the phone’s operating system utilized a new dialing technology known as dual-tone multi-frequency push-button dialing, aka Touch-Tone, and replaced the ubiquitous rotary dial with a rectangular 12-key keypad.

If you’re willing to buy into the claims of this brief promotional video, most folks were simply over the moon about the speed and convenience of the new telOS 3 operating system. Still, I’m sure there were those die-hard traditionalists who were adamantly opposed to replacing their current phones with ones running the new telOS, and vowed to hang onto their suddenly-arcane rotary dial models until the day someone pried them from their cold, dead hands.

And thus has it ever been with every new phone operating system since those halcyon days; some folks can’t wait to get their hands on the latest iPhone OS and the newest features contained therein, whereas others hold back as long as possible in case Apple has implemented radical changes that make the phone seem less familiar or more difficult to use. This time around, with the new iOS 7, Apple has managed to do both–the radically different user interface has made the iPhone much less familiar, yet at the same time there are a host of improvements that make all your iDevices easier to use in many ways.

I would be remiss here if I did not point out that iOS 7, with its new fancy-schmancy “parallax effect” background-shifting eye candy, isn’t just causing general weeping and wailing of the “who moved my cheese” variety; it’s literally making some folks sick to their stomachs. So while those of you prone to motion sickness do have a legitimate excuse for hating on the new iOS, the rest of us will eventually just have to get over it at some point. Read on to discover just why it is that so many of us really don’t care for Apple’s latest offering.

The death of skeumorphism

The radically different appearance of the iPhone interface under iOS 7, which appears to be what’s generating the bulk of the controversy surrounding this update, is due to Apple’s abandonment of a design technique known as skeumorphism, which is much easier to define by example than via this tortured dictionary definition:

skeumorphism: (n) 1. The use or application, in the creation or design of an object, of those vestigial elements in nature or artefact that survive from an original form, even though they are no longer required.

See what I mean? Let’s try a practical example instead, from a region near and dear to me–Scandinavia, home to Legos, ABBA, Stieg Larsson, The Bridge, and, of course, flat-pack furniture giant and Britain’s Favourite Retailer, IKEA. I’m going to reference their venerable $9.99 LACK end table to illustrate this skeumorphism stuff.

The LACK, like a lot of IKEA’s cheaper products, is built from medium density fiberboard (a.k.a. particle board) and encased in a wood-grain laminate surface. Now, does the typical end table really need to have a wood-grain finish in order to support magazines, remote controls or a table lamp, or even to help us recognize it as a coffee table? Not in the slightest, but wood is familiar to us, has a warmth that makes us more comfortable having that table in our living room and perhaps even provides the illusion that the $9.99 LACK is a substantial and long-lasting item. Remember that at one point in time, real wood was a necessary component of furniture. Really.

So that’s skeumorphism–incorporating “vestigial elements” of an object into its design or appearance that are no longer necessary for said object to function–and it’s always been a big part of not only the iPhone’s operating system design, but the Mac OS as well–calendar programs that look like real calendars with torn paper edges and leather bindings; settings toggles in the form of actual mechanical switches; the gray linen-look background just introduced in Mac OS X Lion and in iOS6. WhIch is no doubt why it’s so jarring for iDevice users to be thrust abruptly into an interface that looks less like a collection of richly detailed windows and objects–painstakingly rendered to evoke a connection to their real-world counterparts–and more like the wrapper on a loaf of Wonder Bread.

There’s a lot of intensely bright white background scattered about the new iOS as well, enough to give one the impression that iOS 6 was caught in a major snowstorm such that most of the user interface elements are now buried beneath a foot of powder, and if one could only brush away all that snow they would be able to actually use some of the apps; Calendar and Notes seem to be the ones suffering the most from this rare severe weather/new operating system phenomenon. Apple also removed the event list from the Month view in Calendar, so when combined with whiteout conditions that make it hard to see anything in the first place, this app in particular has generated no small amount of frustration and vitriol from the user base.

At the risk of getting way too caught up in Apple’s war on skeumorphism here, there are those who have pointed out that all previous versions of the iOS actually made use of visual metaphors as opposed to true skeumorphs, their argument being (to use my IKEA reference above) that the iBooks bookcase never existed as a physical object in the first place and therefore could not have been made of real wood–or particle board, for that matter–but has only ever been digitally rendered within the operating system. Talk about splitting visually metaphoric hairs… Given my obsessive/compulsive nature, I actually relish these kinds of debates, but let’s move on to the the good stuff about iOS 7.

My top ten new features/improvements

While it may be quite the challenge to locate them among the freshly fallen silent shroud of snow, there are quite a few truly significant and useful improvements incorporated into the near-universally reviled, pastel-infused monstrosity that is iOS 7. Here are my top ten:

New anti-theft features
The Find My iPhone app has been around since iOS 5, and it’s probably helped tens of thousands of iPhone owners recover their devices, or at least remotely erase all their personal info. WIth iOS 7, Apple has added Activation Lock to Find My iPhone, which means that any thief that attempts to restore or reactivate your iDevice (or even turn off Find My iPhone) needs to first sign in with your Apple ID and password. Police departments all over the planet are loving this one because it is actively discouraging iPhone theft.

Multitasking/new app switcher
Unlike the Calendar app, the multitasking interface has been vastly improved in iOS 7. Every running app now appears as a “card” that shows the state the app was in when you last used it, rather than just the app’s icon as in previous iOS versions. You can drag to view all the open apps, or tap to switch to the one you want. And if you’re one of those who feels compelled to constantly close apps that you aren’t using–although this really has no effect on battery life–you can now quit up to three apps at once just by dragging their “cards” off the screen.

Control Center
One-stop shopping for all the settings you use most. Just swipe up from the bottom of any screen to switch to Airplane mode, turn Wi-Fi. Bluetooth. or Do Not Disturb on or off, adjust volume/brightness, activate AirPlay, and more. Plus you have instant access to the new built-in Flashlight app, as well as the timer, calculator, and camera.

Automatic photo organization
The Camera Roll app now automatically creates Smart Groups from your photos and videos based on time and place. Apple calls this “a scroll down memory lane”–or, as it’s officially known–Years, Collections, and Moments. It’s similar to the Events section of iPhoto, and it makes it a heckuva lot easier to find a particular image if you have hundreds or even thousands of photos on your iDevice’s camera roll. The Year view, if you have at least a few hundred images from a particular year, can actually be quite compelling.

AirDrop
Emailing or text-messaging a photo or contact to someone who’s sitting right next to you seems so… 2012, doesn’t it? AirDrop lets you share anything from any app with a Share button via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You’re automatically visible in AirDrop to anyone in your Contacts app, and you can make yourself visible to anyone else. When the recipient receives what you’ve AirDropped to them, it’s saved right where it belongs–a video or photo in their Camera Roll, a contact in Contacts, etc.

Call blocking, right from your iPhone
Tortured by telemarketers with the unmitigated gall to call you on your iPhone? iOS 7 lets you block any caller’s number as long as it appears in your list of recent calls, or is one of your contacts. You can even create a blocked call list by adding a new contact and calling it, oh, “Mr. Blocked” or something along those lines, and then entering all the numbers you wish to block into this contact’s record.

Walking directions, “night mode” for Maps
The Maps app gets two very useful improvements–walking directions, which Google Maps has had for a while now–as well as a special “night mode” which changes the  driving directions screen to a muted, dark gray color palette. Previously, the directions interface was virtually blinding when used at night in a darkened passenger compartment. Maps is also doing its part to keep us healthier: it will automatically serve up walking instead of driving directions if it determines that the location is within a reasonable walking distance.

Built-in level and flashlight
In addition to the built-in flashlight, iOS 7 includes a bubble level within the updated Compass app. This comes in quite handy for hanging pictures–or assembling a piece of IKEA furniture 😉

Time-stamped text messages
You can now swipe left in the Messages app to see a time stamp for each individual message. Why does that even merit a mention here, you ask? Well, for obsessive compulsive control freaks like myself, I’ve always found it maddening that previous versions of iOS seemed to randomly place timestamps throughout a message thread wherever it felt like doing so, which made it very difficult to go back and view when a particular message was sent or received. It’s not that the timing of each individual message is really all that important; it’s the sheer randomness of it all that I found particularly vexing. Now, thanks to iOS 7, those days are over. Whew.

Smarter WiFi
Speaking of “vexing,” the “Ask To Join Networks” WiFi setting was right up there with the random time-stamping of Messages, as it would mindlessly and persistently prompt you to join wireless networks as you were driving by them. Grrrrr. Now, this option has finally smartened up in that it will present available networks to you only if you or your iPhone are not in motion, while still automatically connecting you to networks you’ve previously joined once you’re in their vicinity.

What about the new iPhones?

This probably merited a separate posting back in September, but sometimes making a living gets in the way of blogging about new and exciting gizmos. Anyway, in case you somehow missed the Sep. 10th announcement, the iPhone 5s is the upgrade from the iPhone 5, in gold, silver and space gray. As usual, the camera gets better sensors, but this time there are two other significant picture-taking improvements–a 10-frame-per-second burst mode, plus slow-mo video and a two-color LED flash mixing system that analyzes the type of lighting in the scene and white balances the image automatically by applying just the right mix of the two flashes. In terms of security, the fingerprint sensor is also a big improvement over being forced to constantly enter your password to unlock your device, and Apple hopes that more people will choose to employ it to secure their iPhones, since their research shows that barely half of all iPhone users actually bother to set a passcode.

The 5c is basically the iPhone 5 with a plastic back, clad in colors that bring to mind tropical fruits like guava, mango, coconut, avocado, etc. Well, at least for me they do… Thanks to the introduction of the 5c, which is $100 less to get into than the 5s, the iPhone 4s is now “free” when you sign up for any 2-year plan.

Summing it up

While I do have issues with Calendar and a few of the other built-in apps, I believe that improvements like the Control Center, the automatic organization of your Camera Roll, and the vastly-improved multitasking interface outweigh the aesthetic concerns. Just keep in mind that once you do the upgrade, you can’t go back, much in the way that Tom Hanks couldn’t go back to dry land once he elected to become a merman just so he could hang with Darryl Hannah… Your mileage may vary and, as always, questions, comments, experiences are welcome.

Next: Dramamine or Bonine–which has been proven most effective against iOS 7?

Long-range forecast: Partly “cloud”-y

by Gil Poulsen | Aug 21, 2013 | Mac, Technology

As promised in my last posting, I’ve been taking a pretty hard look at clouds–from both sides now, mind you–for the past couple of months, and I really can’t see any way that Adobe’s Creative Cloud (CC) truly benefits the end user when contrasted with the previous model of simply upgrading to a new version of Creative Suite/Creative Cloud when the time is appropriate for you to do so.

With CC, you’re basically committed to a lifetime of monthly payments for Adobe software, and should you stop making those payments, you will no longer have access to any of the Adobe apps. This essentially locks you out of any file you’re created in each and every one of those programs. Ever seen the 1984 sci-fi classic “Repo Man“? OK, you probably haven’t, but I’m sure you still get the picture.

I suppose there is some minor convenience in terms of budgeting, but that’s only if you were planning on upgrading ad infinitum, as you would then have an accurate assessment of your yearly software expenditures via the fixed monthly fee. I’ll even go so far as to say it may save you some hassles by pushing the latest version out to you automagically, but it’s not all that much harder to go download it when you’re ready, as opposed to when Adobe says you are. They do throw in some cloud-based document storage with some of their Team/Enterprise (as in even pricier) plans, but nothing you couldn’t get by using DropBox or any one of a dozen other online storage services.

And lastly, if you want to get started with the Adobe apps and don’t want to lay out $1,299 up front for CS6 Design Standard, you can jump onto the cloud for $49.99/mo. and have access to the entire Master Collection. Awesome, right? Well, after two years you’ll have spent the same amount as you would have to buy Design Standard, and if you really didn’t need or want the rest of the Master Collection apps anyway, you’re now stuck paying $50/mo. indefinitely.

Plus you still don’t “own” anything; should you stop making the monthly payments, your CS software becomes vaporware. If you did want access to the entire Master Collection, that changes the equation a bit, but otherwise you’re locked into a monthly fee, paying for a lot of programs you don’t need and would not have purchased in the first place.

You always have the option to simply stop paying, but how are you going to open or access your files once Adobe cuts you off? I had originally thought this might be an attractive option for freelancers, who could pay by the month and stop/start as needed if they had slow periods. But if you read the fine print, you’ll see that in order to be able to jump on and off Adobe’s cloud at will, you actually need to fork over $74.99/mo for that privilege, which loosely translates to $900/year! So you’d be better off slapping the $1,299 on your credit card, making the minimum monthly payments and using the miles for a trip to Tahiti (or maybe even a Geek Cruise if you’re into that sort of thing).

So does this “cloud” software concept really benefit anyone? Absolutely. It’s a huge win for Adobe, and will probably be for Microsoft as well, given that the next version of Office for Mac (2014?) will be cloud-only and require a monthly subscription. With CC, Adobe doesn’t have to worry about those “upgrade-skippers” who jump from CS3 to CS5, or CS4 to CS6 and don’t fork over the money for the versions in between. They now have a very reliable and predictable revenue stream that’s not subject to the whims of those end users who don’t see the point in upgrading simply because a new version is released. And if you believe their sales figures, Adobe says that as of June 19 they’ve already signed up 700,000 of us, and expect to add another 500K or so by November. Long term, they project at least four million CC subscribers by 2015.

Which means, folks, that the cloud software subscription model is most likely here to stay, and in Adobe’s case there are not a lot of truly viable, non-“cloud”-y alternatives out there. There are some capable image editors, like Pixelmator and The Gimp, but other than QuarkXPress, there’s really not a viable substitute for InDesign. For Illustrator, sadly, there’s nothing.  So if you’re not sold on the cloud, but you need to use the Adobe Creative Suite apps, your options are somewhat limited at this point.

Let’s start with a few basic factoids about the transition from CS to CC:

• If you want the latest and greatest (Adobe Creative Cloud) apps, you have to join the Cloud. ‘Nuff said.
• None of the new CC apps actually run “in the cloud.” They are downloaded to your Mac and run locally just like any of the older CS apps. Every 30 days or so your computer signs in to Adobe’s servers to confirm that your account is current and you’re up to date on your monthly payments. Otherwise, all your Adobe apps will refuse to launch.
• The CC versions of Illustrator and InDesign will run on OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard,” but all the rest of the new CC apps (including Photoshop) require 10.7 “Lion” or newer. So for all practical purposes, you’ll need an Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.7 or 10.8 in order to avail yourself of Adobe’s latest offerings.
• You can still buy Creative Suite 6 and “own” it in perpetuity, without taking on any monthly subscription fees from Adobe. This option may be rescinded by Adobe at any time, although my hunch is they will keep it going for a while as there are no doubt thousands of designers snapping up CS6 as I write this. These hard-core users are quite angry at Adobe for foisting the cloud-based subscription model upon them, but not so angry that they won’t buy CS6 as a sort of back-handed protest against Adobe’s evil machinations.
• Final point for clarification: We’ve now gone from Adobe Creative Suite 6 to Adobe Creative Cloud, period. No version number, and no more “Design Premium” or “Master Collection” stuff. It’s all or nothing now. This has led some of us to speculate that going forward, Adobe may simply slip in new features and bug fixes to individual CC apps on a random basis, and therefore we may never see an “Adobe CC2” announced in 2015.

And now, if I may be so bold as to offer some completely unsolicited and yet inestimably valuable guidance to all of our CS/CC users out there who are “on the fence” in terms of upgrading, here’s my handy-dandy, patent-pending Creative Suite –> Creative Cloud FAQ:

Q. I don’t own any version of Creative Suite, but I want to get the entire Master Collection as cheaply as possible.
A. Sign up for Creative Cloud. No other logical option for you, since the CS6 Master Collection would cost you $2,599 to purchase outright, and you’d be buying an older version from the get-go. Better to get the newest CC apps for $49/mo.

Q. I don’t own any version of Creative Suite, and I just want to get a package that has Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
A. Two options here: Fork over the $1,299 for Adobe CS6 Design Standard and milk that purchase for as many years as you can, and then decide a few years down the road whether you want to join the Cloud or not. Even if you never join the Cloud, or you do and then decide it was a mistake and stop paying, at least you’ll still have the CS6 software to open your existing files. If you can’t come up with the $1,299 from the get-go, then go for the cloud since you can get on board for $29/mo. (first year only, then $49.99) and have access to every Adobe app. Just be aware that it all comes crashing down once you stop making the monthly payments.

Q. I have Creative Suite 3, 4, 5, or 5.5 and I want/need to get Adobe CS6, don’t really care about whether or not I have the latest CC apps.
A. This one’s tricky. You can purchase CS6 outright for $275 if you own CS5.5, or for $549 if you own CS5. Otherwise you’re looking at $1,299. But… if you want to go cloud here, you can get the first year for $29.99/mo instead of $49.99/mo as long as you have a valid serial no. from CS3 or higher. That would save you $360 the first year, but after that it’s back to fifty bucks a month till the cows come home. Lately Adobe has been hinting that some or all of the upgrade pricing options may disappear as of Sep. 1st.

Q. I have Creative Suite 3, 4, 5, 5.5 or 6, and I want/need to get the latest Adobe CC apps.
A. Sign up for Creative Cloud and take advantage of the upgrade pricing noted above, while it’s still being offered. There’s no other way to get the CC apps anyway, other than to join the Cloud.

Q. I only need Photoshop, don’t care whether it’s the CS6 version or the CC version, and I don’t need any other Adobe apps.
A. You can still buy Photoshop CS6 for $699, or upgrade for $199 if you have Photoshop CS5. If you want to go Cloud, you can get one app, like Photoshop, for $19.99/mo. If you have Creative Suite 3, 4, 5, or 5.5, you can get an upgrade price of $9.99/mo for the first year only, $19.99/mo thereafter. Again, that upgrade pricing may not be around for much longer.

Here’s hoping one of the above scenarios addresses your personal situation, in terms of where to go with all this Adobe stuff. In a final display of out and out hubris, I will now tell Adobe what they really need to do to win the rest of us over to their side and welcome the Cloud to our own computers. Actually, it’s only three things (for now):

1. Give us a way to open, view, and re-save/convert our existing files should we cancel our subscription. Adobe has indicated that they do recognize this as a concern among their users, but no formal solution for this issue has been announced to date.
2. Let us build our own “bundle”; perhaps any three apps or any five apps, at a reduced monthly fee for those of us who haven’t the slightest interest in the entire Master Collection and only need, say, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver.
3. Allow us a “buyout” option, as with an automobile lease, whereby if we keep up the payments on our subscription for three years, we would then own, in perpetuity, whichever version of CC we started with when we first bought into the Cloud.

From my keyboard to Dr. Chuck Geschke’s ears… As with my previous emails on this subject, comments are most welcome, particularly if anyone can punch any holes in my logic, or if there’s a particular upgrade scenario you’re confronted with that doesn’t match any of the above.

Everyone sing along now:

It’s Clouds’ confusion I recall
I really don’t get Clouds
At all…