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The challenges of PC benchmark development

One of our goals here in CNET Labs is to keep PC benchmark testing current. This does not come without its challenges. One good example of the process is our recent work on a new Photoshop CS5 benchmark.

First, a little background. We are sometimes asked why we don't use off-the-shelf benchmark apps such as 3DMark or Sysmark. These software packages are popular benchmarking tools, but they're synthetic benchmarks, in that they represent performance in a series of proprietary tasks, not commonly used consumer software. Those kinds of tests certainly have value--for example, we currently use Cinebench 11.… Read more

Adobe Photoshop Express 1.5: Retina support, multitasking, and image capture

It's been well over a year since Adobe first rolled out Photoshop Express, an iPhone app with basic image-editing and online storage features.

Yesterday, the company took the wraps off Photoshop Express 1.5, bringing a couple of much-needed features to the app and a couple of minor improvements.

For starters, Photoshop Express now lets you capture photos right within the app. And it supports rapid-fire shooting, saving snaps almost as quickly as you can tap the shutter button. As with the stock Camera app, you spot-focus by tapping on the screen.

Another long-overdue amenity: multitasking. When you hop … Read more

Adobe issues Lightroom 3.3, patches Photoshop

Adobe Systems released Lightroom 3.3 that supports 15 new cameras; adds profiles to automatically correct optical problems with dozens of lenses from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sigma; and corrects a long list of bugs.

Lightroom, like its top rival Apple Aperture, is geared for editing and cataloging photos, especially those in the higher-quality but ungainly raw image formats recorded directly from camera image sensors. Raw formats therefore must be created for each camera, and though only higher-end models can shoot raw, there still are a lot of new models to keep up with.

New to Lightroom 3.3--and to … Read more

Designers step from shadows at digital duel

Do you know where that swoosh on your shoes came from? And just who, exactly, might be responsible for that plummeting ad man who magically avoids a messy death just before the start of your favorite TV show? How about that half eaten apple that may well be on the other side of the screen you're looking at right now? How did that come about?

"Designers do a lot of work in the shadows," says John Fiorelli. "The audience generally doesn't know where all this beautiful work comes from."

Five years ago, Fiorelli set … Read more

Adobe Photoshop for tablets looms nearer

You can't download Photoshop for your iPad yet, but the technology is getting close enough for Adobe Systems to begin showing what it's got in mind.

Yesterday, John Nack, the Adobe Systems program manager leading the effort, revealed some ideas of how Adobe envisions marrying its flagship image-editing software to tablet computers.

Adobe displayed two broad possibilities in mock-ups and a presentation at the Adobe Max conference: first, a direct editing application for tablets that's operated with a multitouch user interface, and second, a companion application that would let a mobile device augment Photoshop running on an … Read more

Adobe tweaks Photoshop Express site, Android app

Adobe Systems pushed out updates Wednesday to both its Photoshop Express online photo tool and photo-editing app for Android devices that bring some noteworthy improvements.

The biggest change, besides an increase in overall speed on the Web version of Photoshop Express, is that the site no longer requires users to register in order to use it. Unregistered users can now upload their photo, make edits, then download it without any administrative barriers. Adobe has also separated each tool into its own unit, similar to what it does with the library and develop modules of its Photoshop Lightroom software.

As part … Read more

Photoshop comes to the iPad, sort of

Adobe's Photoshop is one of those ubiquitous tools that touches everyone's life in one way or another. As the universal default program for photo and image manipulation, you may have used it to crop and retouch snapshots, create Web site ads or graphics, or just played around with making your own fake future iPhone design mock-ups. And if you're not actually a user, rest assured, pretty much every image you see online or in a magazine has been put through the program to some degree.

As a bit of a Photoshop wiz (I'd call myself a … Read more

The 404 623: Where honey is our Gatorade (podcast)

It's time for another Natali Del Conte Thursday episode of The 404 Podcast, but we're keeping the complaints to a minimum in deference to our guest co-host today; that is, after Wilson tells us about a 3D movie that tickled his gag reflex. Yes, we learn that Wilson officially honked after watching only three minutes of "African Adventure: Safari in Okavango" in 3D. He shares this experience with children and teenagers who might also be more susceptible to epileptic seizures and migraines as a result of watching 3D TV.

While we're on the topic of … Read more

Why I ditched my Netbook for an iPad to cover E3

LOS ANGELES--When Apple first released the iPad tablet, there was an instant burst of debate over whether it could or would replace Netbooks as the portable computing platform of choice. After all, both classes of devices have similar smalls screens and use low-power parts to provide long battery life, far beyond the average 15-inch laptop.

My initial view was that the iPad was not a Netbook killer. Despite its strengths, it lacked the software flexibility, and the traditional keyboard/touch pad input scheme, that most productivity tasks require. At the same time, figuring out how to substitute a small, lightweight iPad in situations where one would normally carry a laptop seemed like appealing challenge. … Read more