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Adobe Systems on Friday introduced a new Photoshop app for Android users that lets them edit photos from their phone, as well as access their online photo collection on Photoshop.com.

The app comes just shy of a month after the release of the company's application for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users, which quickly became the top free application in the App Store and grabbed a million downloads within a week of its release.

The version for Android shares the same, simple editing UI as the iPhone/iPod version, both of which let users make edits by sliding their fingers across the screen and undo any changes made. It also features some very basic photo editing tools like crop, rotate, and image flip, as well as controls for adjusting exposure and tweaking color tint and saturation. Android users even get one new tool that iPhone/iPod users don't even have yet, which lets them straighten a shot against a grid.

Photoshop for Android looks similar to its iPhone/iPod sibling, but has a few less editing effects.

(Credit: Adobe Systems)

Here's the bad news though: Android users are getting a slightly-less featured version than those who use it on iPhones or iPods. The Android version is missing a whole menu full of filter effects, which can be one of the most enjoyable aspects of using the app. It's also missing the sketch tool, which can add a neat cartoonish effect to photos.

Snap this to jump straight to the app.

There is one feature that could make up for these omissions though, and that is the inclusion of an auto-uploader that can automatically send any photo you take on your Android device to Photoshop.com's cloud storage. Users just need to turn the option in within the app, and it will do it whether they have the app running or not. The only downside to this, is that just like on the iPhone/iPod version, you can only enter the Photoshop app's editing mode on photos that are stored locally.

Photoshop for Android can be found right now on the Android Marketplace. We've also included the app's barcode so you can hop right to it without having to type anything.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8: New features tour--screenshots

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Time again for Adobe's annual update of its consumer photo- and video-editing applications, Photoshop Elements (Windows | Mac) and Premiere Elements (Windows only). We're up to version 8 now, and while there's no killer must-have new capability--unless you consider automatic sync across multiple computers--the two products still provide solid mass appeal for their respective markets.

As in the past, you can buy the pair together for $149.99, which is a far more attractive buy for video-editing shoppers than Photoshoppers, and in fact the combination makes quite a nice bundle for home videographers. Independently, they're $99.99 each. Tack "Plus" to the name of the product for another $40 and you get an extra 20GB on the otherwise free Photoshop.com membership (along with ongoing new template and tutorial content), which will then cost you $50 annually to renew.

The latter becomes key if you plan to take advantage of one of the nicer new features, the ability to sync your videos, photos, music, projects, and PDF files across multiple systems using Photoshop.com as the hub. (In case you missed it, Photoshop.com rolled out video support last month in preparation for this release of Pre.) While Adobe doesn't make a Plus membership a requirement for doing so, you'll very quickly max out your free 2GB without it.

After allowing the product to languish for a while, with 8 Adobe brings the Mac version of Photoshop Elements up to parity with the Windows version and with the buzzy new features in iPhoto, including face recognition and geotagging/mapping. Unlike iPhoto, however, there's no direct upload to Facebook, though it supports a broader number of services, including Kodak EasyShare Gallery and Smugmug. Annoyingly, those choices are buried as More Options on the Share pane (likely because the interface decision was based on the technology used--implemented via an API rather than core program code--rather than where the user will look for them).

Like most current facial recognition implementations, Adobe's is only moderately accurate. For instance, in many photos it correctly identifies one person, but didn't detect others and thought inanimate objects were faces. The batch detection and labeling where you confirm different faces in groups of selected images is better, but still a little clunky.

Panasonic's GF1

(Credit: Panasonic)

Adobe Systems on Monday released Lightroom 2.5 and the Camera Raw 5.5 Photoshop plug-in, software updates that add support for two high-profile Nikon SLRs, Olympus' ambitious but expensive E-P1 compact camera, and in a minor surprise, the Panasonic's GF1 competitor to the E-P1.

As expected from the beta test, the new version adds support for the Nikon's high-end D300s and entry-level D3000. Also on the list is Panasonic's ultrazoom, the DMC-FZ35.

The downloads are available at Adobe's Web site.

Dealing with the raw formats from higher-end cameras gives photographers more flexibility and quality than JPEG, but it's a hassle for companies such as Adobe and Apple that must figure out the proprietary formats. Adobe doesn't yet support yet newer cameras such as Canon's higher-end 7D.

The updates also fix a problem that could afflict some cameras in the "demosaicing" step of converting raw images into more useful formats. "Camera Raw 5.5 also includes a correction to the demosaic algorithms in the raw conversion process for Bayer sensor cameras with unequal green response," Adobe said in a statement.

In an earlier statement about the green issue, Adobe said it was relatively minor: "Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus are among the more popular camera manufacturers affected by this change. But the demosaic correction provides only a subtle visual improvement to the processing of those raw files."

A blog post by Lightroom Product Manager Tom Hogarty said the Lightroom update fixes an issue with the image-import dialog box on Windows. He also pointed out this sorry consequence of the complexities of global branding with the Panasonic FZ35:

"Note that in Europe and Japan this model is marketed as the DMC-FZ38. Unfortunately, due to a metadata difference between these cameras, files from the DMC-FZ38 will not be supported until the next Camera Raw and Lightroom updates," Hogarty said.

Alli (aka Heavy from the old days) joins us on today's show and as usual, she brings up the wackiest topics. Today's tangents include Halloween costume ideas, time travel, and super powers...oh, and some stories from the Internet, too!

We always love having Alli on the show because she always brings up the weirdest topics of discussion. Case in point: Halloween costumes...it's the end of August! It's going to be hard to top last year's costumes but Alli has a great idea for a DOUBLE costume: Jon & Kate Plus 8--it's the perfect costume for us, aside from the fact that we'd have to stand next to each other all night and somehow abduct eight babies. This might be our last Halloween.

Next, we move onto a rundown of 10 joke technologies that sort of became real, but we actually only get into the invisibility cloak before getting sidetracked into our most desired super power. Jeff wishes he had the power to tan, I go with the ability to morph into a potted plant, and Alli just wishes she could get out of The 404 studio.

Plenty of more stories to get to, but don't just read about them here, listen to the show! We've got Bob Dylan voicing a GPS system (replete with our awful impersonations), the UK's disturbingly graphic "texting while driving" PSA, and Microsoft's tasteless Photoshop incident. You don't want to miss this episode!.

The new Nikon D300s is getting some raw-image support from Adobe.

(Credit: Nikon USA)

Adobe Systems has released a test version of its Camera Raw 5.5 plug-in so Photoshop can handle raw images from the Olympus E-P1 high-end compact camera, Nikon's new D3000 entry-level SLR, mid-range D300s SLR, and Panasonic's DMC-FZ35 ultrazoom.

Raw images are made of data taken directly from cameras' image sensors without in-camera processing, and they offer more flexibility and higher quality to those willing to put up with the hassle of converting them to JPEG or other more universal formats with software such as Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom, Apple's Aperture and iPhoto, or Google's Picasa. But first, that software must be updated to support each new camera, since raw formats are proprietary and differ for each model.

Adobe released the new Camera Raw plug-in release candidate at its Adobe Labs site. Although there's no corresponding version of Lightroom, software engineered specifically for handling raw images, Adobe also issued a release candidate for its DNG converter 5.5 that can transform raw files from the Olympus, Nikon, and Panasonic cameras into Adobe's more digestible Digital Negative format.

The new software also corrects a problem experienced with "demosaic algorithms in the raw conversion process for Bayer sensor cameras with unequal green response," the company said. Demosaicing is a central step in raw conversion. In it each pixel records only data for only a single color of red, green, or blue, is interpreted so each pixel has values for all three colors. The checkerboard pattern of colors is called the Bayer pattern.

Update 10:30 a.m. PDT August 20:: I asked Adobe about what cameras are affected by the green issue in the demosaic algorithm, and Tom Hogarty, Adobe's Lightroom product manager, had this response:

"Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus are among the more popular camera manufacturers affected by this change. But the demosaic correction provides only a subtle visual improvement to the processing of those raw files."

Some might be disconcerted to find that older raw images might look different when they're opened again with software that uses an updated algorithm. For those folks, I recommend exporting a JPEG or TIF to bake in your editing settings for raw images.

For the rest of us, this illustrates one of the advantages of shooting raw: new algorithms can make photos you took earlier look better than when you first took them.

Adobe also made a related change with the addition of profiles to its raw processing software; these can make photos more closely resemble results from camera settings such as portrait, landscape, or neutral, and I use them by default these days. Improvements to noise reduction algorithms is another area that springs to mind where new algorithms could take advantage of faster PC hardware to produce better photos.

Having the camera make these processing decisions when it creates a JPEG is convenient and fine for the vast majority of people, but for photo enthusiasts, raw shooting benefits from steadily improving software and hardware.

Adobe Systems, taking the same course with its forthcoming Creative Suite applications, will offer the next Mac OS X version of Photoshop Lightroom only on Intel-based machines.

Apple has chosen to discontinue support for Macs using PowerPC processors beginning with its next operating system, version 10.6 aka Snow Leopard, which is due to arrive in coming weeks. Adobe said last week that its next Creative Suite will follow suit. The CS family includes programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, DreamWeaver, and Flash Professional.

Lightroom, which is for editing and cataloging photos, isn't part of the suite, but it's headed the same route.

"The next full version update of Lightroom will not run on PowerPC-based Mac computers," Lightroom product manager Tom Hogarty said in a blog post last week. "Lightroom 2 updates will continue to support PowerPC."

Meanwhile, Photoshop Principal Product Manager John Nack, while fond of PowerPC, took a pragmatic tone on his blog: "By the time the next version of the (Creative) Suite ships, the very youngest PPC-based Macs will be roughly four years old. They're still great systems, but if you haven't upgraded your workstation in four years, you're probably not in a rush to upgrade your software, either."

Last month, a plane sometimes used as Air Force One was flown low over the Hudson River for a photo op, costing more than $300,000 and evoking for people on the ground memories of September 11.

On the heels of that failed presidential plane publicity stunt, we decided to test our readers' public relations chops. Keeping our focus on technology in mind, we asked them to submit recession-friendly publicity shots of Air Force One flyovers (with a little help from their favorite photo-editing tools).

Needless to say, our readers' images caused less panic among New Yorkers and were produced at a tiny fraction of the cost, if any at all.

While the official photograph released of Air Force One flying low above New York Harbor is nice, we prefer these images (click below) of the presidential aircraft buzzing over a few tech-related locations in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Images: CNET readers pitch in for White House PR

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Update 1:10 p.m. PDT: If you tried sending an image to the e-mail address provided earlier Monday and it bounced back, please try sending it again to my e-mail address, provided below, while we straighten out our e-mail kinks.

You probably don't have your own Air Force One, or the $328,835 to spend on a fancy New York photo shoot like the United States government, but with a few basic Photoshop skills and an Air Force One press photo, we're betting you can make some pretty convincing images of Air Force One flyovers, without sending people running in the streets.

1. Copy this press photo of Air Force One:

(Credit: White House)

2. Take one of your photos of tech landmarks and locations and paste in Air Force One! Voila! Air Force One flyover of WWDC like the one I did above? Macworld? Google headquarters?

3. Send an e-mail with your best Photoshopped images to james.martin@cnet.com

Here's an example of an Air Force One flyby at CNET's San Francisco's headquarters.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)