Frenden pits Surface Pro 3 vs. Wacom's Cintiq Companion

There are few artist/bloggers whose opinion I value more than Ray Frenden.

I couldn't draw without his Manga Studio and Photoshop brushes and I love his distinctive biker art style. He's also a master calligrapher. So whether he's writing about pen tablets, display tablets or tablet pcs, the guy knows his stuff.

Ray recently got a review unit of the Surface Pro 3 and he's just posted his first impressions of the device, comparing it head to head with the Wacom Cintiq Companion. This is the one article I've been unable to write myself since I've only managed to spend a couple of minutes on a Companion at a trade show.

Generally speaking, Frenden gives the Surface Pro 3 high marks for its screen size, portability and battery life, while extolling the Companion's expresskeys and drawing surface.

It's a great, lengthy post: well worth your time. Here's a taste:

The Surface Pro 3 would be better with a Wacom digitizer, but, in practice, I didn’t find the Ntrig to be a terrible detriment. Its inclusion is not reason alone to dismiss the Surface.

The full article is found here: http://frenden.com/post/90779846937/microsofts-surface-pro-3-vs-wacoms-cintiq-companion

Monoprice Interactive Pen Display now worth a second look

The sub-$400 Monoprice Interactive Pen Display was probably one of the most anticipated releases of 2013 and the posts I wrote at the time continue to be among my most widely read ever. Everyone loves a bargain, especially starving artists.

In the event you haven’t read those posts, I concluded back in January that the budget 19-inch tablet monitor just wasn’t worth the investment due to terrible viewing angles and very inferior pen drivers.

A couple of months ago, Twitter follower @Drewvis let me know that Monoprice had posted new device drivers on its site. He also mentioned that attaching the pen display via DVI (rather than VGA) had yielded dramatically better viewing angles. Drewvis recently published his own review of the tablet monitor which you can find here: http://astrowagon.tumblr.com/post/89350457697/final-review-monoprice-19-interactive-pen-display.

MAKING THE RIGHT CONNECTION
Somewhat skeptically, I took the Monoprice out of mothballs and attached it to my desktop via DVI. At first I didn’t notice much improvement. In addition to its limited view angles, the pen display’s screen  is highly reflective, so I had to be careful to angle it so that it didn’t reflect too much of my white ceilings. Next, I cranked up the brightness of the monitor to cut down on reflections. Reflections are a real problem during the day in my brightly lit office, so I also switched to white user interfaces rather than my preferred dark settings. 

And lo and behold, the monitor is indeed more useable. Where once I could only find what seemed to be one angle to view the screen, I now had a wider field of view to work within.

This chart illustrating the viewing angles for the Monoprice Interactive Pen Display are far too generous, but with a DVI connection, the field of view is wider than I originally observed via VGA.

According to this graphic on the Monoprice site, the pen display has a 70-degree view horizontally and vertically. I think they’re being generous (perhaps it’s closer to 50), but anything is better than one degree!

Connected via DVI, it’s now possible to recline the monitor so that I can draw at a more comfortable angle. Previously, I had to stand it almost vertically (at its maximum 80-degrees) to be able to see my drawing clearly. The monitor will recline all the way to 10-degrees, but I’ve found that about a 60-degree incline is sufficient to rest my hand and preserve picture quality.

This is not a choice one should have to make, but you have to expect some sacrifices at this price point. And it certainly beats having to purchase a full-motion monitor desk mount.
 

SETTING UP THE PEN DRIVERS
I still am unhappy with the Windows drivers Monoprice has posted on its site (the most recent are dated April 29), so as I did the first time around, I checked whether Huion Tablet had published more recent drivers for its compatible GT-190 tablet monitor. Coincidentally, Huion just posted a new set on June 20 here: http://www.huiontablet.com/download/

Getting the drivers to work is not easy. I uninstalled the Monoprice driver and rebooted, also unplugging the USB cable that runs from the computer to the tablet monitor. 
I installed the GT-190 drivers and rebooted again. Once I was back on my desktop, I plugged in the USB cable. The tablet driver should have already started up, but in case it hasn’t, the installation leaves an icon on your desktop. Once the driver is running, you’ll need to double click on the tablet driver icon in the system tray to load the control panel. 

Beneath the pressure (tip) sensitivity slider in the pen control panel is a visual read-out that makes it much easier to determine how much pressure the pen is registering. I could slide the sensitivity all the way to the right to register my lightest strokes, but I opted to back off just a bit so I wouldn't have to press quite as hard to achieve maximum pressure. 

At the top of the control panel, you can map your two pen buttons and set tip sensitivity. There is a nice visual display that displays how much of an impression you are making as you tap with your pen. This makes it much easier to visualize how lightly you can tap before your pen will register a mark. I could have set my pen pressure all the way to the right, but I didn’t want to have to press so hard to achieve 100% pressure.

In order to access the pen-monitor calibration tool, you'll first have to grant the control panel Administrative access.

To calibrate your monitor, you’ll first need to select the Require Admin button. Even if your pen is recognized, you will always need to start the calibration process with your mouse. The calibration tool has five points, all located toward the center of the display. This is unfortunate because parallax tends to increase as you get toward the edges of your screen.

It's unfortunate that pen calibration targets are all clustered near the center of the screen. In earlier, broken versions of the driver, Huion offered many more higher-resolution calibration options. As of now, I'm seeing significant parallax around the edges of the display which sometimes makes selecting menus and icons located there difficult.

The pen targets go from red to black as you tap them. When you tap the fifth target in the center of the display, the control panel exits.

As I wrote when I first tested the Monoprice, it’s a delight to finally draw with the pen configured properly. I can achieve a range of line widths in a single stroke that I’m unable to reproduce on either the Wacom Surface Pros or the N-Trig Surface Pro 3. Pressure levels may be a marketing ploy, but there’s a tangible difference in drawing with the two 2048-level devices I’ve used vs. 1024 or 256.

EXTENDING THE DESKTOP
The last reservation I had against recommending the Monoprice was its inability to work in dual monitor mode in Windows.  This meant that you either had to connect it by itself or in mirror mode with your system monitor. Due to the pen display’s low resolution (1440x900 max), this probably meant you’d have to run your other monitor in a sub-optimal setting.

With the new driver, it’s now possible to run the pen display in extended mode at its own resolution. This is a huge improvement.

On my puny GeForce GT 630 display, the NVidia driver doesn’t offer 1440x900 as a display option, so I had to set the Monoprice to 1280x800. Not ideal, but this setting doesn’t distort text too badly.

To set up two monitors, I first disconnected my system monitor and ran all of the above set up with the pen display as my sole monitor. Once I was sure the display was calibrated and the pen was running well, I shut down the system and reattached the system monitor.

My NVidia graphics card doesn't recognize or support the Monoprice's 1440x900 resolution, so I'm forced to run it at 1280 x 800. The good news is that I can continue to run my system monitor at its full 1080p resolution.

Upon boot up, I ran the Screen Resolution control panel to extend the displays and set each monitor’s resolution.
 

CONCLUSION
So a little over six months after its release, the Monoprice Interactive Pen Display is now much more useable and I can recommend it to anyone willing to put up with its eccentricities in exchange for significant savings vs. competing products. If you’ve got just under $1000 to spend, I’d still recommend the Yiynova MVP22U(v2). Yiynova also sells the MSP19U+ for just over $600 (but I’ve never seen or tested it first hand). The latter’s display specs are very similar to the Monoprice (TFT, 1440x900), so it’s very difficult to justify an additional $200 investment.

The Monoprice certainly compares favorably to a large Intuos Pro Pen & Touch, which lists for $499. And for only $50 more than the Medium sized Intuos, the Interactive Pen Display is an excellent option.

As with all things tech, a better version is probably around the corner, but for the next few months at least, the Monoprice Interactive Pen Display has earned a spot on my crowded desktop.

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Your first day with the Surface Pro 3: What to expect

Like every new pc these days, the Surface Pro 3 won't let you just use it right out of the box. Before you can play with your technical marvel, you'll have to run the usual slew of Windows updates that have been released in the month or more since the device was sent to manufacturing.

But most importantly, you'll need to install the System Firmware Update that Microsoft released yesterday. The company was vague about the specific issues the update addresses, but we know the most critical power management issues early testers had experienced have been addressed along with other "performance enhancements."

Below is the Windows Update screen I saw when offered the Firmware. It's a small download, but be prepared for it to take a long time to install.

Once downloaded, the Surface Pro 3 will start the install, reboot and sit on the screen below for several minutes. Be patient!

Once your system has rebooted, return to Windows Update where you'll see that the machine has to be restarted again to complete the Firmware installation. Be prepared for another long wait (I really wish Microsoft would provide a little more feedback during this process so I wouldn't be so sorely tempted to interrupt the installation.)

Once your firmware installation is done, you can proceed to install some graphics applications. I recommend starting with Manga Studio 5/Clip Studio Paint 1.3.x or Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 so you can experience graphics applications running with Microsoft's native INK API.

We don't know how long it will take before Microsoft releases its pen control panel, but if you find it difficult to draw light marks, try editing your pen pressure curve if your software allows.

Before installing any software that requires Wintab drivers, you'll need to head over to N-Trig's site to download the latest version (R16). http://surfaceproartist.com/blog/2014/6/20/n-trigs-wintab-driver-update-now-available-for-download

When you're all done installing your applications, it's a safe bet your desktop won't look as crowded as this!  

UPDATE: Here's a useful link to a 100-page Surface Pro 3 user guide PDF courtesy of Microsoft (kudos to Paul Thurrott for the link.) http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/8/9/E8966106-0FAE-40C1-9823-2EC483AC7CF3/Surface-Pro-3-User-Guide-EN.pdf

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N-Trig's Wintab driver update now available for download

UPDATE 6/7/15: Microsoft recently completed its purchase of N-Trig pen technology and is now hosting the Wintab driver. For more details, read the story here: http://surfaceproartist.com/blog/2015/6/2/new-download-link-for-n-trig-wintab-driver

ORIGINAL POST

N-Trig has just posted R16 of its Wintab drivers for the Surface Pro 3 and other devices utilizing their digitizer technology.

You can find both 32-bit and 64-bit versions here: http://www.n-trig.com/Content.aspx?Page=wintab. (As of this writing, searching for drivers through the Downloads & Drivers tab yields the older R14 version.)

I haven't had a chance to download or install these drivers, but once I do, I'll begin updating the "What Runs, What Doesn't on the Surface Pro 3" feature.

According to N-Trig's Ronen Bartal, the company confirmed that the following software is compatible with these drivers:

Anime Studio Debut 9.5 Version 9.5 build 9768
Crayola PhotoFx studio 1 Version 1.5.0.42, 1.5.0.46
Flash Professional CC Version 13.1.0.226
Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Version CS6
Corel Painter Version 12.2.0.703
Sculptris
MyPaint Version 1.0.0
Mischief Version 1.12
Zbrush Version 4R6
Adobe DreamWeaverCS6 Version CS6
Adobe Photoshop element 12 Version 12.0.20130925
Krita Version 2.8.3
Substance Painter Version 0.5.0

Adobe Photoshop CC and earlier versions are noticeably absent from this list, but that may be because that software has functioned correctly with N-Trig's drivers for some time.

Bartal also notes that other software that correctly adheres to the Wintab 1.4 specification should also work, although apparently many applications do not. For more details on Wintab and its history, visit http://www.wacomeng.com/windows/index.html.

This release marks a major milestone for N-Trig and users of its products as the drivers significantly close the compatibility gap with competitor Wacom.

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Photoshop CC 2014 touch enhancements 'experimental'

As I first loaded up Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 on the Surface Pro 3, I was disappointed to see that the UI is still tiny by default.

No problem, I thought to myself, there must be a setting in interface preferences. Sure enough, under Text, you can change UI font size from Tiny, Small, Medium to Large.

I set it to Large. Shut down the software and restarted. No change.

Looking in Preferences again, I spotted a new category called Experimental Features.

This is the Edit>>Preferences>>Experimental features window after the changes have been applied. Note the bigger icons.

I ticked the Scale UI and Use Touch Gestures boxes, shut down and restarted the software and voila! the UI is now much better suited to tablet use.

The UI is scaled a little too big for my taste; rather than settle for one size, hopefully Adobe will offer a couple of options. Multitouch works ok, though also not as smoothly as in Manga Studio. I do like the new double finger double tap to reset the zoom and orientation.

On the Surface Pro 2, the new version complains about the Intel HD display driver I have installed (10.18.10.3496.). The display driver crashes and the software will also complain about a lack of VRAM.

Display driver issues hamper Photoshop CC 2014 on the Surface Pro 2.

Worse, with the system's default scaling set to 125%, a new drawing comes up with two parallel lines that don't disappear as I zoom in.  Resetting the Windows UI scaling to 100%, the lines disappear but reappear when I zoom in.

Multitouch is also not working properly on the Surface Pro 2.

These issues are likely all display driver related and should be fixed, but it's disappointing that SP2 users won't be able to benefit from the PS CC 2014 update right away.

UPDATE: The new features seem to be working on my Surface Pro 1, so it's definitely a display driver issue. My SP1's drivers are dated July, 2013 (10.18.10.3262).

UPDATE 2: As I reported with Mudbox a few weeks ago, updating my Surface Pro 2's display driver to the May 17 version (10.18.10.3621) located on the Intel download site corrects the issues cited above.

This is a very difficult driver to install on the Surface Pro 2 without tricking Windows and once it's installed, the operating system will continually prompt you to reinstall the March Windows update which overwrite them, so all we can hope is that Microsoft publishes a driver update soon.

UPDATE 3: Reader Mike Moreu is reporting that his Surface Pro 2 didn't have any of the issues mine did and he's running display driver 10.18.10.3496. Curiouser and curiouser. Please leave your experiences in the comments section below.

UPDATE 4: Interesting reaction from a mainstream tech blogger: Paul Thurrott reviews the Photoshop CC 2014 experience on the Surface Pro 3. http://winsupersite.com/mobile-devices/surface-pro-3-adobe-cs-2014

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Sound off on Adobe's new announcements

I'll be posting my thoughts on today's new Adobe announcements after the presentation, but as news has started to leak, it's obvious that Adobe is showing iOS users a lot of love while hoping Windows users will be satisfied with the new desktop offerings.

What do you think of this strategy?

Post your reactions below!

UPDATE: Photoshop touch features didn't get any love that I heard. Guess we'll have to see once the download is available later today. Here are some videos with some new features:

Check out the latest advancements in Photoshop CC for design and photography including Spin and Path Blurs in Blur Gallery, new typographic controls including Font Search and Typekit integration, enhancements to Smart Objects, Smart Guides, and Layer Comps, improved Content-Aware technologies, new Focus Mask, and workflow timesavers.

Check out some of the top features for designers in the 2014 Release of Photoshop CC. Get Photoshop CC: http://adobe.ly/10ekpOA Follow Photoshop: https://www.facebook.com/Photoshop https://twitter.com/photoshop https://plus.google.com/+Photoshop

Adobe Takes Creativity Mobile With New Creative Cloud Connected Apps and Hardware

Sketching, Precision Drawing and Photography Apps Extend Creative Workflow to iPad; SDK Unlocks Over 30 Years of Adobe Innovation for Mobile App Developers

PRESS RELEASE

June 18, 2014 11:31 AM Eastern Daylight Time

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) today unveiled a new suite of mobile apps and complementary hardware that connect Adobe Creative Cloud, the company's flagship offering for creatives worldwide, to iPad. A digital pen, Adobe Ink, and a digital ruler, Adobe Slide, bring true creative freedom and functionality to mobile devices. Adobe Sketch and Adobe Line enable the next generation of sketching and precision drawing on iPad, and are both optimized to support the new hardware. A third app, Adobe Photoshop Mix, offers a new Creative Cloud connected mobile workflow for anyone who wants access to powerful creative imaging tools on their mobile device (see separate release). Finally, Lightroom mobile is now available for iPhone in addition to iPad, providing the most efficient way to manage and edit images across desktops, mobile devices and the Web.

“Today we’re introducing cutting-edge drawing tools that can carry the designer's Creative Cloud identity, provide access to favorite color themes, and can even copy and paste across devices. This is just one example of how our SDK will shake up the creative industry.”

Nearly half of creatives use their mobile devices to capture inspiration on-the-go and one in three would like to create more content on tablets, according to The New Creatives Report survey of 1,000 U.S. creatives (issued June 16).

Sketch, Line and Photoshop Mix pioneer new ways to create content on-the-go and connect to assets stored in Creative Cloud. They were created using a new Adobe Creative Software Development Kit (SDK), which will speed the development of third party mobile apps that access cloud-based Adobe technologies, forging frictionless creative workflows between device and desktop. Currently in private beta, the SDK will enable developers to include and edit Photoshop PSD files in their mobile apps, ensure compatibility between mobile apps and desktop tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator, and offer never-before-available image editing capabilities in the cloud.

"Adobe’s new mobile apps, hardware and Creative SDK are perfect for creative professionals but, equally importantly, are designed for anyone with a creative spark,” said Scott Belsky, vice president of product and creative community, Adobe. “Today we’re introducing cutting-edge drawing tools that can carry the designer's Creative Cloud identity, provide access to favorite color themes, and can even copy and paste across devices. This is just one example of how our SDK will shake up the creative industry.”

Adobe Sketch and Line are both “Ink and Slide aware”. They also work without a stylus and feature a highly innovative software version of the ruler (“Touch Slide”) for straight-line drawing without hardware. The apps are also connected to Behance, allowing designers to seamlessly share and get feedback on their work with a community of over 3 million creatives. Products introduced today include:

Mobile Apps

Adobe Sketch, a social sketching iPad app for free-form drawing. Sketch gives designers a connected creative process bringing inspiration, sketching and community together into one place. Create with essential drawing tools: a graphite pencil, an ink pen, two blending markers, (brush tip, chisel tip), and an eraser. Get live feedback from the creative community as you work.
Adobe Line, the world’s first iPad app for precision drawing and drafting. Line recreates the art of drafting, combining organic drawing with beautiful straight lines, French curves and perfect shapes that can be drawn in plan and elevation views or in perspective. Line can be used in conjunction with Slide and reimagines traditional drawing tools like rulers, T-squares and shape templates for the mobile world, as well as giving creatives access to assets, Kuler color themes, and the ability to share work.

Photoshop Mix, the most precise app for compositing and masking on iPad. Photoshop Mix also offers powerful cloud-based imaging technology on iPad for the first time, including Upright, Content Aware Fill, and Camera Shake Reduction. It offers non-destructive photo enhancements, selections, the ability to cut-out and mix images, and the ability to open and save PSD files enabling a continuous workflow with Photoshop CC on the desktop.

Lightroom for iPhone extends recently shipped Lightroom mobile capabilities to the iPhone. It provides the most efficient way to manage and edit images across desktops, mobile devices and the Web. Additionally, the recently announced Adobe Voice, a free animated video app for iPad, has also been updated to work with your Lightroom catalogs.

Creative Cloud for iPad and iPhone, a new app that allows Creative Cloud members to access and manage their files, assets, and more from their mobile device.
Creative Hardware

Adobe Ink, a beautiful three-sided hydro-formed aluminum stylus for iPad running iOS7. It enables controlled, expressive drawing and connects to Creative Cloud, giving users access to their creative assets – favorite drawings, photos, Adobe Kuler color themes and more – all at the tip of the pen. Built using the Adonit Pixelpoint™ technology, the fine-tipped, pressure sensitive pen is lightweight and balanced for a comfortable grip.

Adobe Slide, a category-defining digital ruler (and companion to Ink) for iPad running iOS7. Taking a modern twist on traditional tools used before computer graphics and desktop publishing, Slide enables precision sketching – straight lines, perfect circles, and balanced shapes – on iPad.

New SDK Lays Groundwork for Creative Cloud as a Platform

Adobe’s new Creative SDK is a software library that enables developers to tap into Adobe’s creative technologies to build mobile apps. Examples include, browsing files stored in Creative Cloud and extracting elements from PSD files; Adobe’s “Touch Slide” software for straight-line drawing; and cloud image editing services like Content-Aware Fill and Upright. Adobe Photoshop Mix utilizes these new APIs and offers some of Adobe’s best imaging technology for applying Photoshop looks and compositing images. Adobe Creative SDK is initially targeted at the delivery of iOS applications and is currently being tested by select developers. A beta launch is expected in the coming months.

Adobe also updated Adobe Voice, a free animated video storytelling app for iPad that gives anyone the ability to create and share engaging video stories. Over 50 thousand Adobe Voice videos have been shared since the debut of the app in May and, by leveraging Creative Cloud, Adobe Voice now seamlessly syncs with users’ Lightroom photo collections.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Sketch, Line and Photoshop Mix are free applications, available in English, French, German and Japanese in the Apple® App Store. Adobe Ink and Slide are available now via Adobe.com for US$199.99. The hardware is currently available in the US and is expected to ship in other regions later this year.

Helpful Links:

Blog post: http://adobe.ly/Empower2014
Learn more about Ink and Slide: https://www.adobe.com/products/ink-and-slide.html
Learn more about Adobe’s pro creative mobile apps: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/catalog/mobile.html
Creative SDK: creativesdk.adobe.com
Adobe Voice: http://getvoice.adobe.com/
Facebook: Facebook.com/AdobeDrawing
Twitter: Twitter.com/AdobeDrawing
Instagram: http://instagram.com/adobecreativecloud
About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

© 2014 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Creative Cloud, Illustrator, Ink, Lightroom, Line, Sketch and Slide are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Adobe Announces All New 2014 Release of Creative Cloud

Mobile Apps and New Hardware Extend Creative Cloud Workflow; All Major CC Desktop Apps Updated

PRESS RELEASE
June 18, 2014, 11:30 a.m. EDT

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jun 18, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Adobe ADBE +7.85%  , the leader in creative software, today continued to drive Creative Cloud innovation by announcing 14 new versions of CC desktop applications, including essential tools such as Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Dreamweaver CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC. The biggest Adobe software release since CS6, it also includes four new mobile apps, the immediate availability of creative hardware, updates to Creative Cloud services and new offerings for enterprise, education and photography customers. Yesterday, Adobe announced that there are now over 2.3 million Creative Cloud subscriptions, far exceeding original projections when it was unveiled two years ago.

“Our shift to Creative Cloud has given us a broad canvas on which to innovate like never before,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media, Adobe. “We’ve taken bold steps with this milestone release, fast-tracking new features to industry-defining tools like Photoshop and InDesign, while introducing mobile apps that turn tablets into indispensable creative tools.”

The release serves a creative industry that is changing at a staggering pace: three in four creatives believe the industry has changed more in the past five years than the previous 50 and about two thirds believe their role will significantly change in the next 3 years (see The New Creatives Report , surveying 1,000 U.S. creatives, issued June 16). Creatives cited new technologies as the top driving force behind the rapid change.

Mobile Apps Extend CC Desktop Workflows

Delivering on mobile innovation, Adobe launched three new mobile apps for iPad – Adobe Sketch, Adobe Line, and Adobe Photoshop Mix; and began shipping new creative hardware called Adobe Ink, a new digital pen, and Adobe Slide, a new digital ruler ( see separate release ). The mobile apps were developed using a new Adobe Creative SDK that unlocks over 30 years of Adobe innovation and makes it available on mobile devices for the first time. These new apps are professional-grade quality but easy enough for anyone to use, similar to the recently launched Lightroom mobile for photographers and Adobe’s new animated video app for storytelling, Adobe Voice, which were also updated with this release. These powerful, yet easy-to-use apps add significant mobile capabilities to Creative Cloud, integrate workflows with the CC desktop apps and bring tablets into serious creative workflows for the first time.

New Versions of CC Desktop Apps

Beyond mobile innovation, the 2014 release of Creative Cloud delivers more Adobe magic, makes everyday tasks easier and faster, while delivering new support for cutting-edge hardware and standards. Highlights of top features in the 14 new desktop apps include:

Your Creative Assets and Your Creative Profile Anywhere

The new CC desktop apps, mobile apps, and hardware are tightly integrated through Creative Cloud services. This integration helps liberate the creative process by enabling users to access and manage everything that makes up their creative profile – their files, photos, fonts, colors, community and more – from wherever they work. Also introduced today is the new Creative Cloud app for iPhone and iPad that allows users to access and manage their files, assets, and more from their mobile device.

New Creative Cloud Offerings For Enterprises, Educational Institutions and Photographers

Adobe Creative Cloud for enterprise is an offering designed specifically for large-scale software deployments that works with other Adobe enterprise offerings such as Adobe Marketing Cloud, Acrobat, Adobe Anywhere, and Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Updates include more services with collaboration and file storage, expanded options for deployment, and a new dashboard for managing users and entitlements. For education, Adobe now has a device-based licensing offer for classrooms and labs, which allows multiple users to access software on a single device rather than tying it to an individual with an Adobe ID, critical in an environment where students come and go. And for photography customers, Adobe has introduced a new Creative Cloud Photography Plan for $9.99 per month ( see separate press release ).

Pricing and Availability

Today’s updates to CC desktop tools are immediately available for download by Creative Cloud members as part of their membership at no additional cost. The new mobile apps are free to everyone. To join Creative Cloud, special promotional pricing is available to existing customers who own Adobe Creative Suite 3 or later. Membership plans are available for individuals, students, teams, educational institutions, government agencies and enterprises. To download free trials of any of the new Creative Cloud desktop apps, go to: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/catalog/desktop.html . For pricing details, visit: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html#buy .

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com .

© 2014 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Creative Cloud, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, Ink, Line, Muse, Photoshop, Premiere, Sketch and Slide are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Microsoft discounts Surface Pro 2

If you're not sold by the Surface Pro 3 or just in the mood for a nice discount, check out Microsoft Store online, where discounts of up to $200 have finally appeared for the Surface Pro 2 in the U.S.

The 4GB RAM/64GB SSD model has been reduced $100 to $799. The price on the 128GB model has also been cut $100 to $899. The next models have both been discounted $200 to $1099 for 256GB and $1599 for 512GB. (As I was typing this, the 256GB model was listed as out of stock, but you may be able to find them at other retailers).

Finding the Surface Pro 2 on the Microsoft Store site wasn't easy. They're buried in the bundles section. But type covers are discounted there too ($20 off), so you might as well add one to your order.

Here's the link: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/DisplayProductPickerPage/offerID.42158491809/productID.292265900

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