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Off with his head! Serial blinkers are no longer a problem with Photoshop Elements 9

Grab your coats: Hell has just frozen over. Or rather, Photoshop has come to the Mac App Store. For $80, you can now download Photoshop Elements 9 from the App Store.

Ever since the Mac Store was announced, there have been two standout examples of apps that would “never” be sold through Apple’s strictly-controlled channel. The first is Microsoft’s Office suite. The second was Photoshop. The reasons? Price and compatibility.

The thinking goes that Adobe and Microsoft wouldn’t want to give 30% of the revenue of their flagship products to Apple. The second, and more sensible reason is that these monster applications would never be accepted into the Store thanks to their deep and “illegal” ties into OS X.

Elements isn’t the full Photoshop, to be sure, and is clearly compatible with Apple’s rules (either that or Apple has bent them). More interesting is the price. The full Elements 9 costs $100, making the App Store version cheaper. It is missing the Adobe Elements Organizer, but as Elements is designed to complement apps like iPhoto, this is probably a good thing.

Elements is like a power editor for your snaps. You can tweak the basics, but the gimmick is that you get to use Adobe’s fancy-pants image processing features. You can paint out mistakes with a brush that uses Content Aware Fill to fill in the gaps. You can make panoramas. You can even switch in people from various group shots to get one picture with everyone looking good.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 is available now for $80, the same price as Apple’s Aperture.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 [Mac App Store]

See Also:

• Photoshop Crashes onto iPad
• Hands-On Review: Pixelmator, a 'Photoshop Lite' for Mac Shutterbugs

Could this be a case of Baidu’s browser in Chrome’s clothing? The Wall Street Journal seems to think so and the Chinese company isn’t exactly dismissing the KIRF claims. Announced back in April, the recently beta-released Baidu Browser brings a “sleek, stripped-down interface” eerily reminiscent of Google’s web-surfing entry (or a likely fork of Chromium). The copycat similarities don’t just end in the looks department: there’s also an app store, fast-tab functionality and familiar menu icon placement. In its defense, the company claims its 30,000 plus free app offerings, in addition to China-specific entertainment features are enough to set it apart. Sure, this may seem like a case of the Asian search giant that doth protest too much, but it’s the company’s desire to drive traffic to its own engine that has us seeing Google.

[Thanks, Hardy]

Baidu Browser tips hat to old Steve Jobs quote, copies Chrome’s special sauce originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well it looks like the cat’s finally out of the bag virtual box. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer just confirmed during today’s earnings call that Mac OS 10.7 is due to hit the Mac App Store tomorrow, making Lion available as a 4GB download for $30. The new operating system packs 250 new features, including an iOS-like app launcher, multi-touch gestures, AirDrop for direct file sharing, and system-wide Resume. More enhancements that will feel particularly familiar to iOS users include a new version of Mail with conversation view, and reverse touchpad scrolling. We’ll have a full review of Lion later this week, but check out our hands-on preview for our initial impressions. Want to collaborate on projects with multiple machines? Lion Server will also be available as a $50 download — for those of you that need to support an entire pride.

Apple: Mac OS X Lion to hit the App Store tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this summer, Zinio released its reader app for a small handful of Android tablets, bringing more than 20,000 full-format magazine titles to the Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and a half dozen other slates. Now, the app is available for all current Android 2.2 Froyo and 2.3 Gingerbread devices, including tablets and smartphones. At launch, you’ll have access to a dozen free current issues, including ESPN The Magazine, Maxim, and Robb Report. You’ll be back to paying full rates after downloading those 12 single issues, however, so prepare for a bit of sticker shock when you’re ready to hit the subscription page.

Continue reading Zinio adds full Froyo and Gingerbread support, now available for all Android devices

Zinio adds full Froyo and Gingerbread support, now available for all Android devices originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Business types will soon be able to buy apps in bulk, just like everything else

You know how the iPad is for content consumption, not creation? Or that it’s just for consumers, not businesses? Apple has proved this latter to be the trash that it is with the Volume Purchase Program for Business (the former was proved nonsense long ago).

That might sound dull, but it could mean that your employer will be buying you an iPad pretty soon. It should also make you IT guys much happier, and we know how important it is to keep an IT guy happy.

A big problem for businesses and schools using iOS devices has been installing apps on people’s devices. Sure, you can buy once and install on all machines, but that requires that everyone uses the same iTunes account. Running more than one account is possible (I have do it to test U.S-only apps), but a pain to do.

Now it’s as easy to buy multiple apps as it is to buy one. The buyer picks the app, chooses how many they want and the purchase is paid for by their corporate credit card. Instead of an immediate download, the buyer gets a bunch of promo codes which they can then send out to whoever they want.

Businesses can also commission custom apps from third party developers.

Volume Purchase Program for Business is, according to Apple, “coming soon.” My guess would be that it will roll out along with iOS 5, or thereabouts.

App Store Volume Purchase Program for Business [Apple via Twitter]

See Also:

• Dell Pulls 'Business' Card to Trash-Talk the iPad