Something’s cooking in Adobe labs…

There’s some really interesting stuff coming out of Adobe recently, they have a section on their website called Adobe Labs which has a lot of new software being developed but is available for testing.

Soundbooth

There’s a new application called ‘Soundbooth’ that has just appeared on their Labs website. The description for Soundbooth says:

Soundbooth is a brand new application built in the spirit of Sound Edit 16 and Cool Edit that provides the tools video editors, designers, and others who do not specialize in audio need to accomplish their everyday work such as:

• Editing audio quickly.
• Cleaning up noisy audio.
• Visually identifying and removing unwanted sounds.
• Recording and polishing voiceovers.
• Adding effects and filters.
• Easily creating customized music?without musical expertise.

My initial thought is that it sounds like something to compete with Apple’s Soundtrack Pro or GarageBand software. I’m going to check it out and see, it’s available for both Windows and Mac, although only Intel Macs will ever be supported interestingly.

» http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/soundbooth/

Lightroom

If you’re into digital photography then you’ll definitely want to check out Lightroom. It’s a piece of software that provides for the whole workflow of digital photographers, not just for doing retouching but actually the whole importing, comparing, selection process as well as colour correction and output. This software is comparable to Apple’s Aperture software which has been out for some time which is also and excellent piece of software. Go and check out Lightroom now if you haven’t already.

» http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

Digital Editions

This is a new eBook reader / management application providing a way to read eBooks, not just in PDF format but also HTML too. The description for Digital Editions introduces itself:

Adobe Digital Editions is a completely new way to read and manage eBooks and other digital publications. Digital Editions is built from the ground up as a lightweight, rich Internet application (RIA). Digital Editions works online and offline, and supports both PDF and XHTML-based content.

Digital Editions is currently only available as a Windows download, but if that doesn’t put you off then I’m sure it’s worth checking out.

» http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/

Disclaimer – Beta Software!

Remember, all these packages are beta software, that means they are available for testing purposes. I would always recommend making sure you have all your important data backed up before trying them out!

Adobe appends each one with the following notice:

Note: This is a public beta, not a final release. Neither the quality nor the features are complete yet. We want to show you our direction and get your feedback so that we can incorporate it into future releases.

Go check them out.

~Rick