So I have to admit that I may have been a tiny bit wrong about Photoshop CS4. OK, I was very wrong. I've been telling a lot of people recently that there are a ton of reasons to consider upgrading to CS4 ... if you use Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, or Illustrator. But if you're a Photoshop user, well, I hadn't really seen much to be impressed with.

Well, I was wrong. It turns out that there are a ton of really great enhancements in Photoshop. The problem, I think, is that none of them are terribly flashy. But that doesn't make them any less impressive.

Something that's been fairly frustrating for me throughout the whole transition to CS4 is that most of the things that are new in all of the programs are things that require me to rethink my workflow. Dreamweaver's Live View, Live Code and Related Files features, for instance, have saved me more time than I can count, but it took some time to get it stuck in my head, because in order to use them, I had to change the way I do things. The new animation model in Flash and the Motion Editor have likewise forced me to rethink my entire approach to creating animation. And I'll admit that I still don't think of Fireworks first when I need to wireframe a web site, but I'm trying to get there.

Photoshop's new features fall into the same category. I haven't really discovered them because I've been trying to use Photoshop the way I always used it in the past. But now I need to take a new approach to a lot of things, and that's going to take some getting used to. But it will be worth it. Just as I can't count the hours I've saved thanks to my new workflows in Dreamweaver and Flash, I know now that forcing myself to relearn how I edit images in Photoshop will be worth the effort.

Okay, now I know you're sitting there, screaming at your screen, "JUST TELL ME THE FREAKING FEATURES ALREADY!" Well, you really shouldn't yell at your screen. I can't hear you, and it will hurt your monitor's feelings. Besides, I have no intention of telling you what the features are. I know, it's mean. It's partially because it's a little bit late, and I really want to go watch Grissom's final episode of CSI, but mostly it's because I don't have to. Instead, I'm going to let Scott Kelby do it. Enjoy!

P.S.: Here's the link to the second and third parts of the series. As of when I'm writing this, he hasn't posted the fourth part yet.

Edit: They have now posted part four.

Adobe announced that the CS4 products are now shipping, so get your copy today!

This morning, Adobe officially announced the CS4 product line. There's a ton of information online about it, but I'm going to try to coalesce the most important bits here.

First off, the actual editions. Just as with CS3, there are six packages of CS4 you can get: Design Premium & Standard, Web Premium & Standard, Production Premium, and Master Collection. Design Premium (the one that I suspect the majority of folks will want) includes InDesign, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Acrobat 9. The Standard edition includes only the regular version of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat. Web Premium contains the new versions of Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Acrobat 9, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Contribute, and (in a change from CS3) Soundbooth. Web Standard is basically the old Macromedia suite: Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks and Contribute. Production Premium has Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, Premiere, Soundbooth, OnLocation, and Encore. And the Master Collection has everything. All of the suites also include Bridge and Device Central, and all except the Production Premium include Version Cue.

Pricing seems similar to CS3: Design Premium is $1,799, Web Premium and Production Premium are $1,699 each, and Master Collection is $2,499. (All of the above are US prices. Yes, overseas prices are higher. No, I don't want to get into why.) Adobe is introducing a new two-tier upgrade policy, whereby it will be cheaper to upgrade from CS3 than from older versions. Also, they have a three-versions-back policy, so if you have Illustrator CS, CS2, or CS3 you can upgrade, but if yours is older than that, you can't. You can upgrade from your Mac edition to a Windows edition if you've switched since your last purchase and you can switch to another language if you need to. You can upgrade to Dreamweaver CS4 from GoLive, Illustrator from Freehand, and InDesign from PageMaker. And yes, the educational pricing is still available. Oh, and yes, there is a policy in place that will provide a free upgrade to CS4 if you have recently purchased CS3, but unfortunately the page that details that policy doesn't state the exact date after which you have to have purchase CS3 in order to qualify. I'm trying to get that date from my Adobe contacts and will post a note here when I do.

As for details of the new features ... they are for the most part huge. Over the next few months, I will be doing a series of demos and user group meetings and possibly even video trainings of what's new in the products about which I'm most familiar (Dreamweaver, Flash and Photoshop will be first up), so stay tuned. You can of course visit the individual product pages (simply go to www.adobe.com/go/product_name) to see a list of some of the key features.

And then the last question I know everyone has: when can you get your hands on these? Adobe is mum as to an exact release date - all they are saying now is "mid-October." And trail versions should be out about a month later, so around mid-November.