Photoshop CS6 Beta

Yesterday Adobe released a beta version of the next generation of Photoshop, their image editing tool (that is quickly becoming a lot more). I downloaded it because I actually don't have a full copy of Photoshop on my work computer and it's great to have a free version that works as a trial. Even if you downloaded Photoshop as a trial previously the beta will work (they haven't announced how long the trial will work but we can assume probably at least as long as normal trials, 30 days). Adobe put out a great video with a handful of the new features and if you can get past the guys odd personality there's some great stuff here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTYcRWPsZUg&list=PL8776E00BAFB19D73&feature=plcp Some of my favorite features shown off in the video:

Content-Aware Move Tool

This is the real mind-bending one. Draw a selection around an object and move it and you no longer get a white background where the object used to be. It will use the surrounding content to automatically fill in the area that it used to be. It looks futuristic and it's awesome! ### Enhanced Video Editing

iMovie has always been my preferred video-editing tool but Windows users are usually left to poor tools unless they pay. Obviously Photoshop isn't free but if you grab this beta you'll be getting a much better video editing tool. It can split clips, add transitions, audio layers, and you can even use text and image layers and manipulate them in the video just as you would with a still image (something that even iMovie doesn't offer). It's no replacement for a full-featured video editing solution like Premier or Final Cut but as an additional feature of a great image editor it's awesome. ### Speed and Performance

After just a half-hour of playing with it I can already tell they've squashed a bunch of bugs and really streamlined performance of the software. It's fast, fairly stable for a beta, and doesn't have that legacy bloated software feeling that previous versions of Photoshop have had. On newer computers it will take advantage of the extra horsepower your CPU and video card are packing. For DS106 folks who are struggling to find good tools this would be a great (albeit somewhat temporary) solution to play around with a full-featured product. There are no limitations in the trial other than the fact that at some point the trial will expire (likely when the software goes on sale).