Daily Archives: December 9, 2024

• Adobe doubles down on subscriptions

  Posted on December 9, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.50 • 2024-12-09

  SOFTWARE

  

  By Will Fastie

  Adobe converted its Elements line into subscription products, while at the same time claiming it hadn’t.

  For 20 years, Adobe sold Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, along with the Adobe Organizer, as economical and perpetual-license versions of its mainstream products, Photoshop and Premiere. Even after Adobe moved those mainstream products into subscriptions — moving from Creative Suite to Creative Cloud — the Elements line remained perpetual.

  Around Thanksgiving, Adobe began aggressively promoting the 2025 version of both Elements products, either individually or in a bundle. But this time, the license terms changed. And Adobe was a bit sneaky about it.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.50.0, 2024-12-09).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Software Adobe, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Premiere Elements, Corel PaintShop Pro, Corel VideoStudio Pro, Newsletters, Subscription model

• Forces shaping the future — the consumer

  Posted on December 9, 2024 at 02:44 CST by Max Stul Oppenheimer • Comment in the Forums

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  In previous columns, we’ve identified three social factors that shape the path of technological development: government rules, litigation, and consumer actions.

  With respect to government, we reviewed how government rules, enforcement actions, and litigation influence how technology develops. Government rules can define what is and is not permissible in broad terms, but they cannot be written with the detail needed to apply definitively to all specific situations.

  Litigation, on the other hand, is directed to specific situations, to technically governs only the behavior of the parties to the litigation. Both operate by their effect on the bottom line — which is, well … the bottom line for company decisions.

  In this column, we’ll look at the role that consumers play. As with the other two factors, consumers influence how companies operate by affecting the bottom line.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.50.0, 2024-12-09).

  Legal Brief Competition, Consumers, Copilot, Newsletters, Subscription model

• SimilarImagesFinder — It’s time to clean house

  Posted on December 9, 2024 at 02:43 CST by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  I’ve decided to stop looking at, and ignoring, that giant folder of pictures. Like with a cluttered closet, it’s time to dig in and reclaim some storage!

  Over the last 20 years, with everyone in the family adding pictures, I know that there are multiple copies of the same pictures on my computer. I have avoided cleaning them because I am simply afraid that I will delete the only copy of a picture. With Kurt Zimmermann’s free SimilarImagesFinder, I don’t have to be afraid because it lets me compare the similar images myself. There are AI apps out there that claim to do this automatically, but I ain’t lettin’ no robot delete pictures of my girls.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.50.0, 2024-12-09).

  Freeware Spotlight Comparison, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, images, Newsletters, Organization, Photos, Riter, SimilarImagesFinder

• Is Recall in your future?

  Posted on December 9, 2024 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Don’t panic.

  Microsoft Recall, the new Microsoft technology that records what you are doing on a Windows 11 PC so you can review (“recall”) past actions in the future, is very much in beta right now and not coming to a computer near you.

  Importantly, Recall has a high bar as far as system requirements are concerned. First, a Copilot+PC is required. For some time, the only processors that could provide the necessary power were Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series, Arm-based processors with the Hexagon neural processing unit. (If you want to learn more about NPUs, see IBM’s article What is a neural processing unit (NPU)?) On December 6, Microsoft announced Windows Insider preview build versions for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs, a signal that a wider variety of hardware will soon be available.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.50.0, 2024-12-09).

  On Security AMD, Copilot, Copilot+ PCs, Intel, Newsletters, Qualcomm, Recall, Secured-core Standard