In Introducing Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Product Family, Adobe made some announcements important to educators.
First, they are moving milestone releases such as CS3, CS4, and CS5 to a two year cycle. The in between years will get updates like the just announced CS5.5. Here’s what they are doing to the web suite.
For Web folks: huge updates to HTML5 and Adobe Flash authoring tools, enabling designers and developers to deliver mobile applications on Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS, iOS and other platforms — and create rich browser-based content across screens. All the big HTML5 checkboxes are ticked in Dreamweaver CS5.5: jQuery mobile framework integration for browser-based content, PhoneGap’s in, as well as WebKit engine updates. We’ve also launched Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 Premium and the Flex 4.5 framework now includes mobile support. Now hundreds of millions of mobile devices can be targeted with content and apps, created through our web tools. Remember, Adobe tools support the development of both HTML and Flash content, don’t let crazy headlines make you think otherwise.
Secondly, they announced a subscription plan that means users will always have access to the most up to date version of the software for a monthly subscription fee. The Adobe announcement page does not show specific subscription pricing, but an article I linked to yesterday in a Useful Links post does gave a chart of subscription pricing.
Both these announcements are important to web educators, especially the news that Dreamweaver will come equipped to write HTML5.