Adobe Lightroom (Shadowland) to support RAW format

Adobe has secretly been working on an answer to Apple Aperture code named Shadowland. Yesterday, we showed screenshots of Adobe Lightroom available on Adobe Online store. The news is now very much confirmed that Adobe will announce a new “Apple Aperture" like software at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

Some feel that Adobe Lightroom will be a combination of Adobe Photoshop CS2 Camera Raw plug-in and Adobe Bridge. Jennifer is pointing to a trademark application for Adobe LightRoom that describes Adobe Lightroom as a “Computer software for use in the field of digital photography and photography, namely, computer software for digital photography workflow and digital photo storage and management..”

Further, Scott Bourne, a Photoshop and Aperture expert, writes:

Shadowland (also known as LightRoom) will debut to at least the media and maybe a more public audience next week (Monday) at MacWorld .. LightRoom is supposed to be an Aperture workalike. It will not require as powerful a computer to run as Aperture does and it will have more built-in RAW support.

Photoshop News, who have a close association with Adobe, says:

This is one of those No-Win situations…
PhotoshopNews, being a blog about Photoshop kinda needs to address the question, but circumstances prohibit us from saying anything other than to mention the rumor without confirming nor denying it. On the other hand, inquiring minds might want to check PhotoshopNews early Monday morning, January 9th, 2006 to see if circumstances change.

Another rumour suggests that Adobe Lightroom a.k.a Shadowland was on the cards before Aperture was released and Aperture was rushed to completion to be first to market with this type of software. Apple Aperture is designed to help organize and manage photo workflow, while allowing for reversible image retouching and manipulation.

Adobe LightRoom targets Apple Aperture

When Apple launched Aperture, it was aimed at the professional photographer who shoots predominantly Raw files and was looking for a better way to manage their workflow and perform their initial Raw conversion. Many experts felt that Apple was looking grab a pie of Adobe Photoshop’s marketshare with this new Mac-only software.

The success of Apple Aperture underscores the desire of professional photographers to have better workflow tools. Adobe is however in no mood to let go the digital photography software market to Apple Aperture. In response to Apple Aperture, Adobe will announce a Adobe Lightroom next week for working with RAW images. Though there is no official word from Adobe, the Adobe Lightroom software was seen on Adobe Store for some time before Adobe removed it. (see screenshots).

According to AppleInsider, Adobe will preview the application, dubbed LightRoom, for the first time during next week’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco. A finalized version of the application is not expected to ship until sometime later in the year. Initially, LightRoom will be released only for the Mac. However, sources say a PC version is in the works.

Update: New clues about Adobe Lightroom a.k.a. Adobe Shadowland suggest that this Adobe software will be announced at Macworld on Jan 9.



Apple Aperture is designed to help organize and manage photo workflow, while allowing for reversible image retouching and manipulation. It also allows photographers to work directly from more sophisticated data rather than having to use the more common compressed Jpeg format.

Download Google Screensaver without installing Google Pack

You can download Google Screensaver with or without installing the Google Pack.

What follows is a short guide to download and install the Google Pack Screensaver without downloading any of the other software in Google Pack or the even the Google Updater software. The Google screensaver will be installed without the Google Logo.

The Google Screensaver is probably the best piece of software in the entire Google Pack. The screensaver displays a slideshow of your digital pictures full screen or as a collage. The collage effect gives an impression as if someone is dumping Polaroid images on your desktop over time. Google screensaver works even on dual monitor screens.

Though the screensaver installer is only a few kilobytes, you need to download the entire Google updater application from pack.google.com to install the Google Screensaver.

If that is too much work for you, here is a quick tip to download a standalong google screensaver and as a bonus, this modified screensaver doesn’t display the Google logo on the top right corner.

Download this standalone Google Screensaver scr here and save the file to your Windows folder (generally, C:\Windows in XP and C:\WinNT in Windows 2000).

The Google screensaver is now installed on your computer. To configure your screensaver and set it as the default screensaver on your system, follow these steps:

1. Right-click on your desktop and select “Properties” from the menu that appears
2. Select the “Screen Saver” tab from the “Display Properties” dialog
3. From the “Screen saver” drop-down, select “Google Pack Screensaver” then click the “Settings” button
4. From the settings window, you can select the transition, timing, and selection of photos in your screensaver.

Picasa screensaver also lets you display a slideshow of your photos when your computer is idle but that requires you to download the ~4MB picasa installer from Google.

Google Photos Screensaver

Google Video Player out of Google Pack

Yesterday, Google announced the new Google desktop video player for playing videos that users rent or download from the Google Video Store. The Google Video player, a 4.5 MB file, can only play *.GVI and *.GVP files (Google proprietary formats)



Just hours after Larry Page unveiled the Google Pack at CES 2006, Google has removed the Google Video Player from Google Pack. The Google Video Player product link is returning a 404.



Many users were able to download the Google video player but could not test it as there aren’t any files available in GVI or GVP format.

The Best of CES 2006 - Day 2

Also read Digital Inspiration 2006 CES Coverage of Day 1



Motorola iTunes Phone
Motorola SLVR L7 will be the next phone to run Apple’s iTunes software. Other features include push-to-talk capability, a TransFlash memory card slot, Bluetooth and Motorola’s SCREEN3 technology, which pushes news headlines to your phone’s idle screen.

Lamborghini Not-for-sale sports car
Lamborghini (Volkswagen) unveiled a concept car that revives the Miura design from the mid-1960s. That hand-made Miura became a favorite of sports car enthusiasts and attracted celebrity owners. VW has no plans to produce a revived Miura - no one can buy for love or money - not even if they are on Hollywood’s A list.

Target Apple iPod
Apple does not attend CES, where its rivals are offering alternatives that they say are bigger, better and less expensive than an iPod. From Samsung to Sony to Sandisk, everyone wants a piece of Apple’s pie in the portable digital music player market, where the iPod reigns.

Sandisk introduced a 6 GB Sansa e270 MP3 player made with flash memory that also supports music subscription services.

XM unveiled a pair of portable, hand-held radio receivers that can also store digital songs, called the Helix and the Inno and manufactured by Samsung and Pioneer Corp.

Bill Gates play down threat from Google or Apple

People tend to get over focused on one of our competitors. We’ve always seen that. I’m never going to change the press’ view about what the cool company to write about is. That’s Google number 1 and Apple number 2. Too bad for Nokia, Sony and all those others.

Go Yahoo! Go
Yahoo! unveiled a set of new Web services initiatives dubbed Yahoo! Go TV, Yahoo Go Desktop. The services are designed to let users interact with Yahoo! and their own content stored online from mobile phones, PC desktops, and other sources. The services will allow users to connect to and interact with subsets of Yahoo!’s online offerings from cell phones, or from any browser, and also from televisions.

McAfee VirusScan software for Mobiles
McAfee’s new VirusScan Mobile software aims to protect PDAs and smart phones against malware attacks. The mobile security software scans and cleans files, e-mails, text messages, and downloads and attachments. The VirusScan Mobile takes up 850K of space and won’t interrupt connectivity during scans or operation.

Google Keynote
Google Pack - a set of Google software is announced
Google Video store announced that will let people rent or buy downloadable videos online.
Motorola will sell Web-enabled cellphones that feature easy access to Google’s search engine by clicking on a button on the phone’s keypad. Motorola will integrate a Google icon onto certain Internet-optimized handsets.

Sources: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Google Software Bundle - Microsoft worried ?

Google wants to make installing software as easy as going to the Google home page. At CES 2006, Google for the first time named a set of preferred software, security and Web service providers that will be part of its recommended Google PC set-up.

The Google Pack (pack.google.com) includes the Google toolbar, Google desktop (which includes the Sidebar and the deskbar), the Picasa photo management and sharing service, Google Alert, Google Talk messaging, the Google Video Player, and a new Google Pack screensaver that lets users turn photos stored on your computer hard drive into a screensaver displaying your favorite pictures as a collage or a slide show.

Every program included in the Google Pack is not free - Google Pack includes a complimentary special edition of Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2005 with a 6 month trial subscription to protection updates from Symantec Security Response. This is strange that Google is distributing an older outdated version of NAV when Symantec store is selling Norton Antivirus 2006. Other software that the Google software pack includes are the Firefox browser, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0, LavaSoft Adaware, the Real Player, and Trillium, an instant messaging application.

If one observes closely, every software bundled in Google Pack has a competing Microsoft Product. Google even considered including the Sun OpenOffice suite in Google Pack that would compete directly with Microsoft’s Office software suite but the programs were excluded because Google didn’t want to risk including anything that might be difficult to install or interfere with previously installed software applications. [Google earlier pledged with Sun to promote OpenOffice suite]

1. Mozilla Firefox - Internet Explorer


2. Google Desktop - Microsoft Windows Desktop Search


3. Google Earth - Microsoft Virtual Earth (Live Local)


4. Google Talk - MSN Messenger


5. Google Toolbar - MSN IE Toolbar


6. Picasa - Microsoft Windows Vista Photo Gallery


7. Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal - Microsoft Windows Defender (Microsoft Antispyware)


8. Adobe Reader 7 - Microsoft upcoming Metro Format


9. GalleryPlayer HD Images - Microsoft Office Online Gallery


10. Norton AntiVirus 2005 SE - Microsoft Onecare


11. RealPlayer - Microsoft Windows Media Player, Apple iTunes, QuickTime - Google Video Player will be available soon


12. Trillian - MSN Messenger (probably Google wants to reduce MSN penetration by offering two IM clients in the bundle). Trillian Free client can connect with AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! In order to connect to Google Talk or any other service that supports the Jabber/XMPP protocol, you’ll need to purchase Trillian Pro.

Software will be downloaded via the Google Updater application, and will “auto discover” updates to programs to ensure that you’ve got the latest version, whilst also acting as a launcher for all of the applications which have been provided by Google.

The Google keynote address ended a a week of speculation that Google might unveil a low-cost personal computer that doesn’t run Microsoft’s Windows operating system and could be sold at Wal-Mart.

Google Pack | Google Software Download | Endgadget @ CES

Google Video Bazaar open 24 hours

Google CEO Larry Page introduces Google Video Store at the Consumer Electronics Show 2006 in Las Vegas.



Google Video Marketplace is new Google service like Apple iTunes store that will let people rent or buy downloadable videos online, including classic and contemporary CBS television shows and NBA basketball games. According to Larry, the Google video marketplace would offer free programing, low-cost rentals and outright purchases of premium entertainment and sports shows.

Google’s flexible pricing model sets its video service apart from rivals. Apple iTunes store charges $1.99 for each video download and 99 cents for each song downloaded. With Google’s marketplace, content suppliers can name their own price, from zero on up. The content owners who charge for video downloads must share 30 percent of the revenue with Google. The video providers have the option of offering content on a download-to-own or download-to-rent basis.

CBS plans to offer programs like Crime Scene Investigation for rental a day after they originally air, priced at $1.99. Also, vintage CBS episodes will be offered for download and outright ownership for the same $1.99 fee. Besides programming from CBS, the NBA and Charlie Rose, the list of other video material that will be sold through Google includes: old episodes from “I Love Lucy,” “The Twilight Zone,” and “The Brady Bunch;” music videos from Sony BMG; and historic video from Getty Images.

Google Video Store customers will make payments with a credit card through Google’s account system, as they do with the Google AdWords advertising system and other Google services. There will be no ads in the videos or on the video Web pages, though Google is looking into providing ad-based video in the future.

In another related development, DivX is working with Google to develop a Google codec that makes Google Video accessible on a variety of consumer electronics devices. The DivX video-codec video compression technology offers DVD quality at 10 times the compression of traditional MPEG2 files, enabling a full-length film to fit on one CD or eight films to fit on one DVD.

Google accepts video uploads directly from content owners. Those interested can go to Google Video Upload website and load their digital videos to Google Video. You may designate a price for playback of Your Authorized Content in the Uploading Form itself.

Google has been offering video for free over the internet for about a year. But this is the first time it will enable its users to pay for premium content. Google Video currently works only on a Windows-based PC unlike Apple iTunes that works both on a Microsoft PC and an Apple Macintosh. Google Video uses the Google Video Player, which will incorporate Google proprietory digital rights management (DRM) technology. Others like Microsoft and Yahoo are also getting involved in offering video via the web.

Sources: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5