06.13.07
Posted in Applications, Technology at 4:16 pm by Ben
Despite my recent complaints about Adobe, I must give kudos to Adobe for good customer support. Adobe adequately resolved the activation issue and refunded the misleading Fireworks “update”. Thats good customer service. But the reason why these issues even came up have not been adequately addressed and thus my complaints still stand. Other Adobe customers are probably struggling with the same issues. So again I ask Adobe to revisit the activation scheme (there has got to be a better way!) and also clarify how specific apps can be upgraded especially in regards to apps originally purchased in a suite.
On a side note: I’m pretty sure Adobe is outsourcing their phone support. The reps I spoke with had pretty good english skills wherever in the world they were located so it was a pretty decent experience. The reason why I’m pretty sure they are outsourced is that one rep didn’t understand what a colon was until I explained the 2 little dots.
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06.11.07
Posted in Applications, Technology at 11:12 pm by Ben
Safari 3 beta. It’s pretty snappy in my non-scientific testing. Recommended for those who like speed and excellent web standards rendering. I haven’t tried it on Windows yet.
Thoughts on WWDC 2007 Keynote: Hmmm…interesting but not as revolutionary as past WWDC. But then again, I haven’t seen everything under the hood in Leopard. I think the biggest things are the Quick Look (full previews of documents/files/movies without opening the creator application) and Time Machine (one step, no-think backup and retrieval). Time Machine can be revolutionary if Apple does it perfectly and flawlessly. Of all companies, they certainly have a chance to pull it off.
Update: Running Safari on my work PC shows that there’s a lot of room for improvement. Not snappy. At all. And from the internet there appears to be major internationalization issues because it appears Safari 3 Beta was aimed for the english speaking world only.
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06.09.07
Posted in Applications, Technology at 8:45 pm by Ben
Dear Adobe,
Your activation process is making my life miserable. I am trying to follow the rules and regulations of the EULA (which sucks too but that has more to do with the poor state of legal affairs). But here’s the issue. Although I predominately use my CS3 license on my desktop machine, I occasionally have to use my laptop. Your activation scheme makes it nigh impossible to accomplish this without some degree of frustration. Might I suggest you find a better way of handling this? Some possible solutions:
1. You trust your customers. I’d say a good 80% of us try to do the right thing and a serial number would be enough to stop most casual pirating. Make your products easy, friendly, and a good cost-to-value ratio and watch your sales soar. Your customers will love you. Or were you trying for the “it is better to be feared then loved?” Because at the moment its more of a “better to be loathed.” And I certainly am not feeling the love.
2. Make it easier to transfer the license between two computers (not 3, not a network - just two)…without having to deactivate or activate all over the place. This would reduce the number of staff you have to have answering calls about activation. Your developers are pretty smart. I’m sure they could figure this out by the next release.
3. For $150-$200 more sell a 2 CPU license (it would work best with two different serial numbers so the two could licenses could operate independently). I think this would do amazingly well. It would certainly make small design boutiques happy!
4. And this is where I think Adobe could really make a change for the better: figuratively “fire” the marketing and business managers and let the engineers lead the company…you need practical visionaries, not false prophets who search for the uttermost farthing. I may not be a fortune 500 company, but I am your customer and I am concerned about your current course which appears to be more focused on profits then on customer needs - the European pricing is really quite outrageous! Consider this a friendly warning from someone who has been with you since the Photoshop 4 days.
I look forward to a productive exchange of ideas. Maybe we can create a better, more user-friendly way of handling this activation thing?
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