We released our “Patch Tuesday” update to Acrobat & Adobe Reader earlier this week.

For information on the security updates see Security Bulletin APSB13-02 for details.
For detailed Release Notes, please see the Enterprise Toolkit.

A few highlights to be aware of:

New Updater Mode Added to Acrobat XI for Windows
The Adobe Acrobat XI for Windows updater now has a fully-automated mode. As a reminder, “fully-automated” mode will regularly check for important updates, download them to your machine, and install them automatically. When finished, you will be alerted via a small message in the system tray that your software has been updated. This method is the recommended best practice for keeping Adobe Acrobat up-to-date and more secure given the fact that it does not require user intervention.

Handling Flash in 10.1.5
As mentioned in Three Common Adobe Reader and Acrobat Security Questions, unknown Flash will now be rendered by the system Flash Player (NPAPI version), when using Adobe Reader and Acrobat 10.1.5. Note: This has already been done for Reader and Acrobat 11. As stated before, this means that Adobe Reader/Acrobat users will no longer have to update Adobe Reader/Acrobat each time we update the Flash Player. This is particularly beneficial to customers in managed environments, because fewer updates means a lower cost of ownership, while maintaining a vigilant security posture.

And as a reminder, support for Adobe Acrobat 9.x will end on June 26, 2013.

Be honest with yourself for a minute: how many intelligent devices do you own? Probably several: A desktop computer, a laptop or both; a phone, a tablet, perhaps a couple of each; and yes, you’ve got one of those microwaves that reads you the news every morning (let’s not go there right now). Now, how many different apps do you have that count as a news source, a reading platform, a file storage platform, or an authoring or content-creating platform? A zillion. (For the sake of playing along, I just counted up the apps on my iPhone, and I’ve got – really – 21 different apps that serve to deliver or store content for me. That’s not including the apps I’ve got on my Android tablet, let alone the vast world that opens up to me when I’m at my laptop.)

The fact is, most of us in this tech-crazy, content consuming world have many, many different ways to store, save, and savor our information, and we can do it from just about anywhere with a decent wireless or WiFi signal. The mobile platforms we use daily (phone, tablet, laptop) might allow us to get more work done than ever before, because we can do our work in a cab, on a train, or standing in line waiting for our next gadget to be released. But what if we could do our work without subscribing to, say, 21 different applications? What if there was a simple system that we could use to get actual, bona fide work done without taking a voice memo to transcribe later on, or writing an email reminder to ourselves on a tiny keyboard?

Enter Adobe’s Document Services.

We’ve been working maniacally back here at the mothership to support a mobile mode of working that constitutes getting real work done: real contracts getting signed, real forms being filled and sent, real comments made on digital documents – no matter where you are. With Adobe’s Document Services, such as Adobe EchoSign, Adobe FormsCentral, and the Acrobat.com cloud storage system, you can hit the road with nothing but your favorite tablet and be sure that you won’t miss a deal for having left your laptop at home. Here’s just one example: Adobe EchoSign’s mobile app lets you upload documents and send them off to be signed; you can even use the Adobe Reader application to fill out a form and apply your signature to a PDF document before you send it off for another signature with the EchoSign app. Even better, your account activity is tracked even when you’re on a mobile device so no information about the transaction is lost; when you sign into your account from another computer, you’ll see all of your activity has been securely transcribed for your records.

Okay, great, you’re saying; signatures on mobile devices sound awesome. But what if you’ve got a 150-page PDF document that you’re reading or reviewing in Adobe Reader on your laptop, and you’ve suddenly got to leave the house before you’re done reading? No problem: save the document to your Acrobat.com account, and access it from your phone while you’re on the bus to wherever you’re going; when you open the document from Acrobat.com, your place has been saved and you can pick up right where you left off while in transit.

We know how fast things move these days, and we know how fast you’re moving, too; Adobe’s Document Services and mobile applications help you stay on top of things even when you’re only at your desk for 30 minutes a day. Download the free Adobe Reader app for iOS and Android devices, and see how much more efficient you become next time you’re sitting in a waiting room or in a coffee shop. We think you may even be able to delete some of those extra apps.

- Rebecca Staley

Looking for more insights from our recent IDC white paper on Bridging the Productivity Gap? Check out this video where Ali Hanyaloglu, senior Acrobat Solutions evangelist, interviews IDC lead analyst and author of the study, Melissa Webster, about some of the research highlights and findings.

The recently released Adobe-commissioned IDC white paper analyzed the current productivity challenges that IT and information workers face in today’s age of digital documents. The study also identifies opportunities for increasing information worker productivity.

With new and improved PDF editing, cloud services integration and enhanced tablet capabilities, Acrobat XI addresses today’s complex document challenges and the problems that compromise the productivity of information workers and IT departments.

Our own Ali Hanyalogu recently participated in a CMSWire Tweet Jam on Social Business.  You can find a recap of his take on the subject, along with the questions posed by the CMSWire team, in the Storify post below.  Let us know your thoughts, and enjoy!

The second video in our series of Acrobat XI tips and tricks is all about eSignatures. With the recent integration of Adobe’s web contracting solution, EchoSign, into Acrobat XI, you can easily sign a PDF yourself electronically or getting a file e-signed by others.

Just in time for Halloween, we have some Acrobat XI tips and trick-or-treats (yes, we went there) for your learning pleasure.  This is the first in a series of posts where we’ll share how-to videos from the Acrobat channel on Adobe TV that offer tips on working with PDF documents and forms in the recently released Acrobat XI.

Today’s video is all about converting PDF files. Acrobat XI makes it even easier to convert a PDF file into a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document that you can quickly edit and reuse. Don’t be scared, check it out!