Today Adobe released a great update for professional Web designers and developers with the release of several new product updates for HTML5 Web tooling.

Leading the release is the first public preview of Edge Reflow, a new responsive design tool that we first showed the community at our Create the Web event in September 2012 when we did a sneak peek of it. We heard from many users wanting to get their hands on Edge Reflow and today we’re happy to make that happen. We look forward to people playing with this very early preview release and telling us what type of features they would like to see added.

We’re also excited to deliver several new feature updates to Edge Animate, Dreamweaver and Edge Code Preview! All these releases are immediately available, exclusively to both free and paid Creative Cloud members. For more information on Adobe Edge Reflow visit html.adobe.com/edge/reflow and for additional details on Creative Cloud, Edge Animate, Dreamweaver, Edge Code preview and other tools available in Creative Cloud, visit www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html.

This week at Adobe’s Create the Web event, we unveiled a new set of innovations called Adobe Edge Tools & Services. We think these announcements are really exciting for students who want to learn how to build killer apps and experiences for iOS, Android, Windows, WebOS, Blackberry and for the full range of today’s modern Web browsers. Importantly, Adobe is making this free to students and education institutions around the world. 

One of the most important tools is Adobe Edge Animate 1.0, which lets students easily create Web animations and interactive experiences. Built from the ground up using modern Web technologies, we think this is a terrific tool to help students learn the fundamentals of interactive design and animation across devices. It’s easy to use, so students can quickly go from “sketch-to-prototype” using the modern standards and approaches used by commercial design firms. And it allows you to create some really stunning experiences. A great example of this new modern Web is the site for the “Paranorman” movie, which looks awesome across both tablet as well as a browser.

The announcements this week also underscore our commitment to open standards, and the modern Web. We outlined a number of contributions made to the Web platform in cooperation with the standards and open source communities. From layout and foundational graphics to amazing cinematic effects (check out the CSS Custom Filters in Chrome Canary), we are focused on making the Web a more expressive platform overall.  

There’s a great deal of excitement in the education community around these announcements:

“Teaching complex subjects such as animation, interactivity, and responsive design has been difficult for a number of reasons; primary among these are the amount of prerequisite knowledge required to even approach these activities, and the sheer amount of unaided time and effort required. What Adobe is now doing with the Edge Tools and Services is astounding because they are introducing tools which address both of these issues. This allows the instructor to teach concepts and techniques using tangible assets and the student to freely express their vision in a much more direct and familiar way. In terms of emerging web technologies: Adobe has thrown open the doors to a renaissance!” Joseph Labrecque, Senior Interactive Software Engineer, Adjunct Professor, University of Denver

“Reflow is going to be a huge teaching tool when it comes to Responsive Web Design. I am also looking forward to playing with the Edge apps and discovering how they integrate with each other and the Creative Cloud apps in the context of workflow. This looks like it is going to be fun to discover…and then teach.” Tom Green, Professor of interactive Multimedia, Humber Institute of Technology

“As HTML5 continues to provide web designers new opportunities to create more complex web projects using animation, responsive layouts, and web fonts, Adobe has created Edge Tools and Services to make some of these complex techniques easier. Both designers, and especially students, can quickly get the opportunity to become familiar with these new tools and find how easily they enhance their web projects, especially with Adobe providing most of these tools for free. These new tools will allow designers the opportunity to become more efficient and effective in producing better quality web work for today’s changing web environment.” Matthew Leach, Director & Author, Adjunct Professor, Colorado Technical University, The Art Institute of Colorado, Westwood College, SUNY, International Academy of Design and Technology, Author for Wynn Press

“Rather than attempting to make one big super tool, Adobe is making smaller focused tools for specific tasks. This will allow folks to use the tooling where they are helpful, but not require a complete rethinking of how you are comfortable working today.” Jason Madsen, Department Chair, Full Sail Univeristy

Again, to make it easier for educators to introduce these modern tools into the classroom, Adobe is offering Edge tools and services for free for students, educators and education institutions. All of the Edge Tools and Services are of course part of the Adobe Creative Cloud. You can learn more about these announcements here. How would you use these tools in the classroom? Drop us a note in the comments section or follow us on Twitter.

Delivering on its promise to build the best HTML5 tools in the world, Adobe today announced a new collection for web designers and developers called Edge Tools & Services that are immediately available in Adobe Creative Cloud. The new collection is for creating beautiful mobile-ready content and apps using the latest Web technologies including HTML5 and beyond. Comprised of intuitive,task-focused tools and services, the collection works well individually, together and even with other tools! Learn more about today’s announcements on our Digital Media blog.

Adobe will be on the road showcasing them all over the next several weeks during its worldwide “Create the Web” tour.

Building upon the NBC Olympics announcement that we made earlier this month, Adobe today announced that the BBC has become one of its first broadcast partners to use key components of Project Primetime in their live and video on demand (VOD) coverage of the London Games. The mobile content is being delivered through a new, HTML5 app built with Adobe PhoneGap, Adobe’s tools and framework for creating cross-platform HTML5 apps for smartphones and tablets. Visit the Digital Media blog to find out more.

Today, Adobe launched Technical Communication Suite 4 with new versions of FrameMaker and RoboHelp to power XML Workflows and HTML5 publishing to tablets, smartphones, multiscreen HTML5, eBook and native mobile apps. The latest release of Adobe’s TCS 4 offers tight tooling integration to help streamline, simplify and accelerate content creation and delivery workflows in today’s multi-author, multi-reviewer environments. See the full announcement here for more information as well as pricing for new and upgraded versions of the suite. Also, check out the video below to see the future of TechComm.

I’ve just returned from Istanbul where Adobe hosted a two-day Digital Media Education Summit for design
schools across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. While many relevant and engaging discussions took place, one question stuck out the most: “In today’s competitive workplace, how do we best prepare students for careers in interactive design and media?” There’s a great deal of change in the market on this front – check out one of the recent SoDA reports here.

This is about curriculum design, and how to evolve project-based learning in ways that equip students for jobs in the ever-changing world of digital marketing. It’s also about teaching the skills needed to market an entrepreneurial idea successfully to today’s consumer.

So what do design students really need? Here are three areas to explore:

Cross Discipline Collaboration: Today’s marketing and design firms are looking for graduates that can understand how to work with front-end developers (across Facebook apps, mobile apps, HTML5 and Flash) as well as back-end data engineers who track how the creative content is being used in a marketing campaign. School projects that involve collaboration with various departments including computer science, business and the design school help prepare students for today’s marketing environments. We’re already starting to see this mainstream approach in many universities, which is great news.

Cohesive Design across Devices: Today’s design firms need graduates who understand how to optimize their design for mobile, iPad, Facebook and browser consumption. It is important, if not critical, that institutions require students to complete a course on mobile media and mobile app design. Assigning projects requiring that a design is expressed across several types of multimedia devices is a terrific way to prepare students for their future careers.  

Social and Interactive Integrations: Today’s ad campaign typically encourages consumer interaction. The article you read online provides the opportunity for you to tweet, retweet or have a community discussion. Interactive websites engage users beyond the basic transfer of information, providing a much more memorable experience. Students should be encouraged to explore ways of making the interactive component of their work front-and-center, and understand the principles of usability in designs that will be viewed across various media forms. Until now, interactivity was often an afterthought to advertising design – but today’s successful campaigns need both.

It goes without saying that students still need to learn the foundations of design across composition, typography and color. But now is the time to look ahead and challenge the current model, to embrace new paradigms and to create approaches that integrate technology advancements and human behavior into the design curriculum.

I know that many of you have other thoughts and recommendations on this topic so, please let us know!

Creative Cloud is here! As the way we work evolves, so has Adobe’s offerings. You can now get your Creative Cloud membership, which starts with the complete Creative Suite 6, as well as Adobe Muse, our new visual web design tool, and Edge, the HTML5 animation app. Add in Business Catalyst for web hosting, Typekit for fonts, and up to 20 gigabytes of cloud storage for syncing and sharing your files. Why is Creative Cloud so transformative and what does its future hold? Get the story from Jeffrey Veen, senior director of products.

Today we are announcing two remarkable offerings… Adobe Creative Suite 6 and the all new Adobe Creative Cloud.

Creative Suite 6 is a killer release with hundreds of new capabilities rolling up to four focus areas:

• Application Performance. The Mercury performance work we started a couple years ago has now made its way to our imaging, video and illustration tools.
• Enhanced User Interface. Our tools are increasingly enabling direct, on-canvas editing of your content.
• Efficient development for Multiple Devices. Our tools are taking a practical approach to creating responsive content, so your web sites or apps look great regardless of the device or orientation they’re viewed in.
• Adobe’s unique secret sauce. The stuff that make things previously impossible suddenly possible.

Our customers helped us shape Creative Suite 6 and with it now in their hands, we will all experience things on the web and with mobile apps that we could never have thought possible. We’re going to see some incredible things.

It’s also important to realize we’re in the middle of a transformation in how content is built and delivered. With over 500 million smartphones selling each year, 400 million tablets expected to sell by 2014, nearly 1 billion people on Facebook and over 40 billion apps expected to be downloaded this year – the creative process is undergoing a significant shift. And we believe the Creative Cloud will help our customers go from idea to finished work more efficiently and with better results.

Creative Cloud Members will get:

• Great Tools. Members can download and install all of our CS6 tools and can use them even when disconnected from the internet. Members also get access to Muse (our new HTML5 tool for designers) and Edge Preview (our new HTML5 tool for interaction designers). They also benefit from deep integration with our touch tools like Photoshop Touch and Adobe Ideas.
• Storage and Sharing. Members content can be automatically synchronized across of their PCs, mobile devices and the cloud. The files are accessible from anywhere, on any device and easily shared with colleagues or clients.
• Publishing Web Sites and Apps. Members are able to host up to five websites for free and will be able to create and deploy digital brochures and catalogues to the iPad and iPhone.
• Ongoing Innovation. We view the Creative Cloud as a journey and intend to update its services often. Members will be guaranteed to always have access to the most up-to-date products and services all included as part of their membership.

We hope you’ll join us Monday morning online as we unveil more details about these technologies.

We couldn’t be more excited about both these releases and can’t wait to see what you do with them.

-David

We’re headed to Austin for SXSW this week and are looking forward to all the fun Interactive Week will have in store! If you’ll be attending SXSW as well, we hope to see you at our events. We’re hosting several workshops and panels that you must add to your schedule! Check out our line-up below:

• When: Friday, March 9, 2012, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
• Where: Austin Convention Center Room 9 ABC
• What: The Future of Access to Digital Broadcast Video

• When: Saturday, March 10, 2012, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
• Where: Austin Convention Center Ballroom A
• What: The State of Browser Developer Tools

• When: Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. 
• Where: Sheraton Austin, Creekside I & II
• What: Social Role-Playing: Brands and Publishers

• When: Monday, March 12, 2012, 9:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
• Where: Radisson Town Lake Ballroom
• What: Adobe Creative Camp – a full day of Adobe fun with the following workshops/events:

• 9:30 a.m.: The Future of HTML5 Motion Design
• 11:00 a.m.: Boost your Mobile Workflow with Adobe
• 12:30 p.m.: “The Page is Dead,” Responding to the Responsive Web
• 3:30 p.m.: Demystifying Devices: Understanding the Future of the Web and Apps
• 3:30 p.m.: Efficient Frontier/Context Optional Meet-up
• 5:00 p.m.: Building online businesses with Adobe Business Catalyst and Dreamweaver CS5.5

• When: Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
• Where: Austin Convention Center
• What: Efficient Frontier/Adobe Happy Hour   – we’ll be giving away Efficient Frontier branded Moleskine Journals with one Golden Ticket inside (like the one posted below)…which means one lucky Happy Hour guest will get setup with CS5.5!

Are you as excited as we are for Interactive Week? We hope so!

If we don’t see you in person, be sure to follow us throughout the week on @AdobeSXSW to get the latest happenings live from Austin.

For the latest information visit our Google+ Adobe SXSW page.

Twitter @AdobeSXSW | Facebook Adobe SXSW | Foursquare Adobe SXSW | Google+

We are also hosting several workshops, special events and SXSW Parties you should add to your SXSW Schedule:

Friday, March 9, 2012
5:00 – 6:00 PM Austin Convention Center Room 9 ABC

The Future of Access to Digital Broadcast Video: Video needs to be accessible too, and both the technology and the legal environments are evolving. Accessible media is already available online at some major media sites and the work done by providers can inform work that others will need to undertake. Join Adobe’s Andrew Kirkpatrick and representatives from MTV Networks, HBO and the National Association of the Deaf.

Saturday, March 10, 2012
9:30 – 10:30 AM Austin Convention Center Ballroom A

The State of Browser Developer Tools: Your browser is the most important program on your computer and until recently there were no built-in, industrial-strength tools available for debugging web pages. As web apps become more sophisticated, so do the debugging environments. Representatives of the major browsers discuss the needs of the developer and we feel you will find it interesting!

Monday, March 12, 2012
12:30 – 1:30 PM Sheraton Austin, Creekside I & II

Social Role-Playing: Brands and Publishers: Brands and publishers alike are now storytellers, seeking to retain consumers, attract new ones and encourage a deeper relationship. Both groups need to create and optimize content, and better yet, deliver a seamless consumer experience with consistent, integrated advertising. Join Adobe’s David Karnstedt and representatives from Facebook, Fast Company and Expedia as these experts discuss how to capitalize on social marketing opportunities.

Monday, March 12, 2012
9:30 am – 8:00 pm Radisson Town Lake Ballroom

Adobe is redefining the extraordinary in web design and mobile development. Join our day long Creative Camp Event where our evangelists will have back to back workshops and demos.

• 9:30 am The Future of HTML5 Motion Design
• 11:00 am Boost your Mobile Workflow with Adobe’s Newest Product
• 12:30 pm “The Page is Dead,” Responding to the Responsive Web
• 2:00 pm SXSW keynote: Expanding Our Intelligence Without Limit
• 3:30 pm Demystifying Devices: Understanding the Future of the Web and Apps
• 5:00 pm Building online businesses with Adobe Business Catalyst and Dreamweaver CS5.5
• 6:00 pm After Hours party with Adobe Evangelists

Visit the Creative Camp Event page for additional information on each workshop. Arrive early for seating at the tables with power outlets and finish the day with the After Hours party.

If you need an invitation to the Adobe SXSW party, follow @AdobeSXSW on Twitter and use the button below to Retweet this page. We will see that you are interested in attending the party and will send you the link to register.