Adobe had quite a bit to talk about at their conference yesterday. Besides announcing that they were ending Creative Suite and making it a Creative Cloud-only option, they also talked about a few hardware projects they've been working on: Mighty, a new cloud-connected pen stylus, and Napoleon, a ruler -- both made specifically for mobile devices. While the hardware itself may not be all that innovative, the way it interacts with the devices takes mobile creations to a whole different level. Check out the introduction video below from Michael Gough, Adobe's VP of Product Experience:
While these aren't actually being released anytime soon, I would expect to see much more from Adobe regarding hardware down the road. I think both of these have tons of potential, and we're likely to see versions from many different manufacturers -- ideally doing more than pen and paper ever could. They also announced what they are calling Project Context, which is going to be helpful for editorial and publishing (you know, kind of like the site you're reading right now).
Here is Adobe on Context:
When combined with InDesign and the Digital Publishing Suite, Context creates an ideal editorial and publishing environment for Wired and other publishers. Context offers a powerful and intuitive way to grab assets from just about anywhere, and to collaboratively organize and eventually even edit and publish them. These exploratory projects stand a much better chance of becoming real shipping products when we work with a customer to build them. We have the good fortune to be working with WIRED to build out the first version of Context as a system to support the editorial and layout process for their magazine.
I think there may be a bright future for these kinds of smart devices that really bridge the gap between physical and digital assets. These sorts of drawing tools look to be helpful for those of us who are less artistically inclined, especially if we're working on something like storyboarding or pre-visualization. It's definitely going to be interesting to see how they implement the cloud-based connectivity, as that could open up quite a few possibilities for connecting your mobile work to your desktop work.
What do you guys think about the stylus and ruler? Do you see these having applications in your own work? How about Project Context? Let us know what you think below.
Adobe XD explores the analog future -- Adobe
[via The Verge]
Disclosure: Adobe is a No Film School advertiser.
