Now that you Windows users have heard that there's a beta of Adobe Lightroom for you (a free download from Adobe), you're probably hungry for some Windows specific training. As usual, NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) is right on it. They've updated their Lightroom training page with some new videos that show the Windows version of Lightroom, including Matt Kloskowski's Intro to the Develop Module, Secrets of the Tone Curve, and Magic of Split-Toning. Mac users will benefit from these videos too, because Lightroom's settings are similar across the platforms.

And if you want to see what other users are saying about the Windows beta or post your own impressions, join in on Adobe's Lightroom Beta Windows discussion board.

Last month Adobe released a third beta of Lightroom, and now a Windows version is available for download. It doesn't seem like any major new features or updates have been added, but Windows users can finally stop re-forwarding request emails to the Adobe Labs team and take Lightroom for a spin.

Being that Lightroom has seen three (beta) versions on the Mac, we'd like to hear your thoughts on how well the Windows versions performs and stacks up to its counterpart.

Adobe has released a third beta of Lightroom, their photo management and editing app specifically designed for professional photographers. Check out the release notes (PDF link, since HTML is so 1995) for the full details, but highlights include improvements to import and export options, live comparisons of image adjustments in Before and After previews, an additional straightening tool, as well as a new Web module (apparently heavily influenced by forum feedback - cool) with HTML and Flash export options.

This sounds like a slick new release, and I'll crack open the download sooner or later and give it a look. Unfortunately, there still isn't a version for Windows users, though they are offering a sign-up notification form if you'd like to be on the list.

[via MacNN]

Adobe has announced a public beta of Adobe XMP Toolkit 4.0, Adobe's labeling technology for embedding metadata into files. This prerelease allows software developers to inject XMP data into popular media file formats (JPEG, PSD, TIFF, AVI, WAV, MPEG, MP3, MOV, INDD, PS, and EPS). It also gives developers a centralized view of XMP data through Adobe Bridge. As described on the Adobe Labs site:

"Version 4.0 of the Adobe XMP Toolkit is planned to significantly extend the capabilities of the current SDK by adding an often-requested feature: the ability to easily find, add, and update XMP in popular image, document, and video file formats. As such, Version 4.0 will contain two distinct components:

• The XMP Core: a component for parsing, manipulating, and serializing XMP data. This component was historically called the "XMP Toolkit" because it was the only component in the toolkit. It will henceforth be called the XMP Core, whereas the XMP Toolkit refers to the entire SDK.
• The XMP File Handler: a component for reading, rewriting, and injecting serialized XMP into popular image, document, and video file formats. The XMP File Manager can be thought of as a "file I/O" component for reading and writing the XMP that is manipulated by the XMP Core."

A free download of the beta for Windows (Visual Studio 2005) or Mac (Xcode 2.2) development environments is available from Adobe Labs. The Mac version of the Toolkit will create universal binary code for both Intel and PowerPC processors. Adobe is seeking developers' feedback on file format support and overall architecture of the Toolkit.

For the uninitiated, XMP stands for Extensible Metadata Platform, and metadata is information about a file--anything from copyright to image captions. Metadata is essential for organizing and accessing files, and is an fundamental part of creative professionals' workflow. You can learn more about XMP and metadata at Adobe's site.

TUAW has picked up on Macworld Magazine's "Best in Show" announcement, covering all the latest and greatest of the Macworld Expo 06 that's rounding up in San Francisco today. Among the new software, gadgets and gizmos named is Adobe's new Lightroom application, citing its complementary organizational nature to Photoshop and its friendly hardware requirements.

If you haven't checked out the beta of the Mac-only (for now) Lightroom, I'd recommend you grab a copy from Adobe Labs and give it a spin.

So everyone's picked up on Adobe's release of a beta of Lightroom, a new pro app for photography workflows, and you can pick up a copy from Adobe Labs. I caught a rather interesting post on John Nack's blog, however, that goes a bit more into detail and explains what they're really trying to do with Lightroom. Sure, it's admittedly a competitor to Aperture, but would you expect anything less from the king of desktop image editing and publishing?

John delves into who Lightroom is for and what exactly Adobe plans to do with it. He also opens up the door for submitting feedback, emphasizing again the app's main function and the fact that they're not going to build in every little bell, whistle, button and feature they can think of. The post is a good read on Adobe's latest offering, and there's even a Lightroom introductory movie (link to mov file) that's also available as a podcast via iTunes.

[UPDATE: Lightroom, at present, only runs on Mac OS X. A Windows version is in the works.]

[pic via TUAW]