First, the promotional copy, then the explanation:

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced the highly anticipated Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 6 software for Macintosh(R) is now available for pre-order at www.adobe.com/go/buyphotoshop_elements_mac. Photoshop Elements 6 software for Mac(R) combines power and simplicity so consumers at all experience levels can easily achieve outstanding results with their digital photos. In advance of its early Q2 2008 ship date, the Macintosh community will get its first peek at the new product features during the Macworld Conference & Expo, Jan. 14-17, 2008 in San Francisco (Booth #S1302).

"We're excited to showcase a brand new version of Photoshop Elements at Macworld," said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe. "In this release, we've focused on going beyond the basics to make everyday and advanced tasks even easier to achieve.

Photoshop Elements 6 for Macintosh allows people to organize and find photos quickly, unleash powerful editing tricks without any heavy lifting, and creatively share photos that give them all the bragging rights."

Make Photos Look Their Best

Photoshop Elements 6 software helps photo enthusiasts achieve desired results quickly and easily. New features based on proprietary Photomerge(R) technology let users easily combine the best facial expressions and body language from a series of shots to create a single, perfect group shot.

The new Quick Selection

Tool reduces a once time-consuming select-and-adjust task to a single click. Photographers — beginner to expert — can choose from one of three edit modes, each geared toward a different experience level. A new Guided Edit mode helps walk users through the steps of improving a photo. Photoshop Elements 6 software streamlines editing with clean, uncluttered screens that draw focus to the photos, with new tabs providing simple access to the many capabilities of the program. Additional enhancements include an improved conversion tool that dramatically converts color images into elegant, nuanced black-and-whites.

Create and Share Photos in Fun, Unique Ways

Photoshop Elements 6 software offers creative options to tell stories in fun and engaging ways. Customizable layouts let users create scrapbook pages, photo books, greeting cards and burn to CD/DVD for high impact sharing which requires no previous experience. Additional sharing options include ordering prints, creating personal online albums for sharing photo creations on the web, printing photos into real U.S. postage stamps, and showcasing creations on a CEIVA Digital Photo Frame™.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Macintosh will run on Leopard, (Mac OS X v 10.5), as well as previous versions of Mac OS X starting with 10.4.8., and is immediately available for pre-order at www.adobe.com for an estimated street price of US$89.99. The software will later be available at Amazon.com, or from one of the following retailers: Apple Stores, Best Buy, Staples, Costco.com, Fry's, Circuit City, Microcenter, J&R, Buy.com and NewEgg.com. Information about other language versions, as well as pricing, upgrade and support policies for other countries is available on www.adobe.com/go/photoshopelmac.

EXPLANATION: Loosely translated, the $90 you'll spend on Photoshop Elements 6 for the Mac — IF the product lives up to the demo I saw — will deliver a level of satisfaction and enhancement to your photos that you may not have experienced before. Most appealing is its potential integration with Apple's iPhoto. I'll have more to say about all of this after I get my mitts on the software and play with it, but you should keep an eye out. This one promises to be big. Very big.

— Mark Kellner, The Washington Times

In today's "On Computers" column, I talk about two aspects of Microsoft Office for Mac 2008. It's a great productivity suite, and I recommend it highly.

What's missing? A look at Excel for Mac and PowerPoint for Mac — that'll come next week. For now, let's just say these are good, and totally compatible — so far as I've seen — duplicates of their Windows counterparts.

The Microsoft Office suite is de rigeur in the business world, and while there are many good programs that are compatible to one degree or another with Word for Mac, such as Nisus Writer Pro or Mellel, and Apple's Numbers is a more-than-OK spreadsheet, the fact is that nothing really beats Microsoft Office as an all-around package.

You'll learn more about this in next week's column. For now, happy reading.

— Mark Kellner, The Washington Times

Of course I want one — to play with for a while, at least, but I must confess a bit of skepticism about Apple's new MacBook Air, the $1,799, 3-pound notebook, announced by Apple, Inc.'s, Steve Jobs today at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Can it truly be as good as it purports? How rugged will it be? This is not advertised as a "ruggedized" computer, and certainly not a "mil-spec" (military specifications) portable. But when Apple says you can "take it anywhere," as they do in this video demonstration, then it begs the question of sturdiness. How much of a drop could it survive, and at what angles?

I say this not as a criticism, but certainly to raise questions. As with any new technology, the proof will be in the product, and Apple has rarely, rarely disappointed in a significant way. I would be astonished if they did so here.

Overall, the news from Apple today is good — I like the software upgrades for the iPhone and iPod Touch models, and applaud the new Time Capsule backup device, something everyone should have. Here's hoping that all the new products live up to — if not exceed — their billing.

— Mark Kellner, The Washington Times

And who am I to disagree?

IS THERE A "MAC" MINDSET?

"Mac People" Found to be More Open and Superior Than Population at Large, According to Mindset Media Study

NEW YORK, January 16, 2008 — Mindset Media, which operates an online ad network that enables brand advertisers to reach millions of people with the personality traits that fit their brands, today released a Mindset Profile of Mac users, which the company generated from a recent study conducted using Nielsen's Online panel.

According to Mindset Media, Mac enthusiasts descending on San Francisco in droves this week to see the latest Apple innovations are apt to have a lot in common with the open-minded, liberal population they will find there. The study, with a robust sample of 7,500 respondents, revealed that people who are highly open-minded or, in Mindset Media parlance, "Openness 5's", are 60 percent more likely than people in the general population to have purchased a Mac. These purchasers are also more liberal, less modest, and more assured of their own superiority than the population at large.

Mindset Media defines Openness 5's as those who seek rich, varied and novel experiences, believing that imagination and intellectual curiosity contribute to a life well lived. They are receptive to their own inner feelings and may feel both happiness and unhappiness more intensely than others.

"In a competitive market, like the one for personal computers, many brands compete for the same demographic, and what separates the winners from the losers is often the ability to identify and reach the right psychographic," said Sarah Welch, COO and co-founder of Mindset Media. "For the first time, marketers with brands that have distinctive Mindset Profiles, like Apple, can directly reach the people with the personality and attitudes that love what they sell."

About Mindset Media

Mindset Media is the internet ad network for brands. Using its proprietary psychographic standard, Mindset Media enables brand advertisers to target millions of people with the personality traits that fit their brands in online media buys. The company works in partnership with Nielsen Online to develop consumer profiles that help brand marketers specify their psychographic targets. For more information, visit www.mindset-media.com.

Whether or not it's empirically true, this is certainly an interesting story — at least for this Mac user!

— Mark Kellner, The Washington Times

Blogger/commentator Matt Asay (I wonder if he's related to arch newspaper cartoonist Chuck Asay, but I digress), has an excellent take, IMO on the new Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 over at C-Net's
blog section. To quote Mr. Asay:

"It is snappy, intuitive, and even innovative in some ways. … In short, Microsoft has done something very, very right with this product. I recommend it to everyone who needs it."

And, further, Mr. Asay says:

"… I use Microsoft's Office product, and I'm exceptionally happy with Microsoft Office for Mac 2008, in particular because of its improvements to Entourage, its e-mail client. It's an excellent product."

Jeff Battersby offers his review of Word 2008 over at Macworld magazine, which gives the program three and one-half "mice," a pretty good endorsement.

I'm not — believe me — shilling for Microsoft here. I just want to get the, ahem, "word" out about how good Office 2008 is. If you use a Mac, you should try it, in my view.

And, remember, my take on Excel 2008 and PowerPoint 2008 will appear, Lord willing, next Tuesday.

— Mark Kellner, The Washington Times

A personal observation and a question: I'm a big user of Google's Gmail service, which is free e-mail to the max, in my view. It's usually quick, "clean" in the sense of not being too complicated, and highly user-friendly. Over the last few days, I've noticed two things:

(1) My personal mailbox on Google is up to 6.3 Gigabytes in size. That's huge, IMO, especially for a free service. (Granted, the "free" is supported by click-ads of various stripes, but it's a small distraction.)

(2) Perhaps, however, Google is maxing out in some respects: I've noticed a lot more hiccups with Gmail pages loading in recent days. Is it the Google server farm or my (soon-to-be-history) Comcast Internet service? I don't know. But I'm tossing the question out there to see if you have any insights. If you do, the comment space is open.

— Mark Kellner, The Washington Times