Just as Lightroom 4 leaves beta and is unleashed to users, Adobe Labs has something new up their sleeves, this time aimed at web developers and designers. Adobe Shadow is an impressive new offering being introduced at SXSW Interactive this week that promises to optimize web experiences across all mobile browsers.
Adobe Labs has just released its latest free public download of Adobe Shadow Labs Release 1, which is making its debut this week at SXSW Interactive. Currently available in English only (but available worldwide), Adobe Shadow is comprised of Mac and Windows desktop software as well as a Google Chrome extension and mobile apps for iOS and Android.
“Mobile compatibility is a top demand of Web designers today, but we were hearing from our community that building sites for mobile devices was a huge pain point in their workflow,” Adobe explains. “The common process we heard was to manually key in the Web addresses on each device (usually 4+ devices) to check the layout and performance of each page of a site design -- nothing short of tedious.
“Adobe Shadow aims to alleviate the time and stress of working on websites across mobile browsers,” Adobe’s blog post continues. “Web pros can wirelessly pair multiple smartphones and tablets with their computer and simultaneously view real-time previews of Web content across multiple iOS and Android devices, quickly seeing refreshed website designs with live updates. Adobe Shadow’s synchronized browsing nearly eliminates the need to touch the device, but still provides a true, on-device experience. We heard from the community that emulators and simulators just won't cut it and it’s absolutely critical that website compatibility is checked on the actual devices.”
MacLife.com was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek at Adobe Shadow last week, which promises to revolutionize web development and design by allowing users to work faster and more efficiently than ever, streamlining the preview process while allowing full customization of websites for mobile devices today, tomorrow and beyond. Above, you can see Adobe Shadow running in Google Chrome with remote inspection at the same time on a Samsung Galaxy Tab, iPad and Motorola Atrix.
Just how many mobile devices can Adobe Shadow take advantage of? Judging from our demonstration, it’s virtually unlimited -- Adobe engineers showed off an image (shown above) of 23 different smartphones and tablets all displaying the same website design at once, courtesy of the Shadow tool. While most web designers may only develop for a handful of devices, Adobe Shadow offers a considerable amount of flexibility, while integrating with any workflow, providing remote inspection and debugging.
Ready to unleash the power of Adobe Shadow on your own web workflow? Adobe Labs is now offering Adobe Shadow Labs Release 1 as a free download, along with the accompanying Google Chrome extension. Free iOS and Android clients are also available for download from their respective storefronts. Be sure to check out Adobe Shadow in action in the embedded video below!
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