New Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Elements add Facebook support

Adobe has just released the latest versions of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, adding among many new features the ability to post content directly to Facebook.

Adobe's "Elements" software is designed for entry-level users who want a powerful media editing tool but don't know how to manipulate sophisticated software controls. Photoshop Elements 9, for example, will now let users click on an object in the background to remove it without distorting the rest of the picture. Additionally, there's new functionality for how to export pictures: users can create calendars or greeting cards, upload to Flickr or Facebook, and print out customized photo books.

On the Premiere side of thing, Adobe's video editing software, Elements 9 adds improved HD support, audio optimization (background noise removal, easier volume mixing), new transition and animation effects, and more professional menu themes for DVD burns. It's also a bit easier to import video from digital cameras.

Both software titles are available for around $100 each, or as a bundle for $150. They are available now and should be available at your local software retailer.

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Facebook puts brakes on fast-spreading 'clickjacking' ruse

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook on Monday put the brakes on "clickjackers" that were duping people with a fake status update about someone getting revenge on an ex-girlfriend.

"We've disabled the page," Facebook said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

"As always, we advise people not to click on suspicious-looking links, even if they're from friends."

The scam enticed Facebook users with a titillating status update of "OMG This GUY Went A Little To Far WITH His Revenge On His EX Girlfriend" that appeared to be from a friend.

In order to connect to the link provided, people were prompted to verify themselves by clicking on color coded boxes that actually triggered Facebook users' Share and Like buttons, spreading the message.

Tricking people into clicking on computer links that do other than what is promised is referred to as "clickjacking."

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Steven Spielberg Makes Hollywood Crazy to Read About the Robopocalypse

As a director, Steven Spielberg has warned us about invasion from aliens, technology, and Nazis. But now Vulture hears that he’s intrigued by another threat: robots.

DreamWorks optioned a novel by Daniel H. Wilson (due to be published next June) called Robopocalypse that sources tell us Spielberg has been considering making his next project. And when Hollywood hears that Spielberg is excited about something, they get excited, too: A new draft of the Robopocalypse adaptation has just been handed in by Drew Goddard (co-writer of Cloverfield, and the director of MGM’s lamentably delayed The Cabin in the Woods), and the town is desperate to get its hands on it.

Says one source, “With DreamWorks, everything is potentially a Steven project — until it’s not. That’s why everyone’s in a frenzy trying to read it.” Meaning: If Spielberg does it, agents will be desperate to get their acting clients hired for the film. Meanwhile, directors’ agents are trying to read it in case he decides not to do the project. Goes the thinking, If Spielberg flirted with it, it’s forever marked as a Quality Movie, so everyone wants to scoop it up if it gets dropped.

It does seem like a logical DreamWorks project, whoever directs it; the studio has been betting big on ‘bots for a while now. Shawn Levy’s action movie Reel Steel, set in the futuristic world of robot boxing, appears in theaters in November 2011, six months after the DreamWorks release of Transformers 3.

Vulture was unsuccessful in reaching Wilson, a robotics researcher who previously wrote the 2005 book How to Survive a Robot Uprising. We did leave a message for him at his home in Oregon; he may call us back with details, provided his answering machine hasn’t already slaughtered him.

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