Adobe Reader X Adds Security, Productivity, and Mobility

[nsane.forums]

The next major release of Adobe Reader will be available soon. Adobe Reader X will include a variety of new features to make Reader more secure, more functional, and more mobile.

The most anticipated feature of Adobe Reader X is Protected Mode. Adobe Reader Protected Mode is a sandboxing security control which will prevent malware exploits from taking advantage of vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader. The Adobe sandbox concept is similar to the security controls in the Google Chrome Web browser, or the Microsoft Office 2010 Protected Viewing Mode feature.

A post on the Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team (ASSET) blog by Brad Arkin explains, "With Adobe Reader Protected Mode enabled (it will be by default), all operations required by Adobe Reader to display the PDF file to the user are run in a very restricted manner inside a confined environment, the "sandbox." Should Adobe Reader need to perform an action that is not permitted in the sandboxed environment, such as writing to the user's temporary folder or launching an attachment inside a PDF file using an external application (e.g. Microsoft Word), those requests are funneled through a "broker process," which has a strict set of policies for what is allowed and disallowed to prevent access to dangerous functionality."

In addition to Adobe Reader Protected Mode, though, Adobe unveiled additional features included in the upcoming Adobe Reader X. Adobe Reader X will enhance what Adobe Reader is capable of by adding the ability to interact with a wider variety of content types from within PDF files--like spreadsheets, video clips, drawings, and other multimedia elements.

Adobe Reader X also adds new features that help users work more efficiently with PDF files, and foster collaboration and productivity. Sticky notes and highlighter tools enable users to mark up PDF documents and share comments and feedback. Adobe Reader X includes keyboard shortcuts for common functions like print, or zoom, and new reading modes that allow more content to be viewed on screen at one time.

Adobe also revealed that the upcoming Adobe Reader X will be more mobile than its predecessor. Adobe will have versions of the new Adobe Reader available for Android, Windows Phone 7, and even the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Adobe Reader is a tool that is cross-platform and virtually ubiquitous--which provides some benefits and advantages, but also makes the software a popular target for malware. Judging by what Adobe has revealed about the upcoming Adobe Reader X, the software will soon be more secure, and much more functional.

View: Original Article

[nsane.forums]

Adobe today announced the latest version of its Acrobat suite of products.

Adobe's new Acrobat X Pro

Set to hit the market in the next 30 days, the new Reader X and Acrobat X products are promising tighter security, better collaboration, and easier PDF reading.

The free Adobe Reader X will offer a new Protected Mode to sandbox, or isolate, JavaScript code, 3D rendering, and image parsing in order to better secure PDFs. Adobe has seen an increasing number of security holes in its PDF technology over the past few years, creating trouble for the many people who use the ubiquitous file format. The company is looking to sandboxing, a feature used by Microsoft for Office and Google for Chrome, to counteract those PDF security flaws.

Beyond the tighter security, Reader X will offer Sticky Notes and Highlighter tools for people who want to add comments to a PDF. And users on the go will be able to grab mobile versions of Reader X for Android, Windows Phone 7, and the BlackBerry Tablet operating systems.

For people who need to create and edit PDFs, the Acrobat X lineup will roll out in three different versions.

Acrobat X Standard will offer a basic set of new features, including the ability to convert a PDF to a Word document or Excel spreadsheet and integration with Microsoft's SharePoint. The Standard edition will retail for $299 and offer an upgrade price of $139.

Next in time will be Acrobat X Pro, which provides additional features. PDF Portfolios will let you combine a variety of different types of files to create a single portfolio with customized themes, layouts, and logos. The new Actions feature will allow you to automate time-consuming tasks and share those with other people. The Pro version is expected to cost $449 with a $199 upgrade fee.

And Acrobat X Suite will team up Adobe Acrobat X Pro, Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Captivate 5, Adobe Presenter 7, Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES2, and Adobe Media Encoder CS5. The suite will carry a price tag of $1,199 with a $799 upgrade cost.

Adobe is also unveiling a couple of new cloud-based services.

A kind of virtual post office, Adobe SendNow will let you send, receive, and keep track of large files. The idea behind this service is to help people avoid e-mail gateways that restrict file size and FTP servers that can be difficult to use. Adobe's new CreatePDF will convert a file to a PDF from within Adobe Reader X or any Web browser. Both services will debut in November.

Adobe users can now preorder any of the Acrobat X products.

View: Original Article

[irefay]

Really looking forward to checking out Acrobat X. I hope they made it much stronger.

[mosaji]

My favourite software...Eagerly waiting for the release

[sharperme33]

thanks.........