Adobe announced Feb. 14 an update to the public beta of its photography workflow application, Lightroom. The beta is now available as a universal binary (UB) and compatible with PowerPC- and Intel-based Apple hardware, according to Adobe.

The company expects to release a Windows version of Lightroom after the final Macintosh release in late 2006.

The update to Lightroom, which is available for download on Adobe's labs site, also includes new features, including:

• Crop and straighten tools in the Develop module
• ability to add music to slideshows and create hierarchical keyword lists
• ability to read many IPTC fields and import and export XMP metadata.

Adobe recently released a public FAQ presenting in general terms its progress and plans for UB versions of its other professional graphics applications that will run natively on Apple Computer's new and future Intel-based Macs.

The statement said that the company will not produce UB versions of its products, including Creative Suite and the once-Macromedia Studio suites, until the "next generation" of products. Adobe follows an 18- to 24-month product release cycle. Creative Suite 2 was released in April 2005. The first update may come as soon as October 2006.

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