Source: PC Magazine
Written By Terry Sullivan and Kyle Monson

We’ve been hearing foreboding tidings out of Japan all week: First Konica Minolta announces pretty serious headcount reductions and product streamlining as a way to combat the huge losses they’ve been suffering. The word from their latest financial report, issued earlier this week, is that they’re “shifting (their) expansion strategy to focus on high-value-added products.” In other words, we can probably expect Konica Minolta to phase out low-end consumer cameras and target photo enthusiasts and D-SLR users.

Pixmantec Partners With ETCETERA Consulting To Provide Sophisticated Color Profiles For Canon And Nikon Digital SLRs

Press Release: Copenhagen, November 15, 2005: Danish digital imaging specialists Pixmantec ApS are pleased to announce the immediate release of RawShooter | Color Engine. A plug‐in for both existing and forthcoming RawShooter RAW workflow applications, RawShooter |Color Engine provides discerning photographers with an excellent alternative to the standard RawShooter profiles. Designed in cooperation with color expert Magne Nilsen of ETCETERA Consulting, RawShooter | Color Engine seamlessly integrates into all RawShooter applications. Built using an advanced architecture, RawShooter | Color Engine delivers a level of sophistication that has yet to be seen in DSLR profile management and thus has the potential or exciting enhancements to come.

Written by Katrin Eismann, Wayne Palmer, Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, 3rd Edition fully updates the #1 selling book on using Photoshop for restoring and retouching any photograph.

Learn to remove wrinkles, unwanted backgrounds or color casts, image flaws, or 10 extra pounds so images look better than reality. Features project-based tutorials, full-color illustrations and screenshots, and a companion Web site. Quality and reputation matter in a crowded market: Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching is already well-established as the best of its kind and is highly recommended in Photoshop circles.

Easy-to-Use Metadata Tools for Adobe Creative Suite and QuarkXPress Increase Productivity while Lowering Costs

Press Release: ANAHEIM, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 14, 2005–Pound Hill Software, a leading developer of metadata software tools, today announced MetaGrove, the world’s first integrated suite of software tools for Adobe’s Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP). The comprehensive, robust toolkit consists of MetaGrove Developer, MetaGrove Plug-ins for Adobe’s Creative Suite, and MetaGrove XTension for QuarkXPress.

Free plug-in allows all users of Adobe Photoshop to open and view Genuine Fractals files saved using the .STN file format which significantly reduces the file size of scaled images

Press Release: PORTLAND, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 15, 2005–onOne Software today announced the immediate availability of a free Genuine Fractals Reader plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. The Genuine Fractals Reader plug-in allows any user of Adobe Photoshop CS or CS2 to open and view an image that was scaled using Genuine Fractals and saved with the .STN file extension.