Roger Fingas
Adobe on Monday launched a conceptual design app for the iPad, Comp CC, while Facebook brought third-party app integration to Messenger, and Google Drive gained support for automatic iOS photo and video backup.
Adobe introduces Comp CC
The new iPad-only utility lets designers build wireframes for web, print, or mobile projects. Touch gestures are used to trace out shapes, text boxes, and image placeholders. Those items can then be filled in more substantially with TypeKit font previews, graphics from Photoshop, Illustrator, Photoshop Sketch, or Illustrator Draw, and anything captured via Shape CC or Color CC.
Designers also have access to assets from Creative Cloud Libraries or the Creative Cloud Market.
Completed projects can be exported to InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, or Photoshop CC. Significantly, each file has an infinite version history — within Comp users can scrub back and forward and export from any stage during a wireframe's creation.
Comp CC requires iOS 7.1 or later and a Creative Cloud subscription. Although most subscriptions options cost money, a basic 2 GB option is free.
Facebook Messenger toggles on third-party app support
Following up on last week's launch of the public Messenger API, Facebook has updated the Messenger iOS app with third-party app integration.
The new functionality lets users send GIFs, photos, and videos to Messenger contacts via third-party software, and likewise reply to messages without switching apps.
Other improvements include automatic GIF playback and simpler app discovery. The latter makes it easier to install third-party apps used by friends, and get recommendations on new apps to install.
Messenger is a free download for any device with iOS 7.0 or later.
Google Drive offers automatic media backup
As a part of scaling back Google+, Google has updated the Drive app for iPhones and iPads to support automatic photo and video backup. The option is only rolling out to iOS users "over the next few weeks" however, and won't immediately appear for most people.
Earlier this month Google announced that it was breaking up Google+ into separate Photos and Streams products — the service's messaging aspect is already in the dominion of the Hangouts app for iOS, Android, and the web. As of today, people with media backed up to Google+ should be able to access it in Drive, though it will take several weeks for complete archives to be accessible.
The Drive iOS app is a free download running on iOS 7.0 or better.
AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
4 Comments
Downloading Comp CC, although I'm not much for graphic design on a mobile device, I'll check it out. I do all my design work on my Mac Pro or iMac 5K.
Edit: Played around with it for a few minutes. Surprisingly easy to use. I haven't used the Connected Cloud yet but if I did and had a bunch of assets on there, I can see how this could be useful.
I supposed the the typical use scenarios that come to mind are if you are commuting on public transportation you might want to explore some design ideas or maybe at lunch or coffee. It could be useful if you are at a meeting or at a client's office to share some ideas, although I really don't like doing that because clients usually have limited ability to visualize something so I never show them anything until I have a completely done version 1 draft.
Perhaps another use would be for a creative director to instruct a graphic artist as to what they are looking for with a quick layout.
Fun to play with but not something that would make a big difference in my workflow.
Why Adobe hasn't come out with Illustrator for iPad is beyond me. And no, Illustrator Draw is not the same.
One can run Illustrator on a tablet, but it's on a Surface 3.
I can see how this would be useful for roughing in designs while with the client, while commuting to or from work, etc.
Why Adobe hasn't come out with Illustrator for iPad is beyond me. And no, Illustrator Draw is not the same.
One can run Illustrator on a tablet, but it's on a Surface 3.
It's probably waiting for the iPad Pro.