Photoshop CC adds the Camera Raw dialog as a filter you can apply after you've opened the file.

It's been a bumpy few weeks for Adobe since announcing its controversial decision to move all its "perpetual license" Creative Suite applications to a subscription-only plan -- almost 32,000 people have signed a petition against the move and our own survey with Jeffries indicates that "Creative Suite users loathe Adobe's subscriptions" -- but as of Monday night it's officially here.

If you've bought into or opt to buy into the plan, you'll get a host of interesting application updates, settings sync via the cloud, and access to all of Adobe's applications if you cough up enough dough. However, the decision to opt in goes beyond a simple cost/benefit analysis. This business model requires that you enter it with an exit plan and a reliable internet connection. Which applications can you buy to do what you need if price increases become onerous or freelance cash flow puts you under water? Which file types won't transition well if you need to swi... [Read more]

The hilarious, new buddy movie "The Heat" stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as Special Agent Sarah Ashburn and Det. Shannon Mullins, respectively -- two fiercely independent crime fighters who must first forge their own connection and learn to respect and trust each other's abilities if they are ever to connect the dots on a major case.

Download.com caught up with the film's director, Paul Feig -- best known for directing the Oscar-nominated "Bridesmaids," co-producing the TV series "Freaks and Geeks," and playing science teacher Mr. Eugene Pool on "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" -- about the apps that literally flip the script and connect him to the important things in his life.

My two phones: Director Paul Feig shows off his Blackberry and iPhone

In "The Heat," other than the scene in the FBI office, where we see a poster for the FBI Child ID app and the scene where investigators are using Google's Street View, detectives rely less on software and more on pavement-pounding to solve the case than would be the case in reality. Is it funnier that way? Yeah, I always feel like the cell phone has ruined movies a little bit because it makes communication so easy, and to me, comedy is a lot abo... [Read more]

The newly updated Action Movie FX includes five available effects from "Star Trek Into Darkness." And three of them are free!

One of my favorite apps of 2012, Bad Robot Interactive's Action Movie FX, just got even better.

Available for iOS, the app lets you add Hollywood-style special effects to videos you've shot with your iPhone or iPad.

What kinds of effects? Suppose you're making a movie that involves blowing up a car (as all good movies should). Action Movie FX includes a missile-attack sequence that ends with a gorgeous fiery explosion. All you do is record at least 5 seconds of video (in this case, footage of your car), then wait for the app to render the effect.

When it's done, you'll see that missile sequence overlaid on the clip you just shot. If the timing didn't work exactly right, you can adjust it in "postproduction." And you can save the clip to your Camera Roll for use elsewhere; it's not locked into Action Movie FX.

Want the Enterprise to fly through your scene... [Read more]