Adobe announces first mainstream universal binary application

The wait is over. Well, OK, there's still plenty of waiting left, but Adobe has certainly thrown us a bone. Adobe has announced Acrobat 8 Professional this week, and it looks like it has some nice new features. You can check out all the announcements and features on Adobe.com of course, but here's one thing you won't find mentioned on their site -- any indication that Acrobat is a Universal Binary application which will run natively on Intel-based Macintosh computers. I find that odd, being that Acrobat 8 is in fact, a universal binary app.

On the one hand, you would think that Adobe would want to exclaim to the world that they have finally released a major application that will run natively on a Mac, but you certainly don't get that feeling from Adobe.com at this point. Of course, you do have to realize that Acrobat as an application is predominantly Windows-based. While Acrobat Professional contains a wealth of print-based features, and while it's used at almost every print shop (which are traditionally heavy Mac-based installations), Adobe obviously is more interested in the Windows community than the Mac user base.

But then again, Mac users are used to getting the short end of the stick all the time.

So here's the good news: Acrobat 8 Professional is indeed a universal binary application. And I've had the opportunity to see it in action. And guess what? It's FAST! If you've ever used Acrobat 6, you know that it was a snail on the Mac -- 7 got a bit better, but if you're on an Intel-based Mac, get ready from some wicked fast performance with Acrobat 8.

Now we just have to wait for Photoshop, InDesign, Flash -- and of course -- Illustrator :)