Yes, the wait is over. And the recent rumors that Adobe Systems is on the brink or releasing CS3 into public beta have been confirmed. During the website update for the Adobe Reader 8 official launch last week, an announcement slipped, and which was entitled "Get the Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta" that invited users to download the application "today".

Well "today" will be this weekend. Adobe Systems will make available for download two version of its flagship product. One will support Windows XP and Windows Vista, while the other is designed for Intel-based Macs and will be based on a completely rewritten Cocoa-codebase.

According to current reports, the Photoshop CS3 public beta release will be a standalone initiative. Adobe is not planning to deliver additional pre-release versions of the other applications under the Creative Suite 3.0 umbrella. This means that Illustrator, Dreamweaver and InDesign will not be joining Photoshop CS3 in similar public beta offerings.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta will be released exclusively in English. In order to download the applications, users must already own at least one product out of the various Creative Suite 2.0 distributions, because the download will be correlated with a valid serial number.

Photoshop CS3 will introduce "live filters" in a manner similar to "live layers." In this context, effects will be added to the image without interfering with the original information, allowing for enhanced flexibility in the editing process by tiering it by layers.

Photoshop CS3 Beta will introduce increased customization capabilities to the application's GUI, additional support for 3D, a Device Library for mobile phones, PDAs and smartphones and extended support for Flash After Effects and Premier.

The Creative Suite 3.0 is scheduled for general availability in March 2007 and will feature an "Advanced" version of Photoshop CS3 with extra effects designed for video editing: Vanishing Point 2, HDR support, rotoscoping, Dicom support, 3D file support, and a fast fourier transform filter.