Adobe Systems has announced immediate availability of the Adobe Acrobat Connect software product line and the Adobe Reader 8 software.

The company said that with Acrobat Connect and Acrobat Connect Professional, it would transform the way knowledge workers meet and conduct business online with ‘always-on’ personal meeting rooms.

Tom Hale, Senior Vice President of Knowledge Worker Business Unit, Adobe, said, “Now with Acrobat Connect, we are advancing the world of Web conferencing, by allowing people to use personal meeting rooms as they would their offices. They can instantly come together to review the documents that are critical to their everyday work, ultimately elevating Web conferencing to an essential daily tool for getting work done.”

Acrobat Connect products enable users to choose a simple and easy-to-remember Web address for their online personal meeting room that is unique to them, much like a phone number or e-mail address. The products also address online collaboration needs from casual to intensive Web conferencing.

And for more advanced Web conferencing and collaboration needs, Acrobat Connect Professional is a highly scalable solution for wide organizational deployment that offers extensive meeting management capabilities, as well as a powerful reporting system. It offers customizable meeting rooms that enable users to tailor meeting flows and organize branded content.

Adobe Reader 8 software, which is available as a free download, enables trusted information exchange between enterprises, government agencies, constituents, and consumers who view, print, search, digitally sign, and collaborate with PDF files. It has a new Start Meeting’ button that launches Acrobat Connect.

Kevin Lynch, Senior Vice President and Chief Software Architect, Adobe, said, “As people increasingly communicate and collaborate across the Internet, Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat Connect enable an effective workflow around documents, reliably reaching people around the world. The new streamlined user interface and graphics acceleration in Reader 8 will enable people to more easily engage in ideas and information.”

Adobe Reader 8 features a new, streamlined interface with user customizable toolbars, and graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration, which boosts performance when viewing graphics-intense PDF files, such as 3D content. Adobe Reader 8, and PDF.

Meanwhile, the Acrobat Connect service is currently available as a free trial version through the end of the current calendar year, at www.adobe.com/go/tryconnect. The commercial release of Acrobat Connect, initially available in English, is expected in January 2007 for a subscription price of $39 (Rs 1,755) per month, or $395 (Rs 17,775) per year - per personal meeting room. Where as, Acrobat Connect Professional is available in English, French, German, Japanese, and Korean, starting at $15,000 (Rs 6,75,000), depending on the configuration.

Adobe Reader 8 is now available as a free download at http://www.adobe.com/go/getreader/, and is available in English, French, German, and Japanese versions. Chinese and Korean versions are expected to be available in early 2007. Adobe Reader 8 is available on Windows and Mac, and is expected on Linux, HP/UX, AIX, and Solaris (SPARC) platforms in 2007.