Adobe Systems has committed to shipping a beta version of its online image-editing tool, Photoshop Express, this year, and said it will be complete in 2008.

“By late this year, we anticipate having a beta version,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president for Adobe Creative Solutions, speaking at the 6sight digital imaging conference here. And next year, the online service will be “available to anyone,” he said.

Loiacono showed Photoshop Express running on an Adobe server connected over the Internet, he said. But when the average person experiences the software, it likely will be through partners such as Shutterfly or Photobucket, he said.

Unsurprisingly, Loiacono left unmentioned Flickr, which said in October it will use Picnik’s online photo-editing tools.

Photoshop Express is a profoundly important project, and Adobe’s schedule indicates that its repercussions are near-term and not academic.

Sony Computer Entertainment America announced on Thursday a full list of the games and hardware bundles that it will be launching for its PlayStation systems–PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation portable (PSP)–for the fast-approaching holiday season.

The games, both first- and third-party, range from “enthusiast” titles geared toward the traditional young-male “gamer demographic,” to more casual and social games “This holiday season we are offering our largest line up of quality software and hardware products to meet every taste, lifestyle and budget,” said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president of product marketing for SCEA, said in a statement.

Sony is pitching the older PlayStation 2 console as an affordable hub for casual games, like SingStar and Buzz: The Mega Quiz. The PS2 is also “getting a social makeover with limited edition ceramic white hardware” and a new price of $149.99–perhaps as Sony’s answer to that other white gaming console, you know, the one from Nintendo.

Among the more highly anticipated Sony titles are EA’s Rock Band and The Orange Box; Activision’s Guitar Hero III; and The Eye of Judgment, a trading card-based game that Sony developed in conjunction with Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast subsidiary.

For full list see source

Google said Thursday it is testing ways to deliver ads in computer games but declined to comment on the Internet buzz that it will be in the market by year’s end.

“We think this rich environment is a perfect medium to deliver relevant, targeted advertising that ultimately benefits the user, the video game publisher and the advertiser,” the Internet colossus said in a written response to an AFP query.

“We are currently in tests to determine the best approach to in-game advertising.”

Google, the undisputed king of Internet search advertising, has been using portions of its wealth to expand its realm into newspaper, radio, “smart” phones, and video games.

Google bought in-game advertising firm AdScape for 23 million dollars in February.

Advertising in video games is considered a powerful marketing tool because messages can be tailored to precise demographic groups and players focus intensely on game scenes, remembering what they see there.

A player of a shooter game could be scouring a virtual cafeteria for enemies and find one hiding behind a vending machine emblazoned with soda or candy brands.