Aperture 4 is coming!

[Black_Dog]

You got me all excited when you said Aperture 4 is coming. I thought I had missed the big announcement. I'm sure there will be an Aperture 4 (or Aperture X, as has been widely rumored), but I haven't seen any solid evidence that a new release is imminent. I hope it is sooner rather than later. Aperture has a much better interface, is a better file management tool, makes better books, and has an outstanding skin smoothing tool. But the list of Aperture shortcomings is growing compared to Lightroom, most notably noise reduction, lens distortion correction, gradient tool, and the ability to launch multiple external editors (without manually changing Preferences).

Apple and Adobe have been playing leapfrog ever since Apple created this category of professional photo management software in 2005, but if LR5 beats a new full Aperture update to market, Adobe will be two hops ahead, or at least they will appear to be so. It will certainly start a lot of conversations about how Apple is abandoning professional graphic artists, that it only cares about iOS devices, that Apple is moving away from desktop commuters, etc. I am not one who will abandon Aperture if Apple doesn't make an announcement soon. However, prolonged silence from them will sow many seeds of doubt and others won't be as patient as I am. Of course, I have my limits, too.

[Keith B]

I'm sure it will be announced along side the new Mac Pro Tim Cook promised. I'm guessing mid June. I'm really hoping they blow my socks off.