Well, it looks like Apple might do to the photo world what Final Cut did to the video processing world. Aperture looks pretty damn interesting. It gets many things right, that I’ve sort have been hoping for in raw conversion software:

• use of the full screen.. Aperture has its whole interface designed around this
• dual head support.. big thumbnails on one, even bigger previews on another.
• core image for processing, adjustments, and previews.. don’t bog down that cpu with things that a programmable gpu can handle much better
• a management system centered around shooting RAW.. goodbye iphoto.

On a separate note, I tried bibble 4.4 today after obtaining another trial license. The changelog claims that they changed some of their sharpening features to try to get rid of some artifacts on some cameras. I was hopeful that this would solve my d70 color moire problems, but unfortunately, things didn’t change at all. Still C1 LE for me, at least until I can get Aperture.
I plan to test it sometime soon by taking some of my more difficult to deal with images to the Apple store and inspecting the quality of the Aperture’s RAW conversion. If it can pass that test, I’ll be sold.
New Powerbook were ho hum. Some nice things like the 15inch having a optical out for audio, but nothing earth-shattering. Phewsh.