The good news is that Apple just released Aperture 3 – and not a moment too soon, considering how many users were tempted to ‘jump ship’.

Aperture 3 brings a number of improvements across the board, most notably:

• better library organization, with easy catalog switching, searching and filtering; GPS integration; face detection;
• support for video;
• non-destructive brushes.

It’s still hard for me not to see it as Apple trying to catch up with other products. Non-destructive brushes have been available in Lightroom for an year and more recently in Bibble. Same with almost all other features like fullscreen support, import options, image attributes such as color labels and so on.

Other features seem more geared at the casual photographers rather than the pros (not that this is bad thing), like export to Flickr or Facebook.

Overall, I believe Aperture is not about bringing new users rather than keeping the existing ones, but Apple’s commitment is important not only to reassure the users but also to keep the pressure on competition (Adobe, I’m looking at you).

You can see the full list of new and improved features on Apple’s site.

Aperture 3 is priced at $199 for the full version and $99 for an upgrade.

Dell Adamo

With much fanfare, Dell unveiled their new ‘luxury’ laptop this week. Just 16mm (0.65in) thick and weighting 1.8kg (4 pounds), Adamo (meaning ‘falling in love’ in Latin) seems aimed at the Macbook Air market. But is it really worth the hype?
Adamo’s system specs are as follows:

• 13.3″ display;
• Intel Core Duo 1.2 GHz;
• 2 Gb DDR3 RAM;
• 128 Gb SSD;
• Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit.

How much does it cost? Two grand. ($1999 to be more exact.)

Now excuse me, but it seems like a crazy idea to me. Coming out with an underpowered and overpriced laptop in these economic times? How are they planning to sell it?

Have a look at the advertorial below:

In case you got bored watching it, here are some quotes:

• “Adamo was created to elicit desire and redefine the image of power“
• “Adamo resulted from the union of technology with pleasure“
• “Once you hold it, you won’t want to put it down“
• “Because with this ultra-thin, portable aphrodisiac at your side, lack of attention won’t be a problem.“

Excuse me? Union of technology with pleasure? Portable aphrodisiac? Are we talking about a laptop here or were the copywriters on crack? My take is that they’ve tried to copy Apple’s style and failed. I mean, have a look at the video again, the woman pulls the laptop out of a cheap & ugly cardboard. Marketing 101: if you sell something at a premium, at least make sure it’s packaged like a jewel. (Apple knows it best).

Now, I’m no Apple fanboy (I don’t own any Apple products) but it seems to me that Dell dropped the ball on this one. Advertorial aside, the laptop specs don’t justify its cost and personally I don’t even like the design. I wouln’t buy it.

Would you?