The iPad announcement this isn’t, but for those who care it's evidently earthshaking news.

Apple (News - Alert) has unveiled Aperture 3, the latest update of its photo editing and management software, according to CNN.

No, it's not going to make you go stand in line, but as we say, if you rely on the product it's nice news. “I am beyond impressed with the massive changes made in Aperture 3,” said Jim Richardson (News - Alert), National Geographic photographer, and if it's good enough for him, we're on board.

Apple did post two updates for Tunes and the new 27-inch iMac as well, according to Insanely-Great.com, which noted that iTunes 9.0.3's bug fixes include doing a better job remembering your password at the iTunes Store – hear hear – and clearing up little problems with Smart Playlists and Podcasts on iPods.

Insanely-Great.com says the updates also resolve “an issue of recognizing an iPod when connected,” and how it displays contents for easier browsing. Frankly we haven't noticed those -- our daughter's iPod still confuses the straw out of iTunes' ears when connected.

That such routine housekeeping is a story at all is probably because the Apple store went dark shortly before the announcement Tuesday morning. That usually means there's something new in the works, and the rumors, Apple's second-greatest product, were flying – iPads! Free stuff! A new laptop! Yet another boring iTunes update that doesn't change a single thing about how your iPod works! A new iPod! Free iPods! Free iPads!

Look, we're not saying the jazzed-up Aperture isn't nice. “The new tool includes more than 200 new features, including the ability to organize large photo libraries with more flexibility,” CNN officials said, and that's something.

“It expands the Aperture program's Faces and Places feature to Faces, Places and Brushes -- adding the ability to paint image adjustments onto parts of photos,” the network added. That's pretty cool.

In other new stuff, CNN officials said that faces has face recognition capability that allows photo groups to be created based on the people in the photos. New adjustment presets will let users apply photo effects with a single click.

Yes, it's all cool, and it can be yours for $199. If you're a current user you can upgrade for $99.

Now back to the iPad rumors.