Aperture 3 Now Official, MacBook Pro Refresh Nowhere to be Seen Yet [Apple Updates Store for Valentine’s Day; Launches Aperture 3]

Professional photographers will be happy to know that Apple has released today Aperture 3. In case they don’t use Macs for editing their precious photos then they won’t care about the new software versions. As for the rest of us waiting for the much expected MacBook Pro refresh, we’ll have to do some extra waiting. Apple has only transformed its online store in preparation for Valentine’s Day so there aren’t really any other products to be seen at this point.

Aperture 3 will be available today including Faces, Places and Brushes and it will cost you either $199 or $99 depending on whether you’re a new customer or a returning client looking for an upgrade.

Essentially the photo-editing application comes with over 200 extra features for us to enjoy so you will surely consider giving the app an extra look in case you’re doing all your photography-related work from an Apple computer.

Phil Shiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing commented on the new Aperture software:

Millions of people love using iPhoto to organize, edit and share their digital photos. Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets.

Maybe the most important features of Aperture 3 are Face, Places and Brushes. Aperture 3 will offer you face detection and recognition software which will help you better organize the pictures by people. With Places you’ll be able to explore pictures by location as long as your pictures have been geotagged accordingly. You can also assign specific pictures to locations with Aperture 3 so you don’t necessarily need a camera with geotagging capabilities to use the Places feature.

With Brushes you’ll be able to edit all the pictures you want by simply painting the special effects you are looking for onto the pictures itself.

In case you’re ready to discover Aperture 3 then you can try it out free of charge for 30 days before having to purchase it. I myself will be waiting for the next-gen MacBook Pros before considering Aperture 3 but I’m not a professional photographer anyway!