Okay, we're going to have to revisit this whole "iPhoto Studio" brouhaha for a moment, so bear with us. Once The Mac Show Live spent fifteen minutes surfing the web and making a few phone calls to determine that the not-so-mysterious "iPhoto Studio" (mentioned as a topic in an upcoming Apple-cosponsored seminar) is simply a third-party workflow management service for professional photographers, we figured the burgeoning yet misguided speculation that it's actually Apple's Next Big iApp would have ground to a halt. Not so.

Instead, AppleInsider jumped in right where Mac OS Rumors left off. Whereas MOSR has apparently pulled its "iPhoto" story entirely, AppleInsider is now reporting that "iPhoto" will indeed be the next horse in Apple's stable of "digital media editing products" that currently includes iMovie, iTunes, and iDVD. Reportedly Apple's iPhoto software will "interface seamlessly with the company's FireWire In/Out technology, allowing the application to instantly rip and process images from many of the latest professional digital cameras." Hmmm... that doesn't sound very consumer-oriented to us.

Moreover, AI claims that iPhoto will hook up with another "Apple-branded digital image solution" (called, enticingly enough, "Studio in a Bag") to form "an Applescriptable workflow environment that incorporates ColorSync technology to easily process photos with color clarity for digital media or print." Again, that doesn't exactly sound like something Grandma's going to want to use to crop the hairballs out of her snapshots of Mr. Whiskers-- and indeed, that was sort of our whole point yesterday: that it would be a strange departure from Apple's "iApps are for consumers" tradition for iPhoto to be a professional tool. (Of course, now that we know that iPhoto Studio isn't an Apple product at all, the whole thing's moot.)

Note that we're not saying that Apple isn't working on an iMovie-like application that will let consumers edit their digital stills; we're just saying that iPhoto Studio isn't it, and that once the service is demoed this Friday at Apple's seminar that fact will become all the more glaringly clear. And now that the name "iPhoto" is taken, just what will Apple call its hypothetical image-editing iApp? Well, we won't know for sure until the product actually surfaces (don't forget that iMusic turned into iTunes), but faithful viewer David Marcantonio noticed that if you search the U.S. Patent Office database, you'll find that Apple registered the trademark/service mark "iPicture" less than a month ago-- and that it falls under the categories of "computer software," "treatment of materials," and "Internet-based services; on-line applications; storing, enhancing, distributing, editing, manipulating of data." Let the knowing looks and rampant speculation begin!