In light of the glaring absence of LCD iMacs, 14-inch iBooks, Apple-branded Lean Mean Grilling Machines, or any other jaw-dropping hardware that some people were expecting at last week's Stevenote, we plumb near forgot about what was missing on the software side of the fence. Mac OS X 10.1 was demoed, but not shipped. Mac OS 9.2 is now available, but only on the new Macs. A new version of iTunes was MIA, while iDVD won't get boosted to 2.0 until September. And just where the heck is the next pony in Apple's stable of Mac-only consumer-oriented killer apps?

It's that very last question that the Naked Mole Rat tackles in his latest prose wanderings, as kindly pointed out by his MacEdition cohort CodeBitch. According to everyone's favorite hairless rodent, progress on Apple's most recent lunge into the thrill-a-minute world of image-editing applications (yes, we said "most recent"-- what, you don't remember PhotoFlash?) continues apace. There's no mention of any sort of release date, but those of you who have been nursing conspiracy theories tying Adobe's Expo no-show and obstinate tardiness in releasing a Carbonized Photoshop to Apple's imminent release of its own native image-processing app might want to cool your jets.

See, "iPhoto," as it's reportedly called, is apparently going to be software that's strictly for Mom, Pop, Junior, and Sis-- its capabilities are probably going to stop just a hair's breadth past "Rotate Clockwise" and "Reduce Red-Eye" functionality. Think Kai's Photo Soap or PhotoDeluxe, not Photoshop; therefore, Adobe has little to fear from Apple encroaching upon its stronghold in professional image editing. (That is, until everyone in the graphic design industry decides en masse that they're perfectly happy to ditch all that tedious compositing and CMYK nonsense, instead opting to "enhance their snaps with simple controls and create electronic greeting cards, calendars and other personalized cheesecake via an assortment of templates." We figure that won't happen for at least another six months, however.)

As for when this long-rumored iPhoto will see the light of day, we're guessing that Mac OS X 10.1's nifty new automatic digital photo import feature (which seems to work quite well when the attached camera is actually on) is just the warm-up, while iPhoto is being readied as the coup de grace. Let's say that in September, Apple manages to ship LCD iMacs booting Mac OS X 10.1 by default-- complete with iPhoto so that customers can plug in their digital cameras, suck the images right off into their Pictures folder, gussy them up a bit, and upload them to their iDisks to share with friends and family all in just a few clicks of the mouse. Combine that with the digital music capabilities of iTunes and the video editing smash known as iMovie, and doesn't that sound like a digital hub that's too good to pass up?