Wheeeee, the rumored Adobe-Apple rift is kicking up more contradictory whispers than any subject since the mystery "Columbus" project of 1998! Depending on whom you believe, Adobe is either a huge Mac OS X supporter with vast resources committed to Carbonizing all of its apps and attending Mac trade shows, or it's so miffed at Apple for allegedly planning to horn in on the image-editing software business that it's just about ready to abandon the Mac platform altogether. Finally, an equal-opportunity rumor subject: there's something here for everyone!

Get this: various shadowy sources are now claiming that our random musings about Apple possibly planning to release both consumer and professional versions of its rumored "iPhoto" software (you know, kinda like iMovie and Final Cut Pro) are dead on the money, and Adobe is currently less than thrilled with going head-to-head against Apple in a market traditionally owned by Photoshop. What's more, we've actually heard several times-- and in no uncertain terms-- that the New York no-show was a precedent-setter: Adobe is henceforth swearing off Mac-centric trade shows altogether, in favor of focusing its show-going dollars on the Wintel market, where perhaps it thinks it's less likely to get stabbed in the back, product-wise. (At least until Microsoft bundles-- er, integrates-- "Graphics XP" with Windows, that is.)

Note that we're not saying that you should actually believe either of those rumors (or even that we do), since at least the bit about Adobe passing on Mac trade shows flies in the face of established fact. Earlier in the week, MacCentral quoted an Adobe representative who confirmed that the company would have a booth at next month's Apple Expo and who plainly stated that "Macworld San Francisco continues to be one of our larger trade shows in terms of participation, our exhibits and our dollars." Meanwhile, we've heard from people who claim that internal Adobe documents refer to a Carbonized Photoshop release in the first half of 2002 as a high-priority target, and faithful viewer David Triska reminds us that RAILhead Design has August 1st details of "another test build of [Adobe's] Carbon version of Photoshop" that was reportedly just seeded to testers. The company may even be considering releasing public betas sometime in the next few months.

The joy of this situation is that you get to believe whatever you like; in our book, though, the reality of the situation probably isn't terribly dramatic The alleged iPhoto feud is terrific fodder for a soap opera like our little show, here, but when was the last time you saw anything on a soap opera that actually resembled reality? (Apart from Madame Zola's Expo predictions, that is.) While we don't doubt that there might be a little tension between the two companies over product demarcation, we do expect Adobe to exhibit at future Macworld Expos, and we do expect to be shelling out for a Mac OS X-native version of Photoshop sometime before the next arrival of Halley's Comet. But then, we're notoriously naïve. It's part of our unique charm.