Hi all. I’ve been SO GOOD at getting a post on here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon PST for months now that this lack of posts two days in a row must have you curious! Nothing bad, it’s just been an extremely busy week. I leave next week on holiday for TWO weeks, and will be queuing up posts this weekend to span the duration of my absence (at least that’s the plan). I should have something for you this Friday, too.

Fellow photographer and Aperture trainer Derrick Story has released some fantastic new training for Aperture users on Lynda.com. Check them out here, and if you’re not already a Lynda.com member, we have a link for a 7 day free trial, as well.

Please welcome Stephen Guy, my new photo assistant and the latest addition to ApertureExpert.com.

What do you think… are we going to see anything Aperture related tomorrow? I’ve received several emails with thoughts and rumors, but don’t typically like to post those things on the site. But here’s your chance to speculate… what’s tomorrow going to bring?

Understanding how Previews work is very beneficial to your Aperture experience

MacPhun is one of those companies that you may have never heard of, but I promise you’re going to like what you see here. The Ukrainian-born company with a shiny new US headquarters in sunny Del Mar, California, today announced an updated and upgraded version of one of their most popular products, Snapheal Pro. Named by Apple as one of the best Mac App Store apps in 2012, this upgrade is one you won’t want to miss.

It’s been a while, and the rest of the country is on sale now, so why not jump on ye ol’ bandwagon…

For the next 24 hours (until Sept 03, 2103 at 10am PST) get a whopping 50% off (yes, fifty… not five, not fiddy, but a full-on gosh-golly-gee-williker FIFTY percent off) for the next 24 hours. That’s 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds to get your half-price goodies. (You don’t have to download right away, just place the order).

It’s easy to instantly zoom and align your images to pan around and compare them in Aperture 3

It’s time for another Camera RAW update, and this one includes one that a select few people have been very, very anxious for — the Leica M Monochrom.

Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 4.08

As always, just run Software Update or launch the App Store to get the latest software, or you can also get to it at support.apple.com/kb/DL1674.

Here’s a list of supported cameras.

• Canon EOS 70D
• Fujifilm X-M1
• Leica M
• Leica M Monochrom
• Nikon COOLPIX P330
• Pentax 645D
• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1R
• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II

Click through for a close look at the Leica Monochrom files, comparing the in-camera JPEG conversion to the Aperture DNG decode to the Lightroom DNG decode. The differences may surprise you.

NOTE: This page may take a while to load as it’s heavy on the big screenshots[more]

An anonymous reader emailed me these two new job openings at Apple. Both have the scent of Aperture on them, so read the tea laves as you will… but I think we’re getting closer.

Today I’m linking to a great article by Rob Boyer — a photographer and regular commenter here on ApertureExpert — over on his site, RB|Design. It’s heavily opinionated (heh!) and I love it. Lots of great Aperture-advantage points in there, but that’s not the main reason I wanted to share it.