And thus does the mystery live on! iPhoto users will be relieved to hear that while the enigmatic vanishing 4.0.2 update is still missing in action, Apple has now posted a brand spankin' new 4.0.3 updater to replace it. Not surprisingly, 4.0.3's brief list of changes is exactly the same as 4.0.2's was before Apple spirited it off to a parallel dimension a few days ago: the 5.9 MB download "addresses minor issues with Smart Albums and European books, and provides notification when new versions of iPhoto are available." Of course, what Apple doesn't tell you is that it also doesn't do whatever unspecified heinous thing that 4.0.2 did-- possibly something as benign-though-annoying as the widely-reported "really long 'quit' time," though we personally suspect it was something far more sinister-- which prompted Apple to banish it forever from this plane of existence.

So evidently iPhoto 4.0.2 was one of those updates like Mac OS X 10.2.8 that was too flawed to leave up, but not so flawed that it couldn't be hammered into a slightly less obnoxious state and reposted later. (We don't quite recall what the problem was with the original version of 10.2.8, but if memory serves it had something to do with dead network connections and spawning killer cyborg mutants that ate children.) Hey, at least this time Apple saw fit to change the version number; remember when there were two different operating systems floating around, and both of them were 10.2.8? It was like an episode of the Patty Duke Show or something. Only with slightly more murderous cannibal cyborgs.

Well, faithful viewer Tadd Torborg informed us that, while iPhoto 4.0.2 flat-out crashed when he tried to launch it, 4.0.3 updated his photo library and appears to work perfectly-- so we decided to take the plunge and give it a whirl ourselves, because, y'know, what the heck? You only live once, and we just recently bought more cannibal cyborg insurance, so we threw caution to the wind and loaded that bad boy up. So far everything looks okay; the pictures still look like ours, everything feels pretty snappy, and we definitely aren't getting that "really slow quit" thing that was widely reported by users of 4.0.2. And not a killer mutant cyborg in sight! Looks like we won't have to fumigate the place again after all.

So based on those two data points, iPhoto 4.0.3 seems like a benign update that you can install with impunity. As for whatever fate befell 4.0.2 and what crime for which it was banished, we may never know; at least it was one of those pulled updates that came back to us in some form, though. As far as we know, that eMac HLDS Combo Drive Firmware Update that appeared on Apple's servers six weeks ago and promptly dissolved into nothingness with zero explanation still hasn't reappeared in any noticeable form. We fear the worst.

Meanwhile, iPhoto isn't the only Apple software to receive an update today: the Xcode 1.5 upgrade has hit the streets, and apparently it does a whole lot more than fix Smart Albums and German photo books. The info page lists a dozen or so major improvements, including Java and AppleScript code completion, remote debugging, and all-around faster performance. Get it while you can, though, because the way things have been going lately, you just know it'll be gone by the weekend...