According to an unconfirmed report, Apple is planning to announce a professional photo retouching application, during the special press event scheduled for October 19th.

The new application, which remains unnamed at the moment, is said to have similar features with Adobe Photoshop but with a different and easier to use user interface. However, the application will be targeted at the photographer much more than the creative design pro, according to sources.

We expect Apple to access CoreImage as the effects engine of the application so as to provide not only great effects but also very high optimization with Apple hardware and Mac OS X.

Apple has already been rumoured to be working on a Photoshop rival. ThinkSecret reported in late August that Adobe had mentioned an application called "Apple Photo Pro" in a survey sent to customers. The site had also claimed to have its own sources reporting that the application would be more like an "iPhoto in steroids" than a real rival to Photoshop.