Apple’s Pico‑Banana‑400K is shaking up text-guided image editing by going real—not synthetic—with 400,000 photo triplets. We cover why this new dataset matters for anyone benchmarking or building image-editing automation, from marketers struggling with artifact-riddled mockups to devs craving models that finally follow instructions. Dive into its taxonomy of 35 edit operations, multi-turn edit sequences, and a research-only CC BY-NC-ND license that keeps vendors honest. Learn how tools like FLUX SRPO I2I slot in, plus what you should be asking your vendors right now. Get a roadmap for future-proofing your stack, from instruction schemas to edge device privacy. Real data, better control, and workflow wins—just don’t melt the hands.