Macworld is in full swing in San Francisco and one of the more interesting products for geo-heads is iLife ‘09. iLife is a multimedia suite for Mac’s that includes programs such as iPhoto, iWeb, iMovie and a variety of other ‘i’ multimedia-related applications.
The new iPhoto features includes facial recognition and automatically tags and groups faces eliminating the need to sort through them yourself. It also can automatically geotag pictures on a map if you are using the 3G iPhone or a digital camera that’s GPS-equipped. Photos can be uploaded to Flickr and Facebook and iPhoto is compatible with Flickr’s geotags. If you’re the scrapbooking type, you’ll also be able to create a Travel Book which is like a geotagged slide show.
Film makers who use iMovie to record their travels can now render film footage onto a 3D globe. Some of the other new iMovie features include an improved editor, advanced drag and drop, new themes for titles and credits, video stabilization in the editor, and a variety of other editing and sorting features.
There are a bunch of other changes to iWeb, GarageBand, and iDVD but for those I’ll let you check out the press release after the break.
iLife ‘09 will be available later in January priced at $79 for a solo kit or $99 for a family. You’ll need to be running the Leopard operating system to use it.
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Apple Introduces iLife ‘09
Major Upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie & GarageBand
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ – Apple(R) today introduced iLife(R) ‘09, which features major upgrades to iPhoto(R), iMovie(R) and GarageBand(R), and includes iDVD(R) and an updated version of iWeb(TM). iPhoto ‘09 builds on the ability to automatically organize photos into Events by adding Faces and Places as breakthrough new ways to easily organize and manage your photos. iMovie ‘09 expands on the revolutionary super fast movie creation introduced in iMovie ‘08 by adding the depth users want through powerful easy-to-use new features such as the incredible new Precision Editor, video stabilization, advanced drag and drop, and animated travel maps. GarageBand ‘09 introduces a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar with 18 basic lessons and optional lessons from top artists such as Sara Bareilles, John Fogerty, Norah Jones and Sting. iLife ‘09 is included with every new Mac(R) purchase and available as a $79 upgrade for existing users.
“iLife continues to be one of the biggest reasons our customers choose to get a Mac,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With iLife ‘09, we’ve made working with photos, making movies and learning to play music a lot more fun, and iMovie users are especially going to love the advanced but easy-to-use new features.”
iPhoto ‘09 makes it even easier to browse and search photos, not only by when they were shot (Events), but by who appears in them (Faces) and where they were taken (Places). iPhoto automatically scans photos to detect people’s faces and when you assign a name to any face iPhoto will automatically find more pictures of that person. The library can be searched by name or browsed using the new Faces View. Places automatically imports photo location data from a GPS-enabled camera or any iPhone(TM) or you can manually assign a location to any photo, group of photos or event. Once iPhoto knows where photos were taken, you can easily explore them with a simple search or an interactive map. iPhoto ‘09 lets you easily publish photos to Facebook or Flickr. Photos published to Facebook include assigned names, and name tags added on Facebook sync back to iPhoto. You can also share photos by creating a themed slideshow to play on your Mac, iPhone or iPod(R), or create a beautiful travel book, complete with customized maps of your journey.
iMovie ‘09 adds powerful, yet easy-to-use new features to let you create a movie quickly, or add refinements and special effects to your project if you have more time. Drag and drop one clip on top of another to reveal new advanced editing options, including replace, insert, audio only, and even picture-in-picture or green screen. With the revolutionary Precision Editor, you can skim and click on a magnified filmstrip to view clips up close and fine tune any edit, like identifying precisely how much to keep, where to cut, use sound from one clip with video from another and more. iMovie ‘09 analyzes video and reduces camera shake in clips when added to your project. New titles, transitions, cinematic effects, speed changes and animated travel maps add professional polish to your movie.
GarageBand ‘09, the updated version of Apple’s popular software used by millions to play and record music, now gives budding musicians a fun new way to learn to play piano and guitar. Basic Lessons let you learn the fundamentals at your own pace with Apple instructors in beautiful HD video synchronized to animated instruments and notation. Artist Lessons feature original artists showing how to play their hit songs with everything from finger positions and techniques to the story behind the song. Choose from lessons by popular artists including: Sara Bareilles, Colbie Caillat, John Fogerty, Ben Folds, Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder and Sting. Artist Lessons are sold separately at the new GarageBand Lesson Store, available inside the GarageBand ‘09 application. GarageBand ‘09 also includes exciting new guitar amp and stomp-box effects, and Magic GarageBand Jam that lets you play along with a virtual band that you create.
iLife ‘09 includes iWeb ‘09 for authoring custom websites and iDVD ‘09 for creating DVDs. iWeb ‘09 adds new iWeb Widgets, such as iSight(R) video and photos, a countdown timer, YouTube video and RSS feeds. New integrated FTP publishing allows you to publish your website to virtually any hosting service and updates to your site can now be automatically added to your Facebook profile.
Pricing & Availability
iLife ‘09 will be available this month for a suggested retail price of $79 (US) through the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The iLife Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after January 6, 2009 for a shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Artist Lessons are available through the GarageBand Lesson Store for $4.99 (US) each.
iLife ‘09 requires Mac OS(R) X version 10.5.6 or later, a Macintosh(R) computer with an Intel processor, a PowerPC G5 or 867 MHz or faster PowerPC G4, 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended), QuickTime(R) 7.5.5 or later (included), a DVD drive for installation and 4GB of available disk space. iPhoto print services and GarageBand Artist Lessons are available in select countries. Full system requirements and more information on iLife ‘09 can be found at http://www.apple.com/ilife.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
(C) 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iLife, iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iDVD, iWeb, iPhone, iPod, iSight, Apple Store and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
