At Apple’s keynote address last week, Phil Schiller took Steve Jobs’ place to introduce us to the newest offerings from the Cupertino-based company. Even though many thought that the keynote was a bit of a disappointment (including analysts and stockholders), the iLife ‘09 suite of applications will see a major upgrade with some very impressive new features. Below you’ll find a list of some of the more popular new features in the best-known iLife Apps.
iPhoto ‘09
- Faces: iPhoto uses face detection to identify faces of people in your photos and face recognition to match faces that look like the same person.
- Places: This feature uses data from GPS-enabled cameras or the camera on iPhone to categorize photos by location and convert GPS location tags to common, user-friendly names.
- Themed Slideshows: A great way to show off your photos onscreen is with a slideshow. iPhoto ’09 brings photos to life with six themes that let you create beautiful slideshows in seconds.
- Online Sharing: iPhoto makes it easy to share photos using MobileMe, Facebook, Flickr and via email.
iMovie ‘09
- Advanced Drag and Drop iMovie ’09 takes drag-and-drop editing even furtherand gives you more ways to add clips to your project than ever before.
- Precision Editor: Use the Precision Editor for fine-tuning cuts, titles, and transitions.
- Dynamic Themes: Choose a theme such as Bulletin Board, Filmstrip, or Comic Book and apply it to your project instantly—iMovie ’09 does the rest.
- Video Stabilization: New video stabilization in iMovie ’09 analyzes how much your camera was moving while you were recording, then automatically reduces camera shake. Really impressive stuff!
GarageBand
- Basic Lessons Learn the fundamentals of guitar and piano right inside GarageBand.
- Artist Lessons: Browse, preview, and purchase Artist Lessons from the Lesson Store inside GarageBand. Then get step-by-step instructions for chords, finger positions, and techniques from the people who know your favorite songs best.
The upgrade will be available to existing iLife owners for $79 and will be available towards the end of January 2009.
