Macworld: A closer look at the new iLife[SIZE=-1]
Here are the details on iLife '09:
The big hits of this upgrade were iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBtand.
Previous versions of iPhoto let you create libraries of images based on Events. The new version adds Faces and Places.
New face recognition technology lets you tag images by a subject's face, and create custom directories on that basis. When new images are imported, iPhoto will scan the faces in the image and ask you if that is in fact your child, spouse or best friend, and if so, tag and file the image accordingly.
iPhoto '09 also offers "GPS geotagging" that lets you sort images by Place (the location at which they were taken). Using Google mapping technology, a map is displayed with "pins" in it, representing the places one has visited. Click on the pin to access those pics from last winter's Aspen trip. iPhoto now includes a database of thousands of locations, including satellite images.
There's also one-button support for Facebook and Flickr that's totally interactive. You and a Facebook friend may be sharing an image with someone in it that you don't know, but your friend does. If your friend adds that identifying information, it will route itself back to your iPhoto library and autoupdate.
There are also new slideshow themes, the face recognition can auto-center faces in the slideshow, new music and timing functions, and the Book feature includes the new map-generation technology. Slideshows can be exported to iPhone and played using a 99-cent app.
iMovie '09 faced a different challenge. iMovie '08 had been totally redesigned, but in the process, some features from version '06 that more sophisticated users had grown dependent upon had been lost. So Apple made improvements for '09 to encourage those users to give it a try. I particularly like the auto-stabilization feature, losing the jerkiness that often occurs in handheld recording, and how easy it is to mix video and audio clips by simply highlighting, dragging and dropping. The video effects no longer make you wait for rendering.
When I saw it, it was blazingly fast and rendering was in realtime.
Mapping technology was also incorporated into iMovie, so if you want to animate your journey to Africa, in the manner of an Indiana Jones movie, it's easy to do. One thing they didn't cover in the presentation that I discovered later was the "greenscreen" effect function, similar to more professional setups, where footage is added in the background behind a couple of people chatting, for instance. (Greenscreen and talking children not included).
The biggest takeaway from the new GarageBand was the nine included interactive guitar and piano lessons. Having Sarah McLachlan, John Fogerty, or Sting teach you how to play their hit songs on piano or guitar was very intriguing to the crowd, even at $4.95 per download. These "Artist Lessons" can also be imported directly into GarageBand, so you can make your own mashups.
In my next post: A look at the new iWork.
?Thomas A. Olson
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]Subscribe now![/SIZE]
Subscribe to [SIZE=-1]ConsumerReports.org[/SIZE] for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. [SIZE=-1]Update your feed preferences[/SIZE]