Filed under: Macworld, iLife, Features
Apple introduces iLife '09 at Macworld Expo
Earlier today at Macworld Expo, Phill Schiller announced that availability of iLife '09. Not a huge surprise, as a few of us guessed we'd see an iLife update today, but it does offer some cool new features.iPhoto
iPhoto has been updated with two features called "Faces" and "Places." Faces, as you may have guessed, lets you tag photos by subjects' faces, similar to what Facebook and Picasa have done. iPhoto makes its best guess as to the identity of a subject based on previous tags and asks for confirmation. Of course, Phil called it "..the best technology we've found for face detection."
Places allows for geotagging of photos. Some cameras and the 3G iPhone will use GPS information to tag photos on longitude and latitude. iPhoto then organizes those photos by location, or "place." Also, Flickr and Facebook support are built-in. Those without GPS access can retro-tag photos by hand.
Other iPhoto features include enhanced slideshows and travel books.
Click below to read more about iLife '09
Update: Reader Lou purchased iLife '09 today, and says his receipt shows a ship date of Feb. 09.
For full Macworld Expo coverage, bookmark the TUAW Macworld Expo 2009 landing page. If you missed our liveblog coverage, you can review it here.
iMovie
Ah, iMovie '08. You either love it or you hate it. In any case, it's been replaced. Phil started his presentation of iMovie '09 by admitting that the '08 version wasn't very popular ... kind of. "Not every feature was there for every customer... some people missed the features," he said. That's as much of an admission of wrongdoing as you're going to get from Apple, folks.
iMovie '09 includes a few new tricks, like animated travel maps (think "Indiana Jones") and auto stabilization for shaky video. More impressive features include drag-and-drop editing, which lets you drop a clip between others. The skimming that was introduced in iMovie '08 is still intact, while "Precision Editing" is new. Now you can move audio from one clip onto another. Not exactly the "extract audio" option from iMovie 06, but still slick. They've also added some cute effects like cartoon, x-ray and aged film, as well as sweet dynamic themes.
GarageBand
My favorite podcast recording tool, GarageBand, also received a nice update with iLife '09. This time around, GarageBand goes beyond letting you drag and drop tracks into the timeline and actually teaches you how to play an instrument with the new "Learn to play" feature. Watch the HD video of the instructor has he moves you through different aspects of learning two bundled instruments -- guitar and piano.
If you really want a fun experience, check out the artist lessons from celebrities like John Fogerty, Sting and more. Cool! They can be purchased for $4.99US via a built-in store. Along with the lesson, the artists share the stories behind some of their most popular songs. Wow, GaragBand as a new, ongoing income stream for Apple
iLife '09 will be available in late January as a $79 upgrade while family pack will cost $99. iLife '09 ships on all new Macs.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
starfox said 1:50PM on 1-06-2009
That's it? Seriously? Just iLife, iWork and a 17" MBP, which should have come out with the others? Losing their touch.
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Think Adrian said 4:31PM on 1-06-2009
I knew at least one fanboy would be disappointed.
Face recognition in iPhoto'09! That's so awesome!!!
vvtopkar said 8:39PM on 1-08-2009
Just for the record, the face recognition has been built in to Windows Live Photo Gallery for quite a while now....
vodouman said 1:52PM on 1-06-2009
Worst. Macworld. Ever.
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Aelver said 1:53PM on 1-06-2009
Yeah, and looks like investors are disappointed too ... check that drop.
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Gabe said 1:56PM on 1-06-2009
I just wasted 1.5 hours of my life that i can never get back on those WEAK announcements. No iphone nano, no netbook, no media server, no new imac, no new mac mini, not even copy and paste or turn by turn gps. Many independent developers have already implemented copy and paste on the iphone, why cant you do it yet apple?! Thanks for nothing apple.
-An angry fanboy
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DrWho said 2:05PM on 1-06-2009
You only have yourself to blame if you were expecting an iPhone Nano. FFS.
Gabe said 2:24PM on 1-06-2009
Ok maybe not the iphone nano (i didnt want one personally, but it would have been cool to look at) but what about the new mac mini or imac? I cant be impressed by the 17" mbp that should have come out with the other mbps. As happy as i am about the ilife update, it was more of a "fix what we messed up in 07" type of upgrade.
So again, maybe it would have been a lil far fetched for the iphone nano, but the other stuff was well within reach. Copy paste? COME ON!
Paul said 1:57PM on 1-06-2009
The worst Macworld ever!
No Mac Mini , no updates to iMac's and a non removable battery on a laptop.
Wow, what a dismal end to the Macworld era.
I don't blame Phill Shiller, he only had so much to work with.
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Tony said 2:10PM on 1-06-2009
Let's see:
* iTunes Music Store going 100% DRM free by April. That's huge.
* The new MBP is significant. New battery design is huge. 8 hours? Huge. Matte screen available again? Huge.
* New iLife suite is very nice. Will make switchers very happy, plus all those who don't have a need for the pro apps.
* As for the stock price, it's dropped EVERY SINGLE YEAR on the day of the Macworld Keynote. EVERY SINGLE YEAR. It has *nothing* to do with investors being disappointed or whatever.
Every Macworld Keynote I've seen since blogs like this were in existence have had posters saying "Worst. Macworld. Ever." It's comical, really. Just comical.
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Frank said 2:26PM on 1-06-2009
absolutely. have some perspective, people.
Cale said 1:59PM on 1-06-2009
But how awesome is iMovie 09. Really just the whole stabilization thing is beyond useful.
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Brian said 2:32PM on 1-06-2009
I agree, I'm quite excited for iMovie 09. iMovie 08 was a neat idea, but way to feature poor, 09 looks to have really made some great changes.
A new mini would have been nice, but if I'm honest I wouldn't be able to afford it anyway.
Johan said 2:00PM on 1-06-2009
Most disappointing keynote I've ever seen.
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Ben Margolin said 3:05PM on 1-06-2009
I'm personally pretty excited about the Faces/Places additions to iPhoto. As much as I've been tempted by Picasa, I am used to iPhoto and like a lot of the features, including the photobook support (which a lo tof ppl don't seem to care about). But facial recognition (and to some extent geotagging) was going to probably finally convince me to switch away, as it matured in other apps and wasn't available in iPhoto. So definitely they'll get my upgrade price for that, anyhow!
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Mike said 2:02PM on 1-06-2009
And no new black mac mini.. epic phail :( guess its dead
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internets said 2:04PM on 1-06-2009
I'm a diehard Apple fan. Have been for over 10 years. What I don't get it the outbursts of disappointment at all the rumormongering that goes on in the couple months before a planned Keynote.
Apple doesn't work on our schedule, NO companies do. They'll come out with their products in their own time. Sure it'll always be on a Tuesday, and they might possibly key it to a certain time of year- but when they have to rush to get a product out the door, you get mistakes.
The iPhone launch is a perfect example: They had to rush it out the door because of an immovable announcement. It was even delayed a while to try and works things out; Apple would probably have been better off waiting another six months to get it out the door problem-free. It wouldn't have meant anything to us, we wouldn't have known of it's actual confirmed existence.
So I really don't get why everyone cries about how crappy the keynote was; it is their last one after-all. They're stopping it because they don't want to disappoint.
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Eric said 2:06PM on 1-06-2009
Sorry Tony, but I'm with the rest of them.
Worst. Macworld. Ever.
I was waiting for a mainstream hardware announcement. Whether it was refreshed Minis, or iMacs, or hell -- even an iPhone Nano.
All I saw today was software I don't need/want, and hardware I can't afford that I wouldn't buy even if I could. 17 inches negates the meaning of "laptop" IMO. (Apologies if you happen to have a 17" lap.)
And I'm sure that as Apple removes the DRM from their 10 million songs that they're not going to give me DRM-free versions of the songs I've already purchased. More money spent for no good purpose.
This Macworld was about lining Apple's pockets, not about giving the mainstream user what he wants. It was ABSURD.
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Tony said 2:15PM on 1-06-2009
Mainstream users have been asking for DRM free music, pretty much since the beginning of the iTunes Music Store. Now they have it. If you can't see the significance of that, then I'm sorry.
When the new MB's and 15" MBP were announced, there were complaints left and right: "what about the 17" MBP? Where's the 17"?" Well, now it's here. Sorry if it's not what *you* wanted, but a significant number of people have been waiting for it.
Mainstream users will also have much nicer iLife apps with some significant new features and technology baked right in. Again, sorry if it doesn't fit into what *YOU* wanted, but it's going to be good for many, many Apple users out there.
Jeff-O said 2:14PM on 1-06-2009
What happened to iWeb?
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