Apple Introduces iLife ’09
Major Upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie & GarageBand
SAN FRANCISCO–January 6, 2009–Apple today introduced iLife ’09, which
features major upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, and includes iDVD
and an updated version of iWeb. 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
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 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, 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 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 (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 X version 10.5.6 or later, a Macintosh computer
with an Intel processor, a PowerPC G5 or 867 MHz or faster PowerPC G4,
512MB of RAM (1GB recommended), QuickTime 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 www.apple.com/ilife.