Apple Introduces iLife '09

Apple Introduces iLife ’09

Major Upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie & GarageBand

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.

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.

iPhoto makes managing your photos as easy as taking them. It helps you organize your photos so you can find them fast. Edit them so they look their best. And share them with your friends and family.


Organize by who, where, and when.

It’s so easy to take digital photos that before you know it, you have thousands. iPhoto gives you more ways to keep track of your photos by organizing them according to who’s in your pictures, where you took them, and when you took them.
Faces to see.

iPhoto ’09 introduces Faces: a new feature that automatically detects and even recognizes faces in your photos. iPhoto uses face detection to identify faces of people in your photos and face recognition to match faces that look like the same person. That makes it easy for you to add names to your photos. And it helps you find the people you’re looking for. Clicking the Faces view shows you a corkboard featuring a snapshot for each person you’ve named. iPhoto suggests a set of possible matches you can confirm with a click.

Places to go.

Places allows you to search and sort photos by location, using data from any GPS-enabled camera or iPhone. Don’t have a GPS-enabled camera or iPhone? You can still use Places by adding your own location information: Just start typing and iPhoto instantly gives you a list of locations to choose from. Want to add places to lots of photos? Select an Event, an album, or a group of photos shot in the same place, and iPhoto can add your location information to all of them at once.

When you feel like exploring, click Places to navigate your photos by location. Find photos on a map, or use the column browser to click through location names from country to state to city — right down to points of interest like the Empire State Building or the Grand Canyon — to see all the photos taken there.

Events to remember.

iPhoto helps eliminate clutter in your photo library by automatically organizing your photos by Event. When you import photos taken on a single day, iPhoto groups them together as an Event. You can label each Event with a meaningful name like “Karen’s wedding” or “Nathan’s graduation,” so you can find everything easily.

The search field in iPhoto lets you search your entire photo library fast. Type a word or part of a word to search by person, location, title, album, event, or keyword, and see your results in an instant.


Make some improvements.

Turn so-so snapshots into great photos.

iPhoto gives you everything you need to fix your photos. Remove red-eye with a click. Adjust exposure, brightness, and contrast. Crop to frame your subject. If you don’t know where to begin, click the Enhance tool and watch iPhoto automatically fix bright or dull photos. Then try a few new tricks.

If you want to make the colors in your photos pop without affecting skin tones, use the Saturation slider and click “Avoid saturating skin tones.” To improve clarity and enhance detail, experiment with the Definition slider. Or retouch over solid edges with the Retouch brush. Its new Detect Edges setting prevents blurring of detail as you paint out spots and blemishes.

Experiment with effects.

iPhoto also features fun, one-click photo effects. Open the Effects pane and click a thumbnail image to convert color photos to black and white, give them a classic sepia tone, add a vignette border, and more. Experiment without fear: A click of the center thumbnail removes effects and returns your photo to its original state. In fact, any edit you make in iPhoto is reversible, so you don’t have to worry about losing your originals.

Enjoy a few choice memories.

Looking for a fun way to share and enjoy your photos? Try creating a slideshow using new slideshow themes. Each theme includes professionally designed layouts, titles, and transitions that make a perfect backdrop for your photos. Click a theme to play a full-screen slideshow — accompanied by any song from your iTunes library. Fast-forward or rewind your slideshow using the new filmstrip. If you like, customize your slideshow even further by saving it as a project. Then you can reorder photos, set the length of time individual photos remain onscreen, or, with some themes, choose different transitions. And when you’re happy with your slideshow, send it to iTunes and sync it to your iPhone or iPod to enjoy anywhere.

Click to share.

The easiest way to share your photos is to share them online. And the easiest way to share online is with iPhoto.

Have a MobileMe Gallery showing.

MobileMe — the Apple subscription service that keeps all your devices up to date, wherever you are — lets you create an online Gallery to share photos from your iPhoto library.* Simply select the photos you want to share and click the MobileMe button. That’s all it takes to publish to your MobileMe Gallery. Keep your Gallery private, make it public, or share it with select people. Visitors can download and print photos, subscribe to your Gallery via RSS, even contribute their own photos.

Send and share.

Prefer to share your photos via email? Click the Mail button and choose a size to send: small, medium, large, or actual size. iPhoto also shares seamlessly with iMovie, iWeb, iDVD, the applications in iWork, and other Mac OS X applications.

Take some photos to go.

Want to keep your photos with you? Use iTunes to sync them to your iPod or iPhone to enjoy and share on the go. Or view your photos in your living room: Sync them to Apple TV and they appear on your widescreen TV in full HD quality.

Faces

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People are often your most important photo subjects. But it’s difficult to find every photo of Dad or the grandkids without combing through your entire library. That’s why iPhoto ’09 introduces Faces — a new feature that allows you to organize your photos based on who’s in them. iPhoto uses face detection to identify faces of people in your photos and face recognition to match faces that look like the same person. That makes it easy for you to add names to your photos. And it helps you find the people you’re looking for — even in the largest photo libraries.

Put a name to a face in just a couple of photos, and iPhoto suggests a set of possible matches you can confirm with a click. iPhoto then uses the information to sift through your library and find even more potential matches.

Once you’ve added names, click the Faces view to see a corkboard featuring a snapshot for each person you’ve named. Click any snapshot to see all the confirmed and suggested photos of that person. Skim the snapshot to preview more photos and assign a new one as the key photo. Flip the snapshot to add a person’s last name and Facebook ID.

Faces also lets you create people-based Smart Albums, which make it easy to stay up to date with pictures of family and friends. Drag one or more snapshots to the Source list, and iPhoto generates a Smart Album that automatically updates every time you name and confirm more photos of those people.

Places

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iPhoto helps you explore your travel photos with a new feature called 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. So without any effort, pictures you took of the Eiffel Tower are labeled with easily searchable names like “France,” “Paris,” and “Eiffel Tower.”

If you don’t have a GPS-enabled camera or iPhone, you can still make the most of Places. Add locations to your photos by typing the name of a place, entering an address, or dropping a pin on a map. Then, when you want to find photos you shot in New York City or the Grand Canyon, just type the place name in the search field. If you feel like exploring, use the Places column browser to navigate your photos by clicking a country, state, city, or point of interest.

Themed Slideshows

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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. Slideshow themes include Classic, Shatter, Snapshots, Scrapbook, Ken Burns, and Sliding Panels. Every slideshow uses face detection to position photos correctly and keep the faces onscreen.

Want to skip ahead or go back to a slide you liked? A filmstrip at the bottom of the screen lets you navigate your slides with a click. You can also change the music or adjust the speed to go better with your photos. When you’re happy with your slideshow, you can export it as a movie to iTunes and view it on your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV.

Online Sharing

Wouldn’t it be great if you could share your photos on Facebook in one step, without leaving iPhoto? iPhoto ’09 lets you publish photos directly to Facebook with just a few clicks. Select the photos you want to share and click the Facebook button.

iPhoto converts names you added using Faces to Facebook name tags. What’s more, as soon as you post new photos of them on your Facebook page, notifications are sent to the friends you’ve named who also have Facebook IDs.


Sharing on Flickr is just as easy: Just click the Flickr button. When you share your photos on Flickr, the locations you added using Places appear on Flickr photo maps.

Once you share your photos, iPhoto creates Facebook and Flickr albums for them in the Source list. Add, remove, or edit these photos, and they’re automatically updated on Facebook and Flickr.

Enhanced Photo Editing

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You don’t need expensive photo editing software to turn so-so shots into perfect pictures. iPhoto ’09 introduces a set of improved editing tools to make your photos look their best. A new checkbox in the Saturation slider makes the colors in your photos pop without affecting skin tones. The Definition slider improves clarity and brings out detail. The Retouch brush adds a Detect Edges feature that prevents blurring of detail when you remove spots or blemishes over solid edges. And the Auto Red-Eye tool works with face detection to remove red-eye with just one click.

Travel Maps

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If you’re an iPhoto fan, you already know how fun and easy it is to create professionally printed photo books to show off your vacation pictures. iPhoto ’09 makes your travel books even more special with custom maps that illustrate your journey. iPhoto uses the location data from your photos to generate a beautifully rendered map showing the countries and cities you visited. Or you can type in the names of places you’ve visited to create a travel map in any photo book theme. Every map is fully customizable. Show a point-to-point path of your travels, change the order of the cities, and mark points of interest.

Maybe you want to throw together a few video clips. Maybe you have more time and want to fine-tune every edit. Or maybe you just want to flip through clips the way you flip through album covers in iTunes. iMovie lets you do it all — then share it all.

Organize video like photos.

To organize, just import.

Plug in virtually any digital camcorder and iMovie starts importing your video. Then iMovie helps you organize your video just as you organize photos: by putting everything in one central location and grouping video clips according the date they were taken. So it’s easy to find the clips you’re looking for — whether to watch or to edit. Don’t have a camcorder? You can still use iMovie: It displays video you captured on your still camera and imported into iPhoto.

Rate it. Tag it. Filter it.

As your video library grows, you’ll need a fast way to find your favorite clips (and hide the ones you’re not thrilled with). With iMovie, you can label clips — or parts of clips — as “favorite” or “rejected,” tag video with preset or custom keywords, then filter your entire library by rating and/or keyword.



Edit Fast Edit Precicely

Drag, drop, and thank the academy.

Know how to drag files to your desktop? Then you know how to edit a movie in iMovie. Drag your favorite clips into the project area and arrange them as you wish. Drag in titles and transitions. Drag in photos. Drag in a song from iTunes to create your soundtrack. That’s drag-and-drop moviemaking, and iMovie makes it fast and easy.

iMovie gives you more ways to add clips to your project: Now you can replace or insert clips using a single pop-up menu. Or edit just your audio. As you work, you can drag and drop markers to help you remember specific points in your project or to have your clips snap to the beats of a song.

Fine-tune every edit.

When you have all your clips where you want them, fine-tune even the trickiest cuts and transitions with the Precision Editor. A magnified filmstrip view shows you exactly where one clip ends and the next begins, so you can skim each clip up close and identify precisely how much to keep and where to cut. Adjust the duration of transitions. Edit audio and video independently, so you can use the sound from one clip with the video from another. Reposition titles and effects.

Edit audio, too.

In addition to its video editing features, iMovie gives you audio editing tools. Easily adjust audio levels for each clip to give your movie a consistent, comfortable volume. Use multiple audio tracks for music, sound effects — even a voiceover track you can record right in iMovie. Built-in noise reduction cuts down background noise and voice enhancement simulates a studio microphone to make your voice sound like professional announcer’s.

Enjoy a flick. (Or all of them.)

Easy to use and fun to explore.

You don’t have to edit a movie to enjoy your video. iMovie puts all your video in one place and gives you a quick, fun way to watch it. That’s handy whether you’re looking for a particular scene to edit or just want to peruse your favorite clips.

iMovie displays each clip as a filmstrip, so you can see everything at once. Interact with the filmstrip by moving your mouse over it. As you do, video appears in the preview window at the top of your screen. It’s a simple way to enjoy video — from the shortest clip to the longest scene.

Go full screen.

Sometimes you want to enjoy your video without any onscreen distractions. With full-screen browsing, you can flip through your entire video library using Cover Flow — the same way you flip through albums in iTunes. Toggle between Events and projects or browse individual clips from your library and play them full screen. Even the clip-skimming feature works in full-screen mode. When you roll over a filmstrip, you see the related clip full screen.


Add titles, transitions, oohs, and ahhs.

Add and edit real-time titles.

iMovie makes it easy to add all the elements of a great movie, starting with the opening credits. Preview 20 new titles (for a total of 32) in the Title Browser. Find one you like and drag it onto any video clip. Or, for a neat trick, drag a title where there isn’t any video. That opens a Preview Palette with animated backgrounds. Choose one and your title appears over it. Type over the placeholder text and you’re done. If you change your mind about a title style, drag in another. iMovie applies the new style instantly.

Choose cinema-quality transitions.

To keep your cuts interesting, choose from 20 transitions by skimming over them in the Preview Palette. One click picks the perfect transition and applies it instantly.

Apply some effects.

Maybe you want a particular clip to feel like a dream sequence. Or perhaps you’d prefer to give your movie a vintage look. Whatever your inspiration, iMovie has you covered with 19 video effects. Take a look at all the effects in the Preview Palette, then apply them to a single clip, multiple clips, or an entire project.

In addition to video effects displayed in the Preview Palette, iMovie includes picture-in-picture and green-screen effects you can apply using the Advanced Tools pop-up menu.


Enhance your movie Hollywood-style.

Steady shaky clips.

Don’t leave those perfect — if slightly wobbly — moments on the cutting-room floor. New video stabilization in iMovie analyzes how much your camera was moving, then automatically reduces shake. Stabilize on a clip-by-clip basis or analyze all your video (the latter may take a while, but it’s worth it). iMovie even identifies moments when the camera was excessively shaky and marks that footage with a squiggly red line, so you can hide it.

Pick a theme, any theme.

To make your movies look even more professional, add a dynamic theme. Choose a theme such as Bulletin Board, Filmstrip, or Comic Book and apply it to your project instantly. iMovie does the rest, adding animated titles and sophisticated transitions automatically. Your themed project plays right away. You don’t have to wait to see the results.

Animate your travels.

Enhance your video travelogues with eye-catching, animated travel maps. Choose from four different 3D globe or flat map styles, select your location (or locations), and iMovie builds an animated map. If you want to change its look, drag another map on top of your current one to change the style without affecting your locations.

When it’s time to make final adjustments, iMovie puts color and audio controls in floating windows you can place anywhere on your screen. Use sliders to adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, and white point. Adjust audio levels for each clip to give your movie a consistent, comfortable volume. All your changes occur in real time, so you can be sure you’ve got everything just right.


Share your movie with a click.

Premiere your movie on MobileMe.

Once you’ve finished your masterpiece, it’s time to share it. MobileMe — the Apple subscription service that keeps all your devices up to date, wherever you are — features an online Gallery.* With a few clicks, you can publish your movie to a MobileMe Gallery page where friends and family can view it, make comments, and download it. It’s easy to publish your movie in a variety of sizes. Even better than DVD quality, the big 960-by-540 format looks great online.

Be a YouTube sensation.

If you have a YouTube following, you can share your movies there. Just select YouTube from the Share menu.
Share your movie anywhere.

To watch your movie on the go, send it to iTunes and sync it with your iPod or iPhone. Or send your movie to Apple TV, then sit back and watch it on your widescreen TV.

Burning to share?

Of course, you can also burn your movie to a DVD. Choose iDVD from the Share menu and create a fully featured DVD — complete with customized menus and buttons — in iDVD. If you’ve added chapter markers to your movie in iMovie, they show up in iDVD, too.

Advanced Drag and Drop

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iMovie ’08 introduced drag-and-drop editing — a fun and easy way to make movies, even if you’ve never edited a single frame. iMovie ’09 takes drag-and-drop editing even further. For starters, it gives you more ways to add clips to your project: Now you can replace or insert clips using a single pop-up menu. Or edit just your audio. When you choose to show the Advanced Tools menu in iMovie preferences, drag-and-drop editing includes additional options such as cutaways, picture-in-picture, and green-screen effects.

Precision Editor

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Perfectionists, rejoice. iMovie ’09 introduces a new feature that makes it easy to fine-tune every edit. It’s called the Precision Editor, and it displays a magnified filmstrip that shows exactly where one clip ends and the next begins so you can precisely edit your video. Skim each clip up close and identify how much to keep and where to cut. Edit audio and video independently, so you can use the sound from one clip with the video from another. Reposition and adjust the duration of titles and transitions — without leaving the Precision Editor.

Dynamic Themes

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More of an instant-gratification type? Enhance your movie in minutes with new 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, adding animated titles and sophisticated transitions automatically. Your themed project plays right away, so you don’t have to wait to see the results. Choose a theme at the start of a project or apply a theme to an existing project. iMovie themes look great without help, but you can easily add, swap, or delete elements to customize your project. Try a different transition. Swap a clip or two. Even change the theme altogether. iMovie remembers text you typed into title placeholders and changes only the theme.

Animated Travel Maps

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iMovie ’09 is ideal for making movies that document your vacations, holidays, and adventures. Enhance those video travelogues with eye-catching, animated travel maps. Choose from four different 3D globe or flat map styles and select your location (or locations) — from country to city to points of interest. iMovie builds an animated map that flies from point A to point B. If you want to change its look, drag another map on top of your current one to change the style without affecting your locations.

Video Stabilization

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Even the steadiest hand can jostle a camera. But now those perfect — if slightly wobbly — moments won’t be left on the cutting-room floor. New video stabilization in iMovie ’09 analyzes how much your camera was moving while you were recording, then automatically reduces camera shake. Stabilize on a clip-by-clip basis or analyze all your video for stabilization (the latter may take a while, but it’s worth it). The results look surprisingly smooth and professional.

iMovie ’09 lets you adjust smoothness with a simple slider, so you can bring back some natural camera movement for effect where you need it. iMovie also identifies moments when the camera was so shaky that the footage can’t be fixed. It marks those clips with a squiggly red line, so you can choose to hide them.

New Titles, Transitions, and Effects

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Put the finishing touches on your movie with new titles, transitions, and video effects. iMovie ’09 introduces 18 new animated titles, and the Title Browser gives you a sneak peek at every one. Find a title you like and drag it onto any video clip. Or drag a title to an empty spot in your movie to open the Preview Palette and choose an animated background.

iMovie ’09 also features eight new transitions. Preview them by skimming over the transitions in the Preview Palette. One click picks the perfect transition and applies it instantly.

To change the look of your movie, choose from 19 new one-click video effects, including Aged Film, Dream, Sci-Fi, and Cartoon.

Fast or slow motion adds comic relief or dramatic depth. Both are just a slide away in iMovie ’09. Drag a slider to adjust the speed of any clip. Or reverse it with a click. All your adjustments happen in real time.

Full-Screen Library Browser

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iMovie ’09 makes it easy to enjoy your footage, even if you don’t want to make a movie. The new, full-screen Library Browser puts your entire video library at your fingertips. Flip through video just as you flip through music in your iTunes library — using full-screen Cover Flow. Toggle between Events and projects, or browse clips from your library and play them full screen. Even the clip-skimming feature works in full-screen mode: Roll over a filmstrip to display the related clip full screen.