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APPLE.GIF Apple Releases iLife '08
By Mike Pasini, The Imaging Resource
(Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - 15:24 EDT)

Major updates to iPhoto and iDVD highlight the release. Aperture update required for compatibility with the new suite.

Along with the introduction of aluminum and glass iMacs, Apple today released an update to iLife, its suite of applications designed to manage "the digital life." Among the updated applications both iPhoto and iDVD, key applications for photographers, got some attention.

iPHOTO

Highlights of the iPhoto '08 update (http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto) include:

Organizing Images by Events. iPhoto can now group images by date. The group can be given an Event name and a poster photo. You can drag your mouse across an Even to preview all the collected images or double-click to see all of them at once. You can also hide images in the collection.

.Mac Web Gallery. Select an Album or Event and send it to your Web Gallery to automatically upload the images and create pages to host them. Visitors can resize the images and download full-resolution versions. You can also allow visitors to add their own images to yours. So you don't have to be at your own computer to add to your Gallery anymore.

New Editing Tools. New tools include a Crop tool with automatic guides to show you the rule of thirds or provide a grid for aligning a crooked horizon. Separate Shadow and Highlight controls let you adjust just shadows or just highlights. Noise Reduction, Edge Sharpening and White Balance tools are now available, too. And you can copy and paste any combination of edits from one image to another.

Unified Search. Search by name, keyword, rating or date are now all in one place. Results are returned neatly organized by Event.

Theme-based home printing. iPhoto can now print your images in layouts with borders, textured mattes and text. You can customize Apple-designed themes, changing backgrounds and added borders and effects.

New Calendars and Books. You can now print your images in a hard cover book complete with dust jacket and foil-printed cover or in large 10.4x13 calendars.

iDVD

Highlights of the iDVD '08 update (http://www.apple.com/ilife/idvd) include:

Better Performance. Switching between themes and navigating menus is faster.

Ten New Animated Themes. With this update there are now 150 Apple-designed DVD themes available. The 10 new themes come in both widescreen and standard formats.

Advanced Menu Customization. You can customize your DVD project's menu screens, editing drop zones, adding buttons from an extended button library and using built-in alignment guides.

Pro-Quality Encoding. A new professional-quality option uses advanced encoding technology to maximize the quality of your images and movies. You can now add video clips to the your slide shows, too.

Upgrades

The new suite, which is Leopard compatible, is available now from the Apple Store for $79.

A 129MB update to Aperture (version 1.5.4) is required for compatibility with the new suite, available via Software Update.

Original Source Press Release:

Apple Introduces iLife '08


Major New Versions of iPhoto & iMovie

CUPERTINO, California -- Aug. 7 -- Apple today introduced iLife '08, the most significant upgrade ever to Apple's award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications, featuring a major new version of iPhoto and a completely reinvented iMovie. iPhoto '08 automatically organizes photo libraries into Events that let users more easily manage their growing photo collections and iMovie '08 introduces an entirely new way for users to quickly make movies and share them online. Both iPhoto and iMovie integrate seamlessly with the new .Mac Web Gallery, Apple's new service for .Mac members to instantly create and host stunning online Web sites for their photos and videos. iLife '08 also features iWeb '08, with live web widgets such as Google Maps that let users create even more dynamic Web sites and GarageBand '08, with its new Magic GarageBand feature that makes it fun and easy for both musicians and non-musicians to create great sounding songs.

"Apple has taken iLife '08 to a new level that is years ahead of anything available for the PC," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think iLife '08 gives Mac users even more reasons to love their Macs and PC users even more reasons to switch."

iPhoto '08 automatically groups all photos into Events, each containing a day's worth of photos represented by a single picture. Users can simply move their mouse over an Event to instantly "skim" through all its photos. Users can split a single day's event into multiple events, such as a birthday party in the morning and a wedding in the evening or merge events on multiple days into a single event, such as a weekend ski vacation. Users can hide photos they don't want to see every day but don't want to throw away and a unified search allows users to instantly find all their photos across all Events by rating, date and keywords. Users can produce frame-worthy prints on a home printer with new Apple-designed photo themes and order keepsake books with customizable dust jackets and professional quality hardcovers with elegant foil printing, new spiral-bound softcover books that can be laid flat for easy viewing or new larger wall calendars.

With iMovie '08, Apple's movie-making software has been completely reinvented to let users rediscover and enjoy their video library, make movies in minutes instead of hours and share their movies with family, friends or the entire world in a snap. iMovie '08 can import video from the latest AVCHD, HDV and DV camcorders, as well as from digital cameras and displays a user's entire video library whether it's stored on internal or external drives. Users can preview any of their video clips by simply moving their mouse over the clip to "skim" through it forward or backward at any speed, including faster than real time. Users can select video as easily as selecting text, make a movie by simply dragging the selected video into a project, then easily add a soundtrack from iTunes, voiceovers and elegant effects and cinematic titles. iMovie '08 makes it as easy as a few clicks to enjoy your movies on an iPod, iPhone or Apple TV or share with the entire world on YouTube.

For .Mac members, Apple is also introducing the stunning .Mac Web Gallery. .Mac Web Gallery is fully integrated with iPhoto '08 and iMovie '08, letting users share their photos and movies on the web with just a few clicks. .Mac Web Gallery automatically builds a Web site containing photo galleries and movies that can be viewed on any modern computer or iPhone. Photos can be downloaded to print at sizes up to 16x20 and movies can be viewed at higher-than-DVD resolution.

iWeb '08 offers new features to make Web sites more interactive by adding live web widgets such as Google Maps, targeted ads using Google AdSense and photos or movies from .Mac Web Galleries. Users can also add Internet video, news headlines, weather and more from any site that supports HTML snippets. A new "My Album" page template lets users easily organize photo albums and videos into one simple index Web page. The new iWeb includes a range of beautiful new Apple-designed themes that users can change at any time to experiment with different Web page designs, even after their site has been published. With a .Mac membership, users can also now host iWeb Web sites using their own personal domains.

GarageBand '08 introduces Magic GarageBand, an easy and fun way for musicians and non-musicians alike to create a song. Users can pick from nine musical genres and interact with a band of "players" on a virtual stage by selecting an instrument and musical part for each player to create thousands of possible song combinations. Users can play along with a built-in software instrument or record their voice to sing along to their own music. The new GarageBand also offers powerful new features for more advanced musicians, including multi-take recording to capture the best performance, arrangements to cut, copy and paste intros, verses and choruses and support for 24-bit audio interfaces.

Pricing & Availability

iLife '08 is now available for a suggested retail price of $79 through the Apple Store (http://www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The iLife '08 suite of applications will be included with all new Macs beginning today. .Mac is available as a subscription-based service for $99.95 per year for individuals and $179.95 for a Family Pack which includes one master account and four sub accounts. Anyone can sign up for a free, 60-day .Mac trial from http://www.mac.com.*

iLife '08 requires Mac OS X version 10.4.9 or later, a Macintosh computer with an Intel processor, a PowerPC G5 or PowerPC G4, QuickTime 7.2 or later, a DVD drive for installation and 3-GB of available disk space. iPhoto print services are available in the U.S., Canada, Japan and select European countries. A .Mac account is recommended for iWeb. Full system requirements and more information on iLife '08 can be found at http://www.apple.com/ilife.

* The .Mac service is available to persons aged 13 and older. Annual membership fee and Internet access required. Terms and conditions apply.

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