Apple Announces iLife '09

At MacWorld San Francisco today, Apple announced a major update to its iLife suite of applications. iLife '09 will be available by late January 2009. Upgrade costs are $79, with a family pack at $99. It is shipping on all new macs. Here's a quick breakdown of some of the standout features of the new apps:

iPhoto '09
- Faces: Addition of facial recognition to events. Photos can be tagged to recognize faces, as in Facebook.
- Places: Uses geotagging to find information about the latitude and longitude of a photo. This information can be supplied either by a newer camera with built-in gps capabilities, or manually by user input.
- Slideshow Themes: Uses facial detection to properly position pictures in a slideshow. There's also support for Facebook and Flickr, with built-in geotagging.

iMovie '09
- Dynamic Themes: Context-sensitive menus for clips, along with animated travel maps
- Automatic Image Stabilization: Helps reduce motion in shaky video
- Precision Editor: Video and audio
- Advanced Drag and Drop: For placing video wherever you want it in the timeline
- Video Effects: Brings back special effects to iMovie

GarageBand '09
- Learn to Play: Teaches how to play an instrument with video instruction from professionals/celebrities. Nine basic lessons included, with additional downloads available at $4.99 each from within the app.

Since OS X 10.5.x is required to run the new iLife, Apple is also offering a package of OS X 10.5, iLife '09 and iWork '09 for $169. This "Mac Box Set" will ship in late January when iLife '09 ships.