Early iLife '09 Notes and Impressions

iLife '09 was officially released yesterday and people are getting their first experiences with Apple's latest updates to iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband. Apple has detailed the biggest changes in iLife '09 in a series of Guided Tours:

- iPhoto '09 Guided Tour
- iMovie '09 Guided Tour

A few early impressions include:

- Mixed reactions about iPhoto's new facial recognition feature with some that are having better results than others.
- Apple's iPhoto facial recognition does not officially support pets such as cats and dogs, but Roberto Baldwin managed to get iPhoto to recognize and tag his cats. The results don't seem consistent, however, as at least one of our own forum members was unsuccessful at the same task.
- Macworld and Beau Colburn both have posted example videos of iMovie's new video stabilization feature.

The end result seems to add a certain weight to the video, in that it has the feel of being shot with a heavier camera that wouldnt shake so much in your hand, versus the superlight Mino. Its not going to eliminate all shakes, but it can certainly minimize them in the right situations.

- iMovie HD 6 has been removed from Apple's site, though a direct download [link] is still accessible for now.