Apple Announces iLife ‘06

by Hadley Stern Jan 10, 2006

Major Upgrade Features New Versions of iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD & GarageBand
                    and Introduces iWeb

  MACWORLD EXPO, SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/—Apple(R)
today announced iLife(R) ‘06, the most significant upgrade to Apple’s award-
winning suite of digital lifestyle applications ever. iLife ‘06 features
iPhoto(R) 6 with blazing performance, new printed books, calendars and cards,
and Apple’s innovative new Photocasting(TM) for sharing photos over the
Internet; iMovie(R) HD 6 with new motion themes for adding spectacular
production value to your movies; iDVD(R) 6 for authoring custom DVDs for
today’s widescreen TVs; and GarageBand(TM) 3, now the complete solution for
creating professional-quality Podcasts. iLife ‘06 also introduces iWeb(TM), a
new iLife application that makes it super-easy to create amazing websites with
photos, blogs and Podcasts and publish them on .Mac for viewing by anyone on
the Internet with just a single click.
  “This is the most exciting iLife upgrade ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s
CEO. “Apple pioneered applications to serve our emerging digital lifestyle and
then consolidated them into the iLife suite. With this major upgrade to iLife,
we’re leaping even further ahead of anything available for the PC.”
  iLife ‘06 introduces iWeb, the easiest way to create professional-looking
web pages, online photo albums, blogs and Podcasts in minutes. Apple-designed
templates help create stunning websites and the iLife media browser makes
adding photos, movies, music or playlists as simple as drag and drop. Powerful
editing tools make it easy to customize websites without having to know HTML.
iWeb works seamlessly with other iLife ‘06 applications as a complete solution
for creating photo albums, blogs and Podcasts that can be published to the
Internet with one click using .Mac.
  iPhoto 6 offers blazing performance, support for up to 250,000 photos and
introduces Photocasting, an innovative new way to share photos directly from
within iPhoto via .Mac to friends and family. Photocasting is like Podcasting
for photos where anyone can subscribe to a published photo album and
automatically receive full quality photos directly within iPhoto 6 or on a PC.
Pictures automatically update when the owner adds, edits or deletes a photo
within the published album. Photos can be viewed on Apple’s stunning displays
with new full-screen edit and compare mode without menus or windows to
distract from the image. Up to eight photos can be compared simultaneously and
adjusted with a one-click image enhancements and effects panel. Professional-
quality books, calendars and greeting cards are created easily by adding
photos to Apple-designed themes.
  iMovie HD 6 introduces revolutionary new Apple-designed motion themes that
let users add Hollywood-style production value to their movies in minutes.
Effects can be previewed without waiting with new real-time Core Video
effects, while cinematic titling gives users flexibility to create incredible
text effects. New audio enhancement tools and sound effects make movies sound
as good as they look. Multiple projects can now be opened at once in iMovie HD
6 and clips can be moved among projects. iMovie HD is the easiest way to make
a video Podcast which can be published with iWeb for the whole world to
experience.
  iDVD 6 allows users to take content shot with the latest HDV and
widescreen DV cameras and author custom DVDs with widescreen menus, movies and
high resolution slideshows that fill every inch of the newest widescreen TVs.
iDVD 6 features 10 new Apple-designed menu themes in both widescreen (16:9)
and standard (4:3) formats. iDVD 6 themes include new autofill drop zones to
make customizing menus even easier.  In addition, iDVD 6 can burn using
compatible third-party DVD burners. iDVD 6 also includes new Magic iDVD, the
easiest way ever to make a DVD. With just a few clicks, users select a theme
and choose their movies and photos, Magic iDVD then automatically creates a
complete DVD that’s ready to burn.
  In addition to being the best way to make music on a computer, GarageBand
3 is now also a complete solution for creating professional quality Podcasts.
Voices can easily be recorded using the built-in expertise of an audio
engineer and Podcasts can be enhanced with radio-style sound effects and music
jingles, chapter artwork and URL links. Talk show Podcasts are created easily
by interviewing one or more guests simultaneously in iChat AV and recording
directly into GarageBand 3. Podcasts can be posted for the world to enjoy on
.Mac and submitted to iTunes(R) using iWeb. In addition, a new video track
makes it easy to create music to score iMovie projects.

  Pricing & Availability
  iLife ‘06 is now available for a suggested retail price of $79 (US)
through the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple
Authorized Resellers. The iLife ‘06 suite of applications will be included
with all new Macs. iTunes version 6.0.2 is currently available as a free
download at http://www.apple.com. .Mac is available as a subscription-based service
for $99.95 (US) per year for individuals and $179.95 (US) for a Family Pack
which includes one master account and five sub accounts. Anyone can sign up
for a free, 60-day .Mac trial from http://www.mac.com.
  iLife ‘06 requires Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or version 10.4.3 or later (Mac
OS X version 10.4.4 recommended), a Macintosh(R) computer with a PowerPC G4,
PowerPC G5, or Intel(R) Core(TM) processor (733 MHz or faster for iDVD), 256MB
of RAM (512MB recommended), iTunes 6.0.2 and QuickTime(R) 7.0.4 (included), a
DVD drive for installation, and 10GB of available disk space.  HD video
requires a 1 GHz G4 or faster processor and 512MB of RAM. Burning DVDs
requires an Apple SuperDrive(TM) or compatible third-party DVD burner. iPhoto
print services are available in the US, Canada, Japan, and select European
countries. A .Mac account is required for iPhoto Photocast publishing and
recommended for iWeb.  Mac OS X version 10.4.4 is required for iMovie themes,
iPhoto Photocasts, and iChat AV recording in GarageBand.

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