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 websites 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 websites, 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, in the press release. “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(R), 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 .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 website 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 16×20, and movies can be viewed at higher- than-DVD resolution.
iWeb ’08 offers new features to make websites 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 websites 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.
iLife ’08 is now available for a suggested retail price of US$79 through the Apple Store, 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.
More about iLife ’08 here.
More about .Mac here.
Apple’s Store site is still down. What gives?
MDN must be getting slammed, this page took 5 min to upload even with the new servers.
I really thought Apple would add a animation program to iLife given the emphasis of core animation in Leopard. Maybe a stand-alone app in Leopard? Maybe something on the developer disc like Core Funhouse?
Neither package was at the Apple Store when I checked this afternoon. So I can only assume that either:
(a) Steve Jobs lied, in that G. Bush-like way, and when he said “now” he meant “maybe in a week.”
(b) The Sherman Oaks Fashion Square Apple Store is not a real Apple Store, but a fiendishly clever construct put in by Dell to discourage Mac buyers.
(c) MDN got the story wrong.
So which is it?
MDN Magic Word= lack, as in “lack of product.” Or “lack of smooth roll-out.”
I was looking at the system requirements and I notice that it states:
“iMovie requires a Mac with an Intel processor, a Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or an iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster”
Does this really mean that the minimum spec has been raised so G4 users can’t use iMovie 08 or could it just be certain features will require at least a G5?
@ farmertomato
Are you F’ing serious? They cannot start putting out the new boxes until AFTER the event is concluded, which at the time of your inane post was less than an hour preceding.
I was just at the mission viejo apple store, the sales person told me to come back after the event was over “wink wink”
@Willie G
So sorry to have wasted irony on a humor-deprived reader. My inane post was based on the story directly above it, which stated “iLife ’08 is now available for a suggested retail price of US$79 through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers,” and its literal interpretation. Perhaps you didn’t have time to read the story because you were too busy checking your watch and the coordinates of your time zone and estimating the time-per-box for shelf placement. You might consider lightening up and becoming more like your namesake. I’ve met the REAL Willie G., and he actually has a sense of humor.
MD Magic Word=real, as in “not the REAL Willie G.” How do it know?
Just checked out the iLife Guided Tour on the Apple web site.
The iPhoto update really is impressive, as is the .Mac web gallery feature. iMovie also looks very promising.
iWeb and iDVD look like they received minor updates that are hardly worth a nearly two-year wait.
GarageBand, I think, was underplayed during Steve’s talk. Steve spent all the time on “Magic Garageband,” which looks like soporific bloatware to me. But other features–multiple take recording, visual EQ, automated effects, arrangements–these are very helpful, and some of these have been on my wish list for quite a while. (In case folks hadn’t noticed, there’s also a new JamPack (Vocals) today as well!)
Overall, the iLife update looks strong. For picture taking, song writing, film making users, it’s well worth the measly $79 price tag
The Garageband update is awesome for me with 24bit fidelity and finally being able to print out the musical notation. What a pain it has been with a bass, violin, or trumpet line all written and no way to print it out for the guys to play.
Only now if they would include a normalize function to boost levels to their max without distortion, GB would be truly the cake for me and no reason to use Logic Express. The program is so dirt easy to use and it recognizes my Line 6 Pod XT live with only a printer cable, which is the lead guitar cake and icing.
I just upgraded to iLife ’06 recently. Does anyone know if there is an upgrade option (complimentary or discounted) for recent buyers? Thanks.
doh!, sadly you’ll be out of luck. On a positive note, for $79 it is quite a deal, but 06 is great and there will probably be some bugs in 08 that need to be worked out so enjoy 06 for a while.
I bought iWork as I do a lot of presentations, but iLife 08 will have to wait until I can get a new computer.
Wow.
$99 for the Family pack of iLife or iWork.
Cool. (What was the old price for the family pack? Seems like it was much more expensive.)
about time iMovie supports AVCHD but does it support USB2 cameras as well? Most new HD camcorders use AVCHD but have USB2 instead of Firewire.
I really hate the fact that I bought my Apple 3 weeks ago, and now they want me to shell out another 80 bucks for new software. They suck.
From what I’ve seen of the new iPhoto on the tour, looks great — but it would be cool if the Events feature could tie in with the existing Keywords.
Now I’ve got to figure out the easiest way to transfer photos from the MacBook to the iMac; had a few hundred from my recent family reunion and trip to Chicago that I put on there and want on the mother library…
With the new iMovie requirements, Apple is giving the finger to those of us with G4s. They could have at least included a minor upgrade of the version in iLife ’06 along with the new version. Not very smart.
iMovie is a step backward and it really sucks! I have never seen a company go backward with a program. I love the old iMovie and the control I had to make nice looking movies. This new one stinks.
The GarageBand Music Notation is a HUGE deal. I hope that it will be able to let you create music notation without having to create the MIDI files to do so. Boy it would be great to not have to go into Sibelius for every minor composition effort.
I for one, love the iMovie program. I never was able to work my way around the old one. This interests me.
I felt with iPhoto Steve was creating solutions to problems no one ever has. I for one still don’t understand the importance of being able to “hide” my pictures. Maybe I just don’t have enough, but still it seems quite silly he made SUCH a big deal about that feature.
iWork excites me more, but I may spring for both…
iLife’08 : Silly policy, both parties (Apple & customers) lost! No winner.
I bought a new MacBook Pro on Aug 6th, and on Aug 7th. all new computers comes with iLife 08. I called the Apple Retail Centre and they say I can bring back my MacBook Pro and change for a new one.
I have spent hours migrating the Data & Applications from my old MacBook and the Apple store get a used MBP, in exchange for a new one.
It is a big inconvenience for me and Apple lose a brand new MBP. It would be more sensible to just give us a iLife’08 upgrade DVD.
Mr. Jobs, please take note…