When we heard about iLife ‘09 last month, Apple touted the Faces and Places features of the iPhone and image stabilization and precise editing in iMovie. How much does all of this pleasure cost? $79 or nothing if you get it with a new Mac. But is it worth the upgrade?
First, an important point for those unfamiliar with iLife: iLife is basically Apple’s answer to the bundled software you get with your computer. Whereas windows offers Paint, photo managers, and Movie Maker, iLife has always been, in my mind, the superior offering. On the whole I’m a big fan. It offers music, video, and photo editing and organizing software and comes free with Macs. Instead of reviewing the package as a new product, I am only highlighting the changes. If you don’t use a Mac and have never tried it, have a friend show you. It’s great.
The most prominent additions are Faces and Places. Places uses embedded GPS data to place your photos on a map and you can use this information to make map-based video travelogues. Although this is great for iPhone shots – the iPhone embeds GPS coordinates in every photo it takes – it’s not so great for owners of non-GPS enabled cameras. While there are plenty of folks out there who use and need GPS information in their photos, those folks probably aren’t using iPhoto. It’s a nice to have but not a real draw.
