by , 5:00 PM EST, January 7th, 2003
During today's keynote at MacWorld SF, Steve Jobs unveiled updates to many of the iApps; iPhoto 2, iMovie3, and iDVD 3. While all of these apps sport new features that would make any current user want the updates, Steve Jobs touted one additional feature which makes these and iTunes even more desirable; iApps are now integrated. From within iPhoto 2, iMovie 3, or iDVD 3 you can access any of the other iApps including iTunes 3.
So integrated are these new iApps that Apple is bundling them together and calling them iLife. While Apple will be offering the updates to iPhoto, iTunes, and iMovie as free downloads, iDVD will only be offered in the iLife bundle and sold for US$49. Apple's press release gives the details:
Apple today introduced iLife, an integrated suite of Apple's industry-leading digital lifestyle applications, featuring brand new versions of iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD, and the recently-released iTunes 3. iLife is the only integrated suite to include all of the four applications required for today's "digital lifestyle" -- digital music, photography, moviemaking and DVD creation -- and is the first product to offer the benefits of seamlessly integrating them.
"iLife does for our digital lifestyle what Microsoft Office did for office productivity -- all the applications you need are in one box, and they all work together," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Apple is far ahead of its PC competitors in offering the best-in-class applications for digital music, photography, moviemaking and DVD creation, and now they all work together seamlessly."
iLife includes incredible new versions of iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD with dozens of advanced new features, all seamlessly integrated to allow users to easily access their digital music, photos and movies from within each application. For example, users can now select music from their iTunes library to use in their iPhoto slideshows, movies or DVD menus from directly within iPhoto 2, iMovie 3 or iDVD 3 -- without interrupting the creative process by having to switch back and forth between applications.
iPhoto 2 now includes one-click photo Enhance, which can dramatically improve less-than-perfect pictures; a new Retouch tool for removing scratches, hair, lens dirt, etc.; photo archiving to a CD or DVD to preserve and share your iPhoto library; and the ability to e-mail photos with one click using Mac OS X Mail, Eudora, Entourage and AOL.
iMovie 3 features pro-quality special effects, including the new "Ken Burns" effect for adding emotionally powerful motion to still photos; powerful new audio editing tools and blockbuster sound effects from Skywalker Sound's seven-time Academy Award winner Gary Rydstrom; pro-quality special video effects such as Aged Film, Letterbox and Earthquake; and the ability to add chapter markers to movies for DVD navigation and scene selection.
iDVD 3 includes 24 new pro-quality, Apple-designed, customizable DVD menu themes; automatically created DVD scene selection menus from iMovie chapter markers; and the ability to personalize iDVD 3 themes with personal photos, music and movies using iDVD Drop Zones.
Requirements
iLife requires Mac OS X version 10.1.5 or later and a Macintosh with a PowerPC G3 or G4 processor; 256MB RAM is recommended. A built-in USB port is required for importing photos to iPhoto from a digital camera and a built-in FireWire port is required to input digital video from a camcorder. DVD burning from iDVD requires a Macintosh equipped with an Apple SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) and DVD archiving from iPhoto requires Mac OS X version 10.2 "Jaguar" or later.
Apple is making iPhoto 3, iTunes 3, and iMovie 3 available as free downloads. You can buy the iLife bundle from Apple and authorized Mac resellers. Apple is also offering copies of the iLife package for US$19.95 to anyone purchasing a new Mac with a SuperDrive after today, if it doesn't already include iLife. For more information go to Apple's iLife Web site.