iLife '06

Digital lifestyle suite undergoes annual overhaul

Another year, another iLife upgrade. Apple began 2006 much the same way it started each of the preceding three years—by revving the digital lifestyle apps that compose its multimedia suite. But this was more than just a by-the-numbers update. Each of the existing iLife apps introduces significant new features, from iDVD 6’s automated DVD creation tool to the enhanced podcasting capabilities of GarageBand 3. And there’s a new member of the iLife family—the web publishing program iWeb which aims to make it easy to create pages that share photos, podcasts, movies, and other multimedia.

Should the $79 iLife ’06 suite be part of your life? We review all five applications to tell you what’s new, what’s worthwhile, and what needs some work.

After our original reviews were published, Apple released updates to iMovie, iWeb, iDVD, and iPhoto. The updates to iMovie and iWeb contained a number of fixes to issues cited in the original reviews, so we re-evaluated those applications; the ratings and reviews for iDVD 6 and iPhoto 6 remain unchanged.

iLife '06

Digital lifestyle suite undergoes annual overhaul

iPhoto 6

Apple has done an excellent job with the iPhoto 6 upgrade. The performance improvements alone should please most iPhoto users, while the full-screen editing mode, new output options, and Photocasting feature make the decision to upgrade to this version a no-brainer.
GarageBand 3

No program makes it as easy to create great-sounding music as GarageBand. With the latest version focusing on podcasting features, Christopher Breen tells you whether GarageBand 3 delivers that same ease of use to podcast creation.
iDVD 6

The latest version of this DVD-authoring program adds new features that give you futher control over how you structure and customize projects.
iWeb 1.0.1

The 1.0.1 update to Apple’s Web-publishing tool changes how most images and photo thumbnails are published, causing us to re-evaluate our rating of the original iWeb.
iMovie HD 6.0.1

The 6.0.1 update to iMovie HD fixes a number of glitches in the original version of the digital-video editor.