iLife ’06

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.