Apple releases GarageBand 5.1 update

Late on Monday afternoon, Apple released a hefty update to its GarageBand 5 ( ) software, which is part of the iLife ‘09 suite. The 139MB update to Apple’s consumer audio creation application includes several changes. You can now add GarageBand track effects and Audio Units to a guitar track; there’s improved support for Apogee audio interfaces and access to audio monitoring settings; and the program offers faster switching to full screen in Magic GarageBand.

The update also fixes a security issue—in the past, opening GarageBand would change Safari’s preferences to always accept cookies (as opposed to the defaut of accepting cookies only for the sites being visited), which could allow third parties and advertisers to track a user’s Web activity. With this update installed, Safari’s cookie preferences won’t be changed (although if you’ve launched GarageBand previously, you’ll need to check Safari and change the preference back if you so desire).

GarageBand 5.1 is available from Apple’s Web site or via OS X’s Software Update mechanism.