Apple updates iLife application suite with iLife 06

10 January 2006 18:55 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Apple today announced iLife '06 and what the company is claiming is the most significant upgrade to Apple's suite of digital lifestyle applications ever.

iLife '06 features new versions of iPhoto 6, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and a new application called iWeb.

iPhoto 6 gets improved performance, new printed books, calendars and cards, and Apple's new Photocasting application for sharing photos over the Internet.

iMovie HD 6 gets new motion themes, while iDVD 6 adds support for authoring custom DVDs for today's widescreen TVs. GarageBand 3 adds features for creating professional-quality Podcasts including the ability to recording directly from iChat.

iLife '06 also introduces iWeb, a new iLife application that makes it easy to create websites with photos, blogs and Podcasts and publish them on .Mac for viewing by anyone on the Internet with just a single click.

"This is the most exciting iLife upgrade ever", said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Apple pioneered applications to serve our emerging digital lifestyle and then consolidated them into the iLife suite. With this major upgrade to iLife, we're leaping even further ahead of anything available for the PC".

Apple-designed templates help create formulaic websites and the iLife media browser makes adding photos, movies, music or playlists as simple as drag and drop without having to know HTML. iWeb will work seamlessly with other iLife '06 applications but you will need to have a .Mac subscription to take advantage of it.

iLife '06 is now available for a suggested retail price of £55 ($79US) through the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The iLife '06 suite of applications will be included with all new Macs.

.Mac is available as a subscription-based service for $99.95 (US) per year for individuals and $179.95 (US) for a Family Pack which includes one master account and five sub-accounts.