For those who already have a Mac, Apple is making iLife available through the online Apple Store, in its retail stores, and through authorized resellers.

iLife is one of the main reasons customers purchase a Mac over any other personal computer, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said when iLife '09 was announced.

iLife '09 costs $79 for a single license, but a five-computer family pack is priced at $99. Apple is also making the suite available with the Mac Box Set along with iWork '09 and Mac OS X Leopard for $169.

Photos and Movies

The latest version of iLife is loaded with high-tech features.

iPhoto, which allows users to view, edit and store digital photos, now can organize photos with face detection. The feature, called Face, allows a user to easily search for a photo using geo-tagging technologies. It posts family and friend photos on a digital bulletin board for easier viewing.

iPhoto also can create themed slide shows. Apple added a social-networking element to iLife '09, and users can upload photos to Facebook.

iMovie, a video editor, includes a new precision editor, video stabilization, drag and drop, and animated travel maps.

Jamming

For those who enjoy jamming with Garage Band, a music-creation and podcasting application, Apple has added 18 basic guitar and piano music lessons.

Additionally, users have an option to get lessons from the experts, including Sting, Norah Jones, and Fall Out Boy at the GarageBand Lesson Store for $4.99 per lesson. Users who buy a lesson also get a little inspiration from the artists, who explain the story behind the song. Other features include guitar amp models, including Stadium Solo, Seattle Sound, and Lowdown Blues and the chance to rock with a virtual band through the Magic GarageBand Jam.

iWeb, a product released at Macworld in 2006 that allows users to share content from other iLife apps, also received an update. iWeb '09 allows users to create custom Web sites and comes with additional features, including iSight, YouTube and RSS feeds, and a countdown timer.

'Clear Benefits'

"As the key consumer-suite product for the Mac I think every iLife upgrade is greeted pretty warmly by the marketplace, but it is always hard to add incrementally meaningful upgrades to a product that has such a large installed base and covers such important basic computing tasks," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD Group. "That said, I think the increased integration with the Web and Web 2.0 sites, like Facebook, as well as enhancements to iWeb and iSight and support for geo-tagging in photos are clear benefits that are positioning iLife to remain well integrated into consumers' digital lives as the composition of what is important to them digitally changes."

"It is very hard to tie iLife changes, or iLife in general, to increased Mac sales," Baker added. "It is part of the integrated experience Apple offers, and I don't believe customers view it as a defining characteristic the way they view OS upgrades, which do boost sales."