By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 01:10 PM EST

Apple today announced iLife '06, the most significant upgrade to its award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications ever.

iLife '06 features iPhoto 6 with faster performance, new printed books, calendars and cards, and Apple’s new Photocasting for sharing photos over the Internet; iMovie HD 6 with new motion themes for adding spectacular production value to movies; iDVD 6 for authoring custom DVDs for today’s widescreen TVs; and GarageBand 3, now the complete solution for creating professional-quality Podcasts. iLife '06 also introduces iWeb, a new iLife application that makes it super-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.”

The new iWeb application is one of the easiest ways to create professional-looking web pages, online photo albums, blogs and Podcasts in minutes, Apple said. New templates help create stunning websites while the iLife media browser makes adding photos, movies, music or playlists as simple as drag and drop. Additionally, powerful editing tools make it easy to customize websites without having to know HTML. iWeb works seamlessly with other iLife '06 applications as a complete solution for creating photo albums, blogs and Podcasts that can be published to the Internet with one click using .Mac.

iPhoto 6 offers faster performance, support for up to 250,000 photos and introduces Photocasting, an innovative new way to share photos directly from within iPhoto via .Mac to friends and family. Photocasting is like Podcasting for photos where anyone can subscribe to a published photo album and automatically receive full quality photos directly within iPhoto 6 or on a PC. Pictures automatically update when the owner adds, edits or deletes a photo within the published album. Up to eight photos can be compared simultaneously and adjusted with a one-click image enhancements and effects panel. Professional-quality books, calendars and greeting cards are created easily by adding photos to Apple-designed themes.

iMovie HD 6 introduces new Apple-designed motion themes that let users add Hollywood-style production value to their movies in minutes. Effects can be previewed without waiting with new real-time Core Video effects, while cinematic titling gives users flexibility to create incredible text effects. New audio enhancement tools and sound effects make movies sound as good as they look. Multiple projects can now be opened at once in iMovie HD 6 and clips can be moved among projects. iMovie HD is the easiest way to make a video Podcast which can be published with iWeb for the whole world to experience.

iDVD 6 allows users to take content shot with the latest HDV and widescreen DV cameras and author custom DVDs with widescreen menus, movies and high resolution slideshows that fill every inch of the newest widescreen TVs. iDVD 6 features 10 new Apple-designed menu themes in both widescreen (16:9) and standard (4:3) formats. iDVD 6 themes include new autofill drop zones to make customizing menus even easier. In addition, iDVD 6 can burn using compatible third-party DVD burners. iDVD 6 also includes new Magic iDVD, the easiest way ever to make a DVD. With just a few clicks, users select a theme and choose their movies and photos, Magic iDVD then automatically creates a complete DVD that’s ready to burn.

In addition to being one of the best ways to make music on a computer, GarageBand 3 is now also a complete solution for creating professional quality Podcasts. Voices can easily be recorded using the built-in expertise of an audio engineer and Podcasts can be enhanced with radio-style sound effects and music jingles, chapter artwork and URL links. Talk show Podcasts are created by interviewing one or more guests simultaneously in iChat AV and recording directly into GarageBand 3. Podcasts can be posted for the world to enjoy on .Mac and submitted to iTunes using iWeb. In addition, a new video track makes it easy to create music to score iMovie projects.

Pricing & Availability

iLife ’06 is now available for a suggested retail price of $79. The iLife ’06 suite of applications will be included with all new Macs. iTunes version 6.0.2 is currently available as a free download at www.apple.com. .Mac is available as a subscription-based service for $99.95 per year for individuals and $179.95 for a Family Pack which includes one master account and five sub accounts.