We all knew that Apple is planning to release iLife before October but what we didn't expect is for it to be  officially unveiled this early. In fact, the Cupertino-based company came up with a press release the other day, officially announcing the new build for suite of digital lifestyle applications to the world.

"Apple has taken iLife '08 to a new level that is years ahead of anything available for the PC. We think iLife '08 gives Mac users even more reasons to love their Macs, and PC users even more reasons to switch," commented Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The following are the general changes applied to the program:

• iPhoto 08 automatically groups all photos into Events, each containing a day's worth of photos represented by a single picture
• iMovie '08 can import video from the latest AVCHD, HDV and DV camcorders, as well as from digital cameras, and displays a user's entire video library whether itÂ?s stored on internal or external drives
• .Mac Web Gallery is fully integrated with iPhoto '08 and iMovie '08, letting users share their photos and movies on the web with just a few clicks.
• iWeb '08 offers new features to make websites more interactive by adding live web widgets such as Google Maps, targeted ads using Google AdSense and photos or movies from .Mac Web Galleries
• GarageBand '08 offers powerful new features for more advanced musicians, including multi-take recording to capture the best performance, arrangements to cut, copy and paste intros, verses and choruses, and support for 24-bit audio interfaces

iLife is currently on sale for suggested retail price of US$ 79 through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores, and Apple authorized resellers. If you want to know more about the latest version, click on our Read link below. It should take you to Apple's dedicated page for iLife 08.

 

According to MacRumors, Apple is building a stand-alone iWeb Pro application that will fit snug into the iLife software suite to enable small and medium enterprises to publish web content with ease.

For starters, the rumored product is a supposedly higher-end version of its predecessor. One can speculate that if it's integrated in iLife, it should be able to give users an easier time with multimedia content.

The details on the iWeb Pro buzz are still scarce. Will it be revealed in time for the Leopard's release? What new features does it carry? For now, we can only speculate. We'll give you a heads-up as soon as new word is forthcoming.

A lot of great things has been said about Mac products: they're innovative, great, and all that. But a great product is useless if the user doesn't live up to his end of the bargain (such as not installing a decent anti-virus or cluttering your RAM with useless apps). Anyhow, we're deviating from the topic here, someone over at MadMac did a little investigative report on the top 10 Mac memory hoggers. Here are the apps that made that list:

1. Safari - 487.79Mb
2. Photoshop - 258.71Mb
3. GarageBand - 201.59Mb
4. NeoOffice - 154.96Mb
5. Pages - 144.88Mb
6. iMovie HD - 132.48Mb
7. Keynote - 128.52Mb
8. iWeb - 110.89Mb
9. iDVD - 92.11Mb
10. iPhoto - 91.87Mb

These are averages, so others who might snoop about it might get a different result. If you noticed, most of these applications are Apple's own apps. All of them are very powerful and useful products, but then again, power does come with a price and in this case, the price you have to pay is the massive memory space it'll occupy. This doesn't make the Mac bad because if you think of it, Photoshop on Windows would probably use up a lot of memory too. Maybe Apple should give more RAM with their new line of computers.

iWeb is on the move to greener pastures and "anywhere" content publishing with the new iWeb 2, which will be bundled with the upcoming iLife '07 early next year.

So what's the deal with this "anywhere" content publishing feature?

Simply put, iWeb 2 allows you to publish online content - you guessed it - anywhere!

This new development will allow users to manage their iWeb page from any web browser. Although, the term "manage" here would be a bit limited, and would only encompass the functionalities of adding or deleting content. Well, limited as it may be, it's still managing, nonetheless.

As an added note, .Mac users get the perks with being able to update their online pages through their cell phones, paving the way for blog text and pictures to be linked to their iWeb site. From mobile to online, I'd say!

As another added note, for those who'd prefer to host their own sites somewhere else rather than on .Mac, iWeb 2 allows users to transfer the iWeb created content to certain websites like MySpace, in the same way that YouTube could be embedded in different sites.

As yet another added note (my, my, don't we have a lot of notes today?), iWeb 2 will support the creation of photo slideshows and film strips, and integration with iTunes, which will allow users to broadcast their songs online.

Together with their successful update for the iLife applications last May 16, 2006 (iDVD, iMovie, iWeb and iPhoto. iDVD 6.0.2), Apple makes iWeb even better with iWeb 1.1.1.

iWeb allows you to build beautiful websites with Apple-designed templates and view them with ease using iLife media browser. Blogging and Podcasting is a breeze with one-click .Mac Publishing.

In this version, comment and search support for blogs and podcasts published to .Mac have been refined. The updater will update your iWeb version 1.0, 1.0.1, or 1.1 if it is in your Applications folder and you have not changed its name.

Good news to iLife customers, Apple has released several software updates for iLife '06 applications like iDVD, iMovie, iWeb and iPhoto. iDVD 6.0.2 (5MB) update addresses issues with burning some 16:9 projects and improves overall stability. And now it allows you to use either a SuperDrive or compatible third-party DVD burner for your Hollywood-style DVDs.

Future filmmakers will love these updates for iMovie HD 6.0.2 (7MB). It addresses issues with Ken Burns rendering performance, scrubber bar editing performance theme image quality, PAL audio, and displaying iLife Sound Effects automatically in its iLife Media Browser. A 54.6MB installer is also available for those who want to upgrade their iMovie HD version 6.0 or 6.0.1 to a 6.0.2.

Better weblife equals iWeb 1.1 (88.8MB). Updates include comment support for blogs and podcasts (.Mac published sites only),blog search support (.Mac published sites only),usability improvements to themes and templates and image management fixes to improve site performance.

Updates to iPhoto 6.0.3 (13.9MB) addresses issues with the Photocasting of Smart Albums, sharing iPhoto libraries, and creating calendars and books. So whip out those photos you took on your honeymoon and share them with your loved ones in an instant.