Apple equipping all Macs with iLife '09 for Tuesday launch

Apple will officially launch iLife '09 this Tuesday and is in the process of making sure that each new Mac that leaves its retail or online stores will include a copy of the new digital lifestyle software.

As part of the launch procedures, Apple retail stores nationwide will undergo a refresh this week, complete with iLife '09 signage.

Sometime this afternoon or early evening, retail employees will also be fitting all of their existing Mac inventory with iLife '09 drop-ins — essentially DVD copies of the software suite that are slipped into existing retail boxes, which the user must then install on their own.

New Mac orders leaving the Apple's manufacturing facilities later this week should include the software pre-installed.

iLife '09 includes major upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, which introduce new ways to organize and manage photos, create movies and learn to play music.

Building on its ability to automatically organize photos into Events, iPhoto '09 introduces Faces and Places as new ways to organize and manage photos using face detection, face recognition and GPS geo-tagging technologies.

Meanwhile, iMovie '09 expands on its fast movie creation capabilities by adding features such as the new Precision Editor, video stabilization, advanced drag and drop, and animated travel maps.

For aspiring musicians, GarageBand '09 debuts a whole new way to learn to play piano and guitar with 18 basic lessons and optional lessons from top artists such as Sara Bareilles, John Fogerty, Norah Jones and Sting.

iLife '09 also includes iWeb '09 for authoring custom websites and iDVD '09 for creating DVDs. iWeb '09 also adds new iWeb Widgets, such as iSight video and photos, a countdown timer, YouTube video and RSS feeds.

iLife Up-To-Date

While iLife '09 will be included with every new Mac sold from Tuesday onward, the software is also available as a $79 upgrade for existing Mac owners. Customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after January 6, 2009 are entitled to participate in the iLife Up-To-Date upgrade program, which offers a copy of the software for a shipping and handling fee of $9.95.

iLife '09 requires Mac OS X version 10.5.6 or later, a Macintosh computer with an Intel processor, a PowerPC G5 or 867 MHz or faster PowerPC G4, 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended), QuickTime 7.5.5 or later (included), a DVD drive for installation and 4GB of available disk space.