World’s most advanced gadget technology company, Apple has announced the Asia’s availability of its consumer software suite iLife 09, which includes upgrades to iPhoto 09, iMovie 09 and GarageBand 09.

New to iPhoto 09 is the ability to browse your photo collection by faces and places. A new way to organize your photos in iPhoto 09 is Faces, which automatically scans photos using face detection to identify specific persons in a picture and assign a name to them. From there you will be able to search for photos by a person’s name or through the new Faces View. Alternatively, the new feature can be used to create smart photo albums of groups of people such as family or friends easily in a matter of seconds. Another new feature in iPhoto 09 is Places, which automatically imports photo location data from a GPS-enabled camera to compile your photos by location into a map. Once iPhoto 09 knows where each photo is taken, you can easily explore your recent trip to, say Paris, using an interactive map. Don’t worry if you do not have a camera with geo-tagging capabilities because you will manually assign location information to any photo, group of photos or event. If you like sharing your photos online on Facebook and Flickr, iPhoto 09 allows you to publish photos and even includes assigned names and even retrieves name tags added on Facebook back to iPhoto 09.

If you are more into video editing, iMovie 09 brings to the table a new Precision Editor feature that allows users to skim and click on a magnified filmstrip to view clips up close and fine-tune them such as using sound from one clip with video from another. Another new addition to iMovie 09 is video stabilization that helps smoothen and reduce camera shake in clips added to your project. Other additions to iMovie 09 include new titles, transition effects, speed changes and animated travel maps ala the Indiana Jones films to add that professional touch to your movies.

Apple’s popular music editing software, GarageBand 09 now comes with pre-recorded instrument lessons that teach budding musicians how to play the piano and guitar. The lessons include some basic ones to learn the fundamentals at your own pace. GarageBand 09 also includes new guitar amp and stomp-box effects.

iLife is available now at $78 for a single user licence and $100 for a family pack through the Apple Store that allows the software to be installed on up to five computers. Users who have purchased a new Mac system from an Apple authorized reseller after January can upgrade iLife 09 for a minimal fee of $10 to have the software shipped over. For more details, please visit Apple iLife 2009 Website.