Apple suite's latest upgrade puts power of publishing in easy reach

Designed to serve a digital lifestyle, Apple Computer's iLife '06 suite comes with major upgrades to the iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD and GarageBand applications. It also adds a key publishing tool to help create podcasts.

The first three of these applications deal with imaging - still or moving - and work better than the previous editions. All have that simple but well-designed Apple interface. These tools also handle large amounts of data with considerable ease.

When it comes to iPhoto 6, Apple apparently remains the 'king of recognition'. I have yet to meet someone who plugged in a digital camera that iPhoto did not recognise. More popular platforms have had trouble doing that.

Remember when you wanted to send that picture to Aunt Agatha in Berkshire but the resolution was so high it broke her e-mail client? Well, iPhoto 6 also allows you to send smaller files as e-mail attachments. That is wonderful for the resolution-challenged.

Users can also share images directly from within iPhoto 6 via .Mac - Apple calls this photocasting, which is like podcasting for photos.

Putting some Hollywood-style effects to home video has become easier with iMovie HD 6. It also allows multiple projects to be opened at once. In addition, video clips can be moved among projects. This tool is the easiest way for Mac users to make video podcasts.