This is the first in a series of articles reviewing Apple’s iLife 06 software suite. Applications will be reviewed in this order: iPhoto, GarageBand, iWeb, iMovie, iDVD, and iLife summary. I will not be reviewing iTunes because iTunes 6 has been out for a while, and it’s ubiquitous. Also, the score on this page reflects this application only, not the suite as a whole. So let’s get started.

iPhoto began its life on January 7, 2002 at MWSF 2002. Version 1.0 was sluggish, but showed promise. Version 2 was still slow, but a few welcome enhancements were added. Version 3 never existed, because Apple likes the number 4 (or they wanted all apps to be version 4 for iLife 04, which included GarageBand 1.0). Version 4 made using iPhoto fast enough to use without wanting to strangle yourself. Version 5 was iPhoto’s first major overhaul; it sported a revamped user interface, and many new features. Version 6 is not quite the same quantum leap that version 5 was, but it builds off a very solid foundation. The result is, without a doubt, the best version of iPhoto yet.

The iLife 06 box is much smaller than previous versions’ boxes. The box is only slightly larger than a CD jewel cases and about as thick as three jewel cases. It’s probably the smallest software box I’ve ever seen, and it makes sense; there’s no need for a large box when all you toss in there is a CD or DVD, a small information pamphlet, and license information (and an iWork trial).

If you’ve used iPhoto 5 first thing you’ll notice after upgrading to iPhoto 6 (well, after iPhoto bugs you about updating your photo library structure as usual) is that iPhoto--and all iLife 06 apps--have taken the more streamlined iTunes 5/6 look, right down to the more squared window corners. At first, I was critical of the iTunes look, but it has grown on me since then, In iPhoto, it actually looks quite good. It looks like Apple’s UI future, between the unified Aqua look and this new look, will be silky smooth. Aside from a new look, the basic layout and function of the main window remains unchanged. There is a curious new button at the bottom of the window, but I’ll get to that later.

iPhoto 6 is billed as being much more responsive, although version 5 was already generally very responsive. iPhoto 6 is indeed a bit faster, especially in scrolling. Now the scroll thumb keeps up with the mouse when it is dragged, even on my 1.2 GHz iBook G4. However, iPhoto cheats a little bit. Sometimes when you drag the scroll thumb quickly, the scroll thumb keeps up, but the photo thumbnails don’t update or don’t scroll as smoothly. That is, even though the scroll thumb keeps up, the thumbnails don’t. This is made up, however, by a bezel-like window that hovers over the window and tells you the month and year of the photos at that particular spot as you scroll through. Chalk this up as a win for responsiveness! The time it takes to load your library is improved somewhat as well. Apple claims iPhoto can handle up to 250,000 photos with no problems. I would love to see that, but I have nowhere near 250,000 photos in my library. Zooming in and out on thumbnails is also very smooth, too, although the thumbnails (but not photos) decrease in quality while they are resized; they return to full quality when you stop resizing the thumbnails. Again, I see this as a good thing. Sure, it looks a little less pretty for a few seconds, but I think we’ll all find a way to survive.

Now it’s time for the really fun stuff: new features! iPhoto includes several new features, including card and calendar creation, Photocasting (Podcasting applied to photos), additional editing tools, as well as full-screen mode. iPhoto did lose one feature, however; web gallery creation has been moved from iPhoto into Apple’s new iWeb application. I’ll save that for another day.

The card and calendar creation is an outgrowth of the existing book creation feature, and use the same template concept used in Pages and Keynote. And like Pages and Keynote, there is a good number of polished, visually-appealing templates, complete with placeholder text and graphics. iPhoto allows you to make both greeting cards and postcards; You can order cards or print them out yourself. Overall, the cards turn out well. The one feature that I see missing is the ability to add text to the front of the cards as well.  Calendar creation is much like creating books in that you can choose to have photos automatically placed (autoflow) or place them yourself. Calendars can also use iCal calendars; if you want your work calendar from iCal included in your calendar, you can do that with the click of a checkbox. You can also have it show national holidays for your country via a pop-up list. Calendar creation works well in my experience. If you’ve made a book in iPhoto, you already know how to make a card or calendar.

Editing features are pretty much identical with iPhoto 5’s, except for the addition of the Effects panel. The Effects panel seems to be taken straight out of Photo Booth; it allows you to apply some effects to your photo with a single click, and gives you previews of what the effect will do to your photo. And if you haven’t saved the changes to your photo, you can click the “current” button. Aside from black and white and sepia, the effects panel also includes an antique effect, color boost and color fade, edge blur, Matte, and Vignette effects.

Perhaps the coolest new editing tool is full-screen mode. Remember that new button in the iPhoto window I told you about (it has an image of a box with an outward-pointing arrow at each corner)? Click that button and iPhoto will go into full-screen mode. Full-screen mode shows the photo on the entire screen (duh) and hides the tools and menubar. The tools show again when you mouse to the bottom of the screen; the menubar and thumbnail bar appears when you mouse to the top of the screen. As useful as this is by itself, iPhoto also includes a “Compare” feature, where you can compare up to eight photos at one time. It’s great, for example, for viewing multiple photos of the same subject and deciding which ones to keep.

Photocasts are like Podcasts for photos. Like podcasts, they can be subscribed to or viewed via an RSS feed. Creating a photocast is simple: select an album (it doesn’t work with smart albums), and click the “photocast” button in the toolbar. Select the photo size (actual size, large, medium, small), whether the photocast updates when you update the album, whether you want to password-protect the podcast, and click “Publish.” It’s pretty straightforward and easy to use. However, I would like it if it worked with smart albums as well. I don’t see why it couldn’t, but I guess Apple figured that a smart album would be updated to frequently. Who knows.

Aside from a few features I’d like to see (more flexibility in cards and cards and calendars) and the expected new version bugs, iPhoto 6 is a winner. I wish I had a RAW camera to test iPhoto 6’s RAW support, but everything I have tested is excellent. I would not suggest using iPhoto 6 in a mission-critical situation where it is a key part of your workflow until the bugs settle out, but otherwise iPhoto 6 is a great upgrade.