ife '11, the latest version of Apple's consumer media suite, includes several apps, but only the three tentpoles—Garageband, iMovie, and iPhoto—were updated for the 2011. Since the advent of the Mac App Store, those three apps are now available as standalone programs for the first time, at the incredible value price of $14.99. The suite comes free on new Macs, of course, and it's Mac-only. Though the equivalent suite from Microsoft—Windows Live Essentials—is always free and runs on Windows PCs, it falls a bit short of iLife's power and polish.
Aside from the three biggies, the full suite price of $49 also gets you the iWeb site design software and iDVD for authoring disc content. But it won't get you the suite's online component, MobileMe, which will set you back another $99 per year.

Windows' equivalent Live services, such as the SkyDrive online storage and photo galleries, by contrast, are free for up to a generous 25GB of storage. MobileMe, however, offers beautiful photo galleries you can sync with iPhoto, as well as hosting for your iWeb sites. If you've recently bought a Mac, the suite is preinstalled as part of your purchase, and if you bought the computer on or after October 20, 2010, you can get it all for a mere $6.99. But even if you don't qualify, the updated apps are a bargain, either as a group or individually.
iPhoto '11
$14.99

Probably the most-used member of the suite, iPhoto '11 has been improved in this version with a full-screen view that I wish the other suite members were capable of. Its integration with Facebook galleries, too, is unmatched—you can view your online Facebook galleries within the app, and even see Friends' comments alongside the pictures. As mentioned, you can also sync photo galleries with MobileMe galleries, and, while those are beautifully presented, they don't offer face- or geo-tagging. For basic photo organizing and editing, iPhoto is more than capable, and the '11 version's face tagging feature has been greatly improved. It's already had excellent retouching and red-eye reduction tools, but for real power in both photo correction and organizing, look to Apple's Aperture 3 ($79.99, 4.5 stars, Mac only) or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 ($299, 4 stars, Mac and Windows).
In addition to the Facebook sharing mentioned, iPhoto '11 adds attractive formatting for e-mails that you can send directly from within the program. Also new are more professional-quality greeting card and book choices. You also get new slideshow themes, the most impressive of which is the Places theme that utilizes the software's rich map integration.
iMovie '11
$14.99

iMovie broke new ground with its unique, combined timeline-storyboard editing view, and continues to be a marvel of ease and power among consumer video editing apps. The '11 version adds more powerful audio editing, one-step effects like slo-mo replay, and even the ability to detect scenes with people in them. But probably the most impressive—and fun—new feature is its Hollywood-style trailer creation. Just drag your own clips into a template, and their joined into a cinematic tour de force, timed to an emotional soundtrack performed by no less than the London Symphony Orchestra.
And iMovie is no slouch at standard video editing techniques, such as picture-in-picture, voiceovers, green-screen chroma keying, transitions, and even image stabilization. Once you've got the movie just right, the app lets you easily share it on Vimeo, YouTube, MobileMe, Facebook, or CNN iReport. You can also send your production to iTunes to watch on your iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV.
Garageband '11
$14.99

It's not a complete professional music studio like Ableton Live, Pro Tools, or Reason, but unlike those high-end apps, Garageband doesn't cost hundreds of dollars. For your 15 bucks, not only do you get respectable and intuitive recording and mixing software, but you also get a full set of piano and guitar lessons that rival a living teacher and a Magic Garageband that lets you try your chops with a virtual band. The mixing software can be augmented with downloads of more samples, loops, and tools, and you can buy lessons taught by pop stars who show you exactly how to play their hits. There are also 18 new basic lessons, and now you can track lesson progress with a history chart showing your performances' accuracy over time.
Garageband's Flex Time feature lets you correct or improve performances by stretching or compressing waveforms to better fit your tune. Groove Matching aligns all members of a group's tempo with that of the most rhythmic member. New virtual amps and stomp boxes give guitar players more acoustic possibilities and effects.
As with the other suite members, output options included sending to iTunes, creating an iPhone ringtone, or producing a podcast. For some upward mobility, you can open projects in Apple's pro-level Logic app, but not with the more widely used Pro Tools, Reason, or Ableton Live.
iDVD
Included with $49 iLife package

Though no longer a focus of Apple's media suite, you can still create beautiful DVD productions with iDVD, which offers an appealing selection of themes appropriate for most occasions. The integration with other Apple apps such as iMovie and iPhoto, too, make this a valuable suite member. A couple of drawbacks are the inability to author or burn Blu-ray discs, and the fact that you can't easily combine iMovie movies onto one disc project.
iWeb
Included with $49 iLife Package

This very simple-to-use WYSIWYG Web site design software not only allows hosting by MobileMe, but you can now publish to any host that accepts FTP. You choose from 28 well-designed themes and add widgets. You can't directly edit the HTML, but you can add widgets for things like RSS feeds, maps, and YouTube videos, and compatible HTML snippets. Many of these offer an excellent way to showcase content from your other iLife apps. You can also set up your site to automatically generate a Facebook update for site changes, but there's no Facebook widget to add to your iWeb page.