REVIEW BY MARK EUSTACE: These days there are more and people using Macs – particularly iMacs and Macbooks.

The reason...because they are a just so easy to use, stable and do exactly what they should do – they very rarely fail or fall over.

I recently bought a 20'' iMac and really love it – in fact, I'm writing this review now on it using Word for the Mac.

One piece of software I really think is worth its weight in gold, and that it comes free with all new macs, is iLife – Apple's of suite of lifestyle applications.

The latest version iLife 09 is simply amazing.

With applications like iPhoto '09, iMove '09, Garageband '09, iWeb '09, and iDVD – there really is something for everyone.

I shall look at each of the applications in turn and reveal some of the fantastic features that each one has as well as some of my favourites.

iPhoto '09 – this has got to be one of the best digital photo organisational tools that I have ever used – it's simple to operate, but incredibly powerful at the same time.

The screen is broken down into sections. The middle or main part of the screen is where you view your albums and events as well as carrying out work on captioning them or manipulating their brightness or contract.

Down the left-hand side of the screen there are different sections to click in. Under a heading of library, you decide whether you want to see Events, Photos, Faces or Places.

Events are cool as you can organise your various photos into particular events. Been to a wedding recently, upload your pics, give the event a name and all of the photos will appear in there – you haven't got to manually create an album or caption all of the photos to be able to find them.

This is definitely my favourite way of displaying images – everything is very easy to find thanks to the fact that it uses one photo, which you can choose, to represent the entire event.

Photos – gives you access to ALL of the pictures in your library – but unlike Events it displays all of your pictures – still sectioned by events – but every single image you have.

Both are very useful views and it's down to preference which one you choose.

Faces – is definitely one of my favourites features and is unique to '09. As soon as you upload your digital pictures and click on Faces, you are presented with a headshot of everyone in your collection – one picture per person.

And using face recognition technology, iPhoto '09 will scan your library to find matching faces. It does a pretty good job to be honest, although it really depends on how good the picture was in the first place and the angle it was taken at. For a straight-on shot though it always tends to get it spot on which I still find amazing. Once you click on Faces, iPhoto displays its work and there should be a number of pics that it has managed to find automatically, followed by suggestions underneath where it wasn't quite sure. Simply tag the pictures as you would do in say Facebook and iPhoto '09 keeps a record of all the faces from your collection displayed on a cork board. Click on the face you want to view and all the pictures of that person are there – very cool!

Places – utilises GPS built-in to mobile phones and some digital cameras – and using maps plots the location where you pictures were taken. You can even edit the information manually so you can see where you've been on the map – click on the location pin opens those photos for viewing – a nifty little feature.

You can also create albums which you can then print out as a calendar, card, poster – you can even get them professionally printed if you have MobileMe account.

The whole programme oozes class from the second you load it – you can now even upload your pictures directly to Flickr or Facebook in just a few clicks. iPhoto '09 is worth the price of the software alone in my book.

iMovie '09 – I must confess to not having played much with this package as it turned out my Sony video camera was incompatible with iMovie. But what I did do was use to stock footage to play with the very powerful editing features which allow you to put a movie together in no time – similar to creating a slideshow in iPhoto...simple!

Once you've imported your footage, iMovie '09 displays in Event just like iPhoto '09 – all ready for you to start work on straight away.

To create a movie all you do is select clips and then drag them into the project timeline. Add more clips until you're ready and then select your music – because this is Apple, everything is available, just search your iTunes library for the song you want and drag it to the timeline.

Just like other video editing packages, you do everything manually or if you want to save time, Apple has created some amazing themes which add transitions and titles to your project instantly – you can then watch the whole thing in full screen before deciding to share it on the web or burn a disc to watch on your TV.

One of the new features is the Precision Editor which allows you to cut your clips exactly where you want without having to second guess – presented in a very simple drag and drop style.

You can even fix wobbly footage thanks to some new automatic stabilisation features – again, the results have to be seen to be believed. I recommend you check out Apple's website and watch their video demos of iMovie '09 – they're very impressive.

I particularly like the animated travel movie which uses an animated globe to depict where you are travelling to between two points. You can even make Indiana Jones-style travel maps with a flying red arrow over old fashioned maps or even a spinning globe.

iDVD is probably the weakest of all the packages as not a great deal has changed from previous iLife versions. Having said that it is still a great tool for putting together your own copyright-free (in other words, your own home movies) videos with intro sequences and

iWeb '09 – This is one of those packages that certain people will love and others will ignore. It used to be useful only for people with .Mac or MobileMe, as it's known now, accounts – but with the latest version of iWeb you can export you site directly to a server.

Again the software has the same feel as the rest of the suite and relies heavily on drag and drop for creating its content. It is very powerful and has some really great templates that can be instantly tweaked to make original looking websites. So if you have a hobby, a blog, a club or your own business, you can produce something that won't look like other iWeb designs.

Choose the template and then the type of page you want to include and then you can start tweaking by adding your own content and images.

I particularly like one of the new features which enables you to add web widgets to your page – I thought the countdown was really excellent – great if you're in a band and want to let people know how long it is to the gig – all this without any separate programming.

To have this included with such a suite of apps is a real boon and a definitely feather in Apple's cap!

Garageband '09 – unless you've been on a desert island for the past five years, you've bound to have heard someone muttering the name Garageband at some point.

If you have been on a desert island for five years, Garageband is a music application which has plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

Not only can you create a whole variety of musical styles using the inbuilt instruments and loops, but it will also teach you how to play guitar or piano via a series of interactive lessons – and they are very good.

The first time I played on Garageband I was instantly hooked. Just dragging and dropping a variety of loops into the timeline creating my own composition. To be honest, I lost complete track of time and realised I'd been composing for about an hour!

But loops are only a very small part of Garageband. Click on the section Learn To Play and you will be taken to a number of videos which teach you the basics of playing the piano and guitar. The first time you load up you will only have two videos, but a quick trip to the Lesson Store means you'll be able to download the rest of the lessons for free. If you want to learn specific songs, there are a number of artist videos, including Sting, that teach you how to play – of course, they're not free...musicians have got to live off something!

One of my favourite sections is Magic Garageband. Here you select the style you want to listen to or create and click choose. A stage appears with a number of instruments playing. By clicking each one of the instruments you can change its type – say a double bass to an electric bass – which give the music a completely new feel. Once you're happy with your mix, you can click to open the arrangement in Garageband and start changing bits, adding your own parts, even record a lead vocal or guitar part part – you basically get to jam along with your own band...and the best bit is that they won't drink all of your beer, run off with your partner or need paying!

Seriously, Garageband is an excellent tool if you fancy having a dabble at making music but don't want to shell out straight away on dedicated music recording packages like Logic.

Garageband certainly does more than wet you feet, but for a fraction of the cost.

What Apple has created with its various applications in iLife '09 is definitely worth commending – I have been impressed with all of the apps, and like I say some people will use certain ones to others, but overall iLife '09 is definitely worth investigating.

Check out www.apple.com for more information.