Daring Fireball’s John Gruber runs through some of the iMovie stabilization techniques and how they can be applied. “What I’ve found is that iMovie won’t apply any stabilization at all to a clip that contains any portions which are too shaky to stabilize,” Gruber explains. “But if you break that clip up into two separate clips — editing out the blurry “whipping around” frames — iMovie will then stabilize the separate clips.”

The below video is a great example of iMovie’s stabilization capabilities from Beau Colburn. As explained, the end result is a much more heavy feeling video. “The end result seems to add a certain “weight” to the video, in that it has the feel of being shot with a heavier camera that wouldn’t shake so much in your hand, versus the superlight Mino. It’s not going to eliminate all shakes, but it can certainly minimize them in the right situations.”

Maclife’s Roberto Baldwin has managed to get iPhoto’s new face recognition to work on animals, cats specifically. “Once a base face is established, iPhoto begins finding the person, or animal, on its own. At that point, you just need to confirm the animals face in the Faces’ “Confirm Name” menu.” However, not all impressions of the new facial recognition feature are that great. Some readers in the MacRumors forums are not that impressed with how it performs. “I’ve just tagged myself, and the the suggestion of who it thought were me ranged from everyone from my gran, my two year old niece, and an alarming number of other women (I’m a guy),” a reader explains.

Crunchgear went in depth with iLife ‘09, and overall the reactions are pretty positive. Aside from some minor discrepancies, or rather negligence in attention from Apple, all seems well received. “The most prominent additions are Faces and Places. Places uses embedded GPS data to place your photos on a map and you can use this information to make map-based video travelogues. Although this is great for iPhone shots – the iPhone embeds GPS coordinates in every photo it takes – it’s not so great for owners of non-GPS enabled cameras.”

In regards to iMovie, Crunchgear explains that the new stabilization features mentioned above are great, however the lack of slow motion control and audio editing is still disappointing.

Early impressions about the new Garageband have also been positive for the most part. The software has been made even simpler, but not at the expense of usability. iDVD has only one new feature, a travelogue, and Apple doesn’t even mention iDVD on the physical box of the iLife ‘09 bundle.

Official guided tours can be found on Apple’s website, iMovie is here, and iPhoto is here.

Related posts:

1. Apple Introduces iLife ‘09
2. iLife ‘09 Set to Ship On Tuesday, January 20th?
3. [update] Adobe CS4 right around the corner.

The user interface is polished and very refined. iPhone owners will love the interaction while performing a search.

Our first impressions, the app responds surprisingly well, and Google’s voice interpretation efforts are clearly being showcased. The application allows you to speak into your device, and then converts the sound into a digital file which is sent to Google’s servers. The servers will then try and analyze the information to determine the best search results to display. Unlike many applications aimed at achieving the same functionality prior to this one, (not surprisingly) none have worked as well as Google’s.

Search results are displayed quickly and are very easy to navigate. This is why we love Google.

After some initial trouble communicating with Apple in getting the update pushed through to the App Store, it has finally been made available. You can download the app here.

If you are familiar with, or have used either “Say Where!” (link) or “Say Who” (link), you’ll know that voice recognition on the iPhone has been nowhere near ready for public consumption. In order for user input to change so dramatically, and for a mass amount of people to adopt it, the inevitable lag in parsing the audio content would need to be greatly reduced. Google’s attempt at voice interpretation is a major step in the right direction. The application delivers search results fast, and with relative ease. Major phrases are understood, and even less common words and phrases are interpreted well. Overall our initial reaction to the application is great.

Interestingly, Apple has recently been rumored to be working on some visual enhancements to search results as we know them today. Specifically, speculation has led us to believe that Apple will be utilizing Google’s back-end search abilities, and enhancing the way data and search results are presented.

Related posts:

1. Google’s Voice Recognition Search App Now Expected on Monday
2. Google Unveils SearchWiki, Customizable Search Results
3. Weekly Recap: Google, App Store, Rumors, Updates & Delays

Steve Jobs, the name within itself is synonmous with Apple, the iPod, iPhone, cutting-edge innovation and devotion to perfection. The Apple CEO has become so mystifying, yet so culturally shape-shifting, that a sneak peak into his mind would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

With Inside Steve’s Brain, Wired News Editor Leander Kahney provides an accurate, honest and intriguing look into the mind behind one of the greatest innovators of all time. What separates this book from the vast mountains of Apple literature, is Kahney’s elegant approach to the narrative. The book is up-to-date, relevant and most importantly, factual. As a long time Jobs follower myself, I found Kahney’s deep knowledge of the subject immensely intriguing and engaging.

Many books have attempted to chronicle Jobs and Apple in the past, but none have come across quite as effortlessly interesting as Inside Steve’s Brain. Kahney is able to seamlessly weave together quotes, elements of Apple’s history, interviews and a deep understanding of the culture within a joyful, enjoyable read.

With respect to modern culture and what is happening now, Kahney refrains from delving too deeply into the past. After a brief jaunt through Jobs’ experience at NeXT, coming back to save Apple, and his relentless pursuit to perfect OS X, the book delves into the backend of Jobs’ brain, with rather intricate detail. Kahney’s passion clearly shines through in the book, yet his ability to stay focused is a major perk for the reader. When writing about a subject so culturally significant as the era of Apple and Steve Jobs, many writers have the tendency to get swept away in “passionate” rants and blurry details. Kahney, on the other hand, keeps the experience crisp, focused and to the point.

“At every turn of his career, Steve Jobs has inspired employees, lured software developers, and snagged customers by invoking a higher calling. For Jobs, programmers don’t work to make easy-to-use software; they’re striving to change the world. Apple’s customers don’t buy Macs to work on spreadsheets; they’re making a moral choice against the evil monopoly of Microsoft.”

The above quote is taken from chapter five, which is titled “Passion: Putting a Ding in the Universe.” It’s here that Kahney truly delves into the inner-workings of Steve Jobs. Showcasing how Apple has time and again fought against the grain, yet somehow manages to emerge on top, Kahney breaks down not only Jobs, but many of the top tier employees at Apple, providing a window into the enormously impressive braintrust that is Apple Inc.

Touching upon everything from life in Silicon Valley, Apple’s terrifying backdating scandal and Jobs’ alter-ego, the meat of the book contains an immense spread of information, all pieced together to create an informative, intelligent read.

Whether Jobs is saving a life’s worth of documents for his own memoirs or not, is still unconfirmed. But his lack of participation in the book isn’t shocking in the slightest. Even without a direct interview from Jobs, Kahney delivers home the essence of Apple, while weaving together an immense understanding of the culture. If you haven’t by now, pick up the book and give it a twirl.

[Inside Steve's Brain]

Related posts:

1. Apple’s Health Disclosures About Steve Jobs Lead to SEC Review
2. How Much Longer Will Steve Jobs Be Apple’s CEO?
3. Hollywood’s Crippling Dependency on Steve Jobs