Yesterday I tried to open up iPhoto '09, and was greeted with a screen telling me that my iPhoto library needed to be updated. This was sort of odd, since I had run the program many times since the software update of June 4th bringing the program to version 8.0.3, but what the heck. I clicked on upgrade and the program crashed displaying one of the wonderfully unclear error screens of hex numbers.

After trying all the usual things like rebooting, resetting the PRAM and saying 'Candyman' three times in front of a mirror, I sheepishly gave up and called Apple. It turned out that this has been happening to many people. Up until two days ago, Apple had been capturing reports to find the source. I was told that they stopped capturing reports when they numbered around 3,000.

What Apple found was a bug in the 8.0.3 updater, and apparently the bug could bite just about anytime since it didn't necessarily rear its head directly after the update. The bug, in various incarnations with various solutions, is to be cursorily found in the support forums, but here is the authorized Apple fix:

Hold down the option key as you boot iPhoto and you'll see a screen like the one displayed here. Just choose your library (there should only be one) and iPhoto will boot normally. Problem solved! As of now the problem hasn't resurfaced for me, and according to Apple tech support, it shouldn't. This bug will be squashed in a future iPhoto update but for now it's easy to get around.

If you use Twitter as much as I do, then you're going to love iPhoto2Twitter, an iPhoto plugin from Blue Crowbar Software. While sending iPhone pictures to Twitter is a piece of cake, it usually takes more steps to prepare a photo on a Mac to become a photo-tweet.

The idea of iPhoto2Twitter is simple; as you're going through your iPhoto library checking out your photographic art works, you can tweet them with a few clicks. The plugin, which sells for €4.95 (approx. US$7.00), weighs in at a tiny 356 KB and works very well.

Once the plugin has been installed, tweeting photos is as easy as selecting them, choosing File > Export, and then clicking on the new iPhoto2Twitter tab. Enter your 140 characters of sparkling witticisms, choose a size for the photo, and then click Export to send the photo and tweet. I only found one issue with the plugin; as you can see, the "r" has disappeared from the name:
Setup is extremely fast, since you only need to enter your Twitter ID and password once. If it's stored in your keychain, iPhoto2Twitter will enter the information for you. If you use Aperture instead of iPhoto, never fear -- Blue Crowbar also sells Aperture2Twitter for €5.95 (approx. US$8.40).

As a Twitter user (@stevensande) with a huge gallery of photos, I'm going to love using iPhoto2Twitter to share my images with the world, and I'm sure you will too.

Update: Within an hour of this post, Steven from Blue Crowbar had noted the missing "r" in the app (caused by a missing font on my Mac) and released version 1.1 which uses a picture instead of text for the name. That's great service from a software developer!

We're back with another shot of Ask TUAW! This time we've got questions about getting WiFi in an older G4 PowerMac, creating photo contact sheets, blanking a display, automatically opening downloaded files, managing iPhone apps in iTunes, and more.

As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

Last week, Apple released iLife updates with typically terse descriptions. Dissatisfied with "...overall application stability improvements," I explored iPhoto 8.0.2 for obvious changes. Here's what I found.

First, Faces offers Address Book contacts as potential matches for unrecognized faces (based on initial letter), each labeled with an Address Book icon. Formerly, you'd be presented with the names of previously identified faces only.

Also, the label that identifies an unknown face has been changed from "unknown face" to "unidentified."

This one could be just in my head, but zooming in on the Places map with a double-click seems a lot faster now.

They're minor changes, but definitely welcome. Many people dismiss iPhoto, but as a snapshot professional, I love it.

Earlier today, Apple released updates for iWork '09, iWeb, iMovie, iPhoto and iLife Support. As usual, the cryptic descriptions of each disclose very little about their contents. Along with the usual "...overall application stability improvements," the iWeb update fixes FTP issues (what those are we don't know) and iPhoto fixes issues with Faces, Places, photo sharing, and slideshows.

You can grab them now via Software Update. They range in size from 1.4MB (iLife Support) to 88.8MB (iPhoto Update). A restart will be required. As usual, let us know if anything goes wonky after installation.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

This is a pretty selfish tip, because this issue has happened to me personally a few different times, and despite my many searches around the 'net, I've never found a quick, simple solution. So here you go: my suffering can be your gain.

Basically, iPhoto '08 and the iPhone don't always play nice -- sometimes, you'll take a bunch of pictures on your iPhone, bring them back to sync up with iPhoto '08, and whoops, iPhoto doesn't see them at all. You can see them on your iPhone, but iPhoto's "Import All" button is greyed out, and they're not showing on your screen (sometimes, I've gotten dotted lines where the pictures are -- I think this all has something to do with a corrupted cache that iPhoto keeps of what's on the iPhone). Fortunately, though it's frustrating, there's an easy fix. Open up Image Capture (you can find it in Spotlight or even Quicksilver if you swing that way) with your iPhone connected, hit the "Devices" menu item, and then "Browse Devices." You'll get a screen just like the one above, with your iPhone's name instead of mine.

Uncheck the "Connected" box, and then recheck it, and boom. Image Capture, and thus iPhoto, will see all of your pictures and happily upload them. Is it voodoo? Sure -- we still don't know why iPhoto loses its place every once in a while (like I said, I'm thinking a corrupted cache somewhere along the line). But it works.

Apparently, to go along with today's hardware updates, Apple has also pushed down a number of updates via both Software Update and at Apple's Support Download site. The updates include:

• iPhoto 8.0.1 which "improves overall stability and addresses minor issues in a number of areas, including internet connectivity, keyword import, and slideshow export."
• iLife Support 9.0.1 which "improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues. It is recommended for all users of Aperture, iLife '09, and iWork '09."
• AirPort Client Update 2009-001 for Intel Macs, which "addresses issues with roaming and network selection in dual-band environments."
  
• AirPort Utility 5.4.1 (Mac) for managing the Airport Express, Extreme, and Time Capsules.
• AirPort Utility 5.4.1 Windows - ditto for the dark side.

Check your Software Update or download them direct from Apple. Unfortunately, this set of updates will require a restart.

Being the Kool-aid sipping, Apple fanatic that you are, I'm sure you have already updated to the latest versions of iLife and iWork, right? If you have then it's not unlikely for you to be experiencing the same kind of problem that Rob Griffiths over at Macworld is dealing with as well.

Following his recent upgrade to the latest (and greatest!) version of iPhoto, Rob noticed some inconsistencies in the way Help was providing him information. Specifically, he had trouble with locating documentation on the new Faces feature when navigating through iPhoto's Help menu and launching the Help application. Rob was able to locate the documents he sought by using Leopard's Spotlight-esque Help-searching feature and querying for "Faces."

During our review of iPhoto '09 we did not come across any issues with the Help documentation. But we here at the TUAW headquarters at the Winter office in Hawaii are too stubborn to read directions. Rob's problem seems to be an old one that has occasionally plagued users through many versions of OS X. He points to another article at Macworld by Chris Breen which covers some tactics for wrangling Help back into line.

The culprit in this whodunit case turns out to be Help's cache file (in the library with the candlestick). According to Rob, "Help relies heavily on cache files to present its information to the user." For reasons unknown, upgrading an application does not necessarily cause the cache files to rebuild. In order to force the system to accomplish this, first quit iPhoto then navigate to the current user's home directory -> Library -> Caches (~/Library/Caches) and locate "com.apple.helpui." Once the cache file is located, drag it into the trash and restart iPhoto. Boom! You now have a working-as-intended iPhoto Help viewer.

While any application's help cache can become obsolete, Rob notes an increase in likelihood for Apple's own applications. Whether you're experiencing problems with an Apple app or not, deleting the cache file is very likely the solution. Have you had any issues with an application's help viewer? If so, which app was it and how did you resolve it? Let us know in the comments!

As Apple continues a march toward all Intel-based computers, those hanging on to perfectly good G5 and G4 computers are left to watch features slowly bleed off.

In the recently released iLife '09 package, iPhoto has left some owners of older Macs wondering where their slide show transitions have gone.

Apple has now released a support document detailing what is missing:

The number of slideshow themes available in iPhoto '09 depends on your Mac's processor and, in some cases, available vRAM:

• Intel-based Mac computers, PowerPC G5 with more than 64MB of vRAM: All iPhoto '09 slideshow themes are available.
• PowerPC G5 with less than 64MB of vRAM: Only Classic, Ken Burns, Scrapbook, Sliding Panels are available.
• PowerPC G4: Classic and Ken Burns are available.

Apple has also changed the minimum specs on Garageband '09, noting that one of the apps most desired features is Intel only: GarageBand Learn to Play requires an Intel-based Mac with a dual-core processor or better.

It is also rumored that the next version of OS X, Snow Leopard will completely drop support for PowerPC processors. Last year, iMovie dropped PowerPC support, so it looks like the handwriting is on the wall. Apple's push to get consumers and businesses to change to the newer Intel platform will get less and less subtle as time goes on.

An intrepid tipster emailed us late yesterday, and described an interesting challenge: He figured that if Apple didn't develop iPhoto's face recognition technology themselves, who did?

He disassembled the app using OTX, a developer tool based on Apple's otool, and found the areas of the software related to facial recognition. There, the string "OKAO" appeared, including in the "FaceRecognitionManager" object.

OKAO Vision is a product from Japanese firm Omron Global that -- hey hey -- recognizes faces and their various features. Does the face have big eyes? Are they in trouble? What is the person looking at? The transliteration "okao" apparently means "face" in Japanese, according to their website.

"OMRON is committed to raising the accuracy of face detection so that OKAO Vision can be used in many different lifestyle occasions and social settings," their website reads. iPhoto '09 must fit in with that plan. Omron has other facial recognition products, including software for mobile phones, and a camera-plus-hardware-plus-software console that can accurately tell if a person is smiling or not.

The software works reasonably well, according to Gizmodo, but does pick up some false positives in patterns, or, say, Mount Rushmore.

Apple issued a press release first thing this morning, noting that iLife '09, announced at Macworld, is shipping tomorrow for $79.

We covered iLife '09's major features, including face detection and geotagging for iPhoto, guitar and piano lessons for GarageBand, and another re-imagining of iMovie.

If you purchased a new Mac on or after January 6, you can upgrade to iLife '09 for $10. iLife is also available in a family pack: five licenses for $99. A box set that includes iLife, iWork, and Mac OS X is $169, and individual music lessons are available separately for $5 each.

iLife '09 requires Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later. It's available for purchase (among many locations) in the Apple Store online, at Apple retail stores, and Amazon.com.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Earlier today at Macworld Expo, Phill Schiller announced that availability of iLife '09. Not a huge surprise, as a few of us guessed we'd see an iLife update today, but it does offer some cool new features.

iPhoto

iPhoto has been updated with two features called "Faces" and "Places." Faces, as you may have guessed, lets you tag photos by subjects' faces, similar to what Facebook and Picasa have done. iPhoto makes its best guess as to the identity of a subject based on previous tags and asks for confirmation. Of course, Phil called it "..the best technology we've found for face detection."

Places allows for geotagging of photos. Some cameras and the 3G iPhone will use GPS information to tag photos on longitude and latitude. iPhoto then organizes those photos by location, or "place." Also, Flickr and Facebook support are built-in. Those without GPS access can retro-tag photos by hand.

Other iPhoto features include enhanced slideshows and travel books.

Click below to read more about iLife '09

Update: Reader Lou purchased iLife '09 today, and says his receipt shows a ship date of Feb. 09.

For full Macworld Expo coverage, bookmark the TUAW Macworld Expo 2009 landing page. If you missed our liveblog coverage, you can review it here.

In Apple's ongoing effort to add camera support for RAW formats, it has just released a new update. In update 2.4, Apple added support (for both Aperture 2 and iPhoto '08) for the following Digital Cameras that shoot in RAW format:

• Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Canon PowerShot G10
• Pentax K2000/K-m
• Leaf AFi-II 6
• Leaf AFi-II 7
• Leaf Aptus-II 6
• Leaf Aptus-II 7
• Leica M8.2

In addition, Apple notes that this update "...also addresses issues related to specific cameras and overall stability." You can download this update via Software Update or by downloading the installer package from Apple's Support Download website.


Thanks for the tip, Miguel!

We're in the middle of gift guide season right now, but here's a gift that would fit great on any Mac user's list: Throwboy has designed a set of throw pillows after some of the Dock's most famous icons, including iTunes, iPhoto, Dashboard, and the Finder. They're 100% fleece, hand-crafted, and look cuddly as all get out.

Sure, a computer icon might seem like a strange thing to squeeze, but hasn't Finder been there for you in the worst of moments before? No reason that shouldn't remain the case outside the computer as well. You can pick up a pillow (for yourself or anyone else this holiday season) for $29 each, or $149 for the whole set. They ship in about 3-6 weeks, so there's no guarantee you'll get it by Christmas, unfortunately, but as their order page says "handmade takes a while."