Apple’s new iMac comes loaded with iLife ‘08 software.

But Apple’s bigger change was a major update to its iLife software suite, which comes loaded on all its Macintosh models — not just the new iMac — and can be purchased by existing Mac owners for $79. The suite includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb and GarageBand — programs that help average people organize, edit, share and publish photos, videos and music. These uncluttered and intuitive programs have been best of breed, so Apple’s decision to update iLife is intriguing, if for nothing other than to see what major improvements could really be made.

This week I tested iLife ‘08 on a new iMac — the midrange $1,499 20-inch model with a 2.4 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a 320-gigabyte hard drive. I focused especially on iPhoto and iMovie, the anchors of the suite and the programs that got the biggest overhauls. One significant change in iPhoto is its new method of organizing photos by sorting images into “Events” according to their dates, rather than by the batch in which they were uploaded to your computer. The iMovie program underwent a more drastic overhaul, adding a library for storing all of your video clips and a new interface for organizing those clips into a movie that dispenses with the traditional timeline design long used in digital video software.

Both iPhoto and iMovie now use “skimming,” a rich feature that lets you scan through photos or videos just by passing your cursor over a thumbnail. And if you have an account on Apple’s online .Mac service ($100 annually), both programs offer effortless one-click photo or video uploading to a “Web Gallery,” where you can share your content. Videos can also be uploaded directly to YouTube without a .Mac account.

Before delving into the software, a quick word about the new iMac is in order. It’s an improvement on an already stellar computer, with beefed-up specs. There are four models, from $1,199 to $2,299, in two screen sizes — 20 inches and 24 inches. The base 20-inch model costs $1,199, a price cut of $300 from the prior 20-inch model. The base 24-inch model now costs $1,799, down $200 from the old model of the same size.

The biggest adjustments for users will be the screen and keyboard, which took me a few days to get used to. The new iMac comes with a glossy screen, which makes colors pop but also reflects more background light than a traditional matte display.

Radical Keyboard

The keyboard is radical-looking. It’s much flatter and sleeker than typical desktop PC keyboards. I found it easier to type with, but in an attempt to make it more like that of a laptop keyboard, Apple rearranged some built-in key functions, which was confusing at first. If you hate it, you can still use an older Mac keyboard or any USB keyboard, even those meant for Windows computers. For now, the new iMac offers only a wired keyboard. A small wireless model is due in a few weeks.

I quickly picked up on how to use the new features in iPhoto and iMovie, thanks to unintimidating, self-explanatory icons. The Events feature in iPhoto might be a pain for users who are transferring numerous already-organized albums from the previous version of iPhoto into this one, as not all albums will perfectly translate into Events. But it’s a great improvement over the old method — and over Windows photo programs I’ve tried — for organizing newly shot photos.

The new version of iPhoto will look familiar to anyone who used the older version; its layout is the same, with a list of your photo library on the far left and a large display area to the right of this list. I uploaded a couple of albums at once, and each was automatically sorted into its own event because the photos from each were associated with two different dates.

Skimming the Thumbnails

A few new features stand out at a glance. When photos are grouped into Events, these are neatly marked with one large thumbnail image that is selected to represent the entire pile of photos. By passing my cursor over this top thumbnail, I skimmed through all of the images in that Event in mere seconds. A button labeled Web Gallery instantly uploads images to a .Mac account, and a list of photos that are shared online appears in iPhoto.

The updated iPhoto automatically groups photos into Events represented by thumbnails that make for faster photo browsing.

Rather than deleting images that I didn’t want in a particular Event, I selected the new Hide icon, which takes marked images away from view but notes the number of hidden photos at the top of the Event as a reminder. Hidden photos can also appear within the Event, denoted with red X marks.

Double clicking on any image now magnifies it without opening editing functions, letting users quickly see larger versions of each shot. Editing in iPhoto was already straightforward, but new options provide more customization; for example, red eyes can be removed with a cross hairs (like the old iPhoto) or by using a circle that manually adjusts to match a subject’s pupil size.

The new version of iMovie is deliberately designed to steer away from the familiar interface most consumer video-editing programs use, which was borrowed from professional-grade software. Instead of the usual timeline of clips, iMovie employs a more free-form canvas where clips and effects can be assembled. Apple knows that this may irk people used to the traditional method, but believes it will make video editing much less intimidating for casual users.

To test iMovie, I used a high-definition Panasonic video camera to capture amusing moments around my office and brought it with me to Boston for three days so I could document my sister’s move into her new place (the moving guys were thrilled). In both places, I turned the camera on and off numerous times, capturing short clips.

Instant Recognition

My video camera was instantly recognized when I plugged it into the iMac, prompting iMovie to generate thumbnail images of each clip. Times when the camera was turned on or off were clearly marked, and I chose the clips I wanted to import. Transferred content appeared in the new iMovie library at the bottom half of a screen, and I dragged and dropped clips to the top half of the screen to add them to a project. Clips can be selected by using your cursor to draw a yellow box around the whole clip or just a part of the clip that you’d like to use. Skimming through content is helpful here — as I moved my cursor from left to right through clips, the audio and video played in the top right of the screen, letting me see and hear footage so as to select exactly where to trim a clip.

The new interface for iMovie is more approachable for everyday users, with a smart library that organizes Projects and Events into two different libraries.

After dragging various clips to the top half of the screen, I added special features like music, sound effects and title slides to my project. These were all added the same way my clips were: by dragging and dropping to put the right thing where it needed to go. Music from iTunes can be used with videos, or Apple provides over 500 different sound effects and tunes.

Still photos can be incorporated into iMovie using a “Ken Burns” effect (panning across a still image) to keep the video’s pace moving along. And any videos captured on a digital camera that were uploaded into iPhoto can be retrieved and used from within iMovie. If footage is too dark, it can be automatically or manually adjusted, like images in iPhoto.

Polished Results

In just about 15 minutes, I created a short movie that mashed together various clips from three days of moving. I added titles to introduce the movie, and transitions in between each clip that looked really polished.

I uploaded photos and videos to the .Mac Web Gallery, checking off the privacy option (passwords can be set to limit who sees the content). Other options to check include showing titles of photos; enabling a feature that lets others upload images to my gallery via a set email address; and letting other people download high-resolution versions of my content. In one step, videos can also be uploaded to YouTube.com or transferred to your iTunes library, where they can be viewed on a PC or Mac, or moved over to an iPod or iPhone.

The new programs in iLife ‘08 are a pleasure to use, and the new iMac is a great way to experience them.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Email: mossbergsolution@wsj.com.

But text blogs are yesterday’s news. The hottest new trend in personal online content creation is something called a podcast, essentially a short personal radio show or audio blog. They can be downloaded and played back on a computer or a portable music player like Apple’s iPod, whence the genre draws its name.

Podcasts range from slick productions offered by big media companies and amateur broadcasters; to clever and entertaining offerings from smart, undiscovered talent; to crude diatribes and snooze-inducing lectures by people the mainstream media proved wise not to hire. Some are just talk, some include music. Some sound like they were recorded on a 1971-vintage RadioShack cassette recorder, others — even from amateurs — are studio-quality.

These audio blogs, once the province mainly of techies, took a big step toward the mainstream last week when Apple began offering thousands of them, free, through its market-leading iTunes music store and iTunes music software. Anyone can submit a podcast for distribution through iTunes, and any iTunes user can download it. The company doesn’t charge a penny for listing or downloading podcasts.

So, this week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I set out to see how easy it is to get and create podcasts. The good news is that, with its iTunes move, Apple has made receiving podcasts as simple as downloading music. The bad news is that neither Apple nor anyone else has made it nearly as simple to create a podcast and get it online as it is to create and post a text and photo blog. Until that happens, podcasting won’t be truly mainstream.

Getting and Listening to Podcasts

Since its introduction last week, the iTunes podcast directory has become very popular, and is the easiest way to get and listen to podcasts. Apple has over 4,000 podcasts listed on iTunes today, and has been overwhelmed with new submissions. I expect that most of the podcasts on the Web will be available from Apple within a month or two.

To get podcasts from Apple, you don’t need an iPod or an Apple computer. You will, however, have to upgrade your copy of iTunes to version 4.9, and, if you plan to listen to podcasts on your iPod, you’ll need to download and install Apple’s latest iPod updater software.

To find podcasts, you merely enter the iTunes Music Store from inside the iTunes software, and go to the podcast section. There, you can search for a podcast, or browse through various categories of podcasts to find one you like.

You can either download a single instance of a podcast, or subscribe to the podcast. If you subscribe, iTunes will display new episodes of the podcast as they become available. You can unsubscribe if you tire of the material.

To get the podcasts onto your iPod, you just perform a manual or automatic synchronization, just as you do with music. In our tests, all of this worked quite well.

The only twist to the iTunes podcast experience stems from Apple’s decision to ban from its listings podcasts it deems to be pornographic, or to contain hate speech, or copyrighted material, such as music, which the podcaster lacks the right to distribute.

Apple also labels some podcasts it accepts as “Explicit,” if they contain obscenity or sexual content, but aren’t considered pornography. To enforce these rules, Apple reviews each submitted podcast. But there are flaws in that system. First of all, it delays the appearance of podcasts for as much as a week after they are submitted. Secondly, it means some podcasts won’t ever be included on iTunes, and will have to be located manually. Third, at least in its first week, Apple applied its own standards haphazardly.

In our tests, we found a number of openly pornographic podcasts that had slipped by Apple’s reviewers, and others that should have been labeled “Explicit,” but weren’t. We stumbled onto one podcast titled, “She Said, She Said” in the Talk Radio category, and found that its first entry was all about an unmentionable four-letter word. This didn’t upset us, but it might bother a parent whose child downloaded it.

And Apple reviews only the initial episode of a podcast. If the topic changes next week from M&M’s to S&M, Apple won’t know about it. We don’t care what Apple lists and doesn’t list, but, as long as it says it has rules, the company should apply them. Apple admits the errors, and says it is cleaning them up. The company also points out that it will be relying on consumers to use a feedback feature to point out problems in the future.

Creating a Podcast

There are three steps to creating a podcast. You have to record it as a sound file, usually an MP3 file. Then, you have to find some place on the Web to house, or “host” it. Finally, you have to find a way to let others know about it and make it available for easy downloading.

Unlike with text blogs, it’s hard to find a service that combines the creation, hosting and distribution steps. We found one Web site that came close — GarageBand.com, a site for unsigned musicians that includes a podcast creation “studio” anybody can use, regardless of whether they are musicians or even include music in their podcasts. More on this site later.

To see how hard this is, Katie and I walked through the process of creating, uploading and distributing our own podcasts. First, you have to record the audio. Since few desktop computers have microphones, you will likely have to buy one, or use a laptop with a built-in mike. We each used a microphone-earphone headset that plugged into our computers for one test, and used a phone for another. (We’ll explain that later.)

For her first podcast, Katie downloaded the Audacity MP3 recorder for Windows, free recording software. She spoke into the microphone and recorded a simple test file, but had to follow some confusing steps to save the file in MP3 format. I recorded a similar simple test podcast using the free GarageBand program on a Macintosh (which is unrelated to the aforementioned GarageBand Web site). Again, this involved configuration and file conversion steps that were a pain.

The GarageBand Web site (www.garageband.com) offers a quick, convenient alternative: It lets you dial a toll-free number and dictate your podcast over the phone. Katie and I tested this method from landline phones and from cellphones, and we were very impressed by how easy it was to do and with how good it sounded.

Who Will Host Your Podcast?

After recording a podcast, you must figure out where to post it — on a Web site or on a personal blog with an RSS (really simple syndication) feed. (RSS allows Web browsers and other software to present constantly updated summaries of the headlines on a blog.) Unfortunately, the big blog-hosting sites such as Blogger.com and MSN Spaces, don’t offer provisions for hosting podcasts. This is probably because podcasts are audio files that require much more online storage than regular blogs without audio.

Again, the GarageBand Web site came to the rescue. It is willing to host podcasts, assigning a Web address to each and providing RSS syndication for them. But there were several sometimes confusing steps to do this at GarageBand, mainly because the site was really created to help people find new music. For instance, any audio content you wish to add to your podcast must first be loaded into a “Master Playlist,” which is managed from a separate part of the GarageBand service.

GarageBand.com has a simple player built right into it, so we could hear our recordings right away. With a little knowledge, you can post this tiny player directly into the HTML version of a text blog.

I did this by opening the HTML guts of my personal blog on Blogger.com and embedding the player. It works so that users can hear the podcast as soon as the site opens. Try it out at waltmossberg.blogspot.com.

Distributing Your Podcast

Apple’s newest version of iTunes is a real help for folks who have recorded podcasts but don’t know how to distribute them. You start by going to a section of the iTunes store called Publish a Podcast.

The main piece of information you need to give Apple is the Web address for the syndicated feed of your podcast. Nontechies might not know this. GargageBand.com tells you, but unless you know what you’re looking for, you may be stumped.

We pasted our podcast feed addresses into the correct space in iTunes, then entered our iTunes account passwords, and added some information that would display in the iTunes catalog of podcasts, including our names, a short and long description of the podcast, and a category for the podcast (we chose Technology as the category and Podcasting as the subcategory). In this section, you can also mark your podcast as “Explicit.” My podcast took four days to show up in iTunes, and Katie’s still hasn’t been cleared for listening as I write this.

It’s still way too complicated for the average user to create a podcast. Apple has solved one part of the problem, but more solutions are needed.

With reporting by Katherine Boehret

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com