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iPhoto '11 updated, still not up to par

It's a shame -- iPhoto is likely the most heavily used of all the iLife applications. There are simply more people taking digital pictures than there are using GarageBand or iMovie. iWeb, left languishing by Apple with few updates and no new features, has probably forced people to look elsewhere for quick and easy web publishing. iDVD appears to be on life support too, which brings iPhoto to the fore of media sharing on the Mac.

When iPhoto '11 was released last month, it immediately caused problems for a large number of users. Photo libraries were corrupted, and there was even data loss for a significant group. Apple responded with iPhoto 9.0.1. That update appeared to stop the library corruption, but didn't fix a lot of the other complaints aggravated iPhoto users had, such as a loss of photo calendars, a change in how photos are emailed, and general instability and slowness.

Yesterday, iPhoto users received an update to version 9.1. Apple said it "improves overall stability and addresses a few minor issues." This is the way Apple details bug fixes, and sadly, you often don't know what is fixed, and are left experimenting to see if the software works again. It's a maddening way to deal with people who purchased the software, but there it is. Apple 'thinks different'.

iPhoto calendars are back, but a subset of users is still struggling with iPhoto even after this latest update. It's clear that the original release simply wasn't tested very well since there have been two bug fix updates in a very short period. How is iPhoto going for you? We know it is working well for a number of users, but scanning the support boards reveals all is not completely well. Please share your experiences and recommendations to Apple in our comments.