Apple is celebrating Macworld week with the launch of iLife 09, the latest version of its Mac OS X geared suite of home and recreation applications and a new 17 in. Macbook built on the same unibody frame technology introduced last fall in the smaller Macbooks.

The new Macbook Pro features a built-in batter that Apple calls revolutionary. And it may well be. The company claims the new battery will provide up to eight hours of operation per charge and can be recharged at least a thousand times.

iLife 09 includes the three usual headliners: iPhoto, iMovie and the GarageBand music recording app. There’s also iWeb, for creating simple Web sites and iDVD to satisfy all your ‘burning’ desires.

“iLife continues to be one of the biggest reasons our customers choose to get a Mac,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in a statement from his sick bed. “With iLife ’09, we’ve made working with photos, making movies and learning to play music a lot more fun, and iMovie users are especially going to love the advanced but easy-to-use new features.”

Jobs is currently recovering from what he described in a letter to Apple employees earlier this week as a diet-related hormonal imbalance. In the letter, he also confirmed that his illness was the main reason he would not attend Macworld this year, much less give his customary Keynote address.

Among the new features and enhancements in iLife 09:

iPhoto adds search by ‘place’ (importing location info from any GPS-enabled iPhone or digital camera) and ‘face’ (via new face-recognition software) to help you find your pics faster. You can also post photos instantly to Facebook or Flickr.

iMovie streamlines the video-making process even more letting you work quick and simple of slower in more detail. The new Precision Editor lets you tweak your movies to your heart’s content. iMovie 09 even finds and reduced camera shake for you.

GarageBand 09 adds basic video-based lessons for the most popular instruments, along with special ‘artist lessons’ by well-known performers.

The iLife ’09 suite is included with every new Mac and is available as a (C)$99 upgrade for existing users.

Apple also débuted iWork 09 at the Macworld Keynote address yesterday.

Nevertheless, some media types pronounced the event a disappointment. Yahoo! Tech headlined its Keynote report: ‘Macworld disappoints: No Jobs, [no] big news at Macworld’.