According to the documentation posted online by Apple for iPhoto 8.1.1, the new update addresses issues affecting face recognition performance and accuracy. The Mac maker reveals that, in addition to these enhancements, the new release also resolves minor issues with book ordering and iPod touch support. The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto '09, the company says.

“This update addresses issues affecting face recognition performance and accuracy,” reads Apple’s official description of the software update. “It also fixes minor issues in the areas of book ordering, and iPod touch support. The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto '09,” the description ends.

Directing users to its Support section, Apple uses technote HT3941 to inform customers that iPhoto 8.1 is required for this update, as well as to provide a more detailed look at the new version of iPhoto. As noted above, for the Faces feature, update 8.1.1 “resolves an issue that could result in slow performance when displaying suggested matching faces; addresses a face recognition issue that could result in some faces being matched incorrectly,” says the company, enumerating the changes.

According to the document, there's an extra step users should take after installing the 8.1.1 update, in case they’ve imported photos of people while using iPhoto 8.1.  “Select all those photos, Control-click to open the contextual menu, and then choose Detect Missing Faces,” explains the company. “This will redetect the faces in those photos and correct any face recognition issues introduced in iPhoto 8.1. You should not quit iPhoto during the Detect Missing Faces process,” warns Apple.

There’s more. Besides the aforementioned tweaks and fixes, iPhoto 8.1.1 also resolves an issue that caused book order panel information to be displayed incorrectly in some languages. Lastly, to improve iPod touch support, the software now displays the icon for iPod touch (2nd Generation) correctly in the source list.

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