iPhoto '09 Missing Slideshows on PPC Macs

A few Mac users may have already found out the hard way that some slideshow themes are not be available to them in iPhoto '09. An ars technica report reveals that, just like GarageBand's “Learn to Play” feature is compatible only with Intel-based Macs, iPhoto '09 also holds back on some good stuff when running on PowerPC machines.

iPhoto ’09 builds on its predecessor's ability to automatically organize photos into Events by adding Faces and Places. Apple has chosen these innovative ways to offer users easy organizing and managing of their photos using face detection, face recognition and GPS geo-tagging technologies. Apple also revealed at the Macworld 2009 Expo that iPhoto ’09 brings photos to life with six themes that let you create beautiful slideshows really easy, really fast. Slideshow themes include Classic, Shatter, Snapshots, Scrapbook, Ken Burns, and Sliding Panels, while every slideshow uses face detection to position photos correctly and keep the faces onscreen.

However, “Based on the hardware configuration of your Mac some slideshow themes may not be available to you in iPhoto '09,” Apple says in a Support document uncovered by ars.

“The number of slideshow themes available in iPhoto '09 depends on your Mac's processor and, in some cases, available vRAM,” the company continues to outline. As such, Intel-based Mac computers and PowerPC G5 with more than 64MB of vRAM can display all iPhoto '09 slideshow themes, as pictured above (click to enlarge).

For PowerPC G5 with less than 64MB of vRAM, only Classic, Ken Burns, Scrapbook, and Sliding Panels will be available, Apple says. PowerPC G4 users will only get Classic and Ken Burns, according to the knowledge base article on Apple's Support section.

With this information on the table, Apple is simply making it clearer to us that PowerPC is dead and almost buried.