Alongside the iPad refresh today, Apple released new versions of some of its popular apps. The iWork suite for iOS received a boost to make it look pretty on the new Retina display. iWork also sports some new features such as 3D charts, animations, and new builds and transitions. All three have been updated, available today as free updates or $9.99 each for new customers.

iLife on iOS

So far the real ooohs and ahhhs from Apple apps have come from the iLife updates for iOS.

Garageband now adds Smart Strings to its other “smart” instruments — Smart Guitars, Smart Keyboards, and Smart Drums. New iCloud capabilities allow sharing projects among your devices. The popular music-creation app now includes Jam Session — the ability to connect four devices wirelessly for a single recording session. The new Garageband is available today as a free update for current users, $4.99 for the newbies.

iMovie brings some new features from its desktop counterpart in the form of Trailers. And of course, iMovie makes powerful use of that 1080p camera featured in the new iPad. The free update is available today, $4.99 to get the goodies for the first time.

iPhoto for iPad

While Garageband and iMovie received some welcome “update love”, one of the highlights of today’s keynote was Randy Ubillos’s demonstration of the new iPhoto for iPad.

I’ve written before about Randy Ubillos’s penchant for redesigning the Apple apps from the ground up, built for portability and touch. iPhoto for iPad is no different. It is a complete rethinking of iPhoto designed specifically for iOS and the iPad.

Its features go way beyond the simple editing capabilities found within Photos.app on your iOS device. With access to your photo library, you can take any image (up to 19 megapixels!!) and treat it to some professional-quality effects. The iPad’s multitouch capabilities empowers navigation, the use of brushes for photo retouching, cropping, comparison, and more. iPhoto for iPad has a myriad of user-definable UI elements, all of which make use of that gorgeous new multitouch Retina display.

New features introduced with iPhoto for iPad include Photo Beaming and Photo Journals — new ways to organize, curate, sort, and share your vast library of photos. Photo Journals collects images into a new, cool way to share a collection of photos from an event or project. Think of it like a photo storybook, telling the tale of your vacation/adventure. A calendar element displays photos taken on a given date, and the map feature from the desktop app is rendered here, appropriate for the multitouch iPad. Publish to iCloud and share with anyone on any browser.

Double-tapping thumbnails has iPhoto searching for similar images, pointing to lots of new image analyzation tools under the hood. These new tools can be seen in the powerful exposure, white balance, and color correction tools. And amazingly, all edits are non-destructive, leaving your original image safe.

iPhoto for iPad includes many built-in effects, accessible via a swatch book of previews. Effects are presets, but many also have controls to fine tune the look. Effects include black & white, vignetting, tilt-shift, watercolor, and more.

iPhoto for iPad is available today for $4.99.

Want more coverage from the iPad 3 announcement today? Check out our iPad 3 Event page.

Photo Credit: The Verge