iPhoto won't recognize iPhones when connected

I have iPhoto 8.1.2 on my iMac, and all of a sudden it has stopped recognizing our iPhones when we plug them in. (Have tried three different cables on each of two iPhones - iTunes recognizes them, but iPhoto doesn't.)

Is it failing all of a sudden because it needs an update? I clicked on the button to learn more about iLife 11 from "check for updates" in the menu, but the page it links to says "Hmm, the page you're looking for can't be found." I can't seem to find any other way to update the iPhoto software, and the only way I can figure out to upload my current photos and videos is by e-mailing them to myself from the phone and importing them to iPhoto. There has to be a simpler solution, right?

Additionally, every time I quit iPhoto and restart it with no phone connected, it shows my iPhone under the devices, as if it is connected, with photos and videos waiting to be uploaded (that didn't upload during its last connection because it told me there were errors in the files??), and it is unable to get past that. Once I click to unmount, I can't get either phone to show back up in the device list. (When I connect my digital camera, it still shows up properly in the device list.)

Finally, I recently had my phone's dock connector replaced, so I thought that might have had something to do with it, but it is responding the same way to my phone and my husband's phone, which still has its original connector.

Thank you!

Liz