video editing

The latest update to "your digital lifestyle" is a great one. iMovie includes more options for editing and adding titles. iDVD adds more great themes, easier interfacing with iMovie, and ups the final production minutes from 90 to 120. iTunes is a free download anyway (cause Apple makes money through the iTunes Music Store. iPhoto, to be honest, I don't play with a whole lot because I already use PhotoShop, ImageReady and Fireworks.

Then, there is GarageBand. It may not be the most necessary piece of software ever, but it certainly is the coolest. I managed to create a short song in less than an hour. Me! I can't make music with anything resembling an instrument. Apparently though, I can produce music. The ease with which the program works is astounding. Adding new loops is as easy as click and drag.

The minor complaint here, at full screen GarageBand eats memory. My iBook starts to scream in pain when I open the program. On a G5 or my G4 iMac it works great though. You can ease the memory requirements by using less screen space for the program, but it only eases the issues, doesn't resolve it.

Also, considering that Apple just made us buy the program to begin with last year, an upgrade option for those of us who did would be nice. At least they kept it at a fairly reasonable price though.

The iLife suite has been completely revised for the new iLife '04 release. In this review, I'll list some of the improved features.

iDVD received a nice update with some new themes and other small features. I wasn't incredibly impressed by this particular update, but that's because I rarely use the application. Not a major interface overhaul, but some nice updates.

iMovie has been significantly sped up along with an improved interface and new transitions, effects, and more. You'll quickly notice all the new features in this update if you use iMovie frequently.

iTunes has been updated, but you can simply download the update... you don't need to buy the suite to get the newest version of iTunes.

iPhoto previously suffered from extreme performance issues before this revision... if you had a large amount of images in the database there would be a large slowdown, but this revision fixes that issue. It allows you to rate photos 1-5 stars, which is handy but not a necessary feature. Another nice new feature is the ability to create "smart albums" like "smart playlists" on iTunes... you can make albums that only contain, say, five-star pictures containing the phrases "Katie" and "1st Birthday" with little effort.

And, finally, the application that almost everyone is buying this for... GarageBand. GarageBand is Apple's new music editing program. It's a music mixing application that allows you to record songs on your Mac.

GarageBand has a nice variety of realistic-sounding musical instruments which can be played using a MIDI keyboard or guitar plugged into your Macintosh. You can then add effects, use amplifiers, and so much more.

If you don't know how to play any instruments, GarageBand also includes a wide variety of amazing-sounding loops for use in your songs. Not only are they nice for people who can't play any instruments, but they're nice if you're in a band and you want to hear how a song sounds but your drummer isn't there to play a drum track.

GarageBand lacks a few features that would make it a professional music creation title... the ability to change the tempo throughout the song instead of using just one for the whole song would be nice; but one could even run a small professional band on this program if they had to.

I can count the number of times I've completely crashed my Mac on one hand, but it did crash (not a kernel panic, just a crash) during the install. After a restart, all worked well again.

Another thing to note with this software title is that while it does work on *most* Macs, GarageBand and iDVD require a G4 or better, at *least* 256MB of RAM, and a DVD player to use the install DVD. Actually, you can install GarageBand on a 600MHz (or higher) Mac with a DVD drive, but you can't use software instruments then.

All in all, a nice package, and worth the price.

Computers are wonderful tools that have greatly changed just how we do just about everything. Apple iLife software continues this tradition. I have used both Mac and PC computers. I have also used software written for both. There is nothing easier or more intuitive than Apple iLife. It is not the most powerful software. For $400-$600 you can by professional grade software that will blow the socks of iLife. However, for the average "Joe" there is nothing better. It doesn't take a lot of computer savvy. iLife does most of the work for you - and quickly. Other software we have used for loading pictures is slow, hard to manage and less desirable in many ways. I used this software at my sister-in-laws wedding. In no time at all I had a wonderful slide show set to music for everyone to watch. Doing all this work on a PowerBook G4 15" laptop allowed me to later show my father-in-law what he missed due to some health issues.

With iLife, you can edit your pictures. You can order copies with just a click of a button. With just another click, you can e-mail them to anyone in your e-mail address book. Another click you can post them on a web-sight for your friends to see. For example, we recently moved to a new state. I posted a slide show of our new home for all our old friends to see. We had over 60 different friends view the web sight. Can you image the cost of making prints for all those people? In addition, you can set your pictures, web sights to your favorite music in iTunes.

Speaking of iTunes, I love music - always have. If you like to listen to music, make your own recordings of your favorite tunes you will love iTunes. Plus, iTunes makes it easier and more affordable to buy music. I don't understand why the music industry continues to over-price their CD's but they do. And who can afford to buy an entire CD for just two or three songs. Now, with iTunes you can buy only the songs you want from a particular CD. Once down loaded, you can arrange them in any order you want, burn them on your own CD or hook your Mac to your home stereo and listen through you speakers. In addition, whatever music you have in iTunes is easily used in iPhoto, iDVD or the other applications iLife opens for you. You will not be disappointed with iLife unless you desire to spend tons of money for three or four different software programs that will not work together as seamlessly as iLife.