Everyone clapped while Steve was showing off new features of iLife 05 at the Macworld keynote but when the price of $79 USD was announced people started booing. It was not many but there were a few. Apple is doing it again. They have done this with the iPod and now with iLife. They add a couple of new features and make the price higher. Apple added very little things to the iPod photo or U2 Special Edition and expected people to pay 49-200 dollars more. Now, Apple is so surprised there are stockpiles of the photo and U2 version. I dont know how much my readers love Apple computer and think as a company, they can do no wrong but I have to remind you of how iLife used to be. Mac Fanatics, skip a paragraph.
At the turn of the century, Apple released iMovie and Steve touted its abilities with DV footage and how easy it is to use. He also said how other software like it that are less powerful cost $99 dollars and up. It was then that he announced it as a free download. Soon after, we had iTunes, then iDVD, and in January of 2002, Apple released iPhoto. The great thing was is the price of the software. Shortly after Steve announced the new app you would get a notification from Software Update asking you to download it for FREE. When we tried to switch users, that would be our major selling point is the amazing suite of digital hub apps that come on new computers. Sure, iLife is still included on all new Macs but one year later, you have to fork out money to get the latest versions of those apps. Anyway, on a cold and rainy (literally), January 6th of 2004 that Steve demoed iLife 04 and announced a price of $49 dollars. I analyzed all of the apps and loved the price. There were significant upgrades across the line as well as the new Garageband app. This reminds me of the iTools to .Mac debacle that Apple pulled on us. I love seeing Steve on stage pitching to us and trying to sell us on something we already used already but what he is doing is convincing us to pull out credit cards this time around.
That said, iLife is a hard sell to users. Not only do you pay for the new software, but also after getting it, you see how slowly your computer is and feel compelled to upgrade. To answer my first question; is iLife 05 worth the price? I have been using the suite for a week now and the only app that received significant updates is iPhoto. I use iPhoto more than any other pay-for iLife app so I felt my educational price of 62 dollars was a good deal. Lets break down the other apps.
IMovie HD is just that. It is iMovie 4 w/ HD support which requires a 1ghz or faster G4 to edit HD content. You can do it with an 800Mhz G3 but you will soon develop a hatred for your Mac like no other. I think the 1ghz or higher requirement is just so Apple wont have to deal with people that threw their Mac out the window, literally. iMovies user interface looks a little sleeker but Phil Schiller could have launched Photoshop 2 hours before Steves keynote and made some new icons / buttons and recompiled the app as 5.0. Magic iMovie is neat for those that dont like messing with editing their movie and want to just put on a DVD but you need a camera and DVD burner for that anyway so another feature targeted to a niche group. There are a couple of things that are nice but doing the matt, you are paying 20 dollar for iMovie HD and it is not worth the price.
IDVD has new themes. Did you notice Steve spent 10 minutes on iDVD 5s new themes? He went crazy and showed almost all of them. That is a sure sign that, once again, Apple added more pretty and lickable colors and charged more for them. Just like iMovie, there are a couple of things but not worth 20 dollars. If you make a lot of DVDs, the themes are a great deal since they have full motion now and some neat transitions but if content with current iDVD themes, then dont upgrade to that app.
Garageband 2.0 has built in equalizing of sound. When you sing in or play an instrument into your Mac it equalizes the sound. Garageband also has some neat things that you may only use one or two of the features. You have MIDI and Apple Lossless audio support, enhanced on-screen keyboard, 5 or a little more new instruments, new vocal effects, match tempo of recorded instruments with loops and turn on / off loops that show in the browser. It is neat but unless you are a serious Garageband user, you wont notice a difference when you launch the app that anything has been added. I guess that is a good thing since new users only use basic features and discover things as they go but if you are going to be doing anything more serious than what Apple has added, I would recommend upgrading to Logic Pro or Express. Any more features in Garageband and it will be more than most users need. It is worth the upgrade if you have equipment to accompany the software.
IPhoto 5 is amazing. It is the first overhaul to the user interface since the introduction and speed and navigation are sensational. For those on small monitors (1024x768), the organization of the apps interface is great so you can fit more photos on the page. In edit mode, you can see all photos in that album at the top of that page. The toolbar is customizable and info on the photos is much better in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. You can finally search your photo library, smart albums are smarter, Photo books are amazing and look wonderful and the price is a lot better than previous versions. You can also do much nicer slideshows and movie exporting in iPhoto is phenomenal. Steve claimed iPhoto 04 was fast but I had hang-ups all of the time and it was slow as heck. IPhoto 05s speed is great especially when editing photos. I love photo importing now on iPhoto. Your camera mounts in the album pane and says how many photos there are. You can click import and there is a space to write a description and name of that film roll. I used to have to do that after import. Finally, the support for raw images and QuickTime. Many cameras are taking RAW photos and can shoot movies in basic QuickTime. It is great iPhoto supports both formats. I had to import photos in iPhoto then movies in the Kodak companion app. I dont have to do that anymore.
I would have payed fifty dollars for iPhoto alone and would have not purchased the others. Going back to the niche market the app upgrades are for, the ideal iLife user should be running at least the latest eMac or iMac w/ a superdrive, 512 megabytes of ram (minimum), have 40 gigabytes of free space for photos, music and movies storage, have a two button mouse, a monitor that can display 1280x800 especially for iMovie. And of course you will need an iPod, digital camera, digital camcorder w/ Firewire connection, and you should own a electronic keyboard or guitar w/ input amp and dont forget a good set of speakers. It may also help to have a television hooked up to your video output on the computer to preview iDVD, iMovie and iPhoto slideshows / projects before saving them. Apple advertises an overpriced $79 price tag but you can easily get into the thousands if you actually want to use these applications to their best potential. By the way, iBook users are out since they have small hard drives, no audio input and a small monitor. It was just recently that iBook users got superdrives and 1.25 gigabytes of memory as a built to order option. If I had my old iBook, the only app I would be running is iTunes and iPhoto. They would have to run solo since they use so many of my resources of ram and CPU cycles. No doubt, Apple made some improvements on its digital hub suite, but with a disappointing price tag (free to $79 dollars in three years) and the need for third party products and new computer make this an unattractive suite for users. I suggest buying a new Mac from the Apple store and getting iLife 05 included.