MMOOS MMEMBER REVIEWs

iLife '08

by Scott Logan

iPhoto ’08

Of all the iLife apps, this is the one I use most.

EVENTS

I may not yet completely understand the purpose of "Events", but I would opt to eliminate this feature. I prefer to simply name my photos as I import them, and then do searches within iPhoto to easily locate what I might want.

ENHANCE

I suggest adding an "enhance' button at the bottom of the main page that automatically takes the selected image to full screen for the user. With the current setup, I'm guessing many folks don't even know they can enhance their photos because the feature is hidden until entering full screen.

After an enhancement is made to a photo, it should somehow be made more clear exactly how to either save the change or revert it. I'm always afraid I'm going to save an enhancement I'm experimenting with by mistake.

As a Photoshop user, I feel the enhancement features offered to the average user here are VERY well done. I'm impressed.

SLIDESHOW

"Fit slideshow to music" still doesn't work in this version. Bummer!

FULL SCREEN

I like that full screen now has a keyboard shortcut.

iMovie '08

This is the app I was looking forward to test-driving most. I found it's predecessor to be very buggy (had me pulling my hair out, actually), but I was hopeful for this '08 version. Unfortunately, when installing iLife '08 a nasty dialog informed me it wasn't designed to run on my Mac! Arrgggg

GarageBand '08

I was weaned on Pro Tools for music production, and while I have played with previous versions of Garage Band a little, I don't desire to invest the time to learn another music app at the moment.

iWeb '08

Last year I created my first-ever site using the previous version of iWeb. I was impressed with it, despite it being a little buggy. I was about to update the site just as I received the new '08 version, so the timing was perfect and I was anxious to try it. I had some issues with things not appearing exactly as they should on the browser, and a couple roll-overs not working, on various monitors and browsers owned by family and friends. But, in the end I traced much of it back to being a Safari issue that was never resolved. Overall, a VERY impressive app that I feel very fortunate to have. I know it will only improve over time.

iDVD '08

I have used iDVD a little in the past, but have not yet used this iLife '08 version. The whole issue of optimum video compression (CODEC) is still a bit of mystery to me, so I may be causing some of my own woes with iDVD. Still, I was never impressed with the finished product as it appeared on my TV screen. More to learn there!

Thank you for making this complimentary iLife '08 disc available to our MUG, and thanks to Pete Zimowski for his continued and competent hosting of the MUG meetings.

Scott Logan