iLife 08

iLife has become my bread and butter at work. When I first saw imovie and idvd 8 years ago at Macworld in NYC, I instantly knew that it could be an incredible tool for education, and pushed me into my current role of AV guy at Shepherd Hill HS.

Ilife inspired me to develop a whole course around it. I managed to build a studio, and began a morning TV show. I owe this all to the power and simplicity of iLife.

Each year, I look forward to iLife, and what new magic it will bring to my instruction. When Apple introduced the latest iLife, I watch with Christmas morning excitment that only Apple can bring.

So what do I think of an app that I base so much around? Mixed bag...

iMovie: Apple needed to bring this app back to the masses and let Final Cut be what it is: THE movie making app for pros. While the new scrub changes will let you make very simple movies, it has lost all of the digital efffect plug-ins. While this dumbing down is sure to please simple movie making mom and dads, it will force me to stick with the old version at school for now. We can't afford Final Cut on 20 computers- not to mention our old g4's would choke on it....
My advce- keep the old imovie around. Sure it crashes from time to time, but it does so much more, for so much less money. In education, that counts.

iPhoto: Love it. I am baffled as to why Apple did not move their cover flow tech into this. It seems made for it. I love the new .mac photo publishing. It almost justifies the $100 a year that I have been paying for the service. Check it-
http://gallery.mac.com/seancusick

iWeb: I just started playing with the old version to make this web page. I wish that it had more power- but I guess if you want a simple page it is ok. I wish that the newer version let you put twitter, blogger, .mac slideshows in a bit easier. Pasting code is so 1990's. I would say that it is a slight improvment over the last version, but nothing to really see here...move along....

Garage Band: This is my secret love. Late at night when all the girls are asleep, I jam with this and make really bad 80's pop tunes. The new version adds "magic Garage Band" which lets you make music in a much more simple way. If this brings more into the fold of home music, all good. I just wish that I had this back when I was in HS.

IDVD: New themes, but that is about all that I have found.

I would say this is still worth the 80 bucks. With all the extra time that Apple took (skipping 07, and moving into 08) I just expected more, not less.