iLife '06 comments

kevinv (apparently) - 08:19am Jan 17, 2006 PST
via email

So I wasn't going to buy it. I didn't need iLife '06, '05 was working just
fine for me. But then I did have that Apple Store gift card from my
brother, and finally I saw the magic words on the iDVD pages: Support for
3rd Party DVD burners. Technically that was available in '05 via Save Disk
Image option but I never really got it to work with a dual-layer burner I
had picked up cheap at Micro Center (even with patchburn). I connected it
to my mini via a cd firewire enclosure I have. I think that might have been
what prevented both iDVD and Disk Utility from allowing me to use the drive.

Crossing my fingers, I trundled down to the local Apple Store and picked up
a copy of iLife '06.

Install from the DVD went smoothly (I assume, I browsed the web while it
did it's thing.) The install includes iTunes 6.0.2 and QuickTime 7.0.4, but
I'd already installed those without problem. I'd also previously upgraded
to 10.4.4, which Apple recommends (although the box says that it runs on
10.3.9 and 10.4.3 too).

After installation I quickly ran through all the apps for a quick
superficial look. They've all (except GarageBand) adopted the iTunes 6
metal look.

GarageBand adds podcasting (and video podcasting if I'm judging the menus
correctly) support. I didn't see a way to be able to a group podcast a la
Mac Notables or This Week in Tech. It would be cool if it could add Skype
as a track.

iWeb looked neat for basic sites. It can publish to .Mac or Publish to a
Folder which can then be uploaded to a non-.Mac server. Not sure if
blogging can do trackbacks. One cool feature, you can select an object
(picture, text, etc...) and move it forward or backward (in front of or
behind) another object. So you can create text over an image very easily.
Also guidelines for centering and aligning are included (I think Keynote
has these, I'm familiar with them from XCodes GUI layout program.)

iMovie can open more than one movie at a time. Hopefully when I get a
dual-core this means I can import in one movie window and edit in the other.

iPhoto needed a database update so I made a backup first. It seemed to go
OK, but even though it said it rebuilt the thumbnails cache, some of my
thumbnails are wrong. I haven't tried re-running a repair yet to fix it.

iDVD you can set the type of DVD you're making (dual-layer or
single-layer.) I believe you can setup and layout a dual-layer DVD and do a
Save Image even if you don't have a dual layer burner yet.

I don't know if it was the 10.4.4 update plus iLife '06 update but both
Disk Utility and iDVD do see my cheapo Dual Layer DVD burner. I've
successfully burnt an image to disc from Disk Utility (single layer disk
though, I don't have any DL blanks lying around). Also the image was
created in iLife '05. I haven't created an iLife '06 image yet. But the
fact that it shows it by name makes me confident it will work. The player I
have is a Mad Dog 16xDVD. I think I paid $50 for it at MicroCenter just
before Christmas although they sell them now for $75.

<http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0215771>
<http://www.mdmm.com/>