Why I buy this one ?
- Includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand music application
- Use iLife to have more fun with digital media
- Easily create professional-quality slideshows, music, movies, and DVDs
- Seamless integration--iLife applications work together better than ever before
- Single installer that updates all existing iLife applications

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What our customer's say!

"Underwhelmed", When I received my iBook 12", I was extremely excited to bust out the iLife applications. I had heard a lot about them, and played around with them at Apple Retail Stores.

I was quite disappointed. It seems that in order to be "user friendly", Apple stripped some of the most important features. I am not a professional by any means, but some of the things that Apple removed were simply ridiculous.

iLife is composed of five main applications - iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, and GarageBand (new in iLife 04), which I will review separately below.

iTunes - an audio jukebox which is by far the best and most complete application in the entire suite. iTunes is probably the best solution for ripping and organising your digital music, with an excellent interface, a beautiful visualiser, and Apple's famed drag-and-drop simplicity. But that's no reason to buy iLife, because iTunes is available for free on Apple's website. (***** of five stars)

iMovie - allows you to "edit" movies, which basically (in iMovie terms) means splicing clips together. I did manage to put together a complete video on this thing, but the labour was difficult and I found myself frustrated by how dumbed-down it felt. The lack of effects and filters was notable, and many times I felt like I could have done the job in half the time on Sony/SonicFoundry Movie Studio. (*** of five stars)

iDVD - a tool for authoring and burning DVDs. Because the iBook doesn't have a SuperDrive, I was unable to actually burn a disc with this program. I did drag-and-drop a few clips, but I didn't actually play around with it enough to give it a solid rating. (no rating)

iPhoto - basically iTunes for pictures, iPhoto allows you to organise and catalogue your photographs with snap and simplicity. It is extremely easy to use, automatically importing photographs and adding them to your library. The photos can then be added to "albums", which can be printed or even sent to Apple for a book. While iPhoto is quite short on photo editing tools, that's really what Photoshop is for. (**** of five stars)

GarageBand - lets you drop loops and compose music. Out of all the iLife apps, this is the one which disappointed me the most. I expected a comprehensive but easy-to-use audio editing application, but GarageBand was the worst I have ever used. Its interface is indeed simple enough, but it is extremely lacking in both "software instrument" synthesizers and "real instrument" filters. Many of the features it lacks baffle me as well - you can't reverse, pitchshift, or resample an AIFF track. (* of five stars)

"Garageband NOT unique to Apple.", Just to counter what one person said about "nothing comes close" on the PC. Garageband is simply Apple's version of Sonic Foundry's ACID, now owned by Sony, and you can download [...]
Garageband will even import Acidloops I'm told.

Don't get me wrong, I think the iLife Suite is great and I use both PC's and Mac's in equal measure but I get frustrated when Mac owners talk about how great Garageband and Final Cut are and how it's too bad there's nothing on the PC like it. Well, Final Cut is constantly playing catchup to Vegas Video and Acid has been around for years.

That all said, there still isn't a worthy competitor to iMovie on the PC and my iBook is my constant companion for quick and dirty video editing on the road.

J\


"Not perfect but better than anything else", I have been a Mac User for almost 20 years and I have to say that this package is one of Apple's greatest achievements. To take so many different components (the one thing in common is the digital footprint of all the media involved) and make them work together so well.

I reviewed iLife 03 and was astonished by the melding of video, sound, and pictures. I was less than thrilled with iMovie's performance, but that speaks mostly about my older (QS 933 G4 and G3 PB at the time) equipment than it does about this software. Like that package, iLife 04 is more about the sum of it's components rather than the individual pieces. But I'll talk about them anyway.

iMovie 04: This is a much improved version of the big changes made in the 03 version. I've yet to crash it no matter how many effects and transitions I throw it. They added improved sound effects as well. If you want more than what Apple gives you, check out Gee Three for more iMovie effects and transitions packages.

iPhoto 04: Yawn. I'm sure it's much better than before..I just don't see that much difference. It is still a great photo archiver and it works with any Digital camera I thrown at it so far. Plug it in and it works. Just like it should.

iDVD 04: MUCH improved over the 03 version. New effects and the ability to add pre-video before your menus is very well done. Many new themes as well. Minor ding to Apple for not allowing external DVD burners. Guess you gotta sell those SuperDrives SOMEWAY.

iTunes 04: No real interface changes other than Smart Playlists. Very tight integration with the Apple Music Store for purchasing music online and of course if you own an iPod, there is nothing better to use than iTunes with it.

GarageBand 04: Some of the reviews here have slammed GB for not being the be-all to end-all of digital music creation. Somewhere they have forgotten a few things. Like how not everyone wants to create music from scratch for video clips or just for putting together some fun songs. I challenge them to find a program as easy to use for 50 bones anywhere else that is more fully featured. Guess what? They can't. I'm not a musician, but I can throw together some loops and effects and make something that at least I find listenable (Check out the GB tunes I made at macidol.com under artist name Guy Serle). Is it really art? Nope, and I don't claim it is. But it is fun. GB is the easiest software of this type to make music. Apple gives you everything you need to get started including 1000 loops. Many companies are now creating packages of loops in Apple's format that are drag and drop easy to install. Search for "Apple Loops" in the search engine of your choice and you'll find lots to choose from.

I took one star away for some minor issues I have that aren't really worth going into. If you have at least a G4/G5 (or even a high end G3) Mac, this is worth getting for the ridiculously low price that Apple charges. It is the best software bargain out there bar none.

"Sorry excuse for anyone who IS a musician.", Sure. You've read the other glowing reviews. You've seen the 4 and 5 star ratings. Okay boys and girls, now do you REALLY want the truth? As a consultant to software manufacturers who wanted to actually help folks, not hype folks, I know of what I speak ( I also hold multiple earned doctorates). One caveat: If you do NOT know where "Middle C' is located on the piano keyboard --or don't care to know--- In THAT case, this software WILL be a good investment for you. It is merely a "cut and paste" to add songs to videos, photos, whatever. But we're speaking about a company--Apple--- who STILL doesn't have a built in MIDI utility for OSX. (It is promised for the 2005 edition---but I've heard that before). If you wish to actually write chords, or play a keyboard and MIDI it into a MAC, forget it! Summary: I liked what one reviewer stated, " this is a Casio type program" . It really is. If you are non-creative type or don't have time to be creative and want a quick fix like most droitistic Americans-- purchase this program, it will help you become just like everyone else.







"Incredible software--reason alone to buy a Mac.", iLife is a suite of applications that turns a Macintosh into an amazing hub for managing and creating movies, music, CDs, DVDs, and photographs. And, like everything from Apple, it's truly "plug and play." Have a digital camera with some pictures on it? Plug it into your Mac through the USB port. That's it. iPhoto launches and the rest is so easy an eight year old could do it. It's fast, smoothy, easy on the eye, and flawless. With almost no effort, you can publish your pictures on the net, send them to your printer or to Kodak for printing, even create a hard cover book that will impress friends and family--a lasting keepsake. Edit your digital home movies on iMovie--a tool that is so easy and simple that you'll soon forget how powerful it is. When you're done, make a professional looking DVD with iDVD, complete with animated menus, music, and sound effects.

One warning, however, is in order. GarageBand is a full-fledged music studio that not only comes with a sizeable library of loops (from which you can construct songs), but also records real and digital instruments--along with amazing and flexible effects. However, you'll need a very powerful processor to keep up with this software. On a weaker machine, you'll run out of tracks if you try to make something complex. You also need a DVD-playing drive to install it. I'd recommend, at a minimum, a G4 Mac with a processor running at no less than 1 gHz. I wouldn't recommend it for a PowerBook or iBook.

These wonderful programs--except for iTunes, which you can download for free anyway--do not run on PCs--Macs only. And nothing for the PC even comes close.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"iLife 04: the Best got even better!", iLife 04 continues to astound with it's tight integration and unparalleled ease of use. All 4 of the core apps have been upgraded and of course everyone's heard about GarageBand. Probably the biggest improvement of all was with iPhoto.

iPhoto is a true gem but with versions 1 and 2 it suffered from horrendous performance hits as soon as your image library broke the 2000-2500 barrier. Not so anymore. iPhoto fly's with my 3500 image library. With it's organizational abilities and it's integration with Mail, .Mac, iMovie and iDVD, iPhoto is clearly the standard in consumer digital image cataloging apps.

Both iDVD and iMovie received nice upgrades as well. Both are much snappier and responsive on my Mac and both have also included new themes (in iDVD) and transitions/titles in iMovie. I really love iDVD's new Map and Status tab. Very handy indeed! The slide show creation tool in iDVD is very much improved as well and makes creating a professional slide show presentation a breeze.

One problem I had with iMovie was the speed when rendering transitions and titles. That's not a problem anymore. As I mentioned earlier there are plenty of new goodies to play with as well like the "Far, Far away" title effect.

For me iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD are the most important of the iLife 04 apps and all three received major upgrades in performance as well as additional goodies. I already had the latest iTunes and we all know that's the best in class as well so I won't talk about that.

GarageBand is the big "Oooh Aaah" addition to the suite. It really doesn't do much for me but that's just because I have little interest in creating music from canned loops. That's not to say that it isn't a great app. As usual, Apple did the impossible and brought a music production studio to the masses for a ridiculously low price. If I could play an instrument, I do think it'd be a lot of fun to create music with GarageBand. I did play with the app a little and it is very easy to use.

I read a PC magazine review of iLife 04 (sorry I can't remember which mag it was) and they said that if it were possible to assemble equivalent programs on the Windows platform (which it isn't because there isn't anything that integrates like iLife) the bundle would cost upwards of $500. I'd agree with this statement 100% as I provide tech support for both Windows and Macintosh as part of my living and I've yet to come across anything that even comes close in price and/or functionality. It just doesn't exist on the Windows side.

I've done at least a dozen installations of iLife 04 on my own machines (3) as well as clients and have yet to run into any issues like those posted in the first review. Something else is going on and I encourage that person to visit Apple's support page and post some questions.

Also, if you're a pro as it would appear one of the other reviewers is, don't get iLife. It's a $50 consumer product and never intended for professional use. If you're using FinalCut as your editing software you should be using DVD Studio Pro and Soundtrack not GarageBand and iDVD.

For anyone else using previous versions of any of the iLife apps this is a must have upgrade. Just make sure if you want to use iDVD or GarageBand you'll need a fairly powerful Mac. iDVD requires 733mhz G4 and GarageBand needs a 600mhz G3 or better. And yes, you need an internal DVD burner for use with iDVD. With the price of DVD burners so low there isn't any reason not to upgrade if you can.

"iCrash", This is a huge step back for Apple's iApps, particularly iPhoto, which is an absolute disaster in this release. We typically cannot launch iPhoto without crashing unless we trash three catalog files. Importing more than once a day is impossible - the app says it cannot access .../iPhoto Library/month/date the second time you try to import.

Add to that the continued game of keep-away with iDVD, which will not work with external DVD burners. If you bought anything less than the highest-end Macs, or models like the Cube or iBook that have never had built-in DVD burners as an option, well, too darn bad! Kind of obviates the coolness of FireWire when peripherals are deliberately not supported by Apple.

Crashing and losing user data is NEVER acceptable. Apple, more than anyone, is supposed to know this. The company should be absolutely ashamed of this pathetic product, and should not offer it for sale until they work out the bugs and stop being such jerks about DVD burning.

"I would have preferred an upgrade option, but...", 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.

"Buy it for Garage Band alone.", I won't even talk about the other iLife apps. Good though they are, the real story of iLife '04 is Garage Band. It is a powerful, easy-to-use non-linear audio editor. Now, it won't be all things to all people. It is primarily designed as a loop-based music creation system. However, you can add non-software instruments (including vocals) as well, filtering them through various effects, including several adjustable guitar amp modelers. The results--for the price--are absolutely astounding.

This program is to music creation what PageMaker was to desktop publishing, lo those many years ago. Unfortunately, that means that everyone with a Mac will now become a 'composer,' but that sort of power-to-the-people freedom is great, in my opinion.

Important note: if you buy it, make sure you immediately install the Garage Band update (version 1.0.1?), which is available at the Apple site. It clears up several issues in the initial release.

One other important note: This program is a total resource hog! You need a fast G4 or G5 processor and at least 512MB of RAM. It also helps if you have a faster hard drive.

(By the way, to the other reviewer who couldn't rename tracks: sure you can. Simply click on the instrument in question, click the "I" button and choose "save instrument." This allows you to rename the track. You can even rename regions within a track. Click on the region and rename it in the name window in the lower left-hand corner of the main window.)

"Great concepts, problematic execution.", Perhaps it's because I'm used to using professional programs like Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, but each of the components in the iLife '04 package leaves something to be desired. The integration of so many formats of media into one network of interrelated programs is a good idea, but each program still has nagging issues that prevent it from being all that it can be.

Let's start with the new flagship, GarageBand, the reason I bought this package. I loved the concept and jumped at the chance to get a low-priced music-recording program, but using it is just not an inviting experience. The ordinary computer user with no music-recording experience would be thrilled simply at being offered the opportunity to try out music composition and arrangement, but I've been recording for years and this program doesn't offer enough. The first piece I tried to record was a short, arhythmic orchestral string piece intended for a short film, and the program gave me problems left and right. The frame sizes are too large, preventing you from doing detailed editing (for example, my soundwaves tend to cross from one frame to another and I can't put the cursor to after the wave so as to be able to cut it off where it ends). Playback is extremely poor, even though I have a top-of-the-line G5 with dual 2.0 GHz processors; every time you click on the timeline and play, the track takes one to two seconds to kick in, an eternity in music recording. And even after buying the JamPack, which costs close to $100, the number of instruments available is small. Why would you offer "Chain Saw Bass" and "Telephone Lines" as available instruments but not something as basic as harp? Clarinet? Harmonica? Mandolin? Banjo? Playing guitar parts on a MIDI keyboard is admittedly questionable, but having only one distorted electric-guitar sound is also deficient. And no ability to rename tracks? Definitely a bad thing. Tracks have to be named after the instrument you're using! If you layer five parts with one instrument but different effects applied, you won't be able to rename the tracks the way you want. You can't even suffix the track name with a number just to distinguish one part from another.

So GarageBand was a letdown. Perhaps not surprising given that it's part of a $50 package, but the things I'm talking about sound like design issues, not a limitation based on cost. I"m not talking about the ability to redraw waveforms or even to quantize here.

The rest of the package: iTunes is the standard for "computer jukeboxes" and I've been using it for years. The layout is user-friendly and I like the ability of later versions to match name changes in libraries as well as playlists, but there remain several problems. Why no ability to determine what your destination disks are called? Instead, each import you do creates two, sometimes three subfolders, which makes for messy file management. And iTunes' interaction with GarageBand is horrible -- when exporting a GarageBand mix, the computer renames your files with impudence and sticks them into subfolders without telling you where. I've checked the options under GarageBand and it doesn't look like something you can configure to your liking.

iDVD is a good resource for people to have, provided you can generate file formats compatible with this program. Inexplicably, though, iDVD doesn't recognize the MPEG-4 format -- the standard for DVD encoding! I had a long project on Final Cut that I wanted to compress into MPEG-4 before burning to DVD, and iDVD refused to recognize it. iDVD project files can also become bloated -- seems like it includes the encodings as part of the project file, rather than using the project-media separation so common among non-linear editing programs. Worst yet, iDVD can't be launched without trying to open the last project saved, which can result in a lot of wasted time if your last project is large. While I do use it, iDVD is far from being a good DVD program.

iPhoto -- I access and edit my visuals with Photoshop, so almost all of iPhoto's features are useless to me. I use it to import digital photos and it works fine for the purpose, but it's probably more useful for other consumers.

iMovie -- Since I own Final Cut Pro, I have no reason to use this program. The interface looks clumsy, though, so I was never even tempted to try it out.

Overall, I think that Apple's designs in these programs underestimate the computer ability of their users. Most of these programs don't allow you ultimate freedom in file management, and I think most users are savvy enough to know how to organize their files in the computer to a certain degree. It seems to me iTunes is the most "mature" program of the bunch, with the fewest problems. GarageBand was a good concept but will require massive rethinking, and more input from musicians. I can't think of any recording musician I know who would be satisfied with the options on this program. For a package like this, I wouldn't have minded paying more money to get more options and for improved design.