iLife ‘08 & Apple Store
A couple of weeks ago I made my first pilgrimage to my local Apple Store. What a fantastic experience. They really know how to make shopping fun and futuristic, right down to their “Genius Bar” help desk, and portable scanners that the staff use instead of regular POS tills.
After drooling over the Mac Air and iPhone, I purchased iLife ‘08 and the new flat keyboard. Man, I love this keyboard, ever since I received one with my new Mac Pro at work. Like a laptop, it has low-travel keys that are very easy and fast to type on. And it looks so high tech! Awesome job Apple, as always.
I have been considering purchasing iLife ‘08 ever since it came out. My main concern was over the new iMovie that a lot of people claim is dumbed down from the ‘06 version, with which I have successfully made a couple of movies. In the end though, I really wanted the new features of the ‘08 suite, and figured that I would try out the new iMovie and if I hated it, apparently it is possible to reinstall iMovie ‘06.
So far I have only messed with iPhoto, since I don’t have any movie projects right now. The improvements are decent. I spent a whole evening editing my new Events, which are a great way to manage the photo library. Another of my favourites are the changes to import from camera. We have much more control now.
I had cause to try a couple of iBooks for the first time, and spent an enjoyable couple of evenings building 2 20-page books. The pricing was excellent (particularly as I cashed in on that Mother’s Day discount) and the results were impressive. The books came in a neat Apple-logoed box, but then I come to expect efficient and well designed packaging from Apple now. Each book was wrapped in its own cellophane envelope and the glossy pages were of very high quality. I am hooked. I’m sure I’ll be making books of every occasion now.
Expect a post when I get to use iMovie.
