Customer Reviews

Apple iLife '08 Family Pack [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Excellent product. Mostly incremental upgrades from previous version but all are an improvement over iLife '06. One exception is iMovie '08. They've increased the automation in it, but decreased the amount of user control at the same time. It's received mixed reviews in the press, but Apple has made the previous version of iMovie available via download via the web for those users who prefer having more control and/or the previous version. One other issue is that the hardware rqmts are on the high side and iMovie '08 won't install on anything older than a G5 or Intel-based Mac and the suite itself won't install on anything below a G4.

I use both iPhoto and Photoshop Elements. With the old iPhoto I could work on the same file in both programs. Now iPhoto hides the photo files from outside programs, so I cannot locate them in Finder or in File/Open in PhotoShop. Initially, this was frustrating. The workaround is to name PhotoShop Elements as the editor in iPhoto/Preferences/General/Edit photo. It is still possible to use the iPhoto editor ( a "lite" editor) by right-clicking (in iPhoto) on a small photo icon and selecting "Edit." This entirely cures the issue for me.

The "events" orientation in the '08 iPhoto is better than the "roll" orientation of the old iPhoto, because you will often have more than one event on a digital "roll of film" (that is, on a download from the camera's memory chip). Working with events initially was not as easy as I had hoped in iLife '08, though. I had problems creating events, moving photos between events (still an issue when a photo from a recent "event" should be in a long ago event, and it is not possible to drag it to where it belongs). "Cut" and "Paste" did not work as I expected, nor did dragging from the desktop have predictable results. July '08 update: Either the program was updated or I learned to live with it, because these are no longer issues for me (except moving from a new event to an old event, which is still a hassle -- but I have not checked recently on [...] support or by google search for a better way). I now like iPhoto '08 just fine. It cannot do as much as PhotoShop Elements v.4 or v.6.

July '08 comment: I published my photos on iWeb using a .mac account. However, I did not like having all my photos available to everyone to whom I ever sent the link, and I did not want to password pages. Also, I did not feel good about publishing photos of my beautiful nieces on the web. So I deleted to web site and closed the .mac account. Now I can select the exact recipients of each group of photos. I use Kodak EasyShareGallery which I access via the Bridge program that came with PhotoShop Elements. (I use the Mac versions). I used the versions of Bridge that come with PSE 4 and 6 and like both. I first use the batch processing function in Bridge/Tools/PSE/Process Multiple File to convert all the photos to 150 dots per inch (dpi) so that they upload and download faster. I send the converted files to a special folder so that the originals are still in iPhoto. Before I convert and upload a batch of photos, I select and delete all of the old photos in Bridge. (Bridge can be used like iPhoto, but I do not use Bridge to store photos.) Then I select the photos in iPhoto and drag them to Bridge (making new copies of them in the process). Then I convert and upload them in Bridge. It would be great if someone would automate all this -- Apple, are you listening?

I am familiar with PhotoShop Premier Elements to edit video in Windows, and I could use iMovie HD '06, but I could not readily use the new '08 iMovie. I could not get the new iMovie to use .mov files, unless I created them in iMovie with the Mac's camera. I expect that if I watch a video tutorial I will figure it out, but it should not be this hard.

When I moved from Windows to the Mac, it felt like moving from a fixer-upper car to a new Lexus. The new iMovie had that old fixer-upper, beta-version feeling -- definitely not the intuitive, polished Lexus experience I hoped for.

July '08 update: This now seems too harsh, since I use and like iPhoto and iDVD '08 a lot. I would now give iLife '08 4 stars if I could change, but Amazon won't let me change the stars.

July '08 update: To edit video I now use Final Cut Pro as much as possible. I am not a professional editor, though, so sometimes I get stuck in (the infinite complexity of) FCP and go back to iMovie '06. I have never again tried iMovie '08. (I use that energy to try to learn about FCP.) I use iDVD '08 for FCP and iMovie '06 projects and iDVD '08 seems to work very well. iDVD Tip: If you get repeated multiplex errors, force a full rendering by changing the quality from "Best" to "High" or "Pro" quality. Also, I got a LaCie terrabit hard drive connected via the most recent (and fastest) version of firewire, which is a great place to capture and store video projects and the "scratch" versions of audio projects.

July '08 comment on Garage Band: I tried to use GB '08 to digitize music on vinyl and audio cassettes. It is possible to use GB for this, but GB is not the right tool for this. I use Final Vinyl, Audio Hijack Pro and Fission for this now. I never tried to use GB '06 for this. Apple -- do you hear an opportunity here? There are a lot of us boomers with legacy audio media that we would like to get into our iPods.

iMovie 08 is a nice video ASSEMBLER, not a video editor.

* No Chapter Markers for iDVD
* No Share to iDVD
* No timeline
* No 'Save Frame' (Great for making DVD art)
* No frame-accurate editing possible. You cannot stop a clip at a specific frame
* No granularity--only global audio changes allowed
* Loss of multiple audio tracks
* No sound on import
* Loss of plugin support
* Cannot change transition speed after inserting a transition without making global changes
* No audio waveforms
* Cannot vary clip speed
* No pause control for titles
* Cannot play audio over black (when the clip is over, so is your audio. Apple knows best!)
* Cannot select a sequence of clips to move elsewhere within the movie
* Cannot overlap audio tracks (again...no multiple tracks)
* No themes
* Cannot extract audio (of course, you can't do much of ANYTHING with audio in this thing)
* Cannot import projects from older versions without losing, well...everything important.

iMovie 06 can do all of the above.

iMovie 08 is fine to assemble a 3 minute video to share on youtube, but it lacks many of the features that are needed for longer projects or if you want to make a DVD of your movie.

iMovie 08 should be called iVideo, or iTube. I think Apple will eventually go from 3 video editing programs to 4, and the upgrades to iMovie 06 will continue.

iMovie 08 is a nice video ASSEMBLER, not a video editor.

Want those missing capabilities? Apple has great video-editing programs for you, iMovie 06 (iMovie HD) or Final Cut Express they are Great.

I really like this new version of iLife


- iPhoto 08 has some great new features and I feel like it is much more user friendly when it comes to managing your photos easily.

- iMovie 08 is cool in that it has support for new video formats like AVCHD, and I like the new interface, but it has taken me a while to get used to it.

- iDVD has some nice new templates

- Garage Band has some nice new features as well.

I decided to upgrade because I purchased an AVCHD camera (Canon's HG10) and the new version of iMovie does a great job with the footage on an Intel based Mac. However, when I tried to import the HD footage on my G5 Mac, it wouldn't import! It turns out that iMovie can only handle standard def AVCHD on a G5 Mac, not HD footage. This really bums me out - so be aware of this caveat.

I have been using Apple products since the early 90s. It has always been a progression of WOW! at every turn! iLife 08 is no different! With the addition of iWeb to the iLife family and the improvements in GarageBand and iPhoto, it is so much FUN to be finding projects to do! Thank Goodness that they have training at the Apple Stores as well as other means of learning the new stuff! If you don't believe me, you need to go watch the online video tour of iLife 08! And, while you're there... set some time aside to watch the tour of the new OS X.5, Leopard, under STORE!

I life 08 is a great little package, only dissapointment was having to downgrade iMovie 08 to 06 for my PowerMac (you have to download iMovie 06 after you register your iLife 08 package). I still had iLife '05 and the improvements to that were dramatic. The real nice feature with the last GarageBand upgrade i can make my own ringtones for my iPhone. Garage Band is a great program if your into audio. iDVD is easy to use and the results came out great. iMovie 06 wasn't as easy to use, and I wanted to make a photo/video montage display and ended up using Pulp Motion along with iDVD to do the job.

There are already several detailed customer reviews and a very detailed Amazon review, I just want to add my positive vote for this suite of software. iLife has been getting better and better over the years since it first came out and this is another nice update. I especially like the scrollable event grouping that can now be made in iPhoto. A lot has been said about the new iMovie vs the old iMovie, don't sweat it. You get both the new version does not displace the older more complicated, movie editing software. With the two of them almost everyone should be happy.
No other developer offers so much for such a reasonable price.

Although there is a newer version of this suite of applications from Apple, I decided to leave a review anyway.
iLife '11 <- Newer version.

iLife 08 introduces a lot of new upgrades to the previous version of iLife, one of interest is iPhoto as it builds on the organizational tools and does come with better photo enhancements and tweaks. If you are choosing this over iLife '11 simply for the cost savings I'd recommend this product however this would also mean that you purchased your Mac before this was released because any new mac from then on would have this pre-installed.. so as a gift to someone, you might want to know when they got their machine.

Apple ilife08 Family Pack was not available. Seller refunded money and said that product was sold out and should not have been shown by Amazon.

The price was almost too good to be true and my thought was there was a catch. Received the order in a timely manner and in a professional package with the product in excellent condition. Loaded the software and have been very very pleased.
Will purchase again this way as I do not need to be leading edge in something that changes so often.
Thanks