The Macintosh iLife: An Interactive Guide to iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Jim Heid (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A DVD/book combo--what a great idea! Think of The Macintosh iLife: An Interactive Guide to iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD as "iReading." You get a 90-minute movie that allows you to peer over author Jim Heid’s shoulder as he demonstrates all the essentials of the four iApps. In iTunes, he shows how to create playlists, change the info tags for a batch of songs, burn a compilation CD, and more advanced features like choosing equalizer settings for each tune. In iPhoto, he shows how easy it is to organize even the largest collection of family pictures, and even how to make minor touch ups. In iMovie, he shows how to create a home movie that won’t put your friends to sleep by incorporating cross fades, an audio track of both ambient sounds and MP3s from iTunes, still images from iPhoto, and titles. He then shows how to use iDVD to create custom menus and chapter openings.

You can watch the book’s DVD on the computer and hit pause whenever you feel like practicing something for yourself. The book goes into even greater detail on each iApp, for example, covering cross fades in iTunes, working with multiple libraries in iPhoto, and tweaking variations of the Ken Burns effect in iMovie. In bonus chapters and sidebars, Heid goes in depth on related topics like the inner workings of an iPod, tips for taking better digital photos and movies, and how to hook up a TV for improved playback while editing in iMovie.

Anyone working in OS X, even seasoned Mac users, will learn new techniques, timesaving tips, and lots of ideas on how to get the most out of everything the iLife promises. And it may even turn skeptics who thought this was just another advertising gimmick into giddy converts. --Angelynn Grant

Product Description
In the Macintosh world, Apple's digital hub tools--iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD—are the driving force behind the convergence of digital media and digital devices. You can use these tools to entertain, educate, persuade, and inspire your audiences at home, school, and work. To help you master this elegant and fun desktop studio, there's no better place to turn than The Macintosh iLife.

Updated to cover iTunes 3, iDVD 3, iPhoto 2, iMovie 3, new iPod models, and the conversion to .Mac, a fee-based Web service replacing the previously free iTools Web service, The Macintosh iLife is a unique book-DVD hybrid that provides an interactive tour of the digital hub. Written by noted digital media expertJim Heid, a contributing editor of Macworld since 1984 and a Macintosh columnist for the Los Angeles Times, it uses clear, to-the-point text, gorgeous illustrations, and interactive video to do justice to the digital hub's enormous capabilities. The book-DVD combo addresses the basic concepts behind the digital hub, like how to balance file size and image quality in digital photography and how to create effective DVD menus. It also tackles more advanced concepts, like how to record Internet radio for later playback, prepare video for Web distribution, and get digital photos printed onto mugs and mousepads. Updated chapters include completely new sections covering iTunes 3's Smart Playlists, iDVD's AppleScript support, the iPod's new calendar features, and more!

The accompanying DVD-Video disc contains two hours of entertaining instruction covering all of Apple's i-programs. You'll see how to produce professional-looking digital media, and you'll see hardware add-ons that will round out your digital studio. Beautiful to look at and enjoyable to watch, The Macintosh iLife is your user manual for the digital lifestyle!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; Book & DVD edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321170113
• ISBN-13: 978-0321170118
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #913,709 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #18 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Apple > iMovie + iDVD
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, informative, and not just for the novice!, August 11, 2003

By	David Troup "daveinsf" (SAN FRANCISCO, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been using Macintoshes since 1984, and am usually an "early adopter" of new software as it's released. Before reading this book and watching the DVD video, I'd already used all of the iLife applications and thought I knew how to use them, more or less.

Well, I found out that I knew how to use them less, rather than more! Jim Heid's excellent book and video is great for the novice, but it also has plenty to teach the experienced user. In this age of "no printed manual" many of us just jump into an application and figure out how to use it. In doing so, we miss out on a lot of little tricks and capabilities that really save time, improve usability, and make using these great programs even more fun! Heid brings us up-to-speed while teaching all of these small, often undocumented features that really make using the applications even smoother and easier.

This book/video combo is a great value and recommended for any Mac user who wants their computer to be the center of their "digital life."

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Macintosh iLife, learning made easier and faster, June 24, 2003

By	Hartley J. Jackson (Lyndonville, VT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Macintosh iLife consists of a DVD, a 193 page book and Internet support. The combination works.

In the book, Jim says the picture quality is a bit better if you play the DVD on a TV set instead of on your computer. The book tells you how to use the DVD remote choose the topic you want.

I popped the DVD into my iBook. It started displaying the DVD full screen in a better picture than I get from our TV set.

Soon I was watching moving close-ups of Jim Heid's monitor as he showed me how to create and name an iTunes playlist. I watched his cursor as he clicked one selection and then shift clicked another to select contiguous tunes. Then Jim command clicked individual tunes to add them to the selected list, and dragged the whole selected list to the new playlist. Next I watched Jim explain that there is another way. The view shifted back to the action on his computer as he used the same methods to select another set of tunes, and then went to the file menu and choose New Playlist from Selection.

That is the advantage of the DVD. In about 90 minutes Jim actually shows you how to do practically everything with iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD. I was particularly impressed Jim Heid used the iPhoto Retouch tool to rub over a dirty spot on a little girl's face, scrubbing the picture of the face clean as if it had been done with a washcloth. And, when I saw it working, I found the way the iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD work together was more impressive, more elegant than when just reading about it.

My first impression when I looked at the book was one of disappointment only 173 pages not counting the index, and in large type. As expected book is laid out with iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD sections. Within each section, topics are covered in two page illustrated spreads without the hundreds of densely packed words that I had expected. But once I looked into the two page spreads covering topics such as Improving Sound Quality with the Equalizer, Tuning into Internet Radio, and Analog to Digital: Converting Tapes and Albums, I found that they covered the subject, did it clearly, and contained information that I had not remembered seeing in those more densely packed books.

The DVD and the book are designed to work together, and they reference each other where appropriate. You do not have to have the book open and watch the DVD at the same time, but the two need each other for a complete package. In my opinion, the two together will teach you more in less time than you could possibly get from either a book or a DVD alone.

...

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best computer book value ever - no, really!, July 1, 2003

By	B. Rutledge "sjsdad" (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have bought many computer books (20 in the past year due to switching to a different computer system) and this is the hands-down best value ever. The DVD alone is easily worth what Amazon charges for this book - there is nothing quite like watching someone actually doing the work to teach you how it is done. The book itself is very clearly written, and colorful and highly informative to boot. I bought some books that covered only one of the iapps previously, and found this book was at least as informative as those books - and it covers all four iapps! I have loaned it to friends and recommended it to several others, and they have all raved. In addition, the author has posted a free update on his website covering itunes 4 - so the most up-to-date book (as of now, July 1 2003) is even MORE up to date.