“Every year, Apple issues a new iLife upgrade, and every year, I stare in wonder at my Mac’s monitor, noting the improvements and wondering why Microsoft and the PC industry can’t create something as impressive as iLife for the Windows realm. Three years after the initial iLife release, iLife ’06 is now available, and it’s better than ever. Quite simply, there’s nothing on the Windows side of the fence that approaches the quality of iLife ’06,” Paul Thurrott writes for Connected Home Media. “If you’re unfamiliar with iLife, it’s basically a complete and integrated suite of digital media tools that’s available only for Mac OS X. In most cases, these applications are best-of-breed, meaning that there are no alternatives that come even close to combining the power, ease of use, and integration that the iLife applications provide.”
“What you can’t get from this short overview is how well these applications integrate. If you want to make a movie from your photo collection, your iPhoto-based photos appear in iMovie. Likewise, you can do something similar from iDVD. Each of these applications can reach into the other applications’ databases and extract content, as needed, in a similar and integrated fashion,” Thurrott writes. “Best of all, iLife ’06 is cheap. It comes free with any new Mac, but if you have a previous version, the full retail version is just $79, while a Family Pack, which lets you install the suite on as many as five Macs, is a bargain at $99. Why Microsoft can’t duplicate this functionality—along with the low-ball pricing—is beyond me.”
Full article here.
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Related articles:
Thurrott: ‘I highly recommend Apple’s new Intel-based iMac’ – January 31, 2006
Personal Computer World: Apple iLife ’06 ‘a must have for any Mac user’ – January 31, 2006
Review: Apple’s iWeb software perfect for publishing photos, movies, podcasting, simple blogging – January 28, 2006
First look at Apple’s new iWeb application – January 17, 2006
Apple announces iLife ’06 with new versions of iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand and new iWeb – January 10, 2006
Paul Thurrott reviews Apple iLife ’04; calls for ‘iLife for Windows’ – February 04, 2004
Why can’t M$ replicate iLife?
Because it is way too difficult for them. You need smarts for that!
Answer…because Windows is “good enough”.
The vast majority of Windows users don’t care about quality. There are always going to be people that will trade a cheapo price for something thats just good enough.
I love it too. We need more of this reporting, thank you Mr. Thurrott.
You know, Thurott has been bashed mercilessly in the past for incomprehensible “Apple is doing it all wrong, and the next version of Windows will blow OS X out of the water” type article.
Kudos to the guy for seeing the light.
SO Thurrot is now officially on our side
Now lets get to work on Endearle. We’ve still got a long way to go though.
Welcome home Paul!
but whatever it takes… he’s catching on!
being a newbie Paul obviously hasn’t read the support forum for iLife ’06. iMovie ’06 has SERIOUS issues….
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1115
from an earlier post that was ignored…
What gets me is that MDN publishes this article without even referencing the obvious issues that many loyal apple users are having with iLife 06.
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1115
Does MDN really want apple users to install microsoftesque quality software on their macs?
iLife has serious issues. It must not have been beta tested completely, that’s obvious by the number of people that are struggling with bug issues. The problems are far beyond what should be expected in a upgrade, and certainly not expected from a company with the history of quality like Apple.
Come on MDN, you take Apple to take on their lack of advertising, keep your integrity and take them to task on iLife 06.
MDN word is “late”, as in it’s not to late to find your cojones!
When Vista is released the worm will turn.
I love you Paul Thurrott!!
do you mean… “take apple to task”?
yup, thanks
“What gets me is that MDN publishes this article without even referencing the obvious issues that many loyal apple users are having with iLife 06. “
You miss the point friend. Try to do what you can with iLife on Windblows and see how far you get. Is there room for improvement? Well, yes. There is always a need for more. More of this and more of that. That’s what makes the wheels go ’round.
Rock on SJ!
MacMania
I get the point of the article, my point is that MDN posts positive articles about iLife 06 and doesn’t give the whole truth. I’m a loyal mac user since 1985, and this release of iLife is the worst software upgrade I’ve EVER gotten from Apple.
Before any of you start suggesting that I’ve been somehow at fault. I’ve repaired permissions, have 1.5 gig of ram, using the software on a dual G4 with 10.4.4, gotten rid of all quicktime 3d party plug ins, upgraded quicktime (of course) and even moved the iMovie 06 files to same drive as my application (As suggested in the user forum).
check out the forum, the suite as a whole is pretty good, but iMovie in particular is really crash prone.
Why Microsoft can’t duplicate this functionality—along with the low-ball pricing—is beyond me
—
Hello? Are you new? Thurrott?
I suspect he had a gun to his head when he wrote that.. or he was pissing himself laughing..
Big Al: “When Vista is released the worm will turn.”
Yaah, and f-ck itself to death.
Wow.
MDN now sourcing Thurott, without telling everyone to take what he says with a huge grain of salt given that he’s the ultimate hit-whore? The masses thinking this is good?
This site isn’t just officially shit, it’s the new definition of it.
Cpt. Obvious, can’t a man change? Can you allow a man room to grow? To admit his past mistakes and go forward with an enlightened spirit and broadened mind?
“Kudos to the guy for seeing the light.”
No, “kudos” to all you guys for being able to forgive and forget so easily. Wish my memory were that short sometimes.
He more than likely paid for that beautiful new iMac with $$ made from slinging FUD about Apple & products.
Guess I’ll wait and see.
YA’ HEAR THAT ‘LIZABETH? I’M COMIN’ TO JOIN YA’ HONEY!
(Fred Sanford mimicking a heart attack upon hearing shocking news)
“iMovie 06 is not ready for prime time” & “where are MDN’s cojones!?”,
I don’t know what you read on those discussion pages but reading through the first page, I saw mostly minor issues and User issues. One person did have a problem with iMovie not starting but was able to fix it by reinstalling the program with no lose of data. I agree that some updates are needed and will come, but to downgrade MDN for sharing a positive article with us is crap.
I’m stunned…
Oh, because Microsoft doesn’t care about quality, or making great software. All they care about is making as much money as possible with as little effort as possible.
IOW, they haven’t figured out my secret after all these years. The best way to make a bunch of money is make stuff people want and are willing to pay more than the minimum required. The rest of the folks out there couldn’t be beaten into buying something any more expensive if you beat them with a Mony Burns stick.
Bozos
One thing about the Apple Discussion Boards is that there are millions of users hitting those boards. Lots of times you see the same issue pop up in hundreds of questions, or you see people making a big deal out of a small issue. Just looking at the boards, you’d think that it was alpha software. However, in the big picture I think you have a relative few having a problem each.