iMovie 08 and iPHoto 08 have some great new things in it.

I picked up iLife 08 today and apple has some great new things in it. It is easier to use and easier to edit videos. I only use the built in camera in my macbook. iPhoto 08 also is fantastic with the way photos are stored for ease of use 10x better then what version came with my macbook.

Good job apple on a great, easy to use program.

 

I agree. iPhoto 08 is a fantastic improvement; categorizing a photo library by Events is a very intuitive feature that should have been employed originally.

I've read that some people do not like iMovie 08. And Apple has made iMovie HD 6 Free for download to appease the masses, very nice of them. I'm not really sure what I think of iMovie 08 yet, I'm still adjusting, but I'm going to give it a chance before I voice an opinion .

 

Apple "simplified" iMovie in iMovie '08...I guess its a good thing that they also gave iMovie HD 6 for free. The critics aren't liking it because they "dumbed down" the highly versatile iMovie into the simple one. I agree in a sense, but I also disagree in a sense. Normally I'd like more improvements in an existing application, but if it starts to get too complicated for the average user I agree that it should be simplified.

I can actually see future iLifes with two different movie editors...the new iMovie as a simple, quick video editor, and the old iMovie as the powerful video editor.

 

What is the main difference between iMovie 08 and iMovie 06?

 

Its totally revamped...its become more of the iPhoto of videos...you store videos and watch them there and create a video there as well. While iMovie HD 6 is all about editing videos.

 

I didn't know about that. I guess I will download imovie hd 6 and see how well it does or even if I need it.

I had the version that came before iMovie 08. Did that already have iMovie HD 6 in it? I'm a little confused on that part.

 

No, iMovie HD 6 isn't in the iLife '08 suite by default. If you have the iLife '08 suite you can download iMovie HD 6 for free on the Apple website.

 

So, can you not edit in iMovie 08?

 

Yes, you can edit videos in iMovie '08...but a lot of the advanced features in iMovie HD 6 is no longer in iMovie '08...creating a movie in iMovie '08 is easier and simpler but it has less advanced functions that iMovie HD 6.

 

What advanced features are you specifically referring to? If it's not too much of a pain to answer that question. LOL

 

Well, for example, when you edit video in iMovie '08, you lose the video timeline feature that is found in iMovie HD 6 (and basically any other video editor out there).

 

I guess I'm just wondering how the lack of a timeline affects the overall process?

I've been using iMovie 06, so I do understand what you're talking about. Ha ha.

 

I don't know, I like using timelines to edit videos. iMovie '08 is good for simple, quick videos but for a more complicated video where you want more control over your video edit, I like iMovie HD 6 more.

 

I think I'll probably just stick to 06 then.

Thanks, Sam.

 

No problem, Sara. Happy to help out.

I'm personally skipping iLife '08. Its got improvements but if I upgrade every time there's a new version I'll be broke .

 

How often do new versions usually come out?

 

There's no set schedule, so far it seems like it's been roughly once per year but then this update took much longer (1 year 8 months) and skipped a number, so... who knows, it might be back as iLife '09 at MWSF 2009 and continue on a yearly basis after that for all we know. I wouldn't expect it (the next version) to be out any earlier than that at least.

As for iMovie, I haven't looked at it myself yet but Apple wants their iLife apps to be easy to use first of all, power comes second. Now there's quite the lineup available though, assuming from the talk about it so far that iMovie '06 is more powerful than its successor: iMovie '08 (amateur) -> iMovie '06 (amateur+) -> Final Cut Express (advanced amateur/occasional pro) -> Final Cut Studio (pro). Everyone gets their choice.

That is assumption based on reviews by others though

 

The only thing I have used iMovie for so far is making slideshows of my photographs but with transitions and timed to music (beats and lyrics). I use the timeline to do this so it's disappearance sounds rather pants!

 

I rather like the new GarageBand features - they're fun to use if nothing else.

Still playing with the rest of the iLife suite.

One thing that bugs me, and I actually didn't bother using them in iLife 06 so I dont have a means of comparison...

is it normal for iLife apps (like iDVD) to not give any progress bar whatsoever? So I'm sitting here encoding a few movies and it's just doing its merry thing (beachball!) for 20 min, but I'd like to know just how long I have left! (incidentally, the whole time with my CPU running near max and temps going to 75 degree, my fans never went above 4k ).

Also, for iDVD - it just gives the encoding choices for "performance" , "high quality" and "professional quality" - where can I choose specific encoding options?

 

I don't even use these applications..lol..Maybe I should start using them.

 

as far as I recall, iMovie 06 gives me a progress bar for everything. Certainly for rendering and I am pretty sure it gave me a time estimate for encoding as well.

some of these 'features' are starting to sound a little sucky to me