My iLife ’06 package showed up today. I can’t stay up incredibly late to play, so this is just going to be a cursory overview to begin with, but it’s a start.
First things first: the package has gotten much smaller. Where iLife ’05 used a more traditional box size, the box for iLife ’06 is barely bigger (width by height) than a CD. Still about an inch or so deep.
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Apple’s customary flair for design on even the smallest little things shows through again. As you open the box, there are small accordion folds on the flap, and rather than being just dropped inside, the software and materials are nestled inside a small cardboard tray that slides out. -
What you get in the box:
- The iLife ’06 install DVD.
- A ‘quick start’ installation guide.
- The ubiquitous software coupons (has anyone, anywhere, at any time ever used these for anything?).
- A ‘Welcome’ pamphlet advertising iLife add-ons (iWork, .mac, GarageBand Jam Packs).
- A trial version of iWork ’06.
One installation was done, I poked around briefly with iPhoto and iWeb.
As noted by John Gruber, iPhoto has gained “iTunes’ theme-without-a-name”. Looks pretty slick, actually. And, while I haven’t done any stress-testing yet, it’s definitely feeling snappier than the prior version (apparently I’m not the only one seeing this, either). I like the full-screen editing mode, too — for simple edits, that’ll actually cover me without heading into Photoshop. Nicely done.
iWeb is definitely looking to be worth poking around with. It’s not restricted to .mac (yay!), though without .mac you don’t have the one-click-publishing option — rather, you ‘publish’ to a local folder, and then you can either serve directly from there (if your Mac is a webserver), or you can upload the generated files to a remote server. The markup isn’t terribly pretty, but that’s not a big surprise. Feel free to check out the one sample page I’ve made so far to see what you think (though that is just a single page, and I haven’t delved into multi-page sites, blog publishing, or much of anything else). On the bright side, there was only one error preventing the page from validating…on the down side, that’s in part because the generated page is all images and link maps. Hmmm. Definitely reserving judgement on this one until I get a chance to play more.
That’s all I can do for tonight, though — it’s after midnight, and I’ve got class at 10am tomorrow morning. I’ll play more as soon as I can grab a few hours…
“Club 69 Future Mix Vol. 1 (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Club 69 Future Mix Vol. 1 (full mix) (1998, 1:14:02).
I think it’s high time I take the leap and switch to Apple.
I’m more and more impressed with Apple’s software and how well they’re integrated. Clean, simple…how it should be.
And your sample page. Also simple and clean, and looks good.
Keet, I highly recommend making the switch. After years of being on the fence, I finally did it in December and am now one of those overzealous Mac freaks I used to loathe. The experience was that good. Headin’ over to the Apple store at Bell Square after work today to pick up a copy of Ilife ’06.