iLife
Words by Scott Dewbre With the introduction of iLife ($49.00, Apple Computer), Apple has given the computer world another new way to look at the Mac as the "digital hub" of our lives.
Although the applications within iLife are updates of previously available applications, the level of cross-application integration, which gives Mac users new ways to combine sight and sound and share the results with the world, is superb.
The iLife package includes iDVD 3, iMovie 3, iPhoto 2 and iTunes 3. To simplify installation, the box comes with two CDs, one for Macs with DVD burners and one for those without. When we say the box comes with two CDs, we mean that's all it comes with, aside from a brief set of installation instructions.
Despite the unassuming box, iLife's applications are great improvements over their previous incarnations. Each application has its own set of enhancements, and file sharing and integration take all four apps to new heights.
iMovie + iPhoto = Ken Burns?
While it is difficult to say which app is the most improved or which new feature is the coolest, there is only one new feature that was named for an actual person: the "Ken Burns Effect." To understand the effect, you need to know just a bit about the man.
Mr. Burns is a documentary filmmaker who specializes in subject matter such as the U.S. Civil War or the early days of professional baseball, which has little or no motion picture footage in existence. So, that leaves photographs as the main visual record of such events.
Problem is, a documentary needs some motion, some kind of visual interest that brings those photos to life. Enter Mr. Burns' innovation - slowly zooming in on various parts of an image, as if the viewer was holding it in his hands and looking over it closely. With the Ken Burns effect, digital photos from iPhoto can find a new life within iMovie. The iMovie interface gives you direct access to your entire iPhoto library, including all your photo albums. Bringing a photo into an iMovie file is a simple matter of clicking the photo, checking the animation effect, and clicking "apply."
Aside from the "Ken Burns effect," iMovie sports new audio effects from Skywalker Sound, such as title styles, and a chapter marker feature intended for use with a DVD burner. Once you've finished tweaking your movie in iMovie, all it takes is one click to send it to iDVD. Once inside iDVD, you will find an assortment of new menu themes ready for use in going from movie file to finished DVD. Support for chapter markers and automatic creation of scene selection menus makes it surprisingly easy to put the finishing touches on a DVD project.
iPhoto + iTunes = Lively slideshows 
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Just as the iPhoto library is directly accessible from iMovie, your entire catalog of music stored in the iTunes library can be directly accessed from iPhoto. This gives users a quick and easy way to spice up their photo slideshows with their favorite tunes. Not only can you pick your background music, but there is a play feature so you can listen to the tune to make sure you've got just the right one. 
iPhoto has a new addition to its set of image editing tools. In version 1.1, iPhoto gained the ability to make minor adjustments to digital images, such as brightness and contrast. In this latest version, iPhoto has a one-click image enhance feature. Never in danger of being too modest, Apple gave the feature a "magic wand" icon.
After a great deal of experimentation with the image enhance feature, we found that it works best on images that were too light or too dark. For those images, the enhance feature allows you to lighten or darken select parts of the photo, as in Photoshop.
While iTunes 3 doesn't look much different than iTunes 2, it also sports some new features. You can now create mixes automatically with smart playlists, play audio books, optimize the volume levels of your sound files, rate the tracks in your library and sort the library based on your ratings.
Free or not?
Of the applications that make up iLife, three (iMovie, iPhoto and iTunes) are available for free download from the Apple website, while iDVD, has always been a purchase-only application. Now that Apple has introduced iLife as a for-purchase bundle, does this mean that the days of downloading iMovie, iPhoto and iTunes for free are numbered?
We put that question to Apple product representatives during the Macworld Expo in January. They politely refused comment, citing Apple's policy of not discussing future moves. So, all we know for now is how things stand at the moment: iMovie, iPhoto and iTunes are available for free download, while iDVD, which has always cost money, is not. Will future upgrades of iMovie, iPhoto and iTunes be free? That's for the folks at Apple to decide. If they've decided already, they're not saying, but we hope they stay free.
Bottom line
The four apps that make up iLife are excellent applications individually or together. The latest updates to iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto and iTunes have added cross-application integration that lets users do more with their digital media. They are all worth having, individually or as a set.
Considering that iLife costs roughly what iDVD previously cost alone, you could look at iLife as getting four apps for the price of one. But what if you don't have a DVD burner? Should you buy iLife even though you can download all the other apps for free? Here's our qualified answer: If you have a DVD burner, buy iLife. If you're on dialup, buy iLife to save yourself the 120MB download. If you have high-speed Internet access and no DVD burner, you might as well hold out for the free stuff. Regardless, the applications in iLife are well worth having.
Item: iLife > Manufacturer: Apple Computer > Price: $49.00 > www.apple.com/ilife/
Pros: Seamless integration between apps; lots of cool new features > Cons: it could make sense for you to download for free only what you can use.
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