Life isn't perfect with iLife, but it's still pretty good
Although the programs work well together, a few flaws cast shadows on otherwise nearly great features. A little work by Apple could file off the burrs.
ILife combines iPhoto 2 (still photos), iTunes 3 (music), iMovie 3 (digital video), and iDVD 3 (video DVD creation). The applications require at least Mac OS X 10.1.5 or 10.2.2 (except iTunes 3, which works with 10.1.4). ITunes 3, iPhoto 2 and iMovie 3 are all free but hefty downloads: 6 megabytes, 32 MB and 82 MB, respectively.
IDVD 3 comes only as part of the $49 iLife package, partly because of hundreds of megabytes of files in the software package. Also, iDVD 3 can be installed only on machines with a SuperDrive, Apple's DVD/CD-burner combination.
ITunes 3. Insert an audio CD and it can be set to convert to a high-quality CD. (Kids, buy those discs; don't pirate.) Playlists let you assemble songs in any order, even multiple times. Connect an iPod, and your music files copy quickly and automatically over FireWire, playlists intact.
But in trying to convert the Stephen Fry-narrated British version of the fourth Harry Potter book, a nine-disc set, I ran into constant problems. Tracks would appear in one place, disappear in another. I could find them deep inside the iTunes folder, but the program couldn't seem to handle many tracks with similar names.
The database Apple relies on for CD and track names isn't compiled by professionals, which was once an advantage, as it listed obscure artists. Now, it's a hindrance; there isn't any consistency in the accuracy or quality of the information.
IPhoto 2. Before iPhoto, most software for organizing photos was intended for professionals and called "digital-asset-management programs." IPhoto's metaphor was the shoebox: Throw it all in, sort it all out. This metaphor still works.
IPhoto 2 is definitely speedier than its predecessor, and it adds a lovely floating palette that lets you assign keywords to photographs for sorting. As with iTunes, a side pane lets you set up albums: Drag photos from the library into an album, and you have something you can turn into a Web gallery, burn to a CD or upload to a commercial service to make prints.
IPhoto has its aggravating spots. You can drag photos around to reorder them in an album (not in the library, your master list), but if you copy and paste them, iPhoto only pastes at the end instead of at an album point you pick. That makes it hard to organize large numbers of pictures.
Recent tests showed several times on multiple machines that it just wouldn't import or export photos.
IMovie 3. iMovie pieces together digital video segments from a digital camcorder, for instance, into coherent movies without the complexity of professional editing software. It's drag and drop, and mostly explicable. Songs, legal or not, from iTunes can be inserted. The latest version adds professional sound effects.
Jeff Carlson, an officemate and author of "iMovie 2: Visual QuickStart Guide," warns that iMovie 3 is somewhat buggy, lacking the smooth playback and clean audio of iMovie 2. He also points out that the highly touted "Ken Burns Effect," which pans and zooms on imported photos over time, just as in Burns' documentaries, can only be disabled, not turned off. Every photo you drag into a movie has the current Ken Burns settings applied.
IDVD 2. IDVD is the natural answer to the question: Once I've edited movies in iMovie, what do I do with them? IDVD 2 comes with professional-looking themes that provide slots to slide in your photos and feature simple motion and beautiful soundtracks. Projects from iMovie can be brought into iDVD with a single click — no export or conversion necessary, an earlier time-consuming part of iDVD.
I created a 30-minute project in iMovie over a few hours using footage from my wedding. I added chapter breaks in iMovie's iDVD pane and then clicked to bring it into iDVD. I spent a few minutes choosing a photo via the iPhoto pane for the theme and making other minor tweaks, then I hit Burn. With 2x (twice-speed) media in a new 17-inch iMac, I walked away for about an hour, and the DVD was done.
I can't imagine it being any easier than that. Apple should provide the refinements eventually that will make iLife's inner life fully emerge.
Glenn Fleishman writes the Practical Mac column for Personal Technology and about technology in general for The Seattle Times and other publications. Send questions to gfleishman@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists