Entered CNET Catalog: 01/09/2004
SKU: M9364LL/A
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Manufacturer description
Create digital masterpieces quickly and easily with this edition of Apple's award-winning iLife suite. With dozens of new features, blazing speed, and an innovative way to create your own music, iLife is looking better than ever. With GarageBand it's easy to perform, record, and create music, whether you're a musician or just want to feel like a rock star. GarageBand turns your Mac into a high-quality musical instrument with amazing built-in sounds and gives you the complete power of a recording studio. With GarageBand you don't need to be a musician to make original music. GarageBand includes professionally pre-recorded rhythm sections, solos, and instrumental performances that act like "virtual musicians" that you conduct to create custom songs, or use as backing tracks for your own recorded performances or within iMovie, iPhoto and iDVD. iTunes allows you to import music from your CDs to your computer, create playlists of your favorite songs, and take your music with you on custom CDs and your iPod. iTunes truly puts all your music in one place with the iTunes Music Store (U.S. only), where you can preview, buy, and download individual songs and full albums. In addition, iTunes 4 lets you share music on a local network, share album art, burn DVDs, and import from CDs in the new high-quality AAC format. iPhoto has always been the best way to easily import photos from your digital camera, organize them for fast retrieval, and then share them with family and friends. Now with iPhoto 4 you get even more, including faster overall performance. In fact, you can find the picture you're looking for in seconds, whether you have 250 photos or 25,000. With new time-based organization and Smart Albums, iPhoto keeps your photos organized automatically. And with Rendezvous photo sharing you can now share photos with anyone on your local network. iMovie continues its innovative tradition by increasing performance and adding new features that streamline the movie-making process, promote creative exploration, and help you create Hollywood-style movies that are easily shared with the world. With iMovie 4 you can quickly edit and trim right in the timeline by simply clicking and dragging. Sync audio and video with "snap to" precision. Integrate all of your iLife content and share by email, publish to a .Mac Homepage, or even take your movies with you by transmitting to your Bluetooth devices. With seamless integration with all of your iLife applications, easily create beautiful DVDs faster and with many new enhancements. New iTunes play list support gives you the ability to have multiple songs play in a slideshow background. From iPhoto, drag and drop your iPhoto albums directly into iDVD. And now iDVD supports up to 99 chapter markers from iMovie. Choose from new professionally designed themes and menu transitions, then burn your finished masterpiece onto a DVD and share your masterpieces with everyone!CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 02/27/2004
This time around, Apple didn't play with iTunes' interface at all. iPhoto 4.0 looks largely the same as well.
The company made some subtle but progressive changes to iMovie 4.0 that add some precision to the editing process. For example, audio waveforms now appear below the time line representing each video clip, which makes it easier to sync audio to video by clicking a chunk of audio and moving it where it needs to go. There's also a meter that keeps track of how much space is available on your hard drive to work with.
You'll find more templates for DVD menu screens in iDVD 4.0--20 in total. Also new is a helpful DVD map that gives you a bird's-eye view of your entire project as an overview and lets you get to any element by simply double-clicking it. A handy Resource meter also keeps track of how much space is left on the disc you're burning to. Unfortunately, iDVD still doesn't work with external DVD-R drives; it's Apple's SuperDrive or bust.
 Each track in GarageBand is represented by an icon and a name. Below, you can browse through more than 1,000 prerecorded loops. |
If you're new to music recording, GarageBand may seem overwhelming at first, but Apple does its best to keep the interface simple; those stymied by more complicated music-creation apps could find solace here. You can easily adjust volume levels with a mixer that's conveniently located to the right of the track name. Below the tracks, you'll find a browser button that opens your extensive library of loops, where they can be imported via drag and drop. Musicians and nonmusicians alike will find the experience seamless, fast, and easy. If you try GarageBand and like it, you can expand its capabilities by installing GarageBand Jam Pack. iLife's smooth cross integration means you can easily mix and match among apps as you deal with different types of media. For example, it's relatively simple to use iTunes or GarageBand tracks as soundtracks for projects in iPhoto, iMovie, or iDVD. Or you can access iPhoto pictures in iMovie or iDVD, then add effects and make an instant film on DVD. Both iPhoto and iMovie have iDVD buttons for easy transactions. Keep reading to find out what's new, app by app.
iTunes 4.2
iTunes is one of the best jukebox programs around, hands down. Ripping and burning CDs to MP3 or AAC is a snap, and now that the integrated online iTunes Music Store is at your fingertips, building your collection legally by downloading is even easier. Apple updated the syncing process between iPod playlists and iTunes playlists and vice versa. Both PC and Mac users can download iTunes 4.2 at no cost, and as with older versions, you can share music among networked machines. Again, any music saved in iTunes can be featured in your iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD projects.
iPhoto 4.0
iPhoto can now handle up to 25,000 photos per collection--a big improvement over the older version which slowed or even froze at about 2,000 photos. In terms of editing tools, a sepia option for simulating old photos has been added. Apple also upgraded the program's slide-show feature so that you can now choose an iTunes playlist as the soundtrack to your photos. (Before, you were limited to a single song.)
 iPhoto's new Smart Albums option works well for organizing photos by season or other criterion. |
Just like iTunes' song sharing feature, Rendezvous, iPhoto 4.0 lets you share photos among the Macs on a local network. In addition are Smart Albums, which operate in a similar fashion to iTunes' Smart Playlists: you can organize photos by criteria you select, such as date, rating, or keywords, such as vacation. Though this option works well with dates (especially since photos are now automatically organized by the capture date rather than the import date), it doesn't translate well with keywords since you'd have to manually assign each photo a keyword to create a Smart Album.
iMovie 4.0
When Apple added iMovie to the original iLife bundle, it improved the earlier version's audio features and added the slick pan-and-zoom Ken Burns Effect. Those features are still there, but version 4.0 focuses more on simplifying the video-editing process. To this end, Apple added Direct Trimming, which enables you to cut frames out of a clip by positioning your mouse at either end of the clip and dragging toward the center. An undo function lets you reverse this and other edits, although if you empty the trash, some information could be lost.
 iMovie 4.0 makes it easier to sync audio to your video by putting audio clips below video clips. In the lower-right corner, you'll also see the meter for hard drive space. |
iDVD 4.0
iDVD 4.0 introduces a clever feature called AutoPlay that starts a short movie or slide show prior to the menu, when you first insert your DVD creation. Some of the new themes have AutoPlay built in, but you can also create your own triggered event for each DVD in your collection. But the big news with this update is that iDVD now uses the same high-quality MPEG encoding technology that you'll find in the company's $499 DVD Studio Pro. With this added power, you can now cram a full two hours of video onto a single DVD, encode at DVD quality, and multitask while you encode and burn DVDs in the background.
 The new DVD map button gives you a bird's-eye view of your entire project. |
GarageBand 1.0
Even if you claim to have no musical talent or even interest, you should get a kick out of mixing tunes with GarageBand, Apple's virtual recording studio--session musicians included. The program comes with 1,000 prerecorded loops that you can mix, match, and add effects to. You can use the keyboard interface to click each key for different notes or sounds or buy Apple's recommended $100 MIDI keyboard (the M-Audio Keystation 49e) to trigger notes without having to hunt and peck for them with your mouse. If you already have a MIDI keyboard, you can plug it in with a MIDI adapter and use the Hardware instrument tab to select the instrument you want it to control.
As for effects, you get a nice selection of 16 built-in options, from Reverb to Echo. Electric guitarists will be psyched to see pedal effects such as distortion, overdrive, and flanger. Guitarists can also choose from a selection of virtual vintage guitar amp simulators such as Arena Rock and British Invasion. The effects can be adjusted manually to an extent, but ambitious would-be producers may find GarageBand's simplicity a bit limiting. Still, it has enough versatility for most, letting you mix premade loops, recorded audio, recorded MIDI instruments, and your own voice with ease. For example, you can select from Software instruments whose sounds are prerecorded, such as big electric lead guitar or hip-hop drum kit, in order to have a finished product in no time flat, which you can then export to iTunes or e-mail to friends.
 Plug your electric guitar into your sound card and choose from a list of effects and amps. |
When recording instruments through a MIDI adapter, we found that the volume was much lower than with the prerecorded loops. You can adjust volume levels, but you'll have to fiddle with Sound Preferences and the main volume within GarageBand's interface. Vocals recorded with our PowerBook's internal mike came out clear and adequately loud. We chose the Ambient Vocals effect and got frightfully close to sounding like Enya. Although the iLife apps are relatively intuitive to use, each application has a built-in Help tab with basic product information and FAQs. iTunes' Help tab also takes you to the iTunes Music Store's customer service--another shining example of Apple's enthusiastic integration of its apps. You can also find dedicated online support pages for each program, which provide overviews of new features and how they work as well as links to discussion boards.
User opinions
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User Rating: 
8/10
Can't go wrong for the price.
Pros: iPhoto performance is VASTLY improved.
Cons: iDVD should support third party drives.
User Rating: 8/10
It is really the Microsoft Office for the rest of your life
Pros: Great! It makes the Mac platform complete desktop environment for consumer use.
Cons: None
User Rating: 
10/10
Iphoto alone justifies the upgrade
Pros: Iphoto is now VERY fast and makes organizing your digital photos a snap. I have over 15,000 pics and I can browse through them with no pb on a 1Ghz Imac G4. IDvd has some great new features and themes. IMovie is easier to use.... and it all works togethe
Cons: I wish you could burn mini-dvds out of Idvd... would be great for slide shows. It would also be great if the timeline in Iphoto would include the months as well as the years.... All in all, I only have very minor gripes with the upgrade.
User Rating: 10/10
Makes Using Your PC FUN!
Pros: Easy to use and well integrated applications. GarageBand makes anyone a one person recording studio. It takes about half an hour to learn. These applications are great fun and just seem to work!
Cons: They are addictive and will have you in front of your computer instead of the great outdoors!
User Rating: 
5/10
going down hill
Pros: the price. the price. the features for the price.
Cons: sure, it's a great value... but... none the quality of the software is going downhill, the interface of each app is completely different, garageband is pretty hard to use, the applications are bloated and crash, the support is non-existent. but... you ge
User Rating: 8/10
A review that isn't a review
Pros: First off, let's shed the notion that a software package has to cater to the lowest common denominator (ie -- slow or outdated computers). Why shouldn't software be made to take full advantage of a systems performance? Would it be nice if it were more sca
Cons: What's with writing a "review" of a product that hasn't even been tested yet??? Holy mackeral, C/Net, you really need to find some objectivity!
User Rating: 
9/10
Ultimate Digital Suite
Pros: I've tried numerous programs for both Mac and PC, but this one (or these five) wins in every category. All of the problems from the original iLife, such as speed issues in iPhoto and iMovie, have been fixed, and Apple has added great new features. Already
Cons: Minor stability issues, iDVD still does not support external DVD writers.
User Rating: 10/10
MS learn from this (from an XP user)
Pros: This is a great suite, something that the Windows world still lacks. I can tell horror stories of just getting a video editing program that works like Imovie on the PC, I can't find one, all the offerings are crap oe way or another (lack of functionality
Cons: Some of the elements of the interface are a bit weird, there is no way, for example, of selecting all songs from the library (I mean ticking them all to be included in the random play, etc.) you have to do it by hand. It is only for the Apple :-(
User Rating: 
7/10
CNET complaint
Pros: Apple always makes great running apps. The speed increase of iPhoto and GarageBand make this a necessary purchase.
Cons: CNET says G4s only for GB. NOT TRUE! You can run it on a G3 but it just won't have the same functionality. HOW limited, I don't know yet since it's not out.. but don't be misled!
User Rating: 10/10
trying to offset the cnet bias
Pros: Haven't tried the latest version, but its obvious CNET is letting that prevent them from writing nonsense. YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO GET .MAC FOR $100 / YEAR!! WHY WRITE THIS NONSENSE??!!
Cons: Seems a desparate and biased attempt to put anything Apple in a poorer light. Pathetic.
