MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/7575
112 MacDirectory
REVIEW
iMovie
Speaking of burning bridges, in 2008 Apple
tossed the fun, appealing, and exciting
iMovie HD in favor of an entirely new
creature that is less engaging, less
adventurous, less friendly and visually
cluttered. With a year on the books and the
introduction of iMovie '09 a few of the fun
things have returned and a few new things
have been added, such as video
stabilization, enhanced editing tools,
animated maps, and new transitions and
effects. As for the interface, the easy and
intuitive slide table approach of years past
has been replaced with what resembles a
table filled with disordered strips of film.
While the new approach may be great for
intermediate users, iMovie 09 is no longer
something that Justin Long can compare
with Windows Live Movie Maker in the
category of ease of use. The reader may
prefer the new version, while others might
wish to hang on to their copy of iMovie HD.
Pages, iWeb and iDVD
While iMovie may be the odd man out, it
is easy to spot the family resemblance
between Pages, iWeb and iDVD. They all
feature a great selection of drag and drop
templates that will get you up and
running instantly. While they do not have
the range of features that will please a
working pro, they are ideal consumer
applications and are highly recommended.
iPhoto
Over the past few years iPhoto has shifted
from being a great consumer photo
database with professional appeal to being
a strictly consumer product. Such new
features as facial recognition and GPS
metadata are certainly appealing to the
home user, as are some of the
organization features. Unfortunately, the
focus on events and the abandonment of
certain other features sent left many pros
scrambling for a less restricted
environment. While iPhoto may be great
for a large number of users, folks who have
been slow to upgrade have discovered
some alarming changes, such as the
necessity of exporting older iPhoto libraries
before trying to port them over to their
new Macs and the unbelievably laborious
process of importing albums when you no
longer have your old OS installation.
Garage Band
Garage Band is a great consumer app that
in the past has a certain appeal to pros on
the road. In addition to loops, virtual
instruments amp modeling and audio
recording, it also supports many pro
packages as well, such as drum samplers,
sequencers, outboard DAWS, and virtual
synths. As for new features, basic music
lessons are now joined by a number of
famous artists (available separately from the
lessons store), the amp and effect modeling
features have been expanded, and you can
now set up a virtual backing band.
On the other hand, its overly precocious
interface favors pictures of amplifiers and
clickable stomp boxes at the expense of
control accessibility, and the quality of
some of the guitar tones has been
sacrificed in the process. While it may look
somewhat like a kiddie toy, when it comes
to getting your music onto disk, knocking
out a quick sound track for a presentation
or iMovie, or just having fun, it will get you
up and running fast. An option to kill the
cute pictures and gigantic control knobs in
favor of a more efficient interface would
have been a nice option.
Numbers
Apple's iWork spreadsheet app, Numbers,
is everything that Excel is not. While it
may not match every feature, it can open,
edit and save .xls files and it is far easier
and more intuitive than Excel and such
simple, common sense features as fitting
a photo into a cell make the competition
seem truly archaic. Improvements in
Numbers '09 include formula creation
tools that are easy to understand and easy
to use, advanced tools for creating and
linking charts, and an inspiring selection of
advanced templates, and impressive
graphics tools that can transform a boring
and incomprehensible Excel spreadsheet
into a powerhouse presentation.
Snow Leopard
As advertised, Snow Leopard offers more
new enhancements under the hood than
on the dash and, while it may leave users
of G5s and older Macs out in the cold, it is
the best thing going in the world of Intel-
based operating systems, despite
advances with Windows 7. It is more swift
and sleek, but it does not address a
number of minor issues, such as sidebar
replication, or such major issues as
Spotlight content clutter, the awkwardness
of searching specific volumes, and its
inability to search servers. It is definitely a
must-have upgrade but as the saying
goes, the smoother the finish, the more
painful the splinters.
Conclusion
Mac Box Set is a serious pile of software
and is well worth the price. While not
every component will appeal to every
user, the best of them far outshine the
less lustrous components. Some, such as
Keynote, are justification alone for
purchasing the entire suite. Users of earlier
versions of iMovie and Garage Band might
want to hide the originals and restore
them after upgrading, but to be fair,
there is not a lemon to be found in
this collection.
Product Mac Box Set
Made by Apple