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GarageBand 3: First Impressions
After some initial impressions of iPhoto 6, I figured GarageBand should be next on my list, as it too seems to have received some of the most significant updates in the iLife 06 suite. As with the iPhoto impressions, it's the same drill here: I opened GarageBand, poked around in the Podcast Studio and thought I'd post some impressions as a prelude to a real TUAW review: Once again, it feels like Apple was able to add in a bunch of new features while at the same time making the app feel generally zippier and more responsive. Bake those code ninjas some cookies When scrolling back and forth in a track, GarageBand also has a popup/overlay, like iPhoto's, that displays a real-time scrolling track time. Awesome You can add a parental advisory to your podcast right within GarageBand The New Project window has both new "Podcast Studio" and "New Movie Score" options. I imagine the movie score works in tandem with iMovies I absolutely love the media browser. I don't remember if the previous version had anything like this, but it's present in the same form in all the other iLife apps, and it's incredibly handy GarageBand asks you to change the podcast track to a video track if you simply drag a movie onto it. Effortless swapping between the two. It also splits a video's audio into a separate track for you to do with as you please GarageBand has an "Export" preference pane with pre-set podcast export settings like mono, spoken, musical and higher That "ducking" feature Jobs demoed is about one of the coolest and handiest additions I can think of, especially to a podcasting app So that's it for now. Stay tuned for more lengthy reviews from TUAW as soon as we can put them together.
iPhoto 6: First Impressions
So I just finished installing my copy of iLife 06, and since I'm the most interested in the new iPhoto and iWeb apps, I thought I'd post a few initial thoughts at least on the new iPhoto, which is technically now at version 6. I've been playing with and poking at it for roughly 20 minutes, so this will obviously be just a raw rundown of what I've noticed is new and different so far: Starting, using and quitting the app is noticeably faster. I'm running it on a PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz with 1.5 GB RAM, but I've still noticed a general increase in speed and responsiveness. Finally, finally, finally - the iPhoto Library folder (in ~/Pictures/) organizes your images the way an application like this should. Basically, under a new "Originals" folder are folders dated by year, and in those are folders named by album, with images arranged accordingly. Thanks Apple! iPhoto 6 now joins Mail and iTunes with unified toolbar goodness. Full-screen viewing/editing is responsive and absolutely gorgeous, though I have one minor complaint: there's no way to get out the current album of images you're viewing unless you duck out of full-screen. Not a big deal, but a minor nuisance. There's a new Advanced preference pane with the option: "Copy files to iPhoto Library folder when adding to library." If this functions like the similar option in iTunes, I assume this means iPhoto doesn't necessarily need to move, copy and/or duplicate images you have sitting somewhere else on your Mac. The toolbar at the bottom of iPhoto's interface is now customizable, allowing you to toggle which buttons you actually have available down there. I haven't played with any of the photocasting or iWeb features yet, but we hope to have some demos, links and video examples ready for a vidcast by this weekend or early next week, so stay tuned!
