OK, I’m gonna say it: iLife ’04 is worth easily five times what you pay for it. As it is, the dramatic speed increase in iPhoto was worth the $49.99 I paid for it all by itself.
I remember the uproar of those calling for the heads of Apple marketing on a giant silver platter when Steve Jobs announced the auspicious iLife-for-money plan a year ago. Then, you could still download iPhoto for free, not to mention iTunes and iMovie, but iDVD was the bully that required a DVD to install it, and thereby the price tag.
Yeah, I woulda have bought the thing if I’d needed it (I already had a new Mac that had all the apps pre-installed. I woulda bought it because I’m an addict. But I could see the arguments of those who wouldn’t buy the suite back then. With iLife ’04, no excuses. This simply kicks.
Garageband is the pinnacle. I’ve been using it for about five minutes, and I’m thinking of changing my name to 49-cent. Yeah, I’m almost there. The coolest part of it is how they’ve organized the GUI — I can use it quite effectively on my 12″ screen and still have access to all the loops and tools I need. I know I’ve only scratched the surface of the power of this little guy, but it’s already making me sound like a champ.