The review for iLife will evolve but wanted to give you some quite first thoughts on the updated programmes.
iWeb
iWeb is always a bit of a slow programme, however, it does automatically create website photo galleries without having to do any work so I have always let it off. The big drawback with iWeb 08 was the limitation that it could only automatically publish to the dot mac (or newer mobile me) web hosting account. They have updated the programme now so that it includes a FTP upload to any webhosting. This is going to be a godsend because instead of having to publish the whole website to a folder then upload with filezilla I can publish the edits. Advantages are obvious, quicker to make changes and less hassle. Well done Apple!
Another interesting addition it the automatic announcement on Facebook that you have updated your website. Nice touch.
Ease of use for website building -
Style - limited but still varied enough to get you going -
Speed and performance -
/ depending on what you are doingI will be moving my web domain michaelriley.org.uk to the apple servers and will publish a small extra site that will have some of the fancier 'widgets' included just for my own amusement. I will let you know how that goes in a small while.
iPhoto 09
Two big interesting additions to iPhoto 09. Firstly face recognition and secondly GPS tagging of photographs. I nearly forgot to mention the auto-publishing to Facebook and Flickr. Nice touches, it means you can rotate all your photographs on your computer and then automatically upload them. Not a bad idea!
Face Recognition is quite fun actually. The idea is you Tag (like in facebook) pictures of your friends. As you tag more and more photographs the programme automatically builds up a 'person' specific gallery helping you to locate all photographs of a particular person. The funny bit is when the programme gets confused; Annette, Lizzie, Vicky and Becky (all family obviously) were regularly confused until I started tagging Lizzie in earnest. Joseph is frequently tagged as Vicky as well which is quite interesting. The odd one is that the programme is failing to regularly recognise Julie B, Al G and Christine D. No idea why, they must frequently change their expressions. Claire L is always spot on and so is Kirsty G-W. I guess this means that they must have a well practised photo face! The confusion is always very interesting and I would not class it as a fault, just a learning sequence.
GPS is sort of pointless unless you have a GPS enabled camera, such as an iPhone. It is quite interesting to see where the GPS on the phone has tagged some of the photographs. They can be totally wrong! No where near as effective as the face recognition and less fun unless you have been all over the world with a GPS enabled device.
All in all iPhoto 08 was good with a
and iPhoto 09 has added some nice touches and retains a .Pleased with the pressie so far. Will keep you posted!
