Hands On Review: Apple's iLife '06

I recently bought a Macbook Pro, and it has truly inspired me to work on family DVDs, slideshows, photobooks and other fun projects. I've worked with digital video software before, but Apple's software has beautiful templates you can use to create professional looking videos without spending hours in front of your computer.

Apple computers come loaded with iLife '06, a multimedia suite that helps users easily create DVDs, websites, slideshows and even create their own podcasts. The programs are very intuitive, but to make it that much easier, Apple has published several online video tutorials to help users learn how to get started on iPhoto, GarageBand, iTunes, iMovie HD, iDVD and iWeb.

I've been working on a video for a few weeks now, because every week I discover a new way to use the software. After importing the footage into iMovie HD,  I was able to add a few transition effects, a movie-like intro, music, and rolling credits. I also added a photo slideshow, set it to music from my iTunes library, and marked chapters for scene selection to make it easier for viewers to navigate through the video. Extracting audio from clips is extremely easy, as well as adjusting the volume or adding sound effects.

I have a widescreen DV camcorder, so importing video in a 16:9 (widescreen) format was very easy, and iDVD has widescreen templates for the splash screen so my movie remains in a one format. Once you're ready to publish your epic movie, you can choose from any of the one-step export formats available for Quicktime, iPod, iWeb or DVD.

iDVD includes several templates you can use to give your DVDs a more polished look. Templates have drag and drop spots where you can add photos or video as backgrounds, without spending countless hours creating Hollywood-type effects for splash screens. If you don't want to edit your movies, Magic iDVD allows you to add a splash screen before burning your movies to a DVD.

iPhoto works with iSight so you can use it as a digital camera too. A new feature called photocasting allows you to publish photo albums online, and your friends don't even need iPhoto to view them. It's great how you can edit and apply effects to your photos, and you can even create calendars, greeting cards and photobooks.

Garageband is a tool for songwriters or those who want to create podcasts, while iWeb allows anyone to create websites complete with blogs and podcasts instantly. All these applications integrate seamlessly with each other. It's a shame that iLife '06 only works with Mac OS X, because this is a great suite for beginners to work on and publish all their digital media.