Scott Bourne www.podcastingtricks.com
Chris Breen www.macworld.com/mac911 and www.playlistmag.com

Run Time: 31:35

Today we have a special edition of the iLifeZone, and the topic is the iLife Suite (appropriate, isn't it?). Today Scott and Chris fantasize about what they'd like to see in the next edition of the most sacred of software bundles (and our namesake) iLife!

Before we go on, though, we have to mentionthat this is the last episode of the iLifeZone that you'll find on Twit.tv . The iLifeZone is moving to Podango.com and we'll be right on the front page, as well as on the iTunes Store and on the iLifeZone blog .

Also, we're shooting to have another tip monster show ready for our March 1, 2007 episode, so be on the lookout for that! If you've never heard one of our famous tip monster shows, tune in. With all of the hosts shooting around tip after tip, you're bound to learn something!

Now on with the show!

Scott points out that we unexpectedly didn't get a suite upgrade at Macworld, and Chris agrees with Scott that it's coming soon partially because it's always nice to have a new iLife with a new OS. He also predicts that we'll either see it before Leopard or alongside the release of Leopard .

Scott wants to see better support for video podcasting and links from Garageband to the iTunes store submission page. Chris likes that idea, also.

Chris would like to see more exporting options in Garageband instead of just the default AAC format. As it is now, you have to "step on" each iteration you save, meaning each time you save, you lose some quality. You notice this most as you edit a compressed file and then save it as a compressed file again.

Chris would also like to have multiple export options. This would be good for podcasters who create two versions of a podcast (for example an AAC version and an MP3 version).

Scott would like to be able to e-mail a link / rss address / iTunes store link to other people much in the same way you can gift music to others in the iTunes store. As it stands now, you have to find the iTunes Store URL for whatever you want to send, copy it to your clipboard, and send it (just so you know how to do it, you can right click on any item in the iTunes store and click Copy iTunes Store URL and it will place the item's direct link on your clipboard for later use). Scott also mentions that a way to social-bookmark a song or podcast would be good to (ie: add it to Digg , del.icio.us , etc.)

In Garageband, Chris would like a good noise reduction effect. In a program like Soundsoap , it's a matter of sampling what you want to get rid of and it's gone. Garageband doesn't have similar functionality. One other effect he would like is something similar to Levelator (which is fantastic and if you haven't use it, you should try it) incorporated right into Garageband (Just a small correction... Chris pointed out that it's a Java applet. It used to be, but in its current version, it's a full standalone application).

On iPhoto , Chris would like a quick "accept / reject" functionality when thumbing through photos. He would also like a little more control over the "Enhance" functionality which is utterly awful in iPhoto.

Scott would like to see "stacks" added to iPhoto similar to what's in Aperture . In Aperture, if you shot a few shots in rapid succession, Aperture will know to group them together to make them easier to find.

Chris would also like disk spanning in iPhoto so you can split your library across multiple hard drives (perfect for larger libraries).

As for iWeb , Chris would like it to be easier to use iWeb with servers other than .Mac . Scott thinks it should be easier to manage multiple sites with iWeb (Amen, Scott!) Chris also points out that they need to make it easier to update a site from multiple Macs (something you cannot do right now without some manual preparation first). Scott would also like to see a boost to the overall performance of iWeb and Chris would also like to see more variety in the templates and types of pages. He'd also like more elements (ie: calendars on blogs, video objects).

For iMovie , Chris wants more stability first and foremost. He would also like to see smarter resizing (mainly for iMovie to stop "guessing" proper formats and aspect ratios which it does a really poor job of). Scott would like to see a beefier image import inspector to help you through the section. Chris agrees and points out the way iPhoto has warnings in the book builder when something won't print right would be great in iMovie.

Chris would also like to see more expansive iPod video export options (namely the ability to control compression to quality ratio, default output [television or iPod screen] and so on). More presets are the order of the day.

In iDVD , Chris would like to see a "make it fit" option to make bigger movies fit on whatever disc you want to use. Scott would like to see the ability to do disc spanning so that if you have something big, you can make it continue on a second disc (kind of like movies do now!). This is useful because camera quality is on a marked upswing. Chris would also like to add support for VOB files ( see here for an explanation of what VOB files are ). iDVD doesn't natively support VOB files as it is now.

Final word:

Overall, Scott and Chris both love iLife and think it's a great value but they always seem to miss something despite the polish on the package.

The one thing Chris would ask for is that Apple takes their time and makes sure that the programs are done right and not release then update to fix glitches that should've been fixed from day one.

Scott wants to add a simple security suite to the iLife suite (something that manages firewalls, popups, spyware, parental controls, net monitoring for kids) to improve the overall package. Chris agrees that it's a good idea, but he points out that Apple would most likely incorporate these things into an OS update and not the iLife suite.

Scott and Chris both think that the next version of the iLife suite will likely drop with Leopard, but the latest would be the WWDC in June.

Oh, and one more thing...

Coming soon, The Apple Phone Show with Scott and Chris! Be on the lookout for it!

Our next episode drops on February 20th!

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Our Sponsors for this episode are Rogue Amoeba and Podango

Thanks to Libsyn for hosting services.

Thanks also to Vincent Ferrari for the shownotes!

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