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iLife

iMovie Hasn't Improved, but iPhoto is pretty nice

Written by HH from New York City

24-Nov-2009

I was hoping Apple would give in to iMovie '08 complaints and go back to the HD6 interface. They didn't. They just threw iMovie '09 out. There is no timeline, about 2 effects, a few transitions, AND NO SUPPORT FOR GEETHREE SLICK. iMovie '08/'09 is terrible.

1 of 1 people found this useful

iLife

Amazing!

Written by FT from Beaconsfield

21-Nov-2009

If your contemplating buying this just buy it for the iPhoto and iMovie. They are huge upgrades! Faces is amazing and works flawlessly while the movies are very professional and look great! Every feature is easy to use and works very well with every camera. Also, uploading to iMovie with a camcorder has improved greatly! BUY THIS PRODUCT RIGHT NOW!

8 of 10 people found this useful

iLife

iMovie no good

Written by GC from Komoro

13-Nov-2009

going back to PC

can't import movies and no one can help...

Please take me back Microsoft.... please

49 of 153 people found this useful

iLife

Garbage, junk, horrible, DO NOT BUY FOR iMOVIE, worst ever

Written by GF from Conifer

11-Nov-2009

The new iMovie is quite possibly the hardest to use, confusing and idiotic piece of junk apple has ever released. DO NOT BUY THIS IF YOU WANT A GOOD VIDEO EDITING SUITE. I have been using video editing software for 5 years, and since I've switched to HD (AVCHD) I've been limited by apple's software. DO NOT BUY THIS WORTHLESS SOFTWARE!

55 of 135 people found this useful

iLife

Love iLife '09

Written by DC from Statesboro

7-Nov-2009

Absolutely love this update so far. I had '08 and things that I thought needed improving there were fixed here really nicely. Working with different photo libraries is a complete breeze in iPhoto and iMovie can now has super easy access to project and events on different hard drives connected to your Mac. Just plug in the drive with the projects and events and they show up in iMovie. Very happy with this update.

58 of 66 people found this useful

iLife

imovie awful

Written by HE from Aspen

6-Nov-2009

Such a jumble of complicated maneuvers. I had to have an online video tutor plus David Pogue's book and I still don't understand it. The old imovie (pre '07) was so intuitive I figured it out without reading anything. I just hope I can load my old imovie onto this computer.

29 of 39 people found this useful

iLife

Fantastic... But..

Written by JM from Copenhagen

1-Nov-2009

..the new Imovie is horrible! It's complicated like a Windows program, almost every visual effect has been replaced by thousands of useless jingles.
Give us the old Imovie back!

(But all the other programs is above heaven)

37 of 46 people found this useful

iLife

iMovie 09 a Big Step Backward

Written by LE

28-Oct-2009

I just bought a new Macbook Pro (love it) and iLife 09 (hate it). To my horror, iMovie 09 has none of the features of the older iMovie 06 that are on my older Macbook and now is virtually useless. Missing are the timeline (absolutely necessary), the ability to overlap audio (a must), and controlling volume in parts of the timeline. This newer version of iMovie is so unusable and worthless (it seems like a light version of what used to be an awesome software program that we used often for presentations). Is there a way to download the full version of iMovie (iMovie 06)? We once tried Final Cut Express, but it is much to hard to learn and requires paying for classes. Help!

65 of 75 people found this useful

iLife

iMovie 09 is great...when it works.

Written by AC

26-Oct-2009

Ok, so here's the deal. I've been a Windows user for years, and unlike everyone else in the world, I had no probs with Vista. But, I moved to a Mac because I wanted to come back to where it all started. During this time I got used to using Movie Maker and I figured that iMovie should be all that and more. I got my hands on iMovie 08, found out that wasn't the case. So now, I'm trying to use iMovie 09. It's wonderful...when the thing works!!! Tell me, why is it that I can't import a .MOV movie into iMovie 09 that I saved using QUICKTIME!? I've been reading on the web that I have to get some sort of converter for my movies to be read by iMovie. I mean, I even brought them up in iTunes, and they were playing IN IMOVIE, yet I still couldn't edit them. Thank goodness I still have iMovie 06. I hope this isn't some ploy to get people to buy FCP. iPhoto is the ONLY reason why I gave this suite 3 stars. Even it can read my QUICKTIME movies. Why can't iMovie 09 do this. I mean even iMovie 06 does this!? This is FRUSTRATING!

58 of 65 people found this useful

iLife

iDVD

Written by CU from Norwalk

25-Oct-2009

I recently switched from a PC to the new 27'' iMac because I got fed up with the viruses and the constant crashes every time I tried to make a home movie. Overall, the iMac looks and performs great;however, the main reason I dished out 2+k was to make dvd's of my newborn and thus far I am unable to make a simple DVD. I just read several posts by other apple users and I guess Im not alone. I am most disappointed!

40 of 51 people found this useful

iLife

iMovie very frustrating!

Written by DG from Burnaby

14-Oct-2009

I hate what apple did to iMovie for iLife9! There is NO room for freedom in this program. There's NO timeline! I can't just zoom in and zoom out from a photo! I can't view or hide the audio track! The change in the interface is very frustrating! I dislike the restrictions that was put in iMovie9. I'm am very disappointed in the redesign of this program.

72 of 92 people found this useful

iLife

iDVD is GARBAGE!

Written by MF from Long Beach

13-Oct-2009

This a poor piece of software that should not have even been included in this suite of excellent consumer tools. No matter what you do, iDvd will always author your project with poor resolution, blurry text and images. If you don't believe me Google iDvd and see how many unsatisfied customers there are out there. Come on Apple, get this software right, we need it to complete the suite of tools in iLife '09.

50 of 65 people found this useful

iLife

Bless your hands and kiss your eyes!

Written by AC from fort worth

30-Sep-2009

This is a wonderful self sufficient app, and the effects are super genius...you did a great thing for all of us designers and graphic artists...I can't see anyone not needing this wonderful toy. it is a joy to deal with, and takes alot of work away from me...so I can enjoy your work and take credit for all those wonderful extras...you are so sweet...thanks and blessings

56 of 72 people found this useful

iLife

amazing product!!

Written by ST from chennai

30-Sep-2009

i've been a windows user until i grabbed a mac book from a near by store. i really wanted a personal laptop, thank god i got a mac. it came preloaded with ilife 09', which i see as a solution to all my computer needs. iphoto is all u need to organize yr photos, imovie is fun to work with and ofcoarse i made my own music using garage band. thank you iLife, you bring smile to me everytime i use u. :-)

44 of 58 people found this useful

iLife

iMovie is Horribly Frustrating

Written by WC from Bristow

27-Sep-2009

The interface is inviting but full of stumbling blocks. After several minutes of tinkering, my 12 year old got up and said "God! I hate this application" and went out to play. It turns out that while you can select many things, the commands for performing common actions are inconsistent. She was trying to delete an event.

The camera capture cannot reduce to a size smaller than 1:1 and lets face it, the camera capture does not need to be large. It is also modal so you can't do anything while it is on the screen.

Simple "Select All" does not work. It is like running windows software although much prettier, still just as frustrating. This makes Photoshop seem easy.

80 of 104 people found this useful

iLife

Garageband is buggy

Written by JS from Garnet Valley

26-Sep-2009

I'm having a lot of trouble with GB. Doesn't save its source files correctly and it seems to be unstable.

23 of 34 people found this useful

iLife

oh my god

Written by JM from Cold Spring

25-Sep-2009

Well, I am normally slavishly devoted to Apple but I must give iLife 09 1 star for one and only one reason: iMovie08 and 09 is the worst piece of garbage Apple has ever written. The more I try to use it, the more frustrating it is. I don't really feel like pulling out my video camera and using Final Cut, I just want something simple. What a wreck. Please take it out back and shoot it. Bring back the timeline!

52 of 60 people found this useful

iLife

We love iMovie '09

Written by DS

17-Sep-2009

With the help of David Pogue's book--we really needed it, and it is a fabulous one--so well organized for those of us who are no longer young and intuitive--we had a very good experience editing and splicing old super8 movies that had been digitalized. And then movies made on Hi8 video camera, and then a recent one.
No loss of quality that I could detect, from the originals so I think those who did lose quality didn't do something right.
Don't get me wrong this is not a project that was easy, but was no harder than using iMovie 6 when we tried before and gave up.
When it comes to reviews and the pros and cons, I find that the bad experiences reported are because a fine tool in inexperienced hands does not always yield good results.
David Pogue has a lot better perspective comparing iMovie 09 with earlier versions than most would have, and while he trashed iMovie '08 deservedly, he is positive about '09.

82 of 96 people found this useful