It’s Time To Stop All The Noise About Macs And iLife ‘08.

On the internet, everyone has an opinion. Some are worthy, some are not. So it is these days.

A recent barrage of opinions on the new iMacs (good) and the new version of iMovie in iLife ‘08 (not so good) means it’s my turn to voice an opinion (more noise?).

Apple introduced a couple of new iMacs that have nearly everyone swooning. With daughter #1 tucked tightly into her stroller, and soon-to-be-daughter #2 tucked under my dress, I hit the Apple Store, picked up iLife ‘08, and watched the swooning.

Swooning? Yes. The Store set out the first of their new iMac demonstration machines and there was a crowd gathered like cattle heading home for dinner.

Interestingly, it was the same around the iPhone, and all the tables with iPods had people lined up, too. In the back was a line of customers, like me, ready to fork over cash for iLife ‘08.

Swooning seems to be what people do around Apple products these days. Except for iMovie ‘08. This venerable component of iLife has met with the harsh realities of change.

Apple updated iPhoto, enhanced GarageBand, provided better integration with iWeb, popped in a few new features to iDVD, but decided iMovie wasn’t worth the evolutionary update method, chucked the whole thing out the door, and introduced a new and utterly different iMovie.

Among the Mac360 crew chiefs, Kate MacKenzie was the unhappiest of campers over iMovie’s changes, while Ron McElfresh, our hardened FinalCut pro, thought the changes were great, and worth iLife’s price of admission.

Why the differences of opinion from two Mac power users? I decided to find out:

Me: “Kate, why’d you get so upset over the changes to iMovie.?”

Kate: It wasn’t just a change, not even an evolutionary change, not even a revolutionary change. iMovie devolved. It’s worse than it was. No timeline. No easy editing. All you can do is throw clips together in a hurry. Oh, and find clips. Try doing audio backgrounds in iMovie.”

See? I suspect that Kate’s Scottish blood loves the value but her Puerto Rican side dominated the opinion forming process.

Me: “Ron, why’d you like the changes to iMovie?”

Ron: It’s easier to throw together a movie now. Managing clips and projects is much easier, no doubt. Much. I love the skimming feature to find spots within a clip or scene..”

Me: “Kate was very upset about the lack of an audio or video timeline. How about you??”

Ron: The timeline isn’t really necessary for the video component since the clips are arranged in sort of a timeline as you drag them into the project area. For audio, I use GarageBand anyway. Just drag the finished movie in GarageBand, add as many tracks as your Mac can handle, then save. That’s even better..”

See again? Differences of opinion are allowed in the Mac360 Cyber Headquarters.

From my perspective, Apple hit another home run with iLife ‘08. What’s not to like, iMovie timeline discounted, of course. As to the new iMacs? I’m drooling. So was everyone gathered around the iMacs at the Apple Store.

When was the last time a crowd drooled or gathered around a PC at CompUSA or Best Buy? What Apple is doing is becoming crystal clear. They’re aiming products at a market that is not satisfied with their current gadgets—PCs, cell phones, music players—providing a better, more usable experience.

Someone at Apple figured out that iMovie, in the many years it’s been available on the Mac, wasn’t cutting it for the new crowd of Mac users. Out with the old. In with the new.

So, that’s enough of the noise about iLife ‘08.