Last updated 6/06/2006

The Macintosh iLife '05

The Macintosh iLife '05
Author: Jim Heid
Publisher: Peachpit Press
350 pages and DVD ... $34.99
ISBN 0-321-33537-6
New edition of the best-selling book on Apple iLife

The Macintosh iLife '04 consists of over an hour and a half of instructions and some extras on a DVD, a 250 page book and Internet support. The combination works.

The Macintosh iLife '05 contents on the DVD and in the book have increased by more than 66% over iLife '04 for only $5.00 more making it as great a bargain as iLife '05 itself.

Some of have seen Jim Heid's First Look: iLife '05, the Macworld hand-out that Peachpit provided for one of our meetings which highlighted some of the new innovations in iLife '05 and provided a sample of what is in this book.

The Macintosh iLife '05 DVD and book work together.

The Macintosh iLife '05 DVD shows you how to do many of the things in iLife '05 making them much easier to understand than describing them in writing, and it refers you to specific pages in the book when appropriate. Most people will find this more interesting and easier to understand than reading a how to do it description in text.

The Macintosh iLife '05 book covers more of iLife '05 in more detail, with illustrations that document what you are seeing and how to work with it, and refers you to the DVD or the companion web site (www.macilife.com) where appropriate. It is easier to study and refer back to a book than to try to do something on your computer while using it to see a DVD.

The result is that most people probably can learn more, more easily, and in less time with this combination than they could with either a book or DVD alone.

In my review of The Macintosh iLife '04 I wrote, That is the advantage of the DVD. In about 90 minutes Jim actually shows you how to do practically everything with iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD. The new DVD is almost three hours long, which illustrates the vast improvements iDVD '05 as well as in this DVD.

The Macintosh iLife '05 is about twice as large as The Macintosh iLife '04 with 350 pages, again showing the extra value in iLife 5 as well as in the book. The type and illustrations are larger than in most manuals, this book does not need as many pages to cover the same material as found in much larger manuals because so much of what you have to describe in a book is illustrated in the DVD, The Macintosh iLife '05 is quite complete, clear, and easy to read and reference.

For more information or to order The Macintosh iLife '05 go to
http://www.peachpit.com