Previously with iLife ‘08, making a fully-customized Ken Burns DVD slideshow was impossible. The closest you could get to a fully-customized slideshow involved making an iPhoto slideshow with custom Ken Burns effects and audio, exporting it to a QuickTime file, and importing it into an iDVD project. However, it was impossible to add and mix multiple audio tracks into the slideshow and iPhoto’s user interface made customizing each photo’s effects awkward. The entire slideshow production workflow just wasn’t thought out very well by Apple.

Thanks to the iMovie code rewrite, photo slideshows are now fully customizable and easy to produce inside iMovie. iMovie is no longer sluggish when importing and encoding photos, start-and-end Ken Burn frames are now easy to manage, and managing multiple audio tracks and transitions are more intuitive than before. iMovie ‘08 also has much-improved transition management.

But on the other hand, Apple’s new iMovie rewrite has left a few features out that many will miss, such as movie themes and video effects. Fortunately, the iLife ‘08 installer does not remove the previous version of iMovie, instead moving it inside a directory within the Applications folder named “iMovie (previous version)”. Hopefully Apple is already working on implementing the various features they left behind with iMovie ‘06 into the new iMovie in a future software update, because once iMovie has those great features back it will once again become the easiest-to-use, most stable, and most fully-featured movie production application.

The user interface on these new applications are stunning and fresh, and it truly does seem to be the biggest update to iLife ever.

Key points from the video include:

iPhoto

• Integration with .Mac’s Web Gallery
• New “Events” Library organization
• Themed-printing features
• New iTunes-eque UI

iMovie

• Supposedly recoded
• Brand new UI, project workflow
• Supposedly faster, easier
• New formats
• Export to YouTube, iPhone, iPod, .Mac
• Additional format support (video promotes AVCHD)

iDVD

• Ten new animated themes
• Improved slideshow features
• Improved performance

iWeb

• Integration with Google AdSense
• Integration with YouTube videos
• Integration with Google Maps (creating and sharing custom map views)
• Improved support for iWeb hosting on non-.Mac servers
• Better photo navigation and viewing

Garageband

• An automated song generator with custom interments and genres, featuring an innovative UI
• Improved track and sound manipulation (EQ, effects, etc.)

Today, new reports are describing a notification .Mac subscribers are seeing today on the .Mac homepage.

Due to scheduled maintenance, .Mac members might be intermittently unable to access some .Mac services from 10 AM to 12 PM PDT on 08/07/2007. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The notification describes the update to be issued somewhere between 10 and 12 tomorrow morning, which is the exact same time the special event is to take place. This leads to speculation that a new version of .Mac and some new features could also be delivered along with the other Mac product updates.

So, this brings me back to wondering if the WWDC rumors of a Google-Apple partnership are going to be announced tomorrow. Apple and Google worked together on developing great integration with online Google services; Google supplies the back-end and Apple develops the slick interface. Together, they could release an online services bundle that could be ad-supported, featuring productivity applications and integration with Google’s stable online services.

This strategy would benefit both companies, mainly because of their mutual competitor Microsoft, which plans to seek domination over internet multimedia. Together, they could offer a powerful line of web applications and services that are stable, easy-to-use, integrated with iLife and iWork, and offer a sleek “Apple-like” interface.

[Via AppleGazette]

The Apple TV is a great example of the typical first generation Apple product. At first it seems to lack features that make it worth the high price Apple is asking for. Just like the iPod and many other Apple products, the Apple TV will probably follow in iPod’s footsteps and eventually become that “must-have” device that every home will have. It will just take about three to four generations to catch on. In my opinion the Apple TV is going to have to meet these requirements to start flying off the shelves:

1. HD content.
2. Much cheaper price. Nothing above $199.
3. Rental movie downloads.
4. An iTunes store for the Apple TV possible.

5. Apple, give up .Mac or make it free

I know many proud .Mac subscribers may disagree, but I just do not understand how the services Apple offers in its .Mac subscription is close to being worth $99. It offers sub-par bandwidth and memory restrictions and packaged with a lot of bloatware that can be substituted for free alternatives. Apple’s already shown its lack in .Mac when it announced its compatibility with Yahoo mail’s mail-push functions and saying they will offer free email addresses and these special push functions to all iPhone customers. Give it up Apple, .Mac is a failure. The only way you are going to start getting subscribers it to either make the price worth the features or better yet, make it free!

4. Updates for iWork and iLife

We’ve all been waiting since January for an update to our iLife and iWork suites of applications, and for the first time since iWork ‘04 Apple didn’t release the new suites at Macworld. We’ve speculated the past four months and made rumors of when the new suites will be announced, but still no details on the suites have been released by Apple. Many are anticipating the new iWeb 2.0 release that hopefully will have FTP/SFTP features and new, richer, cleaner templates. Others are waiting for an update to Garageband and the other old iApps.

Many iWork users are waiting for a spreadsheet application to compete with Microsoft’s Excel program. Looking at some of the screenshots of Office 2008 for Mac and playing with Office 2007 for Windows, I feel Apple really needs to improve the interface and friendliness of iWork to really make it work. I’m a big fan of the iWork suite but the current “Inspector” interface simply doesn’t compare to the ribbon interface in the new Office suites from Microsoft. We’ll see how Apple can implement the Inspector interface in the next iteration of the iWork applications and hopefully make it a little easier to use without involving dialogue boxes and extra windows, etc.

3. iPod Update to at least iPhone specs

The current iPod is really an embarrassing video player compared to both the Zune and Apple’s new iPhone. It wouldn’t take much to turn the current iPhone product and sub in a hard drive (or a lot of flash memory) for all of the phone innards and make a killer music, video, media, internet-browsing device. Hopefully this new iPod will at least match its competitors and include a built-in Airport wireless adapter to browse websites (just like the iPhone), download media from the iTunes store, sync with your Mac or PC, connect to an Apple TV, etc. Maybe these features sound a little idealistic, but it surely is possible and would be very well received. Knowing Apple, a November release date sounds likely; however knowing Apple, you can never bee too sure.

2. Interface Updates to Mac OS X – Illuminous

It was a hot topic discussed on Appleology a while back, but its still a very important topic since we haven’t had any updates since. In my opinion, user interface and user experience is pretty much 75% of what is great about using a Mac. but I’m ready for Apple to impress me again like they did with Aqua. I want a really rich user-interface that has more feeling and depth. And it all comes back to the idea of Illuminous and a new generation of user interfaces for the Mac. Apple’s going darker, sleeker, shinier with every product they release. The iPhone, Apple TV, iTunes 7; they all have that same interface that we nicknamed “Illuminous”. Now it’s Mac OS X’s turn for a change. Leopard’s resolution independence features along with the progress Apple’s made developing Multi-Touch interfaces with the iPhone and integrate that technology with OS X and run with it. The result could change the way users operate with their computers forever. And if Apple can’t get this far by June, hopefully they will at least match Vista’s impressive GUI.

1. Lower Prices on All Consumer-Level Macs

Price has to be the biggest complaint from potential switchers whenever I try to persuade someone to consider buying a Mac. They don’t care if Macs last longer or consider the bundled software, when they are thinking about buying a computer all they only care about the price of the computer. If Apple really wanted to maximize their market share, they would have lowered their prices on all of their Macs by now. When it comes to most of the consumers today, all they want to hear is price and Apples simply can’t compete with notebooks starting at $1099.

We pretty much know that there is going to be an Apple Special Event will take place sometime in spring to showcase the new features of Leopard, and possibly even iLife and iWork 2007. Steve has has already made it clear that Leopard will include all of the new miscellaneous applications introduced in recent Mac products; such as Front Row, Photo Booth, and Boot Camp. In the WWDC 2006 keynote, Steve didn’t make it clear what other applications will be bundled with Leopard, “These are just three examples of how we’re going to ship the complete package of applications with Leopard.” iLife and iWork 2007 would be a significant addition to the new bundled applications in Leopard.

In Apple’s quarter one financial results conference call, an Apple financial advisor told an analyst to “stay tuned” for iLife-related announcements. iLife has never before been bundled with a retail box of Mac OS X, but the suite comes with every Mac. Bundling with Mac OS X would make the software product line much simple and definitely would be a major reason to upgrade to the new OS. One of Apple’s key strategies to switching consumers from Windows to Mac was the “Everything is in the Box” strategy, where everything you could possibly want is bundled with the Mac.

It wasn’t long ago when Macs were bundled with Apple’s own complete office suite, Appleworks, a port from its Mac OS 9 version and was far out-of-date and unstable to compete with Microsoft’s dominant Office suite. For a long time, people have thought the Mac could only be used for creative work. While that might be true, times are changing and many businesses and professionals are switching to Macs. Bundling iWork with Leopard and every Mac could alter the office landscape permanently. Logically, it would then make sense for Apple to include a spreadsheet application to complete the suite and therefore really compete with Microsoft Office.

While this may give Apple a license to raise the price of their operating system upgrade, I think many would be willing to pay the difference. From a marketing perspective, it makes too much sense for Apple to just bundle these great suites into Leopard. Apple didn’t break the yearly iLife and iWork upgrade tradition for no reason.

1. Open iPhoto and make an album with all of the photos you want in the slideshow.
2. Now select the “New Slideshow” button in the bottom toolbar, which will make another special album that is for slideshow purposes only. This is required if you want the Ken Burns effect with your slideshow.
3. Edit the parameters of the new slideshow by setting background music, transition effects, Ken Burns, etc.
4. Choose File – Export. I suggest using the highest quality setting (640×480) and export to the “Movies” folder in your Home directory. Then click “Export” and wait for iPhoto to finish the export.
5. Open iDVD and the Movies folder where you saved the iPhoto slideshow.
6. Drag the exported slideshow file into the iDVD frame, which will import the movie into your iDVD project.
7. Dress up the DVD menus to your liking and burn. A major benefit of using the iPhoto export is that iDVD doesn’t have to re-encode the movie, so the burning process will not take too long.

You may ask why I didn’t just open iDVD and create a slideshow or maybe just use iMovie to create my slideshow. iDVD 6’s slideshow feature is much better than earlier versions of iDVD, but it is still in need of further improvement. iDVD caps the number of photos in a slideshow to 9,801 images (how did they get 9,801?), and iDVD doesn’t support the Ken Burns effect, which I think is crucial to making an entertaining slideshow. However, iMovie does support Ken Burns and doesn’t have a maximum number of photos, but iMovie takes a very long time to encode the photos, and it requires the user to manually setup the Ken Burns effect for each photo, which I think is ridiculous. Overall, the iPhoto slideshow export trick is the easiest and fastest way to get your memories on DVD to share.