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 - Everything you need to knowClear, concise and assuming no prior knowledge, this is a fantastic book for both beginners and those wishing to familiarise themselves with new features of iLife 08. Rating: - well-organized encyclopedia of tips and tricksThis is a "tips and tricks" book but it is unusually well organized, so that you feel you are following a coherent path instead of being barraged with random facts. The format is something like an illustrated encyclopedia and something like a very thick computer magazine. The index is good and makes it easy to look up things. There's an accompanying web site that has a little bit of additional content but primarily serves as a collection of links to other sites. The level is beginning to intermediate. There are no really advanced or obscure techniques, and it does not go into depth on anything. Coverage is good. The most heavily used programs, iTunes and iPhoto, get the lion's share of attention. The iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand programs get a reasonable amount of coverage. I thought the section on iWeb was flimsy. It focuses on publishing your photos and albums, and has a little bit about blogs. This matches how Apple is positioning the product, but there is really much more to it - it is the web version of the Pages program from iWork. Very Good Feature: the book calls out other useful programs and services that can be used with iLife and shows you (briefly) how to use them. These include Photoshop (integration with iPhoto), TubeTV and TubeSock (for YouTube capture), and Flickr (photo sharing). It also has useful digressions on related subjects, for example there are two pages of digital camera tips and two pages of MIDI keyboard tips. Rating:  - Disappointed by lack of DVDI've been so happy with Jim Heid's previous iLife books that I didn't check to see if this one included a tutorial DVD. To me, that was the really great resouce - with the actual book being a good reference/bonus. Unfortunately, the DVD is gone. For those of us who pick up information a lot faster when we're watching how something is done, it's a real loss. I'm sure that the book's content will be excellent (as usual) but I can't recommend it as highly as I have previous volumes (especially as there doesn't seem to have been a corresponding price drop for the disk-less package). Rating: - The Best iLife book aroundWhen I first got this book I thought I may have wasted my money. Such a large portion of the volume is devoted to iTunes and iTunes easy enough to use that it doesn't need instructions, right? I'm glad to say that I was mistaken. There are lots of features and settings that aren't immediately obvious and I'm now using an old iBook connected to my stereo system as a remote media server accessible from the other three computers on the network. My original reason for getting the book was to learn Garage Band and I'm not disappointed. I'm still learning but I'm now able to set up background music to practice my guitar to as well as make some decent sounding home recordings. Any problem is not Garage Band but my non-compliant fingers. Oh well. iMovie coverage seems good, though I've only played with a couple of videos, as does iDVD. There's a nice section on iPhoto, too, though I'm now using Adobe Bridge and Photoshop instead. I enjoy the format that is heavy on pictures and offers a nicely digestible amount of information per page. Highly recommended. Rating: - Mac iLife 'O8I really like the way this book takes you through each of the iLife '08 applications. Each two-page spread covers an individual topic or task you want to accomplish. The descriptions are easy to understand and in many cases the author lists steps to accomplish each task. Just like a cook book. Because all these applications are constantly updated/improved you can find them on a companion web site. So, this book will not go out of date soon. A very helpful book.
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