Posted Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Now Playing: "The Digital Hub," Episode 1: a 50-Minute Tour of Apple's iLife '06

The headline says it all. The first episode of my enhanced podcast, "The Digital Hub," is available for your downloading pleasure.

Or displeasure, if you have a slower connection. It's a big download—24MB. Turns out all those graphics that you add to an enhanced podcast do bulk up the file size!

Anyway, take a listen and a looksee. Besides a tour of all six iLife '06 programs, I also talk about how Apple has boosted the resolution of iPhoto books (and the new calendars and cards), I whine about Kodak's not-so EasyShare online photofinishing service, and demonstrate the newest addition to Apple's Jam Pack library, World Music.

I really like the way GarageBand 3 lets you create chapter markers in podcasts -- use iTunes or your iPod to skip the boring parts (that should save you about 47 minutes!) or replay an interesting part (less likely!).

I used GarageBand 3 to record, edit, and produce the entire podcast, and the program performed extremely well. I recorded the podcast using a high-end Beyer Dynamic ribbon microphone connected to a Mackie mixer that was patched into my new PowerBook, which doesn't feel all that new after yesterday's MacBook Pro unveiling. (But Steve, why no FireWire 800? Why no dual-layer SuperDrive? Why no built-in modem?!)

Anyway, go fetch.