iLife -- appears I'm screwed and must pay another $50?

[Randman]

Gee, no one likes having to pay for something, especially if you've had it for free.

That said, the price seems more than fair for what you're getting (you don't have to buy iLife and I'm sure there's ways to get older copies of the apps such as iPhoto (if it was free, I don't think that's talking about warez).
But if you look at it as US$10 for each new application in it, that's a pittance. Heck, I paid US$20 last night for Speed Download 2. For that price, I could have gotten iPhoto (now able to hold 25,000 photos, with subfolders and direct .mac options) and GarageBand.
I have a very well-used 20gb iPod, Gen 2. I've more than gotten my investment out of it and I've invested quite a bit (not counting iTMS and albums and audible.com content, I have a Vaja case, wireless remote and iTrip). Was I happy when i heard about the Gen3 40gb iPods? No, because I wanted one, but I didn't start complaining about how Apple owed me another 20gb of space (and other options such as alarms and on-the-go playlists).
Sometimes, imho, people tend to rant first (especially on online forums) and think second. That's not a comment pointed to any individual (heck, I even do that), but a general observation.
iLife '04 at US$50 is a good value.

 

[RacerX]

Apple always provided / bundled these apps with computers - the updates were always free. It was not unreasonable to expect the updates to continue to be free. The fact that they now want to include GarageBand shouldn't affect iPhoto users IMHO.

I got AppleWorks 5 with a system at one point, Apple sure didn't give me AppleWorks 6 for free. The idea that Apple always does anything is a little misguided. I have a pretty good record of what software Apple bundled with what computers going back some 15 years. If more examples are needed I would be happy to supply them.

Apple usually supplies updates for free, they tend to charge for upgrades. Most of the apps in the iLife suite have advanced enough to actually start being used for professional out put. That and the fact that they are getting larger, makes the download idea expensive for Apple. You now get what you get with your system, updates are free, upgrades are not. But they are not unreasonable either.

Cars and software are not the same! The point I am trying to make is that Apple has recognised a flaw in their iPhoto software and has made moves to fix it. Why should we now view it as a "new" product?

iPhoto wasn't originally designed to compete with apps like Portfolio. It was limited in it's uses the same way that iMovie was in the beginning. No flaw, just a limit on it's abilities. Apple recognized that more and more people are using better and better digital equipment with their systems, and they upgraded the features accordingly. Remember the class of people these are being aimed at, home users. When Apple started iPhoto they had envisioned something much smaller.

Photoshop Elements has it's limits. I don't think that Adobe would consider Photoshop CS a fix for Photoshop Elements. In fact I don't think Adobe would consider Photoshop CS a fix for Photoshop 7 either.

I don't think that crawfordna has said he's not thankful. It seems to me that he's just a bit peeved - I can understand his frustration (after all, he only just bought his PB!)

Do you know how many people come to this forum to complain because they bought something from Apple and a few months later it was replaced by something new. Unless you think the world stops when you buy your equipment, you should know that your hardware and software are going to be replace soon with something else.

However, taking an application like iPhoto from being a free upgrade to a paying one has suprised a lot of people, myself included. If you're happy with it, fair enough - but not everyone feels the same as you!

There was one... and only one, free upgrade of iPhoto. From 1.1.1 to 2.0. This wasn't a long string of upgrades being broken here, just one.

PS - sorry I don't know how to edit your comments as well as you did mine - I'm afraid it's all mixed up!

Not a problem. The fact that I can edit this stuff shows I've spent way too much time writing these types of posts.