Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Every year, Apple issues a new iLife upgrade, and every year, I stare in wonder at my Mac's monitor, noting the improvements and wondering why Microsoft and the PC industry can't create something as impressive as iLife for the Windows realm. Three years after the initial iLife release, iLife '06 is now available, and it's better than ever. Quite simply, there’s nothing on the Windows side of the fence that approaches the quality of iLife '06.

Best of all, iLife '06 is cheap. It comes free with any new Mac, but if you have a previous version, the full retail version is just $79, while a Family Pack, which lets you install the suite on as many as five Macs, is a bargain at $99. Why Microsoft can't duplicate this functionality—along with the low-ball pricing—is beyond me.