Today I received my copy iLife ‘06 from Apple. I have been very excited about this release since before Christmas and was correct in my predictions that there would be built in blogging and podcasting tools as well as another application to add to the package.

Of course, the second Steve Jobs announced to the world that there was indeed an iLife ‘06 release this past Tuesday, I updated my software and got the new versions of iTunes (6.0.2) and QuickTime Pro (7.0.4). This was not without it’s drawback however, as I documented here.

That all done with, I have been impressed overall with the updates and was eagerly awaiting my early ordered iLife package from the local courier. I even formatted my PowerBook in anticipation and did not install the iLife ‘05 bundled with my copy of OS X. I was ready, I was updated… and I still haven’t published anything.

As always the packaging was beautiful, the disk was a DVD, the installer was even pretty exhilarating. Unfortunately though I have not gotten very far in my attempt to create either a podcast or an iWeb/.Mac website. Every time I try and do the smallest thing, such as change some pre-formatted text, every time I right click a typo or even just try to open a menu it freezes for a minute, sometimes ten. It’s very frustrating.

I will endeavor and will update you when I can.

[Specs: PowerBook G4 (Aug '05) 1.67Ghz, 768Mb RAM, Mighty Mouse, iSight, LaCie d2 160Gb E-HDD, OS X 10.4.4, All available software updates installed, absolutely no third party software or hacks or keys (with the exception of Carbon Copy Cloner)]

Update: This has been a surreal experience. I have Photocasting through iPhoto working great (if slowly compared to Steve’s presentation) and I also have iWeb working (all be it timed out because of my huge movie.

The issue really is GarageBand; my most looked forward too addition. It just keeps freezing up like there is no tomorrow. I have done everything I could and even restarted. Fresh access to all that RAM still won’t see it though. The CPU is working because I have power plugged in. iWeb was fine after the restart, why isn’t GarageBand? I don’t have all the answers, but you couldn’t get it on a cleaner system so it’s nothing third party or the like.

I am sure GarageBand will work eventually if I leave it for long enough, but right now it’s unusable.

[Note 2: According to Apple, my PowerBook is more than capable of running this entire suite; I even exceed the recommended requirements.]