Mac Box Set [OLD VERSION] Get it now!

I had put off upgrading my aging iMac G5 to Leopard for fear that I'd upset the apple cart, and because none of the features sounded like things I couldn't live without. (Time Machine? Sounds great, but I already have a serviceable automatic backup program.)

Then I finally had to upgrade in order to run a certain application for work. I'm glad I did.

The Cover Flow option brings the excellent user experience of iTunes to the desktop, letting you "flip" through large preview icons of all sorts of files. The ability to easily page through a PDF without opening it is another nice time-saver, especially if you have several documents that have similar cover sheets and might otherwise be hard to differentiate from one another as icons.

I was worried that the newer OS would run slow on my four-year-old 2GHz Mac, but I need not have worried. If anything, it seems speedier than Tiger and even seems to have resolved a few conflicts I had with the old OS.

Best of all, this bundle gave me an excuse to upgrade iLife, which I hadn't upgraded in at least three versions. I was impressed by so many of the more recent features in iPhoto, including a feature called Faces (which does a decent job of "learning" the names of who's in each photo) and another called Places, which lets me locate photos taken with a GPS-enabled camera on a map. Easy posting to Facebook is also a nice time-saver. The animated slide show templates that it provides are fun and turn your vacation photos into virtual scrapbooks.

I don't use the other iLife apps as much as iPhoto, but even a simple tour has left me inspired. The latest version of iDVD provides several very professional-looking user interfaces, or Themes, for your DVD. And GarageBand and iMovie look like a lot of fun to try out, if only I had the time.

I haven't taken the time to install any of the iWork applications, because I frankly don't think I'll use them: I'm locked into the Microsoft Office death-vice and rely on seamless compatibility with those applications.

Nevertheless, if you plan to take advantage of even a third of the hundreds of new features in the Mac Box Set, it would seem to be a worthwhile upgrade at a good price.Get more detail about Mac Box Set [OLD VERSION].