Outfitting Your Mac for Digital Media | The Macintosh iLife 06

The digital lifestyle is many things, but inexpensive is not one of them. iPods, cameras, camcorders, music keyboards, microphones, accessories of all kindsspending opportunities abound. Just ask my credit cards.

I explore many of these buying opportunities throughout this book. But first, it's important to ensure that your Mac is well equipped for your iLife endeavors.

With their builtin USB and FireWire ports, today's Macs are able to connect to cameras, portable music players, camcorders, and other digital devices.

But there's always room to grow, especially where digital media are concerned. To get the most out of iLife, consider upgrading several key components of your Mac. At right is a shopping list.

And if you're outfitting an older Mac for iLife '06, consider throwing in a copy of the latest version of Mac OS X. The iLife '06 programs run on Mac OS X 10.3.9, but some iPhoto, iMovie HD, GarageBand features require a more recent flavor10.4.4 or a later version.

To learn more about the latest version of Mac OS X, see www.apple.com/macosx.

Storage in Two Flavors

Digital media takes up spacelots of it. Upgrading your Mac's storage capacity is an essential first step in outfitting it for digital media.

Memory Upgrade. Adding memory is a great way to boost any Mac's overall performance. On a Mac with insufficient memory, programs run slowly, particularly if you're trying to run several at once. Each of the iLife programs can benefit from plenty of memory, but GarageBand in particular will appreciate it.

With all current Mac models, you can install a memory upgrade yourself. If you have a Mac mini, Apple recommends having memory installed by a qualified technician. But if you have dexterous hands and a modicum of bravery, you can do the job yourself.

How much memory should you add? As much as you can afford. I consider 512 megabytes (MB) to be a bare minimum for the iLife programs; a gigabyte (1GB) or more is better. Memory is relatively inexpensive, especially compared to the performance benefits it providesaim high and upgrade to a total of at least 1GB.

Hard Drive. All digital media eat up disk spaceexcept for video, which utterly devours it. If you're serious about digital media, you'll want to expand your Mac's storage.

It's easy to do. If you have a towerstyle Mac, you can install a second hard drive inside the Mac's case. For iMacs, Mac minis, and laptops, you can connect an external FireWire hard driveor several of them, if you like.

External FireWire hard drives are available in a wide range of capacities and case sizes. Portable drives are particularly convenient: they fit in a shirt pocket and can draw power from a Mac's FireWire jackno separate power supply needed. On the downside, though, portable drives cost more than conventional external drives, and they tend to be slowera big drawback for GarageBand, which greatly benefits from a fast hard drive.

Digital Hubs

The Mac's FireWire connectors are durable, but they aren't indestructible. All that plugging and unplugging of camcorders, hard drives, and other doodads can take its toll. What's more, some Macs have just one FireWire connector, limiting the number of devices you can connect directly to the Mac.

A FireWire hub is an inexpensive addon that addresses both issues. A hub is to FireWire what a power strip is to a wall outlet: it provides more jacks for your devices. After connecting the hub to your Mac, you can connect several devices to the hub.

You can also buy USB hubs that provide the same expansion benefits for USB devices. Belkin (www.belkin.com) is a major supplier of hubs and accessories of all kinds.

The Right Accounts

In order to buy music from the iTunes Music Store and order prints and more with iPhoto, you'll want an Apple Account. It's easy to set up; see page 30.

If you're serious about living the iLife, take the next step and subscribe to Apple's .Mac service. Currently $99 per year, .Mac enables you to create photocasts with iPhoto as well as Web sites with iWeb. You'll also be able to access Apple's iDisk remote storage service, where you'll find lots of software downloads.

To sign up for .Mac, go to www.mac.com. Unsure whether .Mac is for you? Sign up for a free trial membership.

Sounding Better: Speaker Options

Alfred Hitchcock once said, "In radio, sound is a rather important element." That understatement also applies to iLife. Whether listening to music or creating a narration for a movie, you'll want to hear more sound than your Mac's builtin speaker can reproduce.

You have options aplenty. If your Mac and stereo system are close to each other, you can connect them with a cable and listen through your speakers. You can also use Apple's AirPort Express Base Station to wirelessly beam audio to your stereo. For details on these options, see page 72.

When working at your Mac, you'll want speakers that are directly adjacent to your display. This delivers the most realistic stereo fieldand that's essential whether you're mixing a song in GarageBand or just wanting to enjoy your favorite tunes while you type.

Several companies sell speaker systems designed for use with computers. Harman Multimedia (www.harman-multimedia.com) sells a large selection under the venerable Harman/Kardon and JBL names. Another highly regarded audio brand, Bose (www.bose.com), also sells speaker systems designed for computers and portable music players. Most systems include a subwoofer that sits under your desk and provides a deep, gutpunching bass.

If you're a GarageBand musician, you might prefer a set of monitor speakers, whose frequency response is superior to that of typical computer speakers. For my GarageBand setup, I use a pair of Yamaha MSP5 monitors. At about $500 a pair, they're pricey by computer speaker standards, but inexpensive by studio monitor standards. And they sound greatbeefier and truer than a pair of inexpensive computer speakers and a subwoofer. For reviews of numerous monitor speakers, see www.emusician.com/speakers.