The new version of iPhoto ditches the old idea of "film rolls" for "events," collections of photos themed by day or time. Events are automatically generated by date, with some flexibility as to where to draw the lines; you can then merge or split events to make them more accurate. Think of them as the raw material for albums. Once you have, say, 176 photos in your "Miami Trip" event, you can flick your mouse over the event's thumbnail to "skim" through the included pics, or expand the event to full screen to pick out the photos you want. The date-focused events also take the place of a timeline. Skimming through and merging events was speedy, even in my 20,000-photo library. I ran into only one problem: iPhoto relies heavily on EXIF data from your digital camera, and if the camera put the wrong dates on your photos, pictures will be spewed all over your timeline; fortunately, it's possible to batch-change dates by hand. Still, I'd recommend making sure the date is right in your camera if you're going to be upgrading to iLife '08.
iPhoto '08 keeps iPhoto's basic, easy-to-use editing tools (including a blemish remover and flexible sharpness and noise-reduction filters) and adds a new one: a "straighten" command that lets you rotate a photo freely until it's right.
The '08 version expands iPhoto's printing and sharing options, too. New printed book options include a spiral-bound softcover, there are new greeting-card styles, and there's a one-touch button to publish to a slick AJAX-enabled gallery on your .Mac account or to autogenerate iWeb pages.
On the Windows side, Sharpcast and Phanfare do similar tricks, and Sharpcast is free. But no other program brings together all the pieces of management, printing and sharing in something quite so fun and easy to use. For Mac users, there's no better option than the new iPhoto
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