Apple Pushing iLife '06 on Customers?

As a long term Windows user and a recent owner of a Mac Mini (bought out of curiousity) the one thing that has struck me is that everything on the mini seems to be an advertisement for another Apple/Mac product.

Frankly, so far I am underimpressed.

Calm down young man.

I saw this, and yes, I said "wow, yah, like, I don't need this reminder," but...uh...did you see the iPhoto '06 demo in Steve's MacWorld Expo keynote? Stunning!!! If you're a developer, iPhoto '06 should make you feel embarrased about how your software is designed. It is an upgrade worth buying, worth prompting me to look at. Now, I clicked "Cancel" on the dialog, because it gave me that choice. But that little reminder did do a nasty thing to me...the moment I had a family member give me a birthday Amazon gift card, I spent it on iLife '06. But I didn't regret it. So, get over yourselves! Turn the dialog off, and never see it again, or buy iLife '06. Pick one. You won't regret it.

Anybody else's hacked front-row for the mac mini stop working after installing iLife '06?

For those people who find that offensive is just ridiculous. You people probably find just about ever little small thing offensive. Stop acting like a little baby and whining about the whole thing. I happen to see this happen a lot such as with the iTunes, christmas and so on. What's going on with you people? Can't you use your brain and common sense?

Reminds me of the Quicktime Pro upgrade prompt (http://www.wap.org/journal/quicktimepro/whygs.jpg).

I don't understand the complaints.

Unchecking Software Update (which I don't see why you would do - don't you want to get the security updates and airport and bluetooth and.... updates?) should not disable this. Why? Because you can't download iPhoto 6 in Software Update. Thus, Software Update is not the appropriate place to tell you about iLife '06. Software Update is for Apple-branded software updates *that you can download*.

And I agree that having iPhoto check by default is probably a way a large segment of the market learns about iLife updates. I don't get what your problem is with it - just tell it never to check again and you won't get bothered. Do you get bothered when Quicksilver tells you that it has an update for you (assuming you use Quicksilver)? Or any of the other myriad third-party apps that do automatic version checking?

Oh, and Jay, what's your problem with iPhoto calling home when it's set to check for software updates? Tons of programs do that nowadays - as long as they're not sending personal information (which they're not), there's absolutely no privacy concerns.

Um, how about iPhoto --> Preferences --> Uncheck "Check for iPhoto updates automatically"

Just like you would do in Adium. Or Firefox. Or just about any other application.

For a lot of people who don't read TUAW, Macworld, etc, being made aware of an update might be more appreciated as a service to those users.

Stop whining. They give you an opt out and why begrudge them the opportunity to notify you of the upgrade.

As for those who want a discount? Um? Everyone is upgrading from some version of iLife so it is nice that they keep it simple and keep it inexpensive. Sure this means that someone buying iLife 06 after skipping over iLife 05 didn't give Apple as much of their money but that is also a good thing for you. If the features of iLife 06 are not enough to purchase the software, you can wait for iLife 07 and know that it will not cost you anymore to upgrade.

The thing that pisses you off is that iLife 06 is worth the money so you don't want to put up with iLIfe 05 for a year to save $70.

Want something to bitch about. Why is it cheaper for me to purchase a boxed copy of .mac every year than it is to simply renew automatically? Stupid pain in the @$$.

I totally agree with #10.

Most Mac users don't check Versiontracker or read Apple blogs on a daily basis. They don't know about software updates and upgrades unless they are actively told so. Apple's iPhoto popup is similar to Apple's Software Update - both pop up telling you about new software. Obviously, the new iPhoto won't show up in Software Update as it's a new piece of software, hence they need to find another way to notify users of the new version. The "Do not show me again" checkbox is very clear, so I don't find it intrusive.

iPhoto is not the first software to check for newer versions on launch. For example, Adium does that too. Both have the option for users to switch off update notifications. The difference is, Adium is free so one might not hesitate to update, whereas you have to pay to get iPhoto, so maybe that's why it's annoying.

As long as it's only a one-time popup notification, I don't see the harm at all. Most users don't know about Macworld, most users don't know about the Intel switch unless they read it in the news. I think the general population would benefit from these notifications. How often do they pop up anyway?