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Christmas is always a difficult time although the advertising directors and shopping mall operators won't want to admit it.
The season is difficult because you will find yourself stumped for gift-giving at one time or another. The festive air also lends a sense of nostalgia which could bring on a tinge of sadness of times gone by.
This Christmas, my aunt will be alone even though she'll be surrounded by family.
After being together for 50 years, my aunt found the person she had been married to suddenly gone. Now all she has left, are memories.
So finding a suitable gift for her this season promised to be an uphill task. That is, until I opened up a MacBook.
I had been asked to test out Apple's iPhoto Print products.
This basically is an extension of iPhoto '08, an application like a host of other applications such as iMovie and iDVD that are part and parcel of any Mac whether desktop or laptop.
The difference this holiday season is the option to send off what you create in iPhoto '08 to be printed and delivered to the doorstep with iPhoto Print Products introduced in Singapore this year.
All that is required of you is to be remotely creative and have a huge cache of photos. Oh yes, a Mac, an Apple account and healthy credit card also helps.
Step one as I discovered, is not to have your photos hidden away in the four corners of your world.
After scouring the shelf, desk and drawer to gather your photos, pop your cache stored on the storage device of your choice whether CD or thumb drive, and iPhoto will happily grab them into an album or the default Photos Library.
All that you have to do next is to drag the photos to the album or project you create.
My first choice was a personalised calendar which was the most obvious and seemingly best gift, as each month could be made even more special with customised photos.
Unfortunately, it wasn't too fun or challenging as all that was required was to choose from a range calendar design templates followed by the 'tough' job of dropping the right photo in place.
The program kindly warns if the photo you've chosen won't print too well and if you want to fix the picture in any way, just click on the piece to open up the edit feature.
Since creating a calendar didn't seem too challenging, and creating a card was boring,I decided to try making a book since writing a book doesn't seem likely for now.
You can choose from a hard cover book right down to a wire-bound photo book which isn't anything like a scrapbook say the folks at Apple. That's because the wire-bound photo pages will lie completely flat so you can rotate pages under the book for a compact look.
My choice was a softcover book with each page laid out according to my preference in terms of number of photos and look - whether there would be space for text or none as well as photos with a border or none.
I was also able to design the book's cover, introduction page and the back cover.
It took all of a few hours to complete the project only because half my time was spent searching for hidden and long forgotten photos, and the other half of the time went into choosing the right words to go with the photos.
Once finished, all that was left was to click on the Buy option and the surprise was the price! It cost just S$32.00 to print a large (8.5 x 11 inches), double-sided softcover book of 20 pages.
I began wishing that I had chosen to create instead a hardcover book that includes a suede-like cover with a foil-printed title on the cover and customisable dust jacket. This costs only S$49.00 for a double-sided book with 20 pages measuring 8.5 x 11 inches.
Since delivery is only for Singapore, I was consoled at having made the right decision for a softcover book since sending a hardcover book overseas would be hefty.
I also sent off for a large 10.4 x 13 inch calendar costing $32.00 to print, with an extra S$2.50 per month if you prefer a 13 month or even 24 month calendar.
Apple's iPhoto '08 project reminded me of how I always tried to make gifts instead of buying them for birthdays or Christmas as it made the present not just unique but extra special with the effort taken.
I was glad for the time I had set aside over a long weekend to use iPhoto '08 to make the family-filled 2009 calendar that will take pride of place for a proud grandma.
As for my first 'publication' it will be presented to my aunt who loves books.
With each page filled with the memory of her beloved husband I know it will be a gift that will make her smile not just when she receives it but each time the book is opened.
If you want to try your hand at card making with iPhoto '08, pop down to Apple's Premium Reseller stores on 13-14 and 20-21 December.
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