Cast Life $9.99 is a neat application that sort of bundles together a number of existing OS X features in one place. It integrates with iLife 06 and allows you to generate your own news feed. Overall I liked the application and after some initial skepticism I came round to the view that I would recommend it.
To start with their web sites product information:
* Cast Life was built from the ground up to be Universal which means you can run it on Intel Macs too!
* With Cast Life’s drag and drop interface, you will be podcasting in no time.
* Cast Life allows you to share your photos with anyone, anywhere.
* With Cast Life you can share files with your team, family of friends with ease.
* Keep your business, family and friends up to date with your latest news and events.
* Access all your iLife media right within the interface.
* You can publish to .Mac, FTP or save your Cast to your hard drive.
As for my thoughts:
* Tim will like the application as it gives him another justification to use his .Mac account.
* It is a really easy application to use.
* I am not convinced that the Photocast option is anywhere near as easy or practical as the inbuilt option in iPhoto 06.
* I loved the Filecast option as a means of sharing documents. I would go as far as to say that this was the “make or break” function for me.
* I grew to love the Newscast function, especially when coupled with the Filecast function. I used it as a means of informing people that the file had been uploaded/updated (which they would have known via the RSS) AND of providing some covering notes and explanations regarding the file.
* The integration with iLife is neat and effective.
I am not alone in liking this application as it was recently featured on the Apple Download Page,
but I do wonder how long applications like this will be around before they “swallowed up” in future versions of OS X? In the meantime I will continue to use Cast Life and you could do worse than take a look at it.