“Back in August when Apple released iLife ’08 some of the more sensitive users of iMovie said they considered it had been, if not emasculated, then certainly given some serious cuts in sensitive areas,” Garry Barker reports for The Sydney Morning Herald.
“At the time we suggested that iMovie ’08, which was bundled with the Intel-based Macintosh computers, was intended to give the great mass of consumers… the chance to make halfway-decent home movies without going crazy,” Barker reports. “We also speculated that [users] who found the software too automated and limited would soon have an upgraded version of Final Cut Express on which to hone their home Hollywood ambitions. And so they have.”
“Apple released Final Cut Express 4 last week [US$$199],” Barker reports. “Professional studios working with DV equipment, time-short TV reporters and what you might call semi-professionals and high-end video hobbyists all find Express a good tool that gives them plenty of editing power at a consumer-level price.”
Barker reports, “All up, [Final Cut Express 4 offers] a great deal of editing power, plenty of flexibility and a lot of fun for a modest outlay.”
Full article here.
Apple giveth, Apple taketh away.
Now about those damm glossy screens…
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I’ve been forcing myself to use iMovie ’08 for the last week and I’m seriously frustrated with it. I use to teach iMovie workshops in the Apple stores, so I’d say its safe to say I know a little about it. I can’t even put a clip in slow motion anymore. Here are a couple clips I have made in the last couple days:
The only thing I’d say its good for is quick editing for a rough draft of sorts. It does have a lot of great sound effects the old versions never had. But I wont be winning any awards using it, that’s for sure.
Just bought 5 copies of FCE for my school. The 8th graders really have taken iMovie to its limit.
Where can I get iMovie 06 back??
I heard it was available from Apple for users of 08.
Apple is the only company I know of that offers a paid upgrade for removed features then has the audacity to ask the same people to fork up another $199 to get them back in another type of software.
What’s next? iTunes 8 removes cd burning to include them in Logic Pro Lite for $299?
A lot of fanboy bubbles were burst by this greedy move.
iMovie ’08 is for the average Joe who just wants to put a little home movie together, not some wanna-be Spielberg who is too cheap to actually cough up the cash for the tools they actually need.
Has anyone thought of using the last two releases of iMovie together in conjunction. You can export and import movies, y’kow.
The “n” key must have stuck.
Radius, what about those in between?
login’s now?
@redneck
only to secure you neat-o posting ID
and to bypass the MW
I’ve used both extensively now, and I’m in agreement with Nick Holla. The current version of iMovie ’08 is lacking. I use FCP Studio for the really detailed stuff, but it was definitly a downgrade in features.
“tv reporters”?
ha! now there’s a classic dig.
“semi-pros” he said.
What are the differences between iMovie HD (’06) and Final Cut Express? I still have it, but I don’t want iMovie ’08.
Why the moans?
iM 08 (free) — Great for quickies and newbies.
iM 06 HD (free) — Great legacy software and can import awkward formats from iM 08.
FCE4 (affordable for most) — A step up for serious semi-pros that also works nicely with iM 06 and iM 08.
Nice!
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Mike is right on!
Another ‘genius’ move by His Steveness.
Result: more sales by forcing the iMovie faithful (such as myself, fully engaged with every iMovie version since the first) to spend another couple hundred to get back what was deliberately taken away.
And, don’t tell me I still have iMovie ’06 – couple of more Quicktime updates and iMovie ’06 will be rendered (pun intended) useless.
PS: Here’s what Steve hates: third parties filling the gap. I won’t saw who or where to get ’em for fear some code be written to prevent their smooth operation on my Mac Pro.
DJ
exactly
I like turtles
“iM 06 HD (free)”
Really! Would love it if you could point to a download link but the truth is Apple has dumbed iMovie down and now is only offering the previous features of iMovie06 as part of FCE if you pay extra.
For those new iMovie ’08 users looking for iMovie ’06:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html
I agree with Mike. When they pulled DVD chapters from iMovie 08, they went too far. Now you have to ‘share’ your movie and import it into Garageband (?!), then ‘share’ that version and import it into iDVD. Something that used to be easy and seamless in iMovie 06 is now is time consuming and convoluted. Thanks, Apple.
Yup. There it is, but it’s not free:
“iMovie HD 6, previously distributed with iLife ’06, is available for download for those who have purchased and installed iLife ’08. “
It won’t install unless it sees a valid copy of iLife ’08 on your system.
iMovie08 is great at what it does but should have been called iClip or something because it’s a lousy iMovie replacement. New buyers are being fleeced for more money to buy FCE for features that were free previously.
@ Brau & everyone else
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html
Yes, it requires iLife08 installed. But it is a free alternative for those complaining about iMovie08.
If you don’t have iLife08, you don’t have iMovie08, and you don’t have anything to (legitimately) complain about.
I downgraded to iLife 06 after trying to use iMovie 06 with iDVD 08 – it crashed constantly. I’ll wait til they kill iMovie 06 to force myself to learn Final Cut Pro – which I already have, but don’t want to spend 9 hours editing what would have taken me 2 in iMovie 06. bleh.. It was a good tool. I am not happy at all that Apple thought it was a good idea to take this path. Starting to smell more like greed… more like MS. ack! I suppose – now Apple and Google will become the next Microsoft… guess we’ll have to keep our eyes out for some new startups to eventually replace them… someone who cares about making good tools, not how to F people for more $.
Some people seem to think that more features equals a better product. I think the iPod is a perfect example of how that quite simply isn’t true. iMovie ’08 is a better product than ’06 for the majority of people it is targeted at. For the price you pay for iMovie you can’t really complain, it’s not as if you have to upgrade anyway.