Apple’s iMovie for iPhone 4 modified to run on iPhone 3GS (with video)

“Steve, stop holding it back. We want iMovie on our iPhone 3GS. We didn’t upgrade just to be left in the dust,” Nick Hesson writes for ModMyi.com. “We still have video, there is no reason that iMovie shouldn’t work on the 3GS, besides the slower rendering. Come on Steve! Why are you holding out on us.”

“Well Steve, if you won’t do it, someone else will,” Hesson reports. “An upstanding fellow by the name of David Romhan Torres, has managed to ‘port,’ more correctly put, modified, the iMovie app to work on the iPhone 3GS. And guess what? It actually works just fine.”

Hesson reports, “Taimur from Redmondpie, has put together the video above to demonstrate what David has done. As you watch the video, you can see that the application works just fine. Ok so you can’t export an HD video, but that’s should be clear as day, because the iPhone 3GS doesn’t record HD, so obviously that won’t work. But you can still edit, make transitions, and export the final product just fine.”

More info and links in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Andrew W.” for the heads up.]

18 Comments

  1. Maybe Apple just hasn’t had a chance to test a version for the 3GS. That would be very Apple-like. They come out with something, then extend its use/functionality later.

  2. Just like the issue of what Macs you could and couldn’t install Leopard on (866 MHz. G4 being the slowest) and the issue of the the iPhone 3G’s on iOS4 not being able to have home screen wallpaper, I think Apple plays it too conservatively when it comes to their obsession about performance and end user perception.

  3. Is there anything in software copyright that says you’re not allowed to legally modify existing code?

    Or does that do no worse that possibly voiding a warranty, and/or support?

  4. he did not modify the code
    he does not have the code
    the app is a binary app – the code is not part of it
    he just put it on a 3GS and changed its plist settings file to run on the 3GS – that’s it
    no great mystery

  5. @Murasaki,
    My bad. My original post says the 3G which is what I meant. My second post accidentally says 3GS – I meant 3G. I have a 3GS and home screen wallpaper is natively supported – no jailbreak necessary.

    I think you missed my apostrophe in my first post, and I was in too much of a hurry on my second.

  6. It’ll never happen. The reason is product differentiation. Apple will use any hook they can to get 3GS users to upgrade to iPhone 4. If that means keeping iMovie from them, then so be it.

    Remember when the 3G came with picture messaging but it was held back from the original iPhone which was quite capable of adding pics to text (as well as shoot video which it was also never allowed to do)?

    It’s also worth mentioning that the chip in the 3GS is capable of handling 720p video but that’s been disabled to encourage us to upgrade.

    And did you know that iPhones can also broadcast FM signals so you wouldn’t have to buy one of those clip on units to play music through your car radio if Apple hadn’t switched the feature off?

  7. It doesn’t really mean much that the 3GS can run iMovie

    Te mire important issue no one is talking about is how long it takes to export the video.

    I can see the damn you apple messages when it takes several minutes and eats through your battery

  8. Nick Hesson of ModMyi.com, just stfu with the whine already.

    Apple could probably have provided multitasking to the iPod Touch 2G too even if it would not have worked as good as it does on newer devices but Apple is a comercial company and it’s in their interest to get people to upgrade so they make money not backporting everything for ever.

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