“Last week, Apple released a new version of its iLife suite — its $80 package containing iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb and GarageBand. The suite also comes preinstalled on every new Mac,” David Pogue reports for The New York Times.
“The enhancements in iPhone, iWeb and GarageBand are great. But iMovie ’08 is an utter bafflement,” Pogue reports. “To rephrase (and sanitize) the wailing on the discussion boards: What the [bleep]! What was Apple thinking?”
“The new iMovie, for example, is probably the only video-editing program on the market with no timeline—no horizontal, scrolling strip that displays your clips laid end to end, with their lengths representing their durations. You have no indication of how many minutes into your movie you are,” Pogue reports.
“All the old audio effects are gone, too. No pitch changing, high-pass and low-pass filters, or reverb… Bookmarks are gone. ‘Themes’ are gone. You can no longer export only part of a movie. All visual effects are gone—even basic options like slow motion, reverse motion, fast motion, and black-and-white.The new iMovie doesn’t accept plug-ins, either. For years, I’ve relied on GeeThree.com’s iMovie plug-ins to achieve effects like picture-in-picture, bluescreen and subtitles. That’s all over now,” Pogue reports.
“To be sure, the new version has some cool features. You can send a completed video to YouTube with one menu command; the color-correction and frame-cropping tools are unprecedented in a consumer program; and you can really, truly delete unwanted pieces of your clips, thus reclaiming hard drive space,” Pogue reports.
“It’s also worth pointing out that iMovie ’08 creates titles, crossfades and color adjustments instantly. There’s no ‘rendering’ time, as there is in Final Cut or the old iMovie. So you gain an exhilarating freedom to play, to fiddle with the timing and placement of things,” Pogue reports.
“I’ve used the real iMovie to edit my Times videos for three years now. The results are perfectly convincing as professional video blog work. But the new version is totally unusable for that purpose. It’s unusable, in fact, for anyone doing professional work that requires any degree of precision,” Pogue reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iMovie shouldn’t be about doing any level of “professional” work. Apple had pushed iMovie way, way too far ahead of its original intent. Let’s face facts: iMovie is part of a US$79 suite of five products (also includes iPhoto, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD). For one-fifth of $79, or $15.80, you shouldn’t be able to edit feature films on it (which people were), or Apple isn’t doing a very good job of running their business of differentiating and selling software.
iMovie ’08 lets consumers quickly edit clips to create good-looking movies. If you want more, then you want Apple’s Final Cut Express HD or Final Cut Pro 6 (included in Final Cut Studio 2). If you loved iMovie before (as former professional Avid and Final Cut Pro editors, we didn’t – iMovie 08 is much better for beginning editors), Apple has offered iMovie HD 6 for free to iLife ‘08 owners, while they reel iMovie back in and reposition it correctly.
This isn’t about some nameless “genius Apple engineer” who wanted to edit his vacation videos, this is about what Apple should be offering for $15.80 and how they can make editing as easily-accessible as possible for consumers.
Things to keep in mind before screaming about iMovie ’08:
• You paid $15.80 for it
• You got pretty advanced features for many years
• iMovie is supposed to be entry-level and very easy-to-use
• Different does not mean worse and change can be for the better
• Apple will add features to the new iMovie
• iMovie ’08 is pretty amazing, if you approach it without previous iMovie baggage.
• Paradigm shifts often face vehement resistance.
• Apple is offering iMovie HD 6 for free to iLife ‘08 owners (you’ve lost nothing, only gained another new way of editing video)
• Apple is a business, not a provider of basically free editing tools for professionals
iMovie users, Filmmakers and NY Times video bloggers: Apple is ending your free ride so gently (by continuing your free ride, no less), that you ought to be making iMovies thanking them.
Apple’s iMovie ’08: Completely redesigned to help consumers make movies in minutes:
MDN
Your ‘take’ is totally hosed……
Apple totally gutted iMovie – I do videos for my kid’s basketball and track teams – and school plays… I am NO WHERE near ‘professional’ work – just movies that look cool and give kids decent memories.
I use video effects, transitions, and other things that iMovie HD provides but iMovie 08 does not.
Get it straight – Apple hosed this one *BIG TIME*….
I tried imovie 08 for the first time last night, so far I don’t like it.
MDN, i mostly agree with you, but….
…having given us a product too advanced for what was intended, they can’t just pull the rug like that without some bitching.
they should have made a product somewhere between ’08 and ’06. that would keep the majority happy. ’08 is a wonder of usability, but it is too lean on features people have come to depend on for their work.
Come on, MDN, that’s ridiculous to defend Apple. Business 101 suggests a company not pull the rug out from under its users and forcefully “reposition” them to a more expensive, more complicated, product. They won’t do it. They’ll switch companies. Adobe must be so thrilled…
MDN reasoning is beyond me…iMovie too professional? Way, way too far it’s original intent? …SAY’S WHO??? YOU?!
I agree, I never used a video editing program and I picked up iMovie (pre-’08) and learned it quick and had gotten quicker and more proud of the videos I could make; the new iMovie has lost so many of the features I loved and yes, the timeline is very missed! I am a Mac Fan Boy but I must agree that the new iMovie isn’t better. I will probably say that maybe a beginner can use it easier – but the average Joe will probably get frustrated and give up before understanding it. I must say export to YouTube is cool!
@ Rory
Don’t know what happened there, because AFAIK the installation is supposed to leave your current installation of iMovie 06 untouched.
But you can download iMovie 06 from here:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html
You know, MDN, I usually agree with your takes, but this sounds like you’re a crusty salesperson spinning a negative review. If iMovie was so far ahead or complicated, then Garageband should be gutted down to the same level. I now see iMovie as a giveaway, and the previous version now has to be purchased with Final Cut Express.
MDN: Your take on this is absurd and reeks of fanboyism! The point of the article is to say that if iMovie ’08 is the “next generation” of the software then don’t arbitrarily just toss all the meaningful features out the window just because the app is re-written from the ground up. It’s ridiculous to think that Apple would do this but they did and now they’re suffering the backlash they should have expected.
Does this “new” iMovie have it’s benefits? Certainly. But it should have those benefits PLUS and the features that made iMovie ’06 HD so spectacular.
Lastly, don’t give us the line about “it’s only a $79 piece of software”. If that’s the case then everyone using iLife should live in fear b/c then Apple can just rewrite any piece of the software and use that STUPID excuse. What makes iLife so great is that Apple, in their infinite wisdom, make a suite of software so spectacular and offered it at a reasonable price that everyone can afford. That why we love Apple! This move with iMovie takes that love, knocks it down a peg, and starts to put them on part with Microsoft’s method of software development. It’s Shiite!
Now i know he is an honest reviewer.
MDN
You can’t defend the indefensible. Pogue is absolutely correct.
I totally disagree with MDN’s take, and 100% agree with Pogue. The logic of thinking that a $15.80 product should be a software weakling escapes me. Even free stuff is often good stuff, so why can’t iMovie 08 be as well?
When I first plunged into iMovie 08 I did it without even looking at its features or the tutorial videos. I figured I could just breeze through a new version. Wrong. After a few minutes I thought I had downloaded something from Microsoft… something that was just barely good enough (although the luster told me it really wasn’t MS quality stuff).
While I intend to use iMovie 06 where I can and for as long as I can, that too is a disappointment, for one reason. There is a bug that’s been present in iMovie 06 for as long as I can remember. When you import a still image it becomes blurry… real blurry. Makes it difficult to use for a lot of the things I want to do with it. So I’ve been waiting for iMovie 08, thinking surely this bug will be squashed. And then we are given this. Yuk.
I’ve enjoyed you comments for years but that’s changed today. What an absurd statement you’ve made. Dummying down software for the next generation release is dumbfounding. Maybe Apple should take some features out of the upcoming Leopard software. I mean, it will only be $129 dollars and that $129 doesn’t go as far as it did on the release of panther because of inflation. Oh yeah and instead of improving computer lines and lowering the price they should be raising it. This, of course (as with iMovie) is absurd thinking. Keep it up and your credibility is lost.
MDN: Your take is totally off-base and just goes to show that you constantly defend Apple Computer NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO, even when Apple Computer is wrong.
Let’s get one thing straight here, MDN: YOU ARE TOTALLY WRONG, and DAVID POGUE IS 100% RIGHT.
We have been creating movies for years in iMovie and have come to DEPEND on this application — Apple has now suddenly made us **UNABLE TO PERFORM THE VERY FUNCTIONS THAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING FOR YEARS** by ditching iMovie altogether and coming up with something horrible in its place.
WHAT THE F**K IS APPLE THINKING HERE?! APPLE HAS TOTALLY AND 100% F**KED US OVER WITH THE RELEASE OF IMOVIE ’08, and for MacDailyNews to SUPPORT Apple’s decision to F**K OVER ITS CUSTOMERS JUST GOES TO SHOW THAT MacDailyNews is run by a bunch of high school kids with nothing better to do than cheer on Apple no matter what they do. If Apple does it, Apple must be right and everyone else must be wrong. That’s total bullshit, MacDailyNews.
You can’t just abandon your entire user base by canceling a product that was being used to create excellent projects in the past.
We will make damn sure that nobody we know upgrades to iLife ’08.
And MacDailyNews, you guys should have your heads examined.
Oh yeah, one more thing…..
Pogue is probably THE BEST Writer out there from a ‘pro-apple’ stance….
yet he is not afraid to call a ‘spade a spade’….
MDN – you otta try it sometime – the whole “Journalistic integrity” thing.
I actually like the new iMovie. I’ve already posted a movie to YouTube and a movie to my .Mac. Way easier. While small, there was indeed a learning curve to iMovie HD 6. There should be no learning curve for iLife products.
MDN? What happened to you? Even I have trouble defending Apple on this one. Losing ‘THEMES’? That feature alone helped me sell the Mac to friends! Losing the audio/fx? Chapters (after all, it is supposed to work with iDVD)?
Folks, Apple obviously realized their mistake when they offered iMovie 6 HD for free download.
What a bummer. I would guess that Apple will be adding in most items missed in this version and hopefully be adding back an option for timeline viewing.
Nah guys imovie 5 is cools etc
BUT
stop giving it away,charge a propper fin amount for it say 199.
or 59 for just Imovie
this 79 is a crap
Wow, MDN is sooo wrong here. It is possible for Apple to screw up. I will not be “upgrading” to iMovie 08, that is for sure.
I don’t have a Video Camera, my video is limited to stuff I can record on a phone or on my still camera, even if I did have one, I wouldn’t be wanting to create anything to in depth. iMovieHD was very good but previously I could never really be bothered with it as it was too involved and took too long to do. This new iMovie is great, it’s easy and fast. Even exporting seems quick. I’m not concerned about how far through I am since I’m only going to be doing something minutes long anyway.
This is not to say that an app between this and Final Cut, more like the old iMovie wouldn’t fill a niche, but not at the price of iLife. If they spruced up iMovie HD, added in the best of the new iMovie and sold it for $79 (or more) on it’s own then I think it would make more sense.
“iMovie shouldn’t be about doing any level of “professional” work. Apple had gotten iMovie way, way too far ahead of its original intent.”
Are you freaking kidding me? I want to do simple screencasts/podcasts, iMovie did that really well. The new version doesn’t allow me to do that at all, so I should buy a “Pro” tool? Yeah, ok. You’re missing the entire middle of the market MDN.
I agree with Shen.
This is almost Machiavellian. This sort of thing would easily be interpreted as baiting (for Final Cut Express) had it been any other company’s behaviour. After all, iMovie must have been cannibalizing FCE sales.
I actually think that this was just an honest miss. The new iMovie seemed so “revolutionary” in terms of ease of use and speed, that the functionality of the previous version wasn’t impressive enough for Jobs anymore.
Not a big user of iMovie but when I did it was pretty tricky to master. What Jobs demo’d looked pretty darn clever to me.
Why is selecting clips, dragging and dropping such a problem?
Is the timeline really so crucial? After all this isn’t for a live TV studio environment is it?
Somewhat of an over reaction to this is my thinking, and I am tempted to use iMovie more now than was before.
MDN, things to keep in mind:
1) iMovie 6 was a basic editing package. All the more impressive that professionals were also able to use it.
2) Probably cost Apple a lot more to rebuild an entirely new iMovie than enhance the previous version so the $15.80 feature just doesn’t fly.
3) iLife is a big selling feature. Themes were brilliant. Crippling one of the most impressive, easy to use and important apps was a mistake. Even Apple recognized it by releasing iMovie 6 HD. Because they released iMovie 6 HD so fast after the launch of iLife 8, it is apparent Apple realized possible issues prior to the launch of iLife 08. It also most likely speaks volumes that Apple will be adding enhancements to the new iMovie enabling it to surpass iMovie 6 in terms of use.
I don’t see what the big fuss is about. If you have a previous version of iMovie, continue to use it. But if you’re new to the platform, the previous functions won’t be missed because it’s something the individual would have never used anyway. So, if this new person who just bought a new Mac with the new iMovie and wants something more powerful than drag and drop, then that person can buy something more robust from Apple. Sounds to me like a good way to make more money for Apple because they can up-sell their Express product.
But if what Pogue says is true, that does kind of suck to not know how long your movie is considering that sites like YouTube are now imposing time limits and what is uploaded.