Apple angers iMovie users over "upgrade", quashes dissent

Seems to me like they're focusing on the new users who get iMovie with their new iMac and who quickly discover that it's really inadequate for their needs, so they upgrade to Final Cut Express for $299. While it's sad that the essentially free consumer-level tool iMovie is no longer capable of producing professional-level work, I don't think it's unreasonable for Apple to want professional-level users to spring for the couple hundred bucks, especially if they're earning money from the tool. And offering the previous version as a free download... that's way on the generous side.

Still, the censoring of the threads on the forums is not a new phenomenon. The most recent instance of it which I was involved in was when they released iTunes 7 for Windows and it had a horrible bug which caused music to skip like a vinyl record which had been dragged down the street for a while. Apple's engineers appeared on the thread (which is itself a rarity) and denied that the problem existed or that it was widespread. When the number of replies in that thread made it impossible to deny any more, the thread disappeared. Same thing happened with a couple of other threads which were started. I had figured out how to downgrade to iTunes 6 without having to re-create my library (which was converted to a new version 7 format during the upgrade and was unreadable by version 6) and after posting the solution on 3 different threads which were all deleted, I gave up. Apple finally gave up deleting the threads, too, when the game of whack-a-mole got tiresome. I'm still using iTunes 6. :)

Are the file formats iMovie uses the same? If so you could use both of them.

I doubt it.

AFAIK the formats are the same, but if you used themes from iMovie '06 and open that file up in '08, it just strips the themes out.

Well, not quite. If it were integrated with iMovie 6 it would be awesome. Unfortunately, Apple decided that iMovie was too advanced for users. Gone were basic editing features like a timeline, the ability to sync video to audio - or do anything useful with audio at all, like say adjust the volume during a clip or fading in and out.

This is not as true as you think. Remember than in iLife '06 Apple introduced the ability to "score" movies in Garageband -- basically, the video track is added to Garageband, and you can add audio clips with all of the power of Garageband. Sure, it isn't in iMovie itself, but you have as many audio tracks as you want with as much power as you want. It is a quite nice work around.

I am not too happy with the features Apple removed, either, but I think they made a good compromise by making iMovie '06 a free download. This allows those who need more power to have it, while still giving video newcomers a non-intimidating way to quickly make home movies.

I do wish they had made some updates for iMovie '06, though; having '08's video library, and some new themes, would have been great.

I was also expecting blue screening to be a shoe-in feature. It is in Leopard's iChat, so why can't we use this in iMovie? I was really, really looking forward to that.

Bluescreening (without the bluescreen) is also in Keynote. It is surprising they haven't added some way to do that in iMovie (or PhotoBooth?).

Where is it in Keynote? I must have missed this!

Oh, I think I misunderstood the feature list. I saw "instant alpha" and thought that was talking about the video effect. I was wrong. Sorry.

The question is: how long will iMovie 6 be a free download, and how do most people find out about that option? Someone buying a Mac for the first time won't know any different, so won't seek out iMovie 6. What happens when iMovie 8 comes out? Will iMovie 6 still be around?

This was a bad move by Apple. They could have given iMovie 7 different editing modes: the simplified mode (like the current iMovie 7) and an advanced mode that opens up the features that existed in iMovie 6. I have no problem with attempting to make it easier for *some*, but do not agree with removing features the rest of us have grown to love.

Let's be honest. Someone buying a Mac for the first time probably doesn't care. They don't know they're missing out on a few features (which most users probably don't use anyway), and if they feel restricted then they'll either find out about the free download or buy a better program like Final Cut Express.

I have no problem with attempting to make it easier for *some*, but do not agree with removing features the rest of us have grown to love.

And which cannibalize the sales of their programs which are supposed to highlight those features. I'd bet just about anything that they're not selling enough versions of Final Cut Express -- and needed to differentiate it from the iLife program.

What this new version does is probably just fine for 80% of the people who will use it. The other 20% -- Apple wants them to be Final Cut Express customers.

e: Video editing is not for morons! It's not a passtime for the "average consumer." i

Riiiiight. Just like music production, writing, painting, and all those other things computers and the internet have put in within the reaches of the lumpen proletariat. Why can't the uppity masses just let the truly gifted pursue their calling and get back to work?

Of course most of it is crap. 90% of everything is. Including that produced by artists. I went to college with a really talented photographer. I once asked him: "Why is it that you take so many more good pictures than I?" His answer: "Honestly, training helps a little bit, but mostly it's because I take even more @!$%#ty ones than you do."

And I was enlightened.

It can be now. That's the beauty of Apple's software.

My point exactly.

I guess we need a license before we sell video cameras, then. If making movies isn't supposed to be a pastime for "morons" or "average consumers" -- or people who can't use the spell-checker to spell "pastime" correctly -- then those people shouldn't be allowed to own the cameras.

Or maybe they could own the cameras, but not the editing software. Yeah, that would definitely up the quality of videos online. I love 40 minute streams of cameras being left running on chairs or in pocketbooks, babies and dogs doing nothing but sleeping, all 27 innings of a Little League tournament game filmed by grandma whose hands shake enough that she could be a commercial paint-mixer... Awesome! Andy Warhol would love it...