Of course, it’s only a rumor, but the word among bloggers is that iDVD will not be included in iLife ’11 and will be replaced by a mystery app that has nothing to do with DVD authoring. Why is Apple giving up on easy to make home movies that were touted as a killer feature among modern PCs around 2003? Oh yeah, that was 7 years ago. The truth is, iDVD has been on its “last leg” since 2006.

A brief walk down memory lane and we’ll all remember iDVD 1.0 that was released in 2001 with very minimal features but as an easy way to take movies made in iMovie and dropped onto a DVD to share with friends and family. Even though broadband was available back then, sharing movies simply wasn’t commonplace and I’d give Apple quite a bit of credit for “iTools Theatre” which was a way to share quick 320×240 films with family via your free iTools account in various themes. Apple did a good job after the release of iDVD of showing how awesome it is to record, edit and share your memories with families.

Of course, this was before online video took over the web and long before you could shoot an HD movie on your iPhone, edit that movie and send to YouTube for the entire world to see. DVDs still hold an important place as a way to back up data and watch movies, but even Blu-Ray is taking over and DVD’s 4.7 GB capacity simply isn’t much space considering how cheap it is to buy a 500 GB USB hard drive. Taking this a step further, who needs hard drives when you have nearly limitless and cheap storage online where your only limiting factor would be Internet bandwidth to store files up in the cloud?

It seems that I’ve made my point. Bye iDVD.

Wait, that’s a bit premature, though. iDVD is still very important to some people but that’s not Apple’s style. Apple is very quick to ditch technology and support for products long before the rest of the industry. Dell still has a $19 build to order option where you can include a floppy drive in your Dell Dimension whereas Apple stopped including an option for Floppy disks over 12 years ago. Apple abandoned serial, com ports and PS/2 in favor of a only supporting USB and Firewire and there are laptops shipping today that still include serial ports.

If you factor in Apple’s historic willingness to ditch products with usages in single-digit percentages and the fact that Apple has a monetary interest in everyone relying on digital means to share and consume media, it makes sense that they would do away with iDVD. But I think Apple should simply stop supporting it and make iDVD a free app on new Macs, an optional install on the iLife ’11 DVD and a free application available on Apple.com for anyone that wants it with an end of life date of some time in 2012. It can afford to stick one developer on it to maintain code and compatibility with new Macs and simply keep it around for a little bit longer.

iDVD still has a place on Macs.

How then will you get video content on a DVD once Apple stops supporting iDVD? Roxio Toast 10 Titanium and Final Cut Studio with DVD Studio Pro 4.

Roxio’s Toast has long been a trusted application for people who want a more powerful burning software for making copies of CDs/DVDs, backing up data or burning video DVDs and Blu-Ray. It’s a solid program that runs $99. Apple’s DVD Studio Pro 4 is a great program but is bundled with the $999 Final Cut Studio which is way beyond my Mom’s budget for putting a few clips from her Flip camera on a DVD. It looks like anyone who wants to make a video DVD the easy way is out of luck because I would vote that iDVD is a far better product for drag-and-drop DVD creation with cool transitions and one-click burning.

Apple doesn’t always know what’s best for us but it’ll probably highlight to anyone coming into an Apple Store that Roxio’s offering is a good alternative if the user has to have a way to make video DVDs. As many of you know, burning data to a DVD is built into Apple’s Finder, so it’s not like Apple is dropping support for burning of disks altogether, it’s just that iDVD won’t be included in iLife anymore.

In all honesty, this entire article is speculation based on a rumor that iDVD may not be included in iLife ’11 and I’m okay with that. I asked Twitter earlier and 15 people responded. Each one of them haven’t opened iDVD in years or they’ve used it just once. Killing off iDVD isn’t surprising to anyone and there are alternatives. This is just Apple’s way of nudging in the direction of cloud storage and cloud video sharing via YouTube and other sites which the majority of people are already doing.

Do you still use iDVD? How often? When is the last time you used it?

One of the interesting rumors that has come up after the official announcement of Apple’s event on the 27th is that a new version of iLife will also be announced there. Whether or not this rumor is accurate is less interesting than what an Apple tablet might mean for iLife.

As we all know iLife has been a key selling point for the Mac lineup ever since the first version was announced at Macworld in 2003. In many ways it epitomizes the difference between Macs and the competition, as iLife gives any Mac user easy to use and well-integrated tools to explore their creativity on a computer.

Whether iLife, or some version of it, will make it to an Apple tablet is a matter of debate, it depends on whether you think the tablet will be a complete computing platform or just a content-consumption device a la the iPhone. I tend to agree with John Gruber that what Apple is aiming for with the tablet is redefining the computing experience, that is replacing entry-level computers rather than complementing them. That leads me to believe that Apple will try to reproduce at least some of iLife on its tablet device, even if it’s just a matter of consistency in branding.

So what would that look like? Let’s look at each application in turn and consider what might be left in and what would be taken out.

iPhoto

In:
Thumbnail browsing is obvious and I imagine the event browsing view will also be a core feature. I also expect the editing features to remain intact, including non-destructive editing. Uploading to MobileMe, Facebook or Flickr will almost assuredly be included.

Out:
Faces may be the most obvious feature not to make it into iPhoto on a tablet due to its impact on the processor. Places might make it, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it left out. I also expect the ability to create books, calendars etc. wouldn’t make it to a tablet.

GarageBand

In:
This one is tough, I frankly wouldn’t be surprised to see GarageBand left off a tablet entirely. That said if Apple does decide to put the iLife suite on the tablet it’s unlikely to pick and choose apps so what would GarageBand on a tablet do? I’d expect basic functionality, like trimming and arranging audio clips. Perhaps some fun effects and instruments that can be thrown in.

Out:
Don’t expect to be able to record and produce your own music on the tablet. GarageBand has always been one of the most impressive parts of iLife, I would not expect it to keep that badge on a tablet device.

iMovie

In:
At the very least simple trimming of clips will be in (see the iPhone). I also expect the ability to combine clips, add transitions and titles and perhaps even add your own music or voice-over. Uploading to YouTube or MobileMe will also definitely be included.

Out:
Advanced color editing and the ability to pull audio out from a video clip will probably not be included. I also wouldn’t expect the ability to import AVCHD files.

iWeb

In:
Like iPhoto, iWeb’s interface lends itself to a touch capable tablet device. It’s really just a drag and drop operation. Thus I expect most features of iWeb to make the transition to a tablet.

Out:
I wouldn’t expect the ability to export your site to a local folder as I don’t expect a tablet device to have much in the way of a file system. Other than that I can’t think of any major features that might be left out.

iDVD

In:
Ah, the red-stepchild of the iLife suite. Let’s be frank, there’s no way in heck anything resembling the current iDVD makes it to a tablet. That said there have been rumors of a re-worked iDVD that might become the publishing tool for things like iTunes LP. If that happens then some version might make it onto a tablet device.

Out:
Everything.

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iLife X

Probability: Guaranteed
When the last version of iLife launched, it adopted the moniker “iLife ’09.” Recently however, Apple has modified most of its website to drop the date from the title. Now simply called “iLife,” I wonder if Apple will be quick to release a new “yearly” iteration at the outset of 2010.

Based on previous versions, the next iteration of iLife will require Mac OS X 10.6. By requiring Snow Leopard, this does make iLife an Intel-only release. Though some users will be left behind, significant performance gains should be recognized by taking advantage of 64-bit technology included in Snow Leopard.

Within the apps themselves, I believe we’ll continue to see significant updates. Here’s the roundup.

iPhoto

Probability: Possible
The addition of Faces and Places to iPhoto ’09 was just the beginning. The next version of iPhoto will support more accurate facial recognition and integration with Twitter. Those who enjoy the photo slideshow themes that were added to the last version will enjoy a larger selection of new themes that will be added in the new version. I also predict that the next version will bring support for bulk renaming of files (similar to how Aperture can do this upon import) and better performance when dealing with larger libraries. I also predict revised or better photo editing controls with additional effects.

iMovie

Probability: Possible
I believe the next version of iMovie will boast support for posting videos directly to more Internet services, such as Facebook and Flickr. An expanded set of new themes as well as more advanced title options will be present as well. The user experience of the application will be refined, for those who are still frustrated by the intense switch from iMovie HD to the last two versions.

iDVD

Probability: Guaranteed
iDVD will likely see one of the most significant updates that it has ever seen in quite a while. 2010 will mark the beginning of new ways of enjoying media. From the possibility of the first out-of-the-box Blu-ray drives on the Mac to iTunes Extras & LPs to the elusive Apple Tablet, the presentation of digital content remains a key focus for Apple.

The next version of iDVD will help push this agenda forward, allowing users to create Blu-ray discs or optimize their video content into formats like iTunes Extras. Such a dramatic update would likely warrant changing the name of the application, but that’s also within the realm of possibility. iDVD has definitely been late to the party for the past two years, seeing only small maintenance updates. While many speculate that Apple plans to axe DVD creation altogether (foreseeing the death of the digital disc in favor of digital distribution), I believe Apple has been working on a successor application to take advantage of new forms of distribution (a la Blu-ray or iTunes Extras-styled media).

iWeb

Probability: Possible
iWeb is one of those apps that is difficult to pack full of compelling new features every year. I predict the next version of iWeb will support more themes and a few more widgets, including a widget that provides a live feed of your Twitter stream on your website.

GarageBand

Probability: Possible
GarageBand will likely see an expanded music lesson store with more artist lessons and lessons for drums and bass. I also predict Apple will make it easier to share GarageBand creations beyond iTunes and iWeb. Similar to the other apps, I believe we will see support for exporting to other web services such as Facebook or YouTube.

iWork X

Probability: Possible
I predict the biggest improvement to the iWork suite will be a tighter integration with the iPhone and iPod touch. On the short side, I see iWork.com coming to the iPhone as an app to allow quick browsing of documents. In an ideal world, Apple will eventually build lightweight mobile versions of its iWork apps to allow users to create and edit Pages, Keynote and Numbers files on the go.

I believe we’ll see an update to the “beta” of iWork.com, including a paid plan if Apple deems the project a huge success, or inclusion with MobileMe if Apple feels the product isn’t strong enough to stand on its own footing.

All three applications will see new templates and a refined Inspector palette. It seems very un-Apple like to mandate users bring up a palette for colors, a separate one for fonts, another for media and yet another master Inspector to control everything else. Additionally, I predict the Media Browser will be updated across all apps to support Faces and Places from iPhoto.

I also predict Pages will provide support for (or perhaps work directly with) third-party applications like bibliographic software such as Endnote or Refworks for academic publications.

iTunes

Probability: Guaranteed
iTunes is an interesting application as every version seems to bring about a large number of extra features that many people don’t expect, or at first glance, really need.

I predict the next major version of iTunes, iTunes 10, will bring support for syncing with the mythical iTablet, as well as better syncing support (including over the air syncing of content if on a Wi-Fi network). Furthermore, iTunes 10 should feature better support for managing larger libraries of content and the need to split those libraries across multiple hard drives in a simple but effective manner.

Conclusion

Finally, I’d like to see iWork and iLife dropping in price back to the familiar $49 from years past. In light of economic conditions and Apple’s vocal attempts of providing quality products to more and more users, a price drop seems wise as it would also help generate better market penetration.

Again, many of these predictions are pure speculation and hopes and dreams on my part. What do you think we’ll see in these areas over the coming year?

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The new ability would be part of a major update to the program, which in turn would be one of a series of updates planned across the iLife catalog for the 2010 version of the software bundle. iDVD hasn’t had a significant refresh in quite a while, and honestly, even the title of the application shows its age. Perhaps a rename will be in order as it transitions to a means of digital publication.

Boy Genius Report is the source of the rumors about the transition for Apple’s standby DVD authoring program:

We’ve been informed that Apple plans to completely redo their iDVD application (in addition to others in iLife 2010), and besides iDVD not being refreshed in a pretty long time, one of the reasons appears to be the inclusion of iTunes LP creation. This will allow artists (indie and major) to create a custom iTunes LP and submit it directly to Apple right from the new application that will be a part of iLife 2010.

BGR goes on to say that the rumor, while unconfirmed, comes from an industry source that has been fairly reliable in past instances, though it doesn’t cite any specific examples. The Report itself has a fairly good track record regarding Apple-related rumors, and this one in particular isn’t that far-fetched or hard to believe.

There’s still no word on a time line for the release of iLife ’10, but if past practice is any indication, pricing for an upgrade for existing ’09 users will be somewhere around the $79 mark — which is not a very high barrier of entry for access to iTunes LP authoring and creation tools, meaning that anyone who can get their music in the iTunes Store should be able to create enhanced content. It’s a win-win, since Apple gets to flesh out its enhanced content library, and artists get to expand their oeuvre and provide more incentive to paying customers.

No word yet on whether iTunes Extras authoring and submission will also be included. Considering that iDVD was designed at least partially with home movie DVD enhancement in mind, I’d say there’s a very strong possibility we’ll see Extras support, too.

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With the latest version of Final Cut Studio hot off the shelves, many are scratching their heads over what Apple’s take on the future of DVDs actually may be. DVD Studio Pro hasn’t received a major update since the 4.0 release at NAB 2005, and iDVD hasn’t been updated since 2007, so is the DVD dead?

Well, that conversation has come up plenty of times before, and it always seems like the pundits are waiting for the next version of Final Cut Studio or iLife before voicing their thoughts on whether DVD production is seeing its curtain call.

Many insist that optical discs are dying on the Mac. The supporting arguments are there. The Apple TV features no optical drive, and neither does the MacBook Air. Apple has referred to Blu-ray as “a bag of hurt” and hasn’t made any obvious plans to endorse the standard any further. The only mention of “next generation” technologies is some support for HD-DVDs in DVD Studio Pro (been there for ages) and limited Blu-ray support in the latest version of Compressor.

What a lot of people fail to realize when considering why Apple hasn’t made a huge foray into the Blu-ray world, is just how different Blu-rays are from DVDs (in terms of functionality). DVD Studio Pro aims to allow professionals to create DVDs with all the great features that DVDs offer (menus, subtitles, multiple angles, multiple audio tracks, etc.). When you consider the advantages that Blu-ray brings to the table, such as support for Internet-enabled content, seamless branching, access to local storage, and so on, it’s clear that a minor update to a software title isn’t really going to break new ground in this area. Designing a tool to author these takes time. The current competition, Adobe Encore, is a great tool, but still can’t take advantage of some of the more advanced Java-related Blu-ray features. Apple needs to at least meet the current feature set of Encore to stay competitive. The company has already invested a lot of time, energy and money into the video industry with its growth of Final Cut Studio.

To say Apple is forgoing on optical media altogether would be to say it’s slowly, but surely, bowing out of the video market altogether — and nobody in their right mind would believe that is the case.

Regarding hardware, Apple realizes that most people already have some type of optical disc player in their living room, so why should an Apple TV include one? They serve different functions, just like an Apple TV isn’t going to replace your cable box or satellite receiver. (DVR on the other hand? Well, not yet anyway.) Sure, it would be nice for an Apple TV to include a Blu-ray drive, but if Apple had already included it when it first started shipping these a few years ago, it would be facing an even larger uphill battle for adoption (a la Sony and its Playstation 3).

And the MacBook Air? I’m seriously amazed at those who see a lack of optical drive in these portables as an indication that Apple is ditching the format altogether. Apple wanted to make a statement with the slimness of the portable, and it felt users of this product did not use optical discs on a regular basis. It was a smart trade-off, but hardly an indication that optical drives will start disappearing from other Macs.

If we’ve learned anything, it’s to not listen to Apple when it “writes off” technologies in its shareholder meetings. Though the company has referred to Blu-ray as a “bag of hurt” in the past, it sits on the Board of Directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Apple is a huge proponent of high definition (who wouldn’t be at this point?) and, as such, it realizes that more and more people are shooting in HD and need a way to present that. We’ve discussed before the limitations of the iPod and iPhone platforms as they do not support HD content, and even the Apple TV is limited in this regard. What other solution is there? YouTube? While that’s a great start, Apple is totally aware that people still prefer to have something a bit more portable and higher quality than YouTube.

My personal opinion is that Apple is working on developing Blu-ray authoring solutions (as well as inclusion of Blu-ray drives as the price continues to come down). We’ve seen a small taste of this support in the latest version of Compressor; hints of Blu-ray support in the latest version of iTunes; and I think as time goes on, we will see more support in other apps as well. In the meantime, DVD Studio Pro and iDVD will likely stay right where they are at. It’s easy to develop new themes for these apps, but why split your resources if you’re focusing on some whizz-bang, new app for Blu-ray authoring? In their current states, these applications are quite maxed out for now.

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I learnt that the hard way earlier this week, when I had to master a DVD for a client. My intention was to export five segments from the timeline, each of which would have chapter markers, while the segment would itself become a ‘Play All’ clip. 

Having finished the edit in Final Cut Pro, I placed the necessary chapter markers in the timeline and exported each segment of the timeline as DV PAL 16:9 Anamorphic QuickTime clips. I chose this format since it was what the acquired footage was shot in. 

Once I’d imported the clips into iDVD, two problems surfaced: the 16:9 clips remained anamorphically squashed in the 4:3 ratio, and iDVD could not see the chapter markers in any of the clips. After some Googling, it turned out that the problems I was facing are known issues, according to two Apple support articles. 

In the first, Article TS2179, titled “iDVD: DV widescreen 16:9 workflow from Final Cut Pro”, warned that “if you export an anamorphic 16:9 DV sequence from Final Cut Pro with the intention of burning a DVD-Video of that sequence in iDVD…. Final Cut Pro does not include the widescreen aspect ratio information that iDVD looks for.” 

Great. Prior to discovering the support article, I had figured iDVD would be smart enough to unsqueeze 16:9 clips back into their original anamorphic aspect ratio since QuickTime Player did exactly that. 

The second problem is acknowledged in Article TS1233, titled “Final Cut Studio: “All Markers” option does not include DVD Chapter Markers”. The symptoms described in it goes: “When you export a QuickTime movie from Final Cut Pro, choosing the “All Markers” option does not include chapter markers that will function in DVD Stidio Pro or iDVD.” 

Right. 

Look at the screenshot of Final Cut Pro’s export dialog box above. You can see various types of markers listed. Any user would naturally assume that choosing “All Markers” would include all the types of markers. Why this is not the case for DV clips is a mystery only the FCP or iDVD folks at Apple would know, since the support article offers no explaination. 

If your editing workflow comprises exporting 16:9 clips from Final Cut Pro for DVD mastering in iDVD, you’ll have to avoid using the DV Widescreen format until this is fixed in a future release of iDVD or Final Cut Pro. In the meanwhile, if your workflow involves DV Widescreen, I recommend that you export your clips as ProRes 4:2:2.

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Updates include a new iMac, new keyboard, updated iWork, updated iLife, and more. It was certainly an exciting day and arguably more exciting than the past few major WWDC or Macworld events.

Check out the full details after the jump.

New iMac

The much rumored new aluminum iMac was indeed true. The overall new look is significantly more…”professional” (or Star Trek-ish, depending on who you ask).

• New glass screen enclosure
• Pricing starting at $1199
• 17″ model was trashed. Now only 20″ and 24″ models are available
• Up to 2.8 GHz Core 2 Extreme Processor
• Up to 4GB of memory
• Up to 1TB of storage space

New Keyboard(s)

Along with the new iMacs, Apple also released a new keyboard that fits in quite while with Apple’s line of “aluminum” covered products (Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and now the iMac).

The new keyboards are significantly thinner than previous keyboards by Apple, with the smaller wireless keyboard coming in at only 0.33 inches. No, that isn’t a typo.

The new keys are almost identical to those on the MacBooks with much better finger response.

iLife ’08

It has been almost 2 years since iLife was updated with the last major version being iLife ’06. Today Apple released a major revision to the iLife suite with iLife ’08.

Every application received a pretty major overall with iMovie getting a complete rewrite.

Major points:
• iPhoto – Organizes photos by Event automatically
• iPhoto – New book and calendar printing
• iPhoto – Web gallery creation lets you creating extremely interactive photo galleries
• iMovie – Has a completely new interface that lets you create movies much more quickly and easily
• iMovie – .Mac web gallery and YouTube integration.
• iDVD – Better encoding and new themes
• GarageBand – New “Magic GarageBand” lets you create your own virtual band to jam with
• iWeb – Now you can upload to your own custom domain
• iWeb – Easier template and design creation

iWork ’08

Along with the iLife update came an update to Apple’s business suite of applications, iWork ’08.

The biggest thing to note with iWork ’08 is the addition of Numbers, the much sought after spreadsheet application.

Numbers is described as “spreadsheets the Mac way,” which simply means this isn’t your normal “spreadsheet” app.

With Numbers you can create intelligent tables with multiple spreadsheets in a single document, easily create charts and graphs in the same document, and you can even import your Excel files.

Ultimately Numbers is a solid mix of boring tabular data and a desktop publishing application.

A few other iWork high points:
• Pages – Switch between “writing” and “layout” mode depending on task
• Pages – Change tracking to keep up with document revisions
• Pages – Many new design templates
• Keynote – Tons of new text and transition effects
• Keynote – Voice-over recording
• Keynote – Simple animation tools

.Mac Updated

For some time now, .Mac has been Apple’s evil little stepchild that everyone has been on the verge of kicking to the curb.

Updates here include:
• Increased storage and bandwidth going from 1GB to 10GB of storage and up to 100GB of bandwidth
• You can now associate an actual domain with your .Mac account

Mac mini Updates

It’s been over a year since Apple last updated the Mac mini. Many people were convinced it would be removed from Apple’s line up, but today Apple quietly upgraded the Mac mini.

The update isn’t much to get excited about, though. The main updates to it are really just a bit more speed and memory. Nothing to write home about.

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