I’m at the Macworld keynote in San Francisco to see if Apple releases any video-related products. Which, if it’s smart, it will…
First up: New version of iMovie ’09 being released. People missed the features from before when iMovie was completely rewritten last year. But they’ve also added a lot of new features, all kind of short cuts for things that would be more complicated in Final Cut Pro.
Here’s what we got. Right now, Randy Ubillos, chief architect of video applications, is doing a demo:
- more control with precision editor — much easier to splice two clips
- when you drag one video on top of another, you get context-sensitive menus — cutaway, picture-in-picture, green screen, audio only
- themes to create dynamic movies — comic book, film strip, photo album, includes things like cross-dissolves and titles
- animated travel maps — 2d and 3d maps of where you’ve traveled
- video stabilization — this happens automatically when you include a clip in a project. He did a very impressive demo with a clip from a safari in Africa where the jeep is bouncing
- there’s also slow motion and aged film effects with no wait for rendering
iMovie comes with iLife, which comes free on all Macs or costs $79 for an upgrade. It also includes stuff like iPhoto with facial recognition and Garage Band with music lessons including some by musicians like John Fogerty and Norah Jones teaching you their songs.
You need Leopard to run this, but you can also buy the new iLife, iWork, and Leopard all together for $169. iLife won’t be available till late January.
The next thing that’s relevant to us (there was a nicer MacBook along the way), iTunes update:
There will be variable pricing for songs ($0.69, $0.99, and $1.29), a concession to the music labels. And by the end of the quarter, all music will be DRM-free. And you’ll now be able to buy everything directly over your iPhone. But…no new announcements about movies, TV shows, or podcasts.
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