IMovie ‘08 Update Doesn’t Address User Complaints

Apple has released an update for the recently announced iMovie ‘08. Apple hasn't given many details about the update, but the company says it solves some problems with iMovie's integration into .Mac's new Web Gallery feature.

The update does not, however, address the complaints of many users that iMovie 08 is a step backwards from its predecessor.

IMovie ‘08 (version wise it's iMovie 7) was a complete redesign of the iMovie program and has seen its fair share of user disappointment. David Pogue recently slammed the new iMovie in his review, saying “I can't remember any software company pulling a stunt like this before: throwing away a fully developed, mature, popular program and substituting a bare-bones, differently focused program under the same name.”

Similar sentiments can be found in Apple's iMovie discussion forums and numerous readers have e-mailed Compiler to tell us how much they dislike the new version.

Judging by my experiments with both iMovie 7 and iMovie 6, I will agree that the new iMovie is more or less not iMovie at all, but an entirely new program designed for very a different set of tasks and audience.

Apple says the iMovie is designed primarily for quickly throwing together a movie and some new features, like one-click export to YouTube, clearly indicate iMovie is not for the sophisticated video producer looking to fine tune edits and add extras like music. At the same time Michael tells me he was able to go from camera to YouTube in 15 minutes. Clearly iMovie 7 is good as at some things.

The problem is, iMovie 7 isn't capable of many of the things iMovie 6 was. Based on comments here, posts in the Apple forums and e-mails sent to us, the main contention points most users have with iMovie 7 are:

• No timeline. IMovie is (so far as I know) the only video editing software on the market that doesn't use a timeline metaphor for editing and arranging your clips. Consequently it's difficult to determine basic things like where you are in terms of the overall movie at any given point.
• Audio editing is virtually non-existent. There's no multi track audio support, no manual audio controls in a scene, no ability to extract audio from a clip and the fade-out at the end of an audio clip can't be controlled.
• iMovie 7 can't import projects created with previous versions.
• And finally, no plugin support. There are dozens, possibly even hundreds of plugins from third part developers for iMovie 6, none of which work in iMovie 7.

The good news though is that, if you purchased iMovie ‘08, you can still grab the previous version. Or you could always go super old school, as one witty reader quipped: “if I was living in Des Moines, Iowa in 1939 I would have more precise editing capabilities with my Kodak movies and some rusty farm tools.”.