I’ve been reading a lot of the Mac forums this week to see what people think of the new iMovie ‘08. It seems that a majority of the users out there are completely disappointed in it. Apparently, instead of adding new features to the upgrade, Apple removed key features.
Here’s a list of things others are complaining about:
No timeline.
No video effects (except brightness, saturation, etc.).
No audio effects.
Fewer titles.
Fewer transitions.
No export functionality to iDVD.
Chapter markers were removed.
Themes were removed.
You can’t speed up/slow down clips.
You can’t extract audio from the video clips.
No plug in capability.
The list could go on and on. But I think you get the point. As of now, I’m not going to upgrade–or should I say downgrade. Like I said in my last post, once the Geniuses at my local Apple store figure out iMovie ‘08, I’ll go to one of their training sessions and then make my decision. I still love iMovie ‘06 and will continue to use it.
iMovie ‘08 hit the shelves last week with a brand new look. They even changed the icon. Some of the new features include the ability to skim and select video the way text is selected, share movies anywhere with iTunes or a .Mac web gallery, easily upload to YouTube, and encode the movie in multiple resolutions.
I was excited to see the new iMovie so I dropped by my local Apple store yesterday for a demo. The store was packed. So I helped myself to one of the iMacs loaded with iMovie ‘08 to give it a test drive. I stumbled around the application for about 5 minutes until one of the Geniuses asked if I needed any help. I asked the Genius (and I use that term loosely) where the timeline was. He had no clue. He also couldn’t answer any of my other questions. He said that he had not had time to learn it and then he rushed off to teach his iMovie ‘06 class. As he was leaving, he said he personally did not like ‘08 right now and to ask him again next week after he’s had time to play with it.
I stayed there and tried to figure out how it worked. Another Genius must have noticed my frustration and came to see if I needed any help. He, too, could not answer any of my questions. I was very disappointed in the lack of help. iMovie ‘08 (iLife ‘08) is a huge part of Apple. I would have thought that all their Geniuses would be trained in it before now.
So, for now, I’m going to hang on to my $79. I plan to go back to the Apple store when they offer a class in iMovie ‘08.
So please tell me… Is iMovie ‘08 a Deal or No Deal?
