Apple introduces new version of iMovie featuring Storyboards and Magic Movie

[lekevicius]

This is the part of Apple that I love. iLife, enabling creativity with great results out of the box.

Even makes me forget, for a second, that they still run a monopoly on kid casino in form of an App Store.

[basisword]

iLife was fantastic. It was the main selling point in convincing me to buy a Mac. When I was younger (before I could afford to buy a Mac) I would watch the iLife updates each year so jealous given the lack of comparative software on Windows at the time.

Edit: Just had a flashback to iWeb. That was really great. Such a simple way for a kid to build and publish a website before things like Wix (which are still nowhere near as easy to use).

[npunt]

The cool part about iMovie and Garageband is they're basically a more approachable UI layer to Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro. They share a lot of the same core code, and teach you the same concepts just without the fiddly pro bits.

I love that bifurcation because it really makes the pro apps more approachable without compromising their usefulness (pro apps require info density, consumer apps avoid it), and it allows their power be scaled down to iPhone and iPad.

I wish more software was made this way!

[doctorhandshake]

As a longtime user of various pro apps in these categories - AE, Premiere, Final Cut, DVR, as well as ProTools, Digital Performer, Logic, etc, all of which share a lot of UX paradigms that make it relatively easy to switch between them, I find the type of simplification at work in iMovie and Garage Band makes them almost unrecognizable, stymieing my ability to use them at all almost every time I try.

[warning26]

I'm still salty about how they had a pro photo app, Aperture, and then killed it unceremoniously in favor of a neutered approachable equivalent.

[skhr0680]

iMovie is like other Apple software in that it's great if you're on the happy path but worse than useless the moment you try to do something that Apple thinks you shouldn't.

For my basic use of stabilizing clips then putting them in sequence with transitions, DaVinci Resolve was easier and less frustrating to use (for me).

[daniel_reetz]

I'm not sure this is correct. Have you worked on software at Apple?

[hda111]

I wish Apple would still make Aperture.

[scanr]

It doesn’t look like it can make vertical videos in the iPhone app yet which is a little disappointing.

I’ve been looking for a simple video editing app for a family member who needs to post short form videos to social media.

Fortunately there are alternatives. Clips looks pretty good. Other suggestions welcome.

Just seems like a useful feature for iMovie to have.

[armadsen]

LumaFusion is the obvious step up from iMovie. It's much more powerful than iMovie, but aims to also be very approachable for complete beginners.

Disclaimer: My day job is as an engineer working on LumaFusion.

[nobrains]

1) Rotate the video to landscape in Photos app.

2) Import that video in iMovie and do all the editing you need to do.

3) Export the final video.

4) Rotate the final video back to portrait in Photo app.

[prawn]

Probably not considered simple, but the free tier of DaVinci Resolve is excellent and can make custom dimensioned videos. I produce a lot of videos in a variety of proportions (including 4x5 and 9x16) and it works well. Downside is that the interface is best for landscape videos; I always wish I could rearrange the interface to accommodate a larger vertical preview.

[savolai]

Wow, this is the one feature I expected would be the raison d’être for an update of iMovie. Now it's still useless. That's really odd.

[smortaz]

yes it’s quite bizarre that key functionalities are split between the built in Editor and iMovie. almost all videos have to be done using both. doing vertical videos + text is very awkward.

[mlindner]

> It doesn’t look like it can make vertical videos in the iPhone app yet which is a little disappointing.

The longer we prevent vertical videos from happening as a society the better off we will all be for it. Our eyes aren't designed to watch vertical videos. Continue the good fight.

[mung]

My god it's tragic that vertical video has become a legitimate format when it really just arose from people holding their phones wrong.

[admiralpumpkin]

Clips is tragically underrated and underused.

[wunderflix]

We’ve developed a simple video camera app. We focus on parents who are beginners in creating videos like most people. And: we only do vertical videos.

https://www.wunderflix.com/en/

PS: let me know what you think if you give it a try!

[9991]

If you find yourself making vertical videos, you need to reexamine your life choices.

[etchalon]

I love that iMovie just keeps existing.

[Tsiklon]

I think Apple see iMovie and GarageBand as the entry point into funnelling interested users towards Final Cut and Logic Pro when they’re ready to reach for something more capable

[michelb]

Apps like iMovie, pages, numbers etc are ‘required’ to have people switch to the mac, so you don’t have to pay for thirdparty apps to do basic stuff with all your media. It’s really nice that these apps are also quite powerful to the average user. It ties the whole experience together.

[Wowfunhappy]

I suspect that iMovie still sells Macs. Maybe not singlehandedly, but it's an important factor.

I don't want to say "there's nothing like iMovie available for PC's", because I frankly suspect there is these days—but I don't think there's anything normal people know about in the numbers that know about iMovie.

[uuyi]

I love how Apple just releases these things out of the blue. If it was Microsoft they’d be crowing about it loudly on blogs for 6 months before then underdeliver a broken pile of crap.

[haunter]

I don't get this unnecessary flak against MS? Like what's the point? Totally not relevant, they don't even have a similar product on the level of iMovie

[seabriez]

This has been on Windows since like Windows 8. Probably before that since I haven't been tracking it. But I remmember I used to make these types of movies with storyboards years ago.

[vimy]

> Availability iMovie 3.0, including the new Storyboards and Magic Movie features, is available today as a free update on the App Store for devices running iOS 15.2 or later and iPadOS 15.2 or later.

Not for Mac?

[BSOhealth]

Anyone have any experience or anecdotes on the extent to which Apple has Product Managers working on its in-house software? And what sort of overlap or collaboration happens between products and teams? Is it a fun gig?

As a PM, I would love to work at Apple. If I were looking at open job descriptions, should I expect them to call out specific apps I’d be working on?

[shp0ngle]

Just for fun.

This is an ad for first iMovie released, from 2000.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oIjd5qsvZo

[torstenvl]

This is great and all, but it's been years and I'm still waiting for rebooted QuickTime to catch up to QuickTime 7 Pro.

[dmarcos]

Apple has been always about empowering creatives. They have world-class camera hardware and editing software. It always made sense to me that at some point they would close the circle and try to compete against YouTube. They instead went with Apple TV+ that feels more like yet another streaming platform and doesn't leverage many of other Apple's strengths and costumer base. Apple seems to have low tolerance for content they cannot tightly control. YouTube reactive style curation and permission-less publication probably feels alien and scary to them.

[olah_1]

The old Windows Movie Maker was the best. So straightforward. No nonsense trying to “help” you. Just give me a basic timeline system please!

[gnicholas]

FYI: iPhone/iPad only, not MacOS. I have tried editing movies on my mobile devices in the past but the experience was never great. Even just trimming a clip in Photos is difficult with the touch interface.

[mattl]

iMovie 3.0 for Mac OS X came out almost 20 years ago.

iMovie for Mac OS X is 10.3 now.

[hellweaver666]

Totally agree. In fact, iMovie for OSX is really struggling these days. I have a 16" MBP from 2020 with 16GB RAM and it struggles with editing video taken on my iPhone. I had to move to Davinci resolve which runs just fine but is a lot more complex than I would like (honestly, though I'm probably better off just buying a new computer as I have a feeling Apple are going to deprioritise making their Intel software work as well).

[uuyi]

I’m using lumafusion on my iPad Pro without any problems.

[xnx]

After trying ~10 different Android apps (all of them pretty bad), I've been very pleased with CapCut (from Tiktok).

[freecodyx]

I personally use apple keynotes to produce videos. It’s a powerful tool, and just yesterday i was wondering why imovie was lacking so much features. And that is what i like about apple, they target consumers, not professionals

[yubiox]

iMovie is impossible to figure out (it was easy many years ago then they ruined it). How about a simple app to let me trim and splice video and add audio? And a simple way to export, but not so simple that the choices are youtube and something else. Just export at whatever resolution I choose. And don't put stupid intros, outros, and transitions unless I ask for them.

[alephnan]

> how about a simple app to let me trim and splice video and add audio? And a simple way to export, but not so simple that the choices are youtube and something else. Just export at whatever resolution I choose. And don't put stupid intros, outros, and transitions unless I ask for them.

That's literally iMovie.

[whatever1]

Who is the target user for this? All video editing happens within the TikTok app nowadays.

[killerdhmo]

Would it surprise you to know that not everyone is editing or making (or even consuming) TikTok videos?

[laurent92]

Maybe Youtubers, as soon as you want to do something barely elaborate. Sometimes free tools don’t benefit the user, but their audience ;)

[zitterbewegung]

Apple will probably add more and more features to iMovie than porting over Final Cut Pro.

[shostack]

Can I work with 2.7k 60fps HEVC videos from my GoPro in it yet? Or is that still busted?

I jumped through endless hoops getting DaVinci Resolve's free version setup because I didn't want to degrade my video quality.

[alsetmusic]

Just in time for a video project I’ve been considering. Oh, wait… for iPad and iPhone. Not at all how I want to cut together ~100 video files stored on my Mac and NAS. C’mon, Apple…

When people diagnose Apple’s software business as wilting, that’s no joke.